Press Release on behalf of Keep Our NHS Public, Just Treatment, The Socialist Health Association, The 99% Organisation, Doctors Association UK and We Own It.
Keep Our NHS Public, in partnership with Just Treatment, The 99% organisation, The Socialist Health Association, We Own It and Doctors Association UK have expressed deep disappointment at today’s Budget, warning that the government’s failure to provide additional NHS investment will deepen the crisis facing patients and staff.
Health groups believe that this Budget was an opportunity for Andy Burnham’s government to show that their words on fixing the NHS crisis would be matched with meaningful action. Yet they have refused to deliver any increased investment into the struggling health service, in a devastating blow for NHS patients and staff. Waiting lists of 7.37 million and 12-hour A&E waits have risen back to the levels of August 2025. 50,000 patients a month admitted from A&E are waiting over 12 hours on trolleys for a hospital bed [1] and 3,300 patients are experiencing ‘corridor care’ every day [2], causing rising risk of harm and the avoidable deaths of over 300 patients weekly [3].
Health groups assert that this is the result of the disastrous strategy of previous governments who also failed to address the decade and a half of underfunding compared to need that the health service has faced. A series of ministers had repeated the misleading claim that the NHS has ‘record funding’, when there is in fact a massive cumulative deficit.
The Budget is also set to cut funding for NHS buildings and equipment, as capital budgets are slashed in order to fund the government’s £15 billion defence investment plan [4]. This comes at a time when NHS Trusts across the country are already being forced to implement devastating cuts which are seeing thousands of NHS jobs axed.
This lack of new funding is also happening within a context where the government has committed to a deal with the US on drug pricing that will strip £44.7bn out of the NHS budget between now and 2036 to increase profits for pharmaceutical companies [5]. Without action to replace that funding, researchers estimate over 200,000 additional NHS patients will lose their lives across the coming decade. With no new money for the NHS in this budget, the urgency for Burnham to review and scrap that deal is greater than ever.
The government is using the so-called “fiscal rules” as a justification for not investing in public services. These unnecessary and arbitrary Treasury rules prevent the government from making bold decisions to address the cost of living crisis and improve people’s lives. Health groups believe that investing in the nation’s health will yield results for both wellbeing and growth, creating better care and more rewarding work for NHS workers. Investment will provide support for the millions of people currently out of the labour market due to ill health to be able to get back into work. As Lord Darzi said in his landmark review, it’s not an issue of whether the country can afford the NHS, but whether it can afford not to have it and fund it properly.
Health groups welcome Andy Burnham’s promise of a National Care Service as greatly needed. But patients simply cannot wait several years for change to come. Improving community and social care support is a matter of urgency as this would in turn greatly improve patient flow through hospitals and decrease the huge death toll from delayed admissions and overcrowding. Campaigners welcome the government’s move to temporarily increase taxes on the banks. But it calls on the government to go much further in taxing wealth and corporations in order to generate desperately needed funds for public services.
A couple of weeks before the Budget, several members of the SOS NHS coalition [6] wrote to Andy Burnham urging him to fund the NHS in line with medical need, reinvest in prevention and public health, and stop the corporate sector – private healthcare, big pharma and big tech – from extracting excessive profits out of the NHS [7]. Campaigners are disappointed and concerned that the government have ignored the voices of NHS patients and staff who are crying out for these changes.
Dr Tony O’Sullivan, Co-Chair of Keep Our NHS Public and retired consultant paediatrician, said:
“Healey’s decision to fiddle while Britain burns is a tragedy and a significant missed opportunity to correct the failures of previous governments. The government cannot repair the economy or ease people’s daily hardship while ignoring the damage to public services that have been in crisis for years. NHS waiting lists stand at 7.37 million – back at August 2025 levels. Every month, 50,000 patients admitted through A&E wait more than 12 hours for a hospital bed, while 3,300 patients endure the indignity of ‘corridor care’ every day. These delays cause avoidable harm, with more than 300 deaths a week linked to long waits for emergency care. Maternity, general practice, dentistry and mental health services remain in crisis. Healey is ignoring the elephant in the room: there can be no healthy economy without a healthy population and functioning public services.”
Hope Worsdale, Head of Comms at Just Treatment, said:
“The new government has talked a lot about change – including for our NHS and social care systems. But these words mean very little if they are not followed through with action. The reality is that hundreds of patients are still dying each week due to urgent care delays, thousands are being treated in corridors and millions are stuck on a waiting list that’s only getting longer. This problem cannot be fixed without significant investment into our struggling NHS, yet the government have refused to deliver that in this Budget. NHS patients and staff are crying out for real change, but we have been let down once again.”
Dr Rathi Guhadasan, Chair of the Socialist Health Association, said:
“The BMA in 2024 estimated that the real terms funding deficit to the NHS was £423 billion. Pay for most health workers remains stagnant, leaving them on the frontline of the cost-of-living crisis and leading to an exhausted and depleted workforce. Over £17 billion of repairs are needed across the NHS estate. The casualties of this are all of us. Earlier this year, the Royal College of Medicine reported that over 300 deaths per week were linked to prolonged A&E waits. Next week, that could be one of us. How is this not a national emergency? The climate crisis has created additional pressures that we are in no way equipped for, as this summer’s heatwave brought unprecedented demand to our A&Es. We are now hurtling towards the pressures of the coming winter. The government must address this now to avert more preventable deaths and that cannot be done without additional funding. That is the real and present security threat that the government should be prioritising, not a weapons industry that makes us all less safe and hastens the death of our planet.”
Notes
- NHS performance dashboard | Nuffield Trust
- Nearly 3,000 patients a day face corridor care in NHS – BBC News
- ‘How many deaths will it take before we see a meaningful plan to end the crisis?’: Deaths associated with long ED waits surge almost tenfold over a decade – RCEM
- https://lowdownnhs.info/hospitals/budget-set-to-cut-nhs-capital-funds-as-repair-bill-tops-17-billion/
- https://bmjgroup.com/uk-us-trade-deal-will-mean-the-nhs-has-to-divert-billions-from-other-nhs-services-to-pay-more-for-new-medicines/
- SOS NHS is a coalition of over 50 organisations, staff groups and trade unions campaigning for a well funded and publicly owned NHS www.sosnhs.co.uk
- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/07/burnham-urged-to-ditch-dangerous-uk-us-nhs-drug-deal
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