Jeremy Hunt has said calls for more money for the NHS are a “misjudgment” less than a year after the health service received a “good settlement” from the government.

The health secretary was responding to comments from Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers, the body that represents hospitals across England, who said on Tuesday that NHS trusts “simply cannot deliver all that they are being asked to deliver on the funding available”.

There have been repeated calls for more money, with charities, thinktanks and royal colleges all saying the NHS requires extra funding.

Hammond facing growing Tory rebellion over social care crisis Read more

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, offered no extra cash for the NHS or social care in his autumn statement. He repeated the government’s claim that the NHS will receive an extra £10bn in funding to 2020-21 – a figure that has been challenged by MPs on the Commons health committee and by health experts.



MPs have said the government is misleading the public over the “incorrect” figure, saying it is only being achieved through reductions in other areas of health spending outside of NHS England’s budget, such as public health and investment in training.

They said the real increase was £4.5bn while the King’s Fund thinktank has put the figure at £4.2bn.

According to the Health Service Journal (HSJ), Hunt, who was attending the NHS Providers conference in Birmingham, said of Hopson’s speech: “I read Chris’s speech, and I thought it was a very thoughtful speech, and indeed I think he’s a very thoughtful person when it comes to the challenges facing the NHS.

“But I did think it was a misjudgment for NHS Providers, less than a year after they had a settlement for the NHS which they themselves described as a good settlement, to say that there isn’t enough money.

“And the reason is that when we’re negotiating with the Treasury for extra support for the NHS, if less than a year ago you’ve got the biggest settlement that any government department got, in a period when most government departments have seen their budget cut, and less than 12 months later you’re saying ‘there isn’t enough money, please sir can I have some more,’ then you devalue the currency.

“What you do is you risk the NHS not being at the table in these discussions going forward because people will say: ‘Whatever we do, it’s not enough.’”

Asked about the state of social care at prime minister’s questions, Theresa May said: “There is absolutely no doubt the social care system is under pressure. We recognise that. If you just look at the fact that there are 1 million more people aged over 65 today than there were in 2010, we see the sort of pressures on the social care system. But that’s why the government has already acted to put more money into the social care system.

“But it’s also important that local authorities and the NHS work together to ensure people have the social care they need so they don’t end up blocking beds in hospital. There’s some very good practice up and down the country and, sadly, there’s some not so good practice.”

Responding to Hunt’s remarks, Hopson ensured the funding row would continue to rumble on when he made clear that senior figures running NHS trusts in England believe it is “impossible” to deliver everything being expected of them on the money ministers have made available.

A spokesman for NHS Providers said: “As Chris said in his opening speech, it’s the government’s responsibility to set the NHS budget and what should be delivered for that budget. If the trust leaders who deliver care to patients 24 hours a day, every day of the week, think the task they are being given is impossible for the funding available, it’s important that message is heard”.

In his speech at the NHS Providers conference on Wednesday, hours after Hunt’s pointed attack on Hopson, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens did not repeat concerns he has aired several times in public recently that the extra money the government is giving the NHS is less than the £10bn claimed by Theresa May and that it will leave it short of the money it needs to do its job from next April onwards. Instead he told delegates that the public would not think it “reasonable” for the service to be given a further funding boost until it had made more progress on delivering its £22bn efficiency target and transforming how it provides care.

He also raised again the spectre of widespread centralisation of hospital services by stressing several times that the NHS would have to undertake considerable “service redesign” in order to achieve both goals.

However, Stevens also dropped a strong hint that ministers may yet provide more money to boost the fast-deteriorating social care services on which many older people rely. Asked about chancellor Philip Hammond’s decision not to announce more cash in last week’s Autumn Statement -- which has sparked significant concern among Conservative MPs this week -- the NHS boss reiterated his view that any extra funding that became available should go to social care rather than the NHS. “I’ve not given up on the possibility that that’s what will come about. It’s a work in progress. I don’t think we’ve heard the final word on the subject”, he said.