Iain Dale: I don't believe that the health service has been defunded

12 January 2023, 20:17

By Grace Parsons

Iain Dale argues that the health service has not been defunded, instead he says the problem runs much deeper

According to figures seen by LBC today, the vast majority of people in the UK have lost faith that the NHS will be able to offer them an acceptable level of care if they fall ill.

Iain Dale reacted to these figures, but he argued that the health service has not been defunded, instead he said the problem runs much deeper.

Iain said: "Some horrifying new figures out today, if you have a heart attack you're probably going to wait 90 minutes or more to get an ambulance. Now, I'm not a medic but I know if you have a stroke or a cardiac arrest every minute counts.

"The average wait times is more than 90 minutes to reach emergency calls, that's 5 times longer than the target time, in some regions it's 150 minutes."

He also said: "Is it down to lack of funding? I don't believe that the health service has been defunded, if you look at the actual figures of the money going into the health service. In 2010 it was around £100billion a year and now it is £160billion a year.

"Health demands have increased, that is true, but are you seriously telling me that a 60% increase in funding is austerity for the health service, because I would have to challenge you."

Iain also stated: "We have not had 60% inflation since 2010. We're told that health service inflation is 4%...and therefore the funding hasn't kept up with that. Well, virtually every few months the government announces more money, I think it goes much deeper than that."