By Richard Johnstone | 9 January 2015
The Public Accounts Committee has warned that variations in health funding across the country needed to be tackled to ensure the financial sustainability of the NHS.
Examining the different funding levels to clinical commissioning groups from NHS England, MPs said slow progress had been made towards the government’s target of ensuring all allocations were within five percentage points of their fair share, rather than based on historical spending levels.
In 2014/15, funding allocations for nearly two-fifths of CCGs and over three-quarters of local authorities remained above this level.
PAC chair Margaret Hodge said: ‘This has important implications for the financial sustainability of the health service as underfunded CCGs are more likely to be in financial deficit. Of the 20 CCGs with the tightest financial positions at March 31 2014, 19 had received less than their fair share of funding.
‘We recognise that in moving only gradually from current funding levels the department’s and NHS England’s priority has been to maintain the stability of local health economies, but this very slow pace of change puts at risk the financial sustainability of those most under-funded.
‘Furthermore, target funding allocations may be unreliable in some areas because they are based on estimates of population size taken from GP registration numbers.’
