Government’s 10 Year Capital Plan provides a blueprint for the future but it’s unclear if it will translate into bricks-and-mortar improvement
Responding to the government’s 10 Year Capital Plan, Siva Anandaciva, Director of Policy, Events and Partnerships at The King’s Fund, said:
‘For too long, short-term thinking has shaped NHS capital strategy. Patients and staff have paid the price through crumbling buildings, concrete hospital roofs at risk of collapse, outdated equipment, overheating operating theatres, and stark differences in experience depending on where they live.
‘So it is welcome that the government is taking a longer-term, more joined-up view of how health and care buildings, not just NHS-owned estate, can support better health and wellbeing. This is exactly the kind of cross-government thinking the health mission should be aiming for and has been lacking so far.
‘It is also positive to see capital investment linked to the wider building blocks of health, including good-quality housing and clean energy. These factors affect the NHS directly and indirectly for example by making services more resilient to energy shocks and helping to prevent children ending up in A&E because they have developed respiratory conditions from living in poor-quality housing.
‘One notable commitment is to build affordable housing for NHS staff on unused NHS land. Making it easier for nurses, healthcare assistants, porters and other staff to live near where they work could help make NHS careers more attractive, particularly in areas where housing costs are higher.
‘The plan’s local emphasis is also welcome. Where possible, giving local leaders more freedom to invest in the priorities they understand best for their community is the right direction of travel and is similar to previous ‘one public estate’ approaches where locally-led bodies worked together with the prize of more coherent public services that are easier for people to access.
‘But while this plan may provide a blueprint for the future, it remains unclear whether there is enough investment to turn the ambitions on paper into bricks-and-mortar improvements. With the NHS maintenance backlog now standing at £15.9 billion, serious questions remain about whether several unfunded commitments add up to one effective and credible capital plan. Those questions are only sharpened by lingering concerns about cuts to capital budgets to fund defence, and whether the level of investment available will come close to matching the scale of need across the health and care estate.’
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