“No more money without reform”, said Keir Starmer in a speech about the NHS last month. And yet only a few weeks earlier the health secretary, Wes Streeting, had given a 22 per cent pay rise to junior doctors without requiring any changes to working practices. With inflation running at just 1.7 per cent, he then offered a 6 per cent pay rise to GPs and and a 5.5 per cent pay rise to nurses. No reforms were negotiated or even requested and, sensing weakness, the nurses turned down the offer.
In the Budget, Rachel Reeves announced that the NHS would be given an extra £22.6 billion next year, a staggering amount of money that will take the Department of Health and Social Care’s budget above £200 billion for the first time. At the end of Labour’s last term in office, it was £98 billion...
