NHS funding will be diverted to working-class communities, the health secretary is set to announce.
Wes Streeting is expected to announce the measure as part of the upcoming NHS 10-year plan, set to be focused on closing health inequalities, during a speech in Blackpool today.
About £2.2bn will be spent on staff, medicines, new technology and equipment in rural communities, coastal towns and working-class regions, according to the Department of Health.
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The money, which was previously set aside to plug financial holes in the health service, can now be reinvested where it is “most needed”, the department said.
It added that NHS leaders have spent months cutting “wasteful” spending, such as on “back office” functions and agency staff, while reducing forecast deficits by health trusts.
GP funding will be reviewed under the new plan, as surgeries serving working-class areas receive an average of 10% less funding per patient than practices in more affluent areas.
Practices in some of England’s poorest areas have about 300 more patients per GP than the most affluent areas, data by the Royal College of GPs suggests.
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The Department of Health said poorer communities had been “neglected” for years and often have the fewest GPs, the worst performing services and the longest waits.
Mr Streeting is expected to say during the announcement of the plan that “those in greatest need often receive the worst quality healthcare”.
He will say that this “flies in the face of the values the NHS was founded on” as “the circumstances of your birth shouldn’t determine your worth”.
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Mr Streeting is set to add: “A core ambition of our 10-year plan will be to restore the promise of the NHS, to provide first-class healthcare for everyone in our country and end the postcode lottery.”
The government “will prioritise investment” where towns have the greatest health needs and the fewest GPs, according to Mr Streeting.
