Head of NHS England warns of tough year ahead

The head of NHS England has warned of a “bloody tough” year ahead for the health service, as he urged people not to “rewrite history” in terms of representing how much funding the NHS has called for over the course of this parliament.

In his keynote speech to the NHS Confederation’s conference in Manchester this week, the chief executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens, set out his “home truths” about the scale of funding pressure on the health service.

This included clarifying that the NHS’s own Five Year Forward View called for extra funding from the government ranging from £8bn (€10bn; $11.3bn) to £21bn, depending on investment in social care and prevention.

This figure has …