After weeks of intense negotiations, Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, has secured an extra £3.8bn in funding for the organisation next year. The sum will help the NHS in England to cope with growing financial pressures brought about by staff shortages, population ageing and growing health demands.

According to Simon Stevens, the extra funding is a precondition for the introduction of structural changes in the NHS in England anticipated in the organisation’s own “Five Year Forward View”. The latter sets out a strategy for the next five years of the organisation, which it claims can save the health service £22bn in efficiency gains by the end of Parliament.

The extra money will be included in George Osborne’s spending review due on Wednesday. It represents a front-loading of the £8.4bn the government has promised the organisation by 2021.

Treasury insiders have announced that part of the extra sum represents an injection of new money into the Department of Health’s budget. Nevertheless, Osborne is unlikely to be spared criticism as it is believed that other parts of the department such as Health Education England and the Care Quality Commission, the NHS care regulator, will be hit by tighter budgets.

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