Chris Ham, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, said: ‘Across the country, there are encouraging examples of areas that are changing their services so that they better meet the needs of local people. But transforming services requires investment, and the speed of progress in Greater Manchester, for example, has only been possible because of upfront investment.
‘Yet most of the Sustainability and Transformation Fund is being spent on addressing acute hospital deficits rather than being invested in new service models, which is holding back progress. This is also one of the reasons that income for acute hospital trusts is growing faster than for mental health trusts, despite the government’s commitment to parity of esteem.
‘The case for finding more money for the NHS is unanswerable, both to put hospital finances on a secure footing for the future and to enable the NHS to invest in the kind of community services needed to alleviate pressure on hospitals.’
View report: Sustainability and transformation in the NHS