NHS boss Amanda Pritchard says patients not getting care they deserve

Patients are not getting the care they deserve, the head of NHS England says.

Amanda Pritchard told a conference in London the pressures on hospitals, maternity care and services caring for vulnerable people with learning disabilities were her biggest concerns.

She even suggested the challenge facing the health service now was greater than it was at the height of the pandemic.

And she warned despite making savings the NHS would still need extra money to cope, because of rising inflation.

Next year the budget will rise to more than £157bn, but NHS England believes it will still be short of £7bn.

Ms Pritchard told the King's Fund annual conference that demand was rising more quickly than the NHS could cope with.

"I thought that the pandemic would be the hardest thing any of us ever had to do," she said.

"Over the last year, I've become really clear.... it's the months and years ahead that will bring the most complex challenges."

She said the thing that kept her and health leaders awake at night was whether patients were getting the standard of care they deserve.

"We know we cannot always answer yes to that question."

She told delegates at the conference that discussions were under way with the government about money ahead of the 17 November Budget.

She said the NHS continued to find efficiency savings, ensuring it spent every £1 of taxpayer money wisely.

But she added: "NHS budgets will only stretch so far."

Ms Pritchard's warnings come as the backlog for hospital treatment has hit a record seven million, and long waits for ambulances and in A&E continue to cause concern.

But she praised the "sheer hard work and ingenuity" of staff, saying without their efforts the impact on patients would be worse.