Budget: “Demoralising to see barely a mention of gaping NHS funding holes” says SAM president

03 March 2021

Following today’s Budget delivered by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Dr Susan Crossland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “While we can only hope there is more focus on the investment needed in the NHS to come in the small print and into the future, it is extremely demoralising to see barely a mention of the gaping holes that currently exist in the funding of the NHS.

“After the intensity of the past year and the fallout of the pandemic still to come for the thousands of staff who have been run into the ground, at the very least we hoped to see some recognition of public transparency over the issues and costly challenges ahead.

“There is also the elephant in the room which poses a significant challenge for the future and that is the lack of action to resolve taxes on doctors’ pensions which could result in a tranche of senior medics reducing working hours or retiring early to avoid huge tax bills.

“The government cannot simply ignore this issue and let it fester at a time when the medical workforce is not only understaffed already but exhausted. We cannot afford to lose senior clinicians when the NHS will be undergoing its own period of recovery in the coming years.”