NHS spends £500 million too little
Early data is showing a massive NHS underspend of nearly half a billion pounds last year.
The data, revealed by the Guardian, shows how far the NHS has responded to intense political pressure – including a promise to resign by the health secretary – to avoid a deficit.
While the government is claiming that any underspend would be re-invested quickly, unions are furious at the figures – arguing that the money could have saved at least some of the 22,300 jobs cut last year. They also argued that it made the government’s rejection of a 2.5 per cent pay award for nurses and health workers look unfair.
There were immediate accusations that many of the severe cost-saving exercises undertaken by the NHS last year – such as closing wards, delaying operations and cutting staff – were unnecessary.
But the Department of Health (DoH) claimed it was proud of the NHS’ economic record over the last year.
“The NHS ended last year with a deficit of over £500m. This was unacceptable, and we introduced new rigour and discipline in order to put the NHS on a sound financial footing for the future,” a DoH spokesperson said.
Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, agreed.
“This shows how hard everyone worked for the collective good of the NHS,” she said.
The DoH plans to publish provisional results on Wednesday June 6, but the Guardian managed to extrapolate the figures from information provided by strategic health authorities.
The paper showed a total underspend of £456.8 million in England. Only two regions – eastern England and the south-east coast – stayed in the red, with £152 million and £55 million deficits respectively.
The figures indicate a massive increase from the three-quarter year point, when a mere £13 million surplus was predicted.
Some reports claim that trusts used minimum operation waiting times to avoid paying for treatments until the new financial year.
The data will also have been affected by £5.4 billion budget increase passed on for 2006/07.
