Milburn heralds tax rises

Health Secretary Alan Milburn today pushed for tax rises with a claim that extra spending is already bringing results in the NHS. He weighed in behind a softening-up campaign, led by Chancellor Gordon Brown, to brace the public for a tough Budget next week. Taxes are set to rise to boost health service funding.

Mr Milburn is unveiling figures showing that the NHS is close to meeting its targets to reduce waiting times for both inpatient and outway-patient treatment. The political message, according to aides, is "Resources bring results".

NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp issued a "progress report" claiming that the health service is carrying out thousands more operations, speeding up access to care and increasing investment.

More people are being seen in outpatient clinics, and waiting times are improving, the report said.

Iain Duncan Smith's Conservatives, while not promising to reverse any Labour tax rises, are claiming that extra spending is no guarantee of better treatment for patients.

Shadow health secretary Liam Fox warned last night that the number of patients treated in NHS hospitals had actually fallen last year, despite a recent 30per cent increase in spending.

Mr Milburn will say that only two patients have currently been waiting longer than 15 months for inpatient treatment, compared with 10,400 a year ago.

The NHS 10-year plan said that by now, no one should be waiting more than 15 months for inpatient treatment.

However, another target has not quite been met. There are still 500 people waiting longer than six months for their first appointment with a specialist, before receiving outpatient treatment. A year ago, the figure was 81,000, but by now it should have fallen to zero.

The finely-balanced message from ministers is that extra spending is making things better but there is still some

to go, so even more money is needed. Mr Brown's preferred option for raising extra cash is thought to be a lift in both the rate and the cut-off threshold of employees' National Insurance contributions.

Labour believes such a rise could be accepted by taxpayers if it was linked to increased spending on the health service.

Lifting the rate of employees' National Insurance contributions from 10per cent to 11per cent would raise around £3.3billion, while raising the ceiling on the amount of income eligible for contributions from £29,900 to £33,935 - bringing it into line with the 40per cent income tax band - would raise another £900million. Middle-income earners would be up to £650 a year worse off.

Today's NHS performance report highlights:

? Around 25,000 routine operations carried out every working day, equating to a total of 5.55 million - up 50,000 on the previous year

? An estimated 11.38 million people seen in outpatient clinics - an increase of 150,000.

Many critics claim the Government is manipulating figures to suit its own argument and that New Labour has a track record of doing so.

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