Additional £5.4 billion for NHS Covid-19 response over next six months

Includes £1 billion to help tackle Covid-19 backlogs, delivering routine surgery and treatments for patients.

The NHS will receive an extra £5.4 billion over the next six months to support its response to Covid-19 and help tackle waiting lists, the Prime Minister and Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid have announced.

The funding will immediately go towards supporting the NHS to manage the immediate pressures of the pandemic. This includes an extra £1 billion to help tackle the Covid-19 backlog, £2.8 billion to cover related costs such as enhanced infection control measures to keep staff and patients safe from the virus and £478 million to continue the hospital discharge programme, freeing up beds.

The additional £5.4 billion brings the government’s total investment to health services for Covid-19 so far this year to over £34 billion, with £2 billion in total for the NHS to tackle the elective backlog.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, “The NHS was there for us during the pandemic but treating Covid patients has created huge backlogs.

“This funding will go straight to the frontline, to provide more patients with the treatments they need but aren’t getting quickly enough.

“We will continue to make sure our NHS has what it needs to bust the Covid backlogs and help the health service build back better from the worst pandemic in a century,” he added on September 6.

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