BHF responds to the Spring Budget

We’re disappointed not to see anything announced in this week's Spring budget to prevent more lives being needlessly lost to extreme heart care disruption.

Long-term workforce strategy

With the backlog of heart care vast and still growing, heart patients need to hear how they will get the care they need on time, whether that’s an ambulance for a heart attack or other emergency, or medication that could help them avoid a future heart attack or stroke.

While some measures announced in the Budget could help keep more NHS staff in work, they don’t go nearly far enough to address the acute NHS workforce crisis.

The Government must make sure that the upcoming workforce plan is given new investment to address the shortage of heart doctors and nurses, and that the funding is not taken from existing budgets where it’s needed to deliver patient care.

With record waiting lists for heart care and average ambulance response times that are nearly double the 18-minute target for heart attacks and strokes, urgent and decisive action is needed before more lives are needlessly lost.

Prevent heart disease

It was concerning not to see a focus on public health in the Budget. We’ve been calling on the Government to invest in preventing the causes of heart disease, including through a ‘polluter pays’ tobacco levy to fund tobacco control measures.

This could help to relieve the immense pressure on the NHS.

A healthy nation is a wealthy nation. For example, meeting the Government’s target of halving childhood obesity by 2030 would generate savings of over £37 billion for the NHS.

The latest Public Health Grant allocation of £3.5 billion, announced a day before the Budget, will protect the grant in real terms in 2023-24.

The grant allows local authorities to fund vital preventative services like stop smoking support and NHS Health Checks – programmes that help to prevent heart disease and make the nation healthier. These are ever more necessary as more people report themselves unable to work from ill health.

However, the grant will still be lower than in 2015/16, and the most deprived areas have seen disproportionate cuts to public health services in recent years.

An uplift of at least £1bn is needed to restore the grant to its original levels, and we need a long-term, sustainable and equitable funding solution.

The commitment to roll-out the digital health check to identify and prevent more cases of cardiovascular disease is welcome. Tackling cardiovascular disease is one of the best opportunities to save the most lives, as the NHS Long Term Plan makes clear.

Research investment

We welcome the announcement of additional funding for the MHRA. It is vital that patients can access innovative new treatments quickly and safely. We look forward to seeing further details.

The Government missed an opportunity to set out how it intends to meet its £20bn R&D spending commitment by 2024/25.

Heart disease and stroke research remains underfunded compared to their impact on society. To tackle and reduce heart disease and stroke over the long-term and make tomorrow’s treatments and cures a reality, the Government should commit to help close this funding gap as part of its R&D investment plan.

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, our Chief Executive, said: "Over 370,000 people are facing agonising waits for time-sensitive heart care, and the waiting list just keeps growing. It's disappointing not to see anything further announced for this most urgent challenge.

"While some measures announced in the Budget will help with NHS staff retention issues, they do not go nearly far enough to address the acute NHS workforce crisis. The upcoming Government workforce plan will need major new investment to be a success, and we did not hear this in the Budget - this was a missed opportunity.”

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