The 131 is the budget for 2021/22, which was before the massive spike in inflation. The inflation between 2015 and 2021 is only 15.7%, meaning the budget has been raised by 15 billion pounds a year above inflation figures.

It doesn't really seem like a fair comparison if 2022 alone (after the budget was already set) had more inflation than the preceding 6 years combined.

In fact, the NHS budget is rising substantially by 2023/24 to counter-act the recent inflation events -- to 160 billion. [1]

This would mean the NHS budget has risen by 60% between 2015 and 2023, outpacing inflation substantially to an increase in real terms.

Just to put this in perspective, the pro-Brexit campaign was mocked for "falsely" promising 350m pounds a week in additional spending, when the spending increase is already double that and is scheduled to quadruple by 2023.

[1] https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2022/11/autumn-budget-2022...

What if healthcare labor supply and demand curves are moving in such ways so as to necessitate price increases that outpace overall inflation?

For example, due to an aging society with more and more healthcare receivers and proportionally fewer and fewer younger healthcare suppliers.