Up to five million people in the UK last week had flu or flu-like symptoms. A bad winter flu season with record numbers of patients seeking treatment has compounded the pressures the NHS has, with the increasingly complex needs of a growing and ageing population. In recognising the likely winter pressures, there has been a long-running health campaign to urge take-up of the flu jab among vulnerable groups, which has been strongly supported by West Sussex County Council.
The Autumn Budget recognised the need for additional winter NHS spending. The Conservative Government is supporting the NHS over winter with an additional £437 million on top of existing record levels of funding, as well as £1 billion of extra adult social care funding. This year, real terms funding on the health service will be £12.5 billion higher than in 2010-11.
However, record high levels of NHS funding struggles to keep up with an ever increasing demand, both in population and average usage. Average life expectancy continues to rise which is great, but health-adjusted life expectancy, which is life spent in good health, is rising at a slower rate, meaning more of us with more years with increased need. Demographics suggest this trend is set to continue and I believe we need a national cross-party political consensus to find sustainable long-term solutions as to how we as a country fund this increased demand in health and adult social care that will span many different governments.
Labour’s motivation is always trying to score political points on the NHS rather than working with us on real long-term solutions. For example, to help with his very recent ousting of the previous Labour Parliamentary candidate in Crawley, the new one created a petition calling for more money for the NHS locally, timed perfectly as a (ultimately successful) stunt for local Labour party members to vote for him, in the full knowledge that it won’t actually make any difference to our NHS locally. If we are to get long-term funding solutions, it will be by working together and not by political point scoring and stunts.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
17th January 2018