Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of the King's Fund Quarterly Monitoring Report 19, published in May 2016; and if he will make a statement.

We recognise that very real financial and operational challenges face our health and care services. However, we are committed to a sustainable future for our National Health Service.

The Government has reaffirmed its commitment to the NHS by again committing to increase health funding each year in this parliament, in spite of the continuing fiscal challenges.

By 2020-21, the Government will increase funding for the NHS by £10 billion a year in real terms compared with 2014-15, to support the implementation of the NHS’s own plan - the NHS Five Year Forward View - to transform services across the country. And we will be giving the NHS £3.8 billion more this year (2016-17), over and above inflation, and almost £6 billion of the £10 billion in the first two years of the six-year period.

It is not, however, down to funding alone. The health system needs to match the increase in funding with service transformation and it is vitally important that we continue to strive for efficiency and give support to the development of new, more integrated, models of care; to the use of technology and transparency of data to drive up quality and choice for patients; to local areas to determine what is right for them through devolution; and to drive up the focus on prevention.

The NHS achieving 2-3% net efficiency gains each year until 2020-21 would represent a strong performance but it is achievable. We have already begun introducing measures to help spend taxpayers’ money more efficiently and reduce waste immediately and for the future - making sure every penny possible is spent on patient care.