The NHS will have to decide between keeping the lights on or treating patients this winter as trusts’ energy bills soar with ‘eye tears’, an inquiry warns.
A study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) estimates hospital gas and electricity bills are up to three times higher than last year.
It could see some trusts being forced to halt operations or reduce patient numbers to afford up to £2million more a month for energy.
The NHS is already struggling to see patients in a safe time and to work off record backlogs that have accumulated during the pandemic.
NHS bosses are calling for more money to protect health services this winter from an energy crisis forecast to be the toughest ever in terms of pressure.
Ofgem has announced that the price of the domestic electricity and gas price cap per unit will increase by 80 per cent from October for England, Scotland and Wales.
However, bills for non-domestic customers are not protected by the cap, leaving the NHS vulnerable to rising market prices.
Energy bills are expected to continue rising into the autumn and winter as Ofgem’s price cap is pushed back
NHS England ambulance figures show that the average wait time for heart attack and stroke victims exceeded 59 minutes for only the second time in July (red bars). The yellow line shows the number of category two calls, which reached 379,460
The NHS backlog for routine treatments rose to 6.7million in June – the highest ever
More than 29,000 people waited 12 hours in A&E units (yellow lines) last month – four times the NHS target and by a third more than in June, which was the previous record. Meanwhile, the proportion of patients seen within four hours — the time frame by which 95 percent of people should be seen — fell to 71 percent (red line) in the last month, the lowest rate since records began in 2010
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said it expects to pay an extra £2million a month for energy in January and February 2023 compared to the same months this year.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust told the BMJ it has budgeted for a 214 per cent increase in electricity and gas bills in 2022/23.
Great Ormand Street Hospital in London said it expects costs to nearly double.
The Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust expects its total energy bill for 2022/23 to be 140 per cent higher than last year.
Some trusts do not expect price increases because they have longer-term energy contracts with suppliers that tie them to a specific interest rate.
Rory Deighton, Senior Acute Lead at the NHS Confederation, told The BMJ: “This is not an abstract issue.
“The funding gap caused by rising inflation must be filled either through fewer staff, longer wait times for care, or cuts in other areas of patient care.
“The new prime minister needs to increase this autumn’s budget, or any emergency budget he’s holding, to cover the deficit.
“The NHS needs at least £4billion this year alone to offset inflation, and that’s before we face a winter of even higher wholesale energy prices.
“Failure to adequately compensate the NHS for inflation will only increase the pressure on our health service as we approach a winter which we know will be particularly challenging this year.”
Wes Streeting, Labor’s shadow health secretary, said: “The NHS is in the midst of the biggest crisis in its history and it’s only going to get worse this winter.
“Patients are already unable to get a doctor’s appointment, an ambulance or surgery when they need one. The last thing the NHS needs is a hole in its budget caused by rising energy bills.
“Yet the Government is nowhere in sight and the country faces the prospect of a new Prime Minister who has proposed further cuts to the NHS budget.”
Tory leader Liz Truss announced last week that she plans to divert more than £10billion a year from healthcare to social care to tackle the ‘bed lockdown’, one of the main causes of the current NHS crisis .
But senior doctors have called the plan “insane” and warned it could trigger a wave of strikes among doctors, nurses and medical workers already mulling a dispute over pay and working conditions.
Saffron Cordery, interim CEO at NHS Providers, added: “Confidence leaders are concerned about rising fuel bills and the impact of inflation, which is expected to rise even further in the coming months.
“The Government’s failure to fully fund the NHS pay premium has resulted in vital resources being diverted away from planned frontline care developments at a time of unprecedented operational pressures.
“We’re already seeing the impact on patient care with planned cuts in community diagnostics and digital innovations, but this may just be the tip of the iceberg.”
The prospect of a reduction in care looms as the NHS finds itself in the midst of a winter crisis in the autumn.
Each month, a record-breaking 3,000 patients endure waits of more than 12 hours in the emergency room.
Studies have shown that waiting more than five hours for emergency care increases the risk of dying from any cause within 30 days.
The average heart attack patient in England now waits almost an hour for an ambulance – compared to the 18-minute target.
There are signs that the crisis is deadly.
So far there have been over 11,000 “excess deaths” in England and Wales – the total number of deaths is higher than what would normally be expected.
