Management of the National Health Service

Part of Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day] – in the House of Commons at 3:52 pm on 9 May 2006.

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Photo of Andrew Lansley Andrew Lansley Shadow Secretary of State for Health 3:52, 9 May 2006

It is a fact that in the year of the 1997 general election NHS bodies started spending money virtually without constraint, in the expectation that a Labour Government would bail them out. My right hon. Friend Mr. Dorrell might recall that. The hon. Gentleman is also right to say that the deficit for the year just gone probably will be about 1 per cent. of NHS resources. However, the NHS is a body that is voted a certain sum of money by Parliament, and for it to spend more than that is serious. In my book, several hundred million pounds is very serious.

It is also true that between 1997 and 2002 there were no system-wide deficits in the NHS, but hospital trusts in England finished the year before last with an accumulated deficit of some £300 million. They finished 2004-05 with a deficit of some £600 million, and they will have finished the last financial year with a deficit of some £1.1 billion. The hon. Gentleman and many other Labour Members will be wondering why strategic health authorities are cutting a third of their additional allocation to primary care trusts this year to hold the sum as a reserve. It is because they need some £1.5 billion this financial year to bail out the accumulated deficits and the underlying deficits that hospitals are experiencing.