NHS in debt struggle
The NHS is struggling to cope with a £500 million budget deficit, according to a new survey.
A poll of England’s 27 strategic health authorities (SHAs) by the magazine Health Service Journal (HSJ) found a black hole in the NHS’s finances of £497 million, with the largest overspend of £69 million in South West London.
Finance chiefs predict that, despite efforts to make urgent savings, the NHS will still be £225 million in the red by the end of March.
In some trusts hospital wards and operating theatres are being cut and redundancies made. Many of those surveyed, blamed the new doctor contracts, waiting list and A&E targets for the problem.
Bradford Teaching Hospital is closing five wards and four operating theatres to save money, while Southampton University Hospital has already shut two nurse-led units, cut 120 beds and made 100 redundancies to save up to £15 million.
Nigel Edwards, policy director of the NHS Confederation, warned: “There are signs this year that a combination of pressures is making this balancing act harder to achieve.”
The Department of Health has played down the deficit, stating: “We expect by year-end that the majority of NHS organisations and the NHS as a whole will achieve financial balance in 2004-05.”
But, the Liberal Democrats said that the problem was the Government’s fault as it was “target obsessed”.
Health spokesman Paul Burstow, said: “It is time Ministers told the truth about the state of NHS finances. Every year Ministers go though the charade of telling the public that the books balance when on the ground services are being cut, treatment delayed and operations cancelled.
“The financial pressures on the NHS are a direct result of this Government’s obsession with setting targets that distort local priorities.”
