25 January 2008
The chief executive of the NHS has denied that the financial turnaround in the health service is a result of service cuts.
David Nicholson told MPs that the improvement in the NHS – which recorded a £515m surplus in 2006/07, compared with a £547m deficit the previous year – was a result of good management practice, and not bed and ward closures.
Addressing the Commons' Public Accounts Committee on January 21, Nicholson said clinicians and managers had worked hard to reduce the number of trusts in deficit, while improving patient satisfaction rates and meeting national targets.
But he added: 'Some people's service cuts would be my efficiencies. So if you reduce the average length of stay for inpatients by 20%, the way that you deliver savings out of that is to reduce the number of beds and the number of wards that you have. It seems to be a perfectly sensible way of taking efficiency forward.'
But Nicholson would not be drawn on suggestions made by PAC chair Edward Leigh that the projected surplus for 2007/08 should be used to wipe out the postcode lottery. Although the extra monies presented many opportunities for the NHS, Nicholson stressed it needed to be spent in a planned way.
However, he agreed with Leigh that there was a dichotomy between greater autonomy for the NHS and the action taken to overturn deficits, such as top-slicing budgets and withholding central budgets,
But Nicholson justified this, saying: 'We needed to take significant action to get ourselves into a much better position… It was absolutely necessary to get a grip on the finances of the NHS to make sure we didn't slide into another year of deficit.'
PFjan2008
