Responding to the outcome of the General Election 2024, Ellie Orton, OBE, Chief Executive Officer of NHS Charities Together, said:
“NHS Charities Together remains committed to working collaboratively with our incoming UK Government to support NHS staff, patients and communities. We need and expect the NHS to be a top priority for the newly elected Labour Government and we will seek to swiftly engage with them, so they fully understand the vital role played by NHS charities in supporting our health service.
“NHS staff are working under immense pressure with unprecedented staff shortages and vacancies, while demand continues to rise. The Labour party’s manifesto rightly identified the urgent crisis faced by the NHS. However, we share concerns raised by the Health Foundation* and others** that there is a sizeable discrepancy between the amount of funding pledged by the Labour party and the actual amount our healthcare system needs. This gap will need to be plugged.
“NHS Charities Together is committed to supporting the workforce wellbeing of NHS staff through existing grants and our £16m flagship Workforce Wellbeing Programme launched in May 2024. Almost half of NHS staff we surveyed last winter reported experiencing exhaustion and more than 3 in 4 reported experiencing poor mental health in the past year. While Labour’s manifesto committed to supporting the mental health of the population, we have yet to hear their plans to promote and protect the mental health of the NHS workforce. We also have concerns that incentivising more out-of-hours procedures could lead to increased staff burnout and sickness absence.
“It is positive to see Labour’s proposed focus on addressing health inequalities. It’s unacceptable that the quality of the health and care you receive, and even your life expectancy, depends on where you live. Through our Innovation Challenge programme, over the next ten years we are investing £40m in innovative ways to tackle the postcode lottery in access to healthcare, particularly among young people.
“There is much for the incoming government to do to safeguard our NHS for future generations. Our diverse network of over 200 UK-wide NHS charities is working hard to help ease pressure on the NHS, break down barriers to access and improve healthcare for patients and staff. We hope the new UK Government will work towards a brighter future for our much-loved NHS.”
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*Health Foundation, £38bn extra per year needed to revive the NHS. Published 20 June 2024. Retrieved on 2 July 2024.
** Nuffield Trust, How much spending on the NHS have the major parties committed to in their election manifestos? Published 14 June 2024. Retrieved on 2 July 2024
