Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper has secured a further £190 million in Chancellor John Healey's Budget to help the NHS in England manage the extra pressures it faces this winter and for the rest of the year.
The 2026-27 funding builds on the recent announcement of 25 new or expanded urgent care sites opening in time for winter, which are boosting NHS capacity and easing pressure on accident and emergency departments.
The money comes on top of existing NHS budgets for the year and is targeted at winter resilience rather than a permanent annual uplift. Health services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are devolved.
More robot-assisted surgery
The Budget also invests £100 million to speed up the use of robot-assisted surgery across England, aiming to increase robot-assisted procedures from around 70,000 a year today to 500,000 by 2035.
The government says the programme will let more patients benefit from less invasive operations, reduce geographical and gender inequalities in access, and improve NHS productivity, supported by a national robotics registry that uses data and AI to improve outcomes.
