£1.3bn cuts to NHS funding could pay for 32 million GP appointments

EMBARGO: 22.30 Monday 12th February

• Real terms cuts to NHS funding could pay for all GP appointments in England for almost 10 weeks

• Estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility show NHS budget is set to decrease by £1.3 billion in real terms next year

• Cancelling the funding cut could pay for 32 million appointments at cost of £41 each

The Government’s planned real terms cut to the NHS budget could pay for England’s GP appointments for nearly 10 weeks, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The most recent figures from the Office of Budget Responsibility show that whilst the NHS budget is increasing in cash terms, when inflation is taken into account there is a real terms planned decrease of £1.3 billion next year (2024-25). This is on top of a £3.5 billion real-terms cut this year (2023-24).

With a standard GP appointment estimated to cost £41, the cash the Government has cut could pay for nearly 32 million appointments, or 10 weeks worth based on November’s appointment number figures.

Official NHS data reveals that in November 2023, a staggering 5.4 million GP appointments took place two weeks or more after being booked, and those that took place over 28 days after being booked rose by 150,000, to 1.5 million from November 2022 to November 2023.

A previous poll commissioned by the Liberal Democrats showed that one in five (21%) of those who tried and failed to secure a GP appointment in the last twelve months had purchased prescription medicine for themselves without advice from a GP and one in seven (14%) carried out medical treatment on themselves or asked somebody who is not a medical professional to do so.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a new legal right for patients to see a GP within seven days or within 24 hours if in urgent need, and have set out plans to recruit and retain 8,000 more GPs to deliver on it. The party’s plan would be achieved through increasing training places for GPs, and launching a retention drive to encourage those who’ve left the NHS to return.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said:

“This Conservative Government’s stealth NHS cuts are already having a huge impact on frontline services. GP appointments are vital to tackle conditions at an early stage, yet millions of people are struggling to see a doctor when they need to.

“It is utterly shameful that in 2024 we are seeing instances of DIY medicine in the UK because people can’t see a GP - and it is the Government’s shambolic management of the NHS that is to blame.

“Rishi Sunak needs to stop neglecting our health service, start recruiting the extra GPs we were promised and cancel his real terms cut to NHS funding.

“The Liberal Democrats know how important GP services are to local communities. We would introduce a legal right for patients to see a GP within seven days or 24 hours if in urgent need. It’s the least patients deserve.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

• The figure of £41 is for a standard nine minute appointment with a GP. This is taken from the most recent Unit Costs of Health and Social Care Manual (p.70), published by the University of Kent, the University of York, the Centre for Health Economics and the Personal Social Services Research Unit.

• 31.9 million appointments were estimated to have been delivered by Practices and Primary Care Networks in England in November 2023 by the NHS. Of these appointments, 40.4% were delivered by a GP, meaning 12,887,600 appointments with a GP took place. The total cost of these appointments assuming the above cost of £41 is £528,391,000.

• The Autumn Statement set out day-to-day spending on NHS England in Table 2.1. When converted into real-terms (2023-24 prices) using the Office for Budget Responsibility’s GDP Deflator (in Table 1.7 of the Economic Supplementary Tables here), this shows a fall of £3.5 billion in 2023-24 and a further £1.3 billion in 2024-25. (See table below.)

• Assuming a monthly cost of £528,391,000 for GP appointments in England, £1.3bn could pay for GP appointments in England for 2.46 months. 

• The original press release for the Liberal Democrat poll of those who had tried and failed to get a GP appointment can be found here, and the full data tables of the poll can be found here.

• The data on November 2023 GP appointments can be found here.

Table 1. Real-terms NHS England day-to-day spending in Autumn Statement 2023 (£bn)