Confed responds to spending review

Responding to the spending review, delivered to Parliament by the chancellor George Osborne, the confederation also welcomed the funds allocated to social care, but said that this was only an “interim solution”.

NHS Confederation acting chief executive Nigel Edwards said: “There is no long-term solution due [on social care] until the second half of this parliament and as a result there would have been serious problems right across the health and social care system if the government had not acted.”

Mr Edwards warned that, even with a better settlement than most government departments, the NHS would have to “up its game on productivity”.

Mr Edwards said: “Given the huge financial pressure on our public services, this settlement is as good as the NHS could have hoped for under the circumstances.

“Even with this settlement, the NHS faces a potent cocktail of pressures and we will have to work very hard to ensure the impact on services is minimised.”