Health Services: Costs
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) inflation, (b) changes to National Insurance contributions and (c) local authority fee uplifts on healthcare providers.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Each year, the cost of providing healthcare changes because of changes in wages, inflation other inputs over which providers have little control. NHS England publishes a cost uplift factor to reflect these expected cost changes that forms part of the NHS Payment Scheme, and all payment arrangements must have regard to the figure.
The 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme is out for consultation until midnight on 28 February 2025. The proposed cost uplift factor for 2025/26 is 4.15%, and is broken down into costs affecting pay, drugs, capital, clinical negligence and other factors.
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