NHS's financial problems need one solution, not many

A collaborative approach is needed between local and national systems to ensure the NHS stays within its 2015-16 budget

The latest evidence, such as the King’s Fund Quarterly Monitoring Report (QMR) published last week, shows that the NHS faces a significantly more difficult challenge to stay within its budget this year than it did last year.

There are a number of possible responses from NHS frontline leaders to this problem. One would be, “The only way we can manage 2015-16 without the system crashing is for the government to inject more money and admit the current challenge is undeliverable”. Another might be, “Making the NHS numbers add up is a system level responsibility of the department of health and the arm’s length bodies, not ours”. A third would be, “We can only deliver by forgetting about everyone else and sorting out our own problems”.

Related: Who has the answer to the £22bn NHS funding question?

Related: David Nicholson: we need a new tax to fund the NHS

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