HearFromYourMP

Messages for this constituency

Health Service Funding

Posted by James Brokenshire, MP for Hornchurch, at 17:07, Sun 17 December 2006:

Thank you for emailing to hear from me on an issue of current political importance. It is remarkable the way in which technology continues to change the way that we are able to communicate. I welcome the work of hearfromyourmp.com in facilitating greater understanding of the work of Parliament and enabling individual MPs to establish a dialogue with, I hope, an increasing group of people.

Over the last three years of being a parliamentary candidate and now an MP the local health service has been at the centre of my campaigning activity. In the last week we have seen the opening of the new Queens Hospital in Romford. I welcome this impressive new facility and congratulate those who have managed this huge and complex project to provide a modern environment in which quality care can be delivered. I also praise the professionalism, the dedication and sheer hard work of the doctors, nurses and other health workers whom I hope will now have a 21st century healthcare facility in which to treat patients to the best of their ability.

But the opening of the Romford Hospital comes at a time of huge uncertainties and huge strains within the health service. NHS managers are currently conducting a review of hospital facilities across north east London which could lead to closures and the transfer of services away from the communities that they serve. These changes may also lead to the loss of more jobs at the frontline of clinical care.

Last year the health service in London over-spent by some £174 million. For the current financial year it was budgeted to go into the red by £90 million. Yet over half way through, NHS London are now forecasting a deficit of £135 million for 2006/7. Health service managers are coming under huge pressures to bring performance back in line with plans and I fear that this will lead to further cuts in services. It is too easy to blame this simply on mis-management by those running our hospitals and health facilities as the Government has chosen to do. Yes there may be an element of this, but we are deluding ourselves to think that this is the main problem.

We need to take a long hard look at the way in which budgets are drawn up and cash is allocated to individual health trusts by the Department of Health. It is right to factor in information on social deprivation which sadly provides an important indicator of health inequality and medical need as currently happens. But the present system simply doesn’t give enough weight to other factors such as age profiles which highlight morbidity and the need for clinical support and therefore financial cost. I believe the NHS’s current financial model simply does not give a proper assessment of medical need leading to a lot of the problems which are now being brought to the fore. The Government’s topsy-turvy approach of investing cash first before embarking on reform and then failing to understand why there is a problem with carrying out structural changes at a time when the spending taps are being turned back is also returning to haunt ministers.

Since the spring of 2004 I have been running a campaign to maintain healthcare at St George’s Hospital in Hornchurch which has been under the shadow of closure for several years. In the last year bed capacity on site has been slashed from 180 intermediate and long term care beds with a plan for just 60 to serve the requirements of predominantly older people recovering from strokes, falls and other serious conditions. Under the original proposals, the preferred option was to transfer the beds and facilities elsewhere and to sell off the whole site for housing. Two petition campaigns and a thousand participant resident survey later, it finally seems as if the option of complete closure of St George’s may be moving off the table. If so, this would be a tremendous boost for Hornchurch and an indication of the importance of local political campaigning and ordinary people having their say.

Which brings us back to hearfromyourmp.com. Thank you again to everyone who contacted the website. Please keep in touch. You can also keep up to date with all of my activities in the House of Commons and in Hornchurch via my website at www.jamesbrokenshire.com.

James Brokenshire MP