£25 MILLION LOAN PUTS PRESSURE ON HEALTH SERVICES IN WORCESTERSHIRE - BURT

10.42.09pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 2nd Oct 2007

Richard Burt has today raised concerns over future funding of county health services following an analysis of figures requested from Worcestershire Primary Care Trust under the Freedom of Information Act.

Mr Burt said that the Trust had inherited borrowing of £25million from the Department of Health in March 2006 in order to balance the books, and that the loan must be now be repaid over the next three years.

Richard Burt said:

"The Prime Minister insisted that all NHS Trusts should deliver balanced budgets this year, but without a £25million loan from the Department of Health this simply could not have been achieved.

"The days of big real term increases in NHS spending have now ended, with anticipated growth in income for the PCT reduced to 5% for 2008/9 and 2009/10, with half that figure being accounted for by inflation.

"Out of the remaining 2.5% increase (approximately £17m) a loan repayment of £8.3m has to be found, leaving very little (1.25%) for new developments.

"After cost cutting, job freezes and delays in service development, the real squeeze will come over the next two years because the PCT will be forced to repay its loan to the Department of Health at a time when annual funding increases will be cut in half.

"If growth is more than 1.25%, there will be insufficient resources available to meet the demand for health services."

"This kind of Alice in Wonderland accounting has to stop. It's a merry-go-round, with government dispensing budgets, making loans and demanding payments to suit its own political ends.

"We need a fundamental shift in power for NHS delivery, with democratic control returned to local NHS boards rather than micro-managed from Whitehall."