Taylor calls for private capital investment in NHS estate

NHS Confed chief executive Matthew Taylor has called on private capital investment to fund the renewal of the NHS estate.

Matthew Taylor (c) NHS Confederation

Matthew Taylor (c) NHS Confederation

Taylor's call at NHS Confed Expo yesterday came on the same day chancellor Rachel Reeves revealed capital funding for healthcare will stay flat in real terms for the next three years.

Taylor said: ‘I am worried about capital investment. I don't quite know how we are going to reform at pace without more private capital.

‘And I do hope that the Treasury will continue to look at estimates, including private investment.'

The NHS Confed boss said people remembered the first generation of PFI as a ‘disaster' but added this had ‘got better over time'.

He added: ‘If you look around the world, there are fantastic examples of private investment, healthy health services to improve the quality of buildings.'

‘We have to remove the ban on private capital in the NHS,' Taylor continued.

‘We'll do what we can with the revenue we have got. It's going to be really tough.'

Turning to the 10-Year Health Plan, Taylor said reform this time ‘had to be different'.

‘We must reimagine the NHS not as a hierarchy made up of separate organisations that patients must try to navigate but as an agile team of teams building services around the needs, preferences and capabilities of citizens,' he said.

He called for a ‘fundamental change of model' towards multi-year funding designed to reward the shift upstream and to make different part of the system work together.

‘The 10-Year Health Plan must breathe new life into the idea of a health mission across Government, recognizing and tackling the impact of alcohol, housing, food, cancer, social media and also the social determinants of poverty,' Taylor added.

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