£200million goes unspent in NHS in North West

Oct 23 2007 by David Higgerson, Liverpool Daily Post

THE NHS in the North West failed to spend almost £200m last year – yet hospitals in Merseyside are still making cuts and patients are still being denied treatment.

New figures seen by the Liverpool Daily Post also show the Strategic Health Authority expects the “unspent” figure to rise to more than £200m by the end of this financial year – more than any other region in the country. While the Audit Commission will today praise NHS Northwest, chaired by former Liverpool council chief executive Sir David Henshaw, for its strong financial position, critics last night said it came at the expense of hospital beds and potentially life-saving treatment.

According to today’s report, the NHS in the North West ended the financial year to April, 2007, with around £185m in the bank.

By next April, according to reports approved by its board last month, that will be above £200m.

Yet at least two Trusts in the region have been forced to make cutbacks to pull themselves back into the black in that time.

North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which covers Warrington and Halton hospitals, has had to save £17m, with 300 posts scrapped and 180 beds axed.

Southport and Ormskirk Hospital has had to try and clear a £15m debt – and a turnaround team sent in by the Government suggested one saving it could make was to reduce its cleaning budget.

Health chiefs refused and instead opted for other savings, but it has shed 139 jobs over the year, with 41 redundancies – only 17 of them voluntary. It also considered a plan to shift some clerical work to Asia to save costs.

Across Merseyside, almost 600 fewer people were employed within the NHS at the end of last year than at the start of it.

The figures come just two weeks after the Daily Post revealed that more than 70 people were denied potentially life-enhancing or even life-saving drug treatments because special panels at Primary Care Trusts had refused to pay for them. When deciding whether or not to fund the treatment, the PCT panels examine potential benefit against cost.

But Mike Farrar, chief executive of NHS Northwest, said: “The NHS’s financial position in the North-west is extremely strong, which is really good news for patients, the public and NHS staff. The NHS in the North-west spent nearly £10bn on healthcare in the last financial year. This year, that budget has increased by £878m.

“The surplus so far reported represents just 2% of our budget, and indicates how stable finances are in our region. This is partly created by primary care trusts reserving funds for investing in projects earmarked in the next financial year. Financial turn-around on this scale is unprece-dented in the NHS. We have achieved this while improving services and cutting wait times.”

Steve Bundred, chief executive of the Audit Commission, said: “The NHS is no longer in deficit, which is good news for patients and for taxpayers. Managing money well goes hand in hand with providing better patient care. Trusts that fail to manage their money well are unlikely to be doing their best for patients.”

Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley criticised Labour's obsession with targets as a triumph of ideology over experience.

“Targets haven't delivered. For every target met – and many haven't been met – there are many other aspects of care which have deteriorated. Patients don't want to see shorter waiting times traded off for higher infection rates.

“The money going in just isn’t reaching the people who need it – the patients.”

Within the Audit Commission’s report, two hospital trusts in the region scored one out of four – the lowest score possible – for their financial performance, which is judged against several criteria. The two trusts are Southport and Ormskirk and North Cheshire.

Nobody could be contacted for comment at North Cheshire, but a spokesman for Southport and Ormskirk said: “For the last few years we have been carrying a deficit.ŠHowever, in the last financial year, 2006/07, this deficit was reduced from some £14m to £2.8m.“

But the fact many PCTs – which are effectively the paymaster of the hospital trusts, as they decide which services to commission – in the area will end up with a surplus has annoyed patients fighting to get access to treatments.

Campaigner Frank Buckle, 70, of Southport, only received life-saving kidney cancer drug Sutent because he took part in a trial in Manchester.

He said: “When you see the waste in the NHS, it is staggering that there is still a system where they turn round and say ‘No, we can’t afford that’.”

davidhiggerson@dailypost.co.uk