Speeches

Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2015-09-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that hospitals balance their budgets.

George Freeman

We are investing the additional £8 billion the National Health Service has said it needs to implement its own future plan, on top of the extra £2 billion we have given the service. However, additional spending is not the only answer to these financial challenges. The NHS must now put in place cost-control measures we have introduced, like clamping down on rip-off staffing agencies, while we continue to work with hospitals on ways to improve productivity and reduce waste.