Over the last 11 years, the National Health Service has been characterised by a massive increase in funding and a similarly large rise in the number of managers.
Taxpayers might reasonably expect, therefore, that the management of health service budgets should no longer be an issue. However, the Audit Commission has found 20 NHS Trusts are not meeting minimum requirements, including Scarborough and North East
Yorkshire Health Care NHS Trust, which has failed to do so for three years.
Proper financial management gives certainty to patients and clinicians alike. Its absence, however, leads to a damaging cycle of investment in new equipment and staff, followed by periods of reorganisation and cuts in provision as efforts are made to balance the books. This process is wasteful for taxpayers, frustrating for patients and hugely damaging to
staff morale.
The crisis affecting the global economy has exposed Gordon Brown's claim to have conquered boom and bust for the fallacy it is. Far more damning, however, is the continuing financial uncertainty that afflicts the NHS after a decade of meddling with the way it is run.
Billions have been poured in and yet NHS Trusts continue to run up massive debts leaving patients to wonder about the future of local services.
This is not a problem Ministers can blame on international factors or
a legacy inherited from their predecessors, it is entirely home grown.
The limits on spending that the Government will face in the months to
come will only expose this failing further.
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