Extra cash set aside to cut waiting lists

19 Dec 02
Areas with the longest hospital waiting lists will receive extra cash from Whitehall to build local capacity, it emerged this week.

20 December 2002

Last week, Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced the first three-year allocations to primary care trusts worth £148bn, a 31% cash terms increase over the current year. The money, which covers April 2003 to March 2006, makes good Milburn's promise that PCTs would control 75% of NHS spending from next year.

However, it is understood that some of the remaining cash – £200m – has been 'top-sliced' to be used to build capacity in strategic health authority areas with the most people waiting more than six months for treatment.

PCT finance directors in areas not receiving the cash were disappointed and one, who asked not to be named, called the move 'a reward for failure'.

But David Poynton, chair of the CIPFA health panel, said there were two views. He said: 'A number of people who have worked hard to get their waiting lists down will feel that this money is to sort out problems that some haven't sorted out for themselves. The counter-argument to that is that those who have got the money now have no excuse for failure.'

There was disappointment, too, in the PCTs that received the smallest increases. Thirty-three, including Newcastle, Lincolnshire South West and South Somerset, will get an extra 28% in cash terms over the next three years.

Linda Redpath, director of corporate and clinical governance at Newcastle PCT, said: 'We welcome the increase in funding but we are disappointed that we are at the bottom end of the allocations.'

At the other end of the scale, Tower Hamlets PCT will get an extra 43%. Its chief executive Christine Carter said: 'Along with the rest of east London, our health services have been underfunded for years. I hope this will help us to invest over the coming years.'

Tendring PCT in Essex will get one of the largest rises, with 42%. Chief executive Paul Unsworth said the money would help improve services. But he warned that finances would still be tight as the NHS drug bill was rising by 12.5% a year.


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