Does anyone else find the situation to be obscene?
The HSJ has extracted data from the House of Commons library and SHA
Board papers for September, and come up with the figures in the table.
What I find obscene is that the SHAs in the areas known to have the
worst health inequalities are predicting really massive underspends:
even if they return the funds topsliced from PCTs (have they ever been
known to do this?) to the PCTs, many of whom are still in turn-around
and cutting front line services, Yorkshire and the Humber, East
Midlands, North East and North West - the old industrial areas - and
South West will still be in significant surplus.
What services was this money supposed to supply, and are those services
being provided? Or has someone in the DH got their sums wrong when
calculating allocations?
MaryH
Http://shorterlink.co.uk/13275
Projected surpluses
SHA
Topsliced from PCTs
Total predicted surplus
London £268m £135m
Yorkshire and the Humber £85m £280m
West Midlands £74m £102m
South Central £68m £80m
South East Coast £58m £60m
East of England £57m £46m
South West £46m £149m
East Midlands £38m £114m
North East £26m £142m
North West £9m £350m
Totals £729m *£1,458m
Sources: House of Commons library Nov 07 (topslices); SHA board papers,
Sept-Nov 2007
*Based on data to September, estimates since risen
--
Mary Hawking
