Government’s ‘living with Covid’ plan to cost NHS £500 million

Covid infection rises ‘a reminder to us all that the pandemic is not over’, says UKHSA

NHS staff with PPE (PA Wire)

The NHS has been asked to cut £500 million from its budget to fund Covid testing as the national programme is wound down by the government.

The government’s “living with Covid” plan will cost the NHS millions as it is forced to channel funding from its “core” budgets, according to the NHS’s chief finance officer.

Speaking during a board meeting on Thursday, Julian Kelly finance chief for the NHS also said increases in inflation are expected to cost healthcare services an additional £1 billion.

His comments come as staff absences due to Covid-19 increased by more than 30 per cent last week, while hospital leaders have been left in the dark over the continuation of testing for healthcare workers.

Mr Kelly said the government was set to cease funding for a hospital discharge programme which was aimed at helping the NHS get patients into care packages and free up beds.

NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said during the board meeting she had been made aware of the impact rising energy bills could have on patients who are on ventilation at home.

Their comments come after the government was criticised by leading doctors and nurses for failing to address the rising cost of living crisis in his Spring budget on Wednesday.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced 5p cuts to fuel duty and a £3,000 increase to the national insurance threshold, however did not announce any specific measures to support public service staff.

According to latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency, admission rates for hospital patients with Covid-19 in England in both of the oldest age groups, 75 to 84-year-olds and people 85 and over, are now at their highest since mid-January 2021, when the second wave of the virus was at its peak.

The rate for over-85s stood at 178.3 per 100,000 people last week, up from 137.0 the previous week, while for people aged 75 to 84 it was 74.3, up from 59.8.

Rates among other age groups were lower, though all showed a week-on-week increase, according to the UK Health Security Agency (HSA).

Dr Susan Hopkins, HSA chief medical adviser, said the figures are "a reminder to us all that the pandemic is not over".

She added: "Hospital admissions and cases of Covid-19 have continued to rise and we can expect to see further increases before we start to see a decline.

Separate data published on Thursday by NHS England shows just over half of all Covid-19 patients in hospital trusts in England are being treated primarily for something else, a figure that is broadly unchanged on the last few weeks.

All patients who have tested positive for Covid-19 need to be treated separately from those who do not have the virus, regardless of whether they are in hospital primarily for Covid or not.

But the proportion of patients who are in hospital "with" Covid-19 rather than "for" it continues to be much higher than it was for most of last year, when the figure stood at around 25 per cent.

The number of patients in hospital in Scotland with recently confirmed Covid-19 has reached a record high for a fourth consecutive day with 2,322 people in hospital, according to latest figures.