Give us fair NHS funding…
I have just been in the chamber of the House of Commons, speaking in support of my parliamentary colleague, John Gummer, MP for Suffolk Coastal, who secured a debate on the subject of the NHS in Suffolk.As all the Conservative MPs in Suffolk have recently signed a letter to the new Chief Executive of the Suffolk PCT, this was a good opportunity for us to restate the case to the Health Minister, Andy Burnham, that Suffolk is not getting a fair deal under the NHS funding formula. We have one of the oldest populations in England – one in five is over 65 - and yet the money we receive from the Government does not reflect this and instead is considerably below the national average.We had the opportunity to ask the Minister: Is it any wonder that every NHS organisation in Suffolk is suffering with millions of pounds of deficits because we don’t get the money we need, or indeed, the money we deserve.
We raised important points such as the long list of threatened community hospitals, the shortage of carers in Suffolk and the difficulty of signing up with an NHS dentist.
Regrettably, there appears to be a correlation between political representation and the closing of community hospitals. All the closures, barring a few in Liberal Democrat seats, have been in Conservative held seats. As with so much with this Government, money flows to areas, especially metropolitan urban areas in the North, where its political support is strongest.
I told the Minister that we have a genuine passion about this huge problem. I paid tribute to the staff in Suffolk. The collapse in the morale amongst our wonderful doctors, nurses, ancillary workers and carers is devastating and I wanted him to know this.
Hopefully, if we all keep the pressure up on the local NHS management and the Department of Health, we might just have a chance of redressing the unfortunate imbalance in health funding in Suffolk.
But I am not holding my breath…