NHS funding: what are the manifestos promising?

Conservatives

£8bn more on the NHS by 2022/23 and an increase in ‘real funding per head’ every year of the parliament. No mention of investing more into general practice, or where this extra money will come from, although they do promise to will ensure ‘appropriate funding’ for GPs to meet rising costs of indemnity.

Labour

£12bn more on the NHS per year by 2022/23, according to the Nuffield Trust, through increasing income tax for the highest 5% of earners and tax on private medical insurance. The party will scrap the NHS pay cap and put pay decisions back into the hands of the independent pay review body.

SNP

A party spokesperson told Pulse they would increase the proportion of the NHS budget going into general practice up to 11% by the end of the parliament.

Liberal Democrats

£9bn more by 2022/23, as estimated by the Nuffield Trust, by raising income tax. Primary care is a ‘priority area’ for this funding, but so is social care, so there is a risk it is all swallowed up. Introduce a statutory independent budget monitoring agency for health and care, to audit that the system ‘needs to deliver safe and sustainable treatment and care’. Provide national support to ‘struggling GP practices, preventing mass practice closures’.

Green Party

Pledge to ‘provide an immediate cash injection’ into the NHS, to ensure that ‘everyone can access a GP, hospitals can run properly, and staff are fairly paid’. No other detail in the manifesto, although a party spokesperson told Pulse they were planning on boosting GP funding by 80%.

UKIP

Pledges an extra £9bn a year for NHS England by 2021/22, and £2bn for social care.

Other parties

Plaid Cymru will hold the Leave campaign ‘to account’ and push for the £350m promised to the NHS after leaving the European Union.

This is part of a series of articles where Pulse reality checks all the manifesto promises from the main parties and their significance for GPs. Click here for all our Election 2017 coverage.