NHS chiefs want another £1.5bn a year extra to improve buildings

Health bosses are already pleading for a further £1.5billion in funding, just a fortnight after No10 pushed through a £12billion tax raid to prop up the NHS. 

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers — a membership organisation which negotiates between trusts and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) — today asked for extra funds to fix crumbling hospitals. 

He said the money would bring 'long neglected parts of the NHS estate into the 21st Century', with the money being used to fix leaky roofs, broken boilers and faulty air conditioning units in operating theatres. 

Ms Cordery insisted the separate funds are necessary because of red tape meaning the tax raid — which won't hit millions of taxpayer until April — cannot be spent on key maintenance and infrastructure repairs.

Announcing the National Insurance hike at the start of the month, Boris Johnson said it would help the NHS get 'back on its feet'. Waiting lists for routine treatment have spiralled to record highs over the past year, with 5.6million awaiting care in England alone. 

The health service will receive the vast majority of the £36billion raised by the 1.25 per cent National Insurance hike over the next three years, with social care receiving a £5.3billion slice.

It will see people earning £50,000 a year having to pay an extra £500 annually in National Insurance.  

Critics had warned pouring the money into the NHS — which also given an emergency £60billion pot on top of its annual slice of £150billion to fight Covid last year — would lead to more demands for money in the future.

NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation immediately told the Prime Minister that the extra funds were not enough at the time. 

But pleading for more funds today, Ms Cordery gave no indication of how the money would raised.