NHS hospitals are in crisis-mode because of 'structural' problems and Britons' poor health, a Tory MP claimed today.
Hospitals are buckling under winter demand, soaring rates of flu and bed-blockers.
Covid's resurgence and the emergence of the XBB.1.5 'Kraken' variant are expected to cause even more chaos.
A&E patients have waited up to four days for a bed. Others are treated in cupboards, corridors, meeting rooms and even outside hospitals.
Steve Brine, chair of the Health Select Committee, argued the £150billion/year NHS has 'never had more cash' and that it did not need extra funding.
He blamed the NHS's issues on the UK's 'ill health as a nation', along with exhausted staff, the twindemic of Covid and flu and record demand.
The NHS spends around £150billion-a-year, of which just under 43 per cent is spent on staff wages.
Graphic shows: A pie chart of Department of Health and slot Social Care revenue spending on the NHS (left) in 2019/20 and areas where expenditure is seen to have been wasted (right)
HM Treasury data shows the NHS annual budget.
In 2020/21, the NHS was given £129.7billion of core funding for its usual services, which was topped up with an extra £18billion to help with the pressures from the pandemic. For 2021/22 the Treasury said the health service received £136.1billion pounds of core funding, as well as £3billion to help with the Covid recovery.
The health service has been allocated £151.8billion for 2022/23 and £157.4billion for 2023/34. The Autumn Statement topped up these figures by £3.3billion each
Steve Brine, chair of the Health Select Committee, said the NHS, which will receive £152billion in 2022/23, is being given 'vast, vast sums' and has 'never had more cash'