Ahead of the 2021 Budget on 3 March, the RCP called on the government to implement the following three actions to build a more resilient health and social care system, learning the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. Doubling medical school places from 7,500 to 15,000 per year to tackle the NHS workforce crisis. We estimate this would cost £1.85bn annually, less than a third of what hospitals spend on agency and bank staff.
2. Building a preventative system by addressing the estimated £6.8bn funding gap for adult social care and public health as part of a cross-government strategy to reduce health inequality.
3. Spreading clinical research across the UK to support regions missing out on its health and economic benefits. Supporting ten NHS trusts, in regions where research activity is low, to pilot funding time for research would cost approximately £25m per year.
For further detail on these proposals, please download a PDF copy of our full response at the bottom of this page. If you have any comments or questions, contact our policy team by emailing policy@rcplondon.ac.uk