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Wednesday 12 November 2014

Lib Dems want an extra £1.5bn NHS funding

Less than a month before the Autumn Statement, Liberal Democrat health minister Norman Lamb has said ensuring up to £1.5bn is freed up to invest in the NHS in 2015/16 should be a priority for the Government. Mr Lamb also called for some of the extra funding to focus on improving mental health care, particularly for children and young people, which is a key priority for the Liberal Democrats.

He said the easy choice would be to delay 2015/16 funding issues until after the General Election for the next Government to deal with but warned that would 'betray patients'. Instead, politicians should secure the funding needed for the NHS now. The funding would be in place from next April. After next year, the Liberal Democrats want to invest at least £1bn extra for the NHS in each year of the next Parliament, as well as carrying out a review of health and care budgets next year that involves the public and all parties.

Commenting Norman Lamb said: "Liberal Democrats want to create opportunity for everyone by building a stronger economy and a fairer society. That means properly funding our NHS for the future, and providing better care, both for physical and mental health. But this needs to start straight away. Too often politicians take the easy way out and delay big spending decisions in the hope they become someone else's problem. Doing that would betray patients. The NHS needs significantly more money to help trusts adapt to the changing needs of our population and it can't afford to wait."

Continuing Mr Lamb said: "That's why securing extra money for the NHS must be a high priority for the whole Government in next month's Autumn Statement. And we want at least an extra billion pounds put in every year in the next Parliament too. A significant amount of that needs to go on improving mental health services, especially for children and young people. For too long mental health has been seen as a second class issue in the NHS and the Liberal Democrats are determined that changes. The Liberal Democrats are the only party that will invest more in our public services once we have finished the job of clearing the deficit in 2018. We are the only party putting equality for mental health treatment front and centre of our manifesto, with £500m of extra funding.

"And we are the only party calling for real improvement from the bottom up, joining up health and care to give people care closer to home. The NHS and care need both resources and reform - not top down reorganisation but change driven by local needs to improve out-of-hospital support." Norman Lamb added.

Responding Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, said: "You can't trust a word the Lib Dems say. If the NHS is facing a crash then it is as a result of their and the Tories' policies. This is breathtaking hypocrisy, even for the Lib Dems. Thanks to them it's getting harder to see your GP, waiting lists are up and £3bn has been wasted on a top-down reorganisation while frontline staff have been lost. This is the record of this Government: an NHS going backwards under the Tories, made possible thanks to the support and the votes of the Lib Dems. Rather than bickering amongst themselves the Lib Dems and Tories should be focussing on fixing the mess they've made of the NHS.

"Only Labour will rescue the NHS with an extra £2.5 billion a year on top of Tory spending plans which will fund new staff including 20,000 more nurses - investment the Tories and the Lib Dems will not match." Andy Burnham added.