A small chink of reality
The NHS has been put under the microscope by the Health Select Committee, with many trenchant criticisms.
Yesterday I went to see the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, to discuss the financial crisis in the NHS in Suffolk, and the future of community hospitals – in my case, in Newmarket.
Apart from a series of incompetent decisions by the Strategic Health Authority and by Primary Care Trusts, there are two basic problems facing the health service in the county. The first is accumulated historic deficits which are virtually impossible to pay off. Secondly, a funding formula which puts NHS spending in Suffolk well below the national average.
Two potential concessions arose out of our conversation. Firstly, if NHS trusts, like West Suffolk Hospital, are in a current monthly balance, and if by next spring the NHS nationally is in balance, then new consideration will be given as to how to pay off the overhanging debt. Secondly, the rural element of the funding formula is being re-examined.
This does not deal with the removal of NHS beds, as in Newmarket, but it is now recognised that the two fundamental underlying reasons for the financial chaos in the NHS in Suffolk need to be re-appraised.