These figures are confusing for a number of reasons.

Both figures refer to the ‘extra’ funding the government claims it will increase NHS spending in England by, above inflation, over the next five years. But the higher (and more often-cited) figure of £10 billion includes money given to the NHS in 2015. This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, considering that the ‘new money’ pledged for the NHS did not start until 2016-17.

The second problem is that the £8 billion figure (or £7.6 billion to be exact) is based on a sneaky redefinition of what counts as ‘the NHS’. A hefty sum of the ‘extra’ money (£3 billion) given to the NHS is not new money at all, but has instead been taken from budgets that are technically separate, but pay for doctors and nurses’ training, new hospitals and public health services. So while this money might appear generous, it’s actually coming at the cost of initiatives that have a direct impact on the health service.

Without this recycled money, the real increase for the health service for the next five years is just over half what the government claims, at £4.5 billion.

And even then, that figure is a bit of a stretch, since it is based on expected rises in the price of goods across the whole economy, rather than the things the NHS actually buys (like doctors, nurses, medical technology and drugs), which are getting more expensive, much more quickly.

With NHS-specific inflation factored in, the remaining £4.5 billion of new money for the NHS reduces to a measly £800 million.