Joe Robertson, Conservative MP for Isle of Wight East, has taken the Government to task in the House of Commons for increasing pressure on health and social care providers. He said that the Budget has increased cost pressures on providers of services which are not the NHS.
Speaking in the Budget debate, Mr Robertson singled out GP practices, pharmacies, dentists, charities, hospices, and the social care sector as all facing increased costs from [employers’] national insurance rises, without the protection the NHS will receive.
The cost of employing people will increase
In the Budget announced last week, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a rise in [employers’] National Insurance Contributions and the National Living Wage, meaning the cost of employing people will increase.
In order to protect the NHS, the Chancellor said that it would receive the equivalent money back and benefit from a further £22.6 billion for day-to-day spending.
Pressure on charitable hospices
In contrast, hospices which are often charities like Mountbatten, and social care providers will be expected to pay the rise in full, further increasing cost pressures on them.
Social care will receive just £600 million, or 2.5% of the NHS funding figure. GP Practices deliver care commissioned and paid for by the NHS, however being outside the formal structure of the NHS will not automatically benefit from the protection against National Insurance increases.
Robertson: “Go back to the drawing board”
The East Wight MP, who serves on the Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee, called on the Government to: “go back to the drawing board” and provide relief against their own Budget pressures from key health and social care providers which are not the NHS.
Joe Robertson said in the Commons chamber:
“The national insurance contribution will cause great difficulty and great hardship for GP practices, for charities like hospices, for dentists, for pharmacies and for crucial providers of health services and of course for social care providers too.
“These organisations, charities, and businesses thought they might have a friend in the Labour Government but they don’t feel the Government is their friend right now.
“I have been speaking to GP Practices on the Isle of Wight in my constituency, and one Practice said to me that the increase on tax from this budget is the equivalent of a salary for a practice nurse – there will be no new practice nurse for us.”
Robertson: Social care remains underfunded
Despite the Chancellor’s assurances that the Budget addresses public service needs, Robertson argued that social care remains underfunded, receiving a mere 2.5% of the funding increase allocated to the NHS.
Joe continued,
“The Secretary of State previously said no more money for NHS, without reform. But the Chancellor has provided £22 billion from taxes and borrowing for day to day spend in the NHS without any attachment to reform.
“For social care, they give just 2.5% equivalent of that £22 figure (or £600 million). A tiny fraction, yet the biggest reform that our NHS needs is fairer funding for social care.”
Joe finished by urging his fellow MPs to reconsider support for the Budget unless the Government provided proper support.
News shared by the office of Joe Robertson, in their own words. Ed
