Hertfordshire deserves fair health funding

Anne Main has expressed anger at Government figures which show that patients in Hertfordshire are receiving amongst the lowest NHS funding per head in the country.

Anne Main, MP for St Albans, has expressed anger at Government figures which show that patients in Hertfordshire are receiving amongst the lowest NHS funding per head in the country.

In terms of Primary Care Trust funding per head East and North Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust is rated 142nd and West Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust 150th out of 152 Trusts. This means that they receive less funding than 90% of Trusts in England.

Anne said:

"I fail to see why patients in Hertfordshire are any less worthy of healthcare than those elsewhere in the country. Of course ours is a relatively affluent area but that means that we are paying more into the Chancellor's coffers than other parts of the country, and are seeing less in return.

The revision of the funding formula announced in December, which gave the opportunity to resolve this inequality, has in fact made the position worse in West Hertfordshire where the funding share increase will be less than the average across the country. Meanwhile East and North Hertfordshire PCT will have a rise of a measly 0.3% above the average.

I find it deeply unacceptable that our health needs are being sidelined to divert funding elsewhere which will put enormous pressure on our health trusts to deliver the services we need and require.""