NHS must get the £350m a week promised by Brexit campaigners, says head of health service

ONE in ten people in England will be on an NHS waiting list in four years unless it gets more money, England's health service chief has said.

Simon Stevens today demanded that politicians cough up the promised £350m extra per week for the NHS, or risk destroying trust in democracy.

He cited the Brexit campaign claim - which he said was key to winning the referendum - during a speech this morning to the NHS Providers Conference.

And he argued that boosting funding in our health service could actually help to repair divisions in Britain.

"The NHS wasn't on the ballot paper, but it was on the Battle Bus," Mr Stevens said today. "Vote Leave for a better funded health service - £350 million a week."

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it wasn't a government promise, but that if there was any spare cash after Brexit, the NHS should be the "first port of call".

Mr Stevens went on:"Rather than our criticising these clear Brexit funding commitments to NHS patients - promises entered into by Cabinet ministers and by MPs - the public want to see them honoured.

"Trust in democratic politics will not be strengthened if anyone now tries to argue: 'You voted Brexit, partly for a better funded health service. But precisely because of Brexit, you now can't have one.'

"A modern NHS is itself part of the practical answer to the deep social concerns that gave rise to Brexit.

He claimed that "at a time of national division, an NHS that brings us together".

But the Health Secretary distances himself from the Vote Leave claims, saying: "It wasn’t a government promise, it was a promise by the Leave campaign."

But he added: "if there is a Brexit dividend, if we end up having less pressure on public finances… because we are not making payments to the NHS… Then I believe the NHS should be first port of call."

Mr Hunt, who also spoke at the conference, said that the NHS had saved £700m this financial year, but acknowledged that "there are lots of things that we know that we can do better."

And Mr Stevens, who has repeatedly called for more cash for our national health service, said that without this extra cash, the NHS would really begin to struggle, and predicted that hospital waiting lists could soar by a QUARTER to five million by 2021.

"2018, which is the 70th anniversary of the NHS is poised to be the toughest financial year," he warned.

Shadow Health Secretary John Ashworth urged Philip Hammond to come forward with more cash in this month's Budget.

"Theresa May simply cannot carry on ignoring the dismal consequences for patient care of refusing to properly fund the NHS," he said.

"Theresa May and Philip Hammond must now take these heavyweight warnings seriously and in the upcoming Budget finally provide the investment our NHS now desperately needs."