Nuneaton’s hardworking Member of Parliament has welcomed the recent announcement by NHS England confirming an inflation-busting increase for local NHS health services in Nuneaton and North Warwickshire (Warwickshire North Clinical Commissioning Group.)
The increase follows a campaign by the leading local MP, Marcus Jones, for a better and fairer funding deal. As recently as the end of November, the MP challenged the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, over this issue in the House of Commons.
The new funding settlement will see local health services get an inflation-busting 6.59% increase in funding, which is nearly double the funding increase being given to the south of the county. This new funding deal has seen NHS England acknowledge that the inequality gap in health funding has to change and the latest settlement will see that gap start to narrow significantly. This will mean more money being available to support care for local people something that the MP has been campaigning for since he was elected in 2010.
Commenting, Marcus said: “I am delighted that after many, many years the NHS is finally starting to acknowledge the varying and complex healthcare needs of our area, much of which is the legacy of heavy industry and coalmining.
“Over the last few years, we have seen more doctors and nurses being employed at our local hospital and this latest announcement should bring further improvements.
“The previous Labour Government left office leaving a massive spending gap where the north of Warwickshire was under-funded to the tune of £20million compared to the south of the county.
“This new funding is part of the extra £2billion being put into the NHS following this month’s Autumn Statement, which has only been possible due to the sound financial management of the Conservatives in Government. An improving economy has been vital to this extra funding because if you don’t have a strong economy, you can’t have a strong NHS.
“This contrasts to Wales where the NHS is run by the Labour Party who have cut the NHS budget by 8%, not met an A&E target since 2008 and where they refuse to provide a Cancer Drugs Fund.”