When she next expects to meet chairmen and chief executives of acute hospital trusts in Norfolk to discuss funding.

There are no immediate plans to meet the chairmen and chief executives of acute hospital trusts in Norfolk to discuss funding, but the Secretary of State and other Ministers have planned meetings with various local Members of Parliament to discuss the financial position and funding in the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire area.

Is the Minister aware that the Queen Elizabeth hospital in my Constituency now faces a financial crisis, through no fault of its own, with a deficit of nearly £8 million? Is he also aware that the chairman and chief executive both resigned last July, that beds and wards have closed and that operations have been cancelled? Yet rather than trying to help, the Government are, to the dismay of the staff, imposing a fine of £1.5 million. Does not that amount to the politics and administration of the madhouse?

It is true that the Queen Elizabeth hospital is running a deficit of about £2.2 million. As the hon. Gentleman will know, that amounts to about 2 per cent. of the trust budget. When we were elected in May, the British people asked us to write a big cheque, but not a blank cheque, for the NHS. Local trusts are required to ensure that they deliver financial balance. I am pleased to say, with reference to the recurring deficit at that particular hospital, that the trust will have the latitude to pay it back over a number of years. Frankly, it is far easier to do that in the light of the £231 million extra that is going into Norfolk PCTs over the next two or three years. As the hon. Gentleman will know, that is 23 times the level of the current deficit.

The Norfolk and Norwich University hospital faces a one-off premium cost because, as acknowledged by the National Audit Office, it was one of the earliest private finance initiative hospitals. Will the Minister ensure that there is a one-off adjustment in the next financial settlement to take account of the special one-off costs that the hospital faces?

When one looks at the finances for the strategic health authority in which the hon. Gentleman's Constituency sits, one can see a proposed financial increase of the order of £700 million over the next two or three years. That is a very considerable advance, which will ensure that we can make enormous progress in delivering more staff, better drugs and shorter waiting times in the hon. Gentleman's constituency. As those plans are developed over the next few years, I hope that he will give them his full support.