Claire Perry welcomes extra 19 million pounds for NHS in Wiltshire

This financial year the NHS in Wiltshire will enjoy an extra £19 million, to support key Government priorities such as the Cancer Drugs Fund, investment in talking therapies for those with mental health conditions, 4,200 extra health visitors, and support for carers' breaks.  Spending on healthcare in our local area this year will total £676 million overall.

The increase follows the decision by the Coalition Government to protect NHS investment over the next four years – investment vigorously opposed by Labour.

Across England as a whole, over £89 billion will now be spent on doctors, nurses and frontline services in the NHS – an increase of more than £2.6 billion over the year before.

Welcoming the increases in NHS funding, Claire Perry, MP for the Devizes Constituency said:

'We recognise just how important the NHS is to this country - and to patients here in. That's why the Coalition Government is protecting the NHS not just today, but for future generations.

'Next year alone, our constituency will benefit from an extra £19 million of investment going straight to doctors, nurses and other frontline services.

'Under Labour, billions of extra spending was swallowed up as the number of managers increased at five times the rate the number of nurses. Their plans would have meant cutting the NHS, denying patients the improved services we are putting in place.

'We have got to keep fighting to get our local services back in the Devizes Constituency and the protected funding should help us in that fight.'

Notes:

• The decision by the Coalition Government to protect NHS spending was set out in the Coalition Agreement and honoured in the Spending Review and 2011 Budget (HM Treasury, Budget 2011, 23 March 2011, p. 48, link).
• The Coalition Government's decision stands in mark contrast to the Labour Party, which consistently campaigned against increases in investment. For example, they said:
• 'It is irresponsible to increase NHS spending in real terms' (Andy Burnham, The Guardian, 16 June 2010).
• 'There is no logic, sense or rationality to it at all in the current economic climate, and it will do great damage to other parts of the public sector. You can make savings in the NHS and you can ensure those savings go into frontline care' (Alan Johnson, Sunday Times, 27 June 2010).
• 'It is incredible that the present Government believe that international development, health and, to a certain extent, education must be prioritised, and that they are more important than crime and policing. Quite frankly, I can say as a former Health Secretary that we did not commit to increase the health budget above the rate of inflation' (Alan Johnson, Hansard, Col. 345, 8 September 2010).
• Labour's plans in Government confirmed that they would have cut the NHS budget:
• Labour were only committed to 'a package to ensure that, in 2011-12 and 2012-13, NHS front-line spending – the 95 per cent of spending that supports patient care – rises in line with inflation' (HMT, Pre-Budget Report 2009, p. 97).
• Regional PCT allocations (Department of Health, NHS Allocations, 8 March 2011, link)

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