Voters believe the NHS is a top priority issue for the Chancellor to address in tomorrow’s Budget – although the electorate is divided on whether extra funding or structural reforms are the required solution to fix the beleaguered health service.
A survey from More in Common found that while the public broadly agrees that healthcare should be at the top of the concern list for Rachel Reeves, the left-leaning segments favour higher spending on the NHS while the more conservative side puts more weight on the service’s reform.
The organisation splits the electorate into six different archetypes designed to inform the views of various segments of the British public. Progressive activists were the group most supportive of additional funding for the NHS, whereas backbone conservatives are the likeliest to get behind reform.
It comes as the government is set to pledge billions of pounds of extra cash for the NHS in a bid to open up two million extra appointments per year.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce £1.5bn for new surgical hubs and scanners and £70m for radiotherapy machines.
However, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has repeatedly made clear his intention for the NHS to undergo substantial reform under the new Labour government.
Speaking during a vist to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, Reeves said: “I don’t think in one budget you can undo 14 years of damage.
“But in this budget we’re going to provide the resource necessary to deliver on our manifesto commitment to 40,000 additional appointments every single week, to reduce the huge backlog and as well as the increase in the capital budget to take it to its highest level since 2010 to invest in the new scanners and the radiography equipment.”
Streeting added: “There will be people waiting on trolleys in corridors this winter. I can’t turn the situation around that fast.”
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