NHS to get £5.4bn Extra to Deal with Backlog of Waiting Lists causing Hospital Negligence
September 14, 2021
According to recent reports by the BBC, the NHS in England will get an extra £5.4bn over the next six months. The government announced that this funding will be used to tackle the backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It may also decrease waiting lists causing hospital negligence that the pandemic has caused.
The £5.4bn, which is for England only, will be broken down into:
- £2.8bn for Covid-19 costs including infection control measures
- £600m for day-to-day costs
- £478m to help hospitals free up beds by discharging patients quickly and safely with community support
- £1.5bn to help hospitals recover scheduled surgery, including £500m of capital funding
The rest of the UK will get an extra £1bn in total, ministers said.
We have previously reported on the analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies which stated that NHS waiting lists could reach 14 million by next year. The proposed funding could be the way that the NHS avoids this.
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the money provided welcome certainty for the NHS, which had “pulled out all the stops” to restore services, while caring for thousands of seriously ill Covid patients requiring hospital treatment during the toughest summer on record.
“This additional investment will enable the NHS to deliver more checks, scans and procedures as well as helping to deal with the ongoing costs and pressures of the pandemic as the NHS heads in to winter,” she said.
Waiting Lists Causing Hospital Negligence
Whilst being on a waiting list is not necessarily a reason to make a medical negligence claim, the effects that a prolonged wait on the list can cause can be a reason to make a medical negligence claim. The biggest problem that long waiting lists can cause is delays in diagnosis and delays in treatment.
Delays in diagnosis and delays in treatment are two of the most common enquiries that we deal with here at The Medical Negligence Experts. They can cause a lot of problems with people’s conditions. Delays in diagnosis and treatment can mean that conditions get worse or develop. In the case of some conditions, such as cancer, they may spread or worsen. We have previously seen the effects the pandemic have had on cancer.
In the most extreme cases, delays in diagnosis or treatment due to waiting lists can mean that conditions become incurable.
Delays in treatment can cause a patient’s health to deteriorate, impede their recovery, and even shorten their life expectancy. If there has been a delay in diagnosis or treatment due to hospital waiting lists that has caused the condition to get worse, then you may be able to claim for medical negligence.
How We Can Help
Here at The Medical Negligence Experts we work with solicitors who have years of experience dealing with medical negligence claims. This includes waiting lists causing hospital negligence. So contact us today by filling in our contact form. Or call us on 01614138761 to speak to one of our friendly knowledgeable advisors.