Independent Report: Unfair funding, poor local management and the Government to blame for NHS crisis

An independent report by MPs into NHS deficits highlighted "poor central and local management" - citing West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trusts as an example of an NHS organistaion in "extreme difficulty."

The damning report was published by the House of Commons Health Select Committee, a cross-Party committee dominated by Labour MPs. The report criticised the opaque funding formula for the NHS which hits areas like St Albans particularly hard.

The report stated that "funding formula allocates considerably more money per head to some PCTs than others. This may be related to the scale of health inequalities but it can make financial balance harder to achieve. A number of witnesses argued that there was a correlation between trusts' deficits and the allocation of funding."

Witnesses to the Committee also gave the view that "once an NHS organisation gets into deficit, it is very difficult for it to get out of deficit" and worryingly the report went on point out that "The Secretary of State agreed that not every trust would have eliminated its deficit within 5 years, but would not say what would happen if organisations failed to break even after this time."

Anne Main said:

"This damming Report confirms what we have known all along, St Albans is being penalized financially and yet the Trusts have been ordered to try to get their finances back in balance in a very short period of time, a nigh on impossible task as the Report acknowledges. The Health secretary should at least know what we can expect if the West Herts Hospital trust is still in debt after all the cuts and economies, I find her lack of forward planning staggering."

"The Health Secretary must to come to St Albans to answer her critics; she cannot wash her hands of the current local health crisis. This report says poor management by this Government is to blame; the Government must help us sort things out. I have written to her urging her to come to St Albans.

"This report also proves what I have said all along about the way the NHS is funded in Hertfordshire-it is unfair and skewed politically. The English average per capita allowance is £1,274 with St Albans and Harpenden PCT receiving an allocation of only £1,081 per head, approximately £200 per head less than the English average, when this is coupled with poor management it is no wonder that we have run up massive debts.""