Bill Olner MP has welcomed the announcement made today that Warwickshire Health Authority is to get £293,422,000 next year to invest in better services for patients, cutting NHS waiting lists and building a modern and dependable Health Service to serve people in Nuneaton.

This comes the day after the West Midlands NHS region received £16,700,000 to help deal with pressures on the NHS this winter.

Bill Olner MP said:

"The Labour Government is putting more money into the NHS than at any time in the Health Service’s entire history - £21 billion over the next three years. Now we know how much that means for the next year for our local Health Authority, Warwickshire.

"Warwickshire Health Authority will get £293,422,000 from next April. That’s a cash increase of £15, 271,000 – 2.92% in real terms.

"And the money will be spent on the things that really matter to people here in Nuneaton, modernising the NHS, improving local services and cutting waiting lists.

"This week, we’ve also heard that the number of people on NHS waiting lists are coming crashing down – by 30,000 in the last month alone. So we have more money going into the NHS than ever before and waiting lists coming down faster than ever before. That’s double proof that the pledges we made on health to local people at the General Election are being delivered by the Government.

"That’s what I want to see. That’s what local people want to see. But it isn’t what the Tories want to see. They’ve said that we’re wrong to concentrate on getting waiting lists down and they say we’re putting too much money into the NHS. They’re the only people who believe it. People here in Nuneaton won’t let the Tories forget it."