Doctors surgeries will be upgraded using a new £1 billion fund paid for by bank fines, George Osborne announced today. The Chancellor said the cash would pay for a ‘permanent improvement in GP services’ and comes on top of an extra £2 billion injection into the NHS budget set to be formally announced on Wednesday. The funding will allow patients to undergo chemotherapy and dialysis closer to home. The announcement, ahead of Wednesday’s Autumn Statement by the Chancellor, is designed to blunt Labour’s electoral advantage on the NHS. But Labour’s shadow chancellor Ed Balls this morning promised to spend an extra £2.5billion on top of the Government’s £3 billion cash injection. Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show this morning Mr Osborne insisted that increasing funding for the NHS was only possible because the economy was growing. He said: ‘Because we have a strong economy and we’ve got the public finances under control, we can afford to put £2 billion into the front-line of the NHS, across the UK.’
Click on the link to read more
Filed under: Uncategorized, Cancer, chemotherapy, GP's
