Review may lead to rural health funding increase

Health Minister Norman Lamb has announced his officials are now collecting evidence on the cost of delivering community health services in different parts of the country, and that he expects the data to prove they are more expensive in rural areas.

It has long been a complaint of health authorities in remote areas that their budgets are squeezed by the cost of visiting patients living in far-flung communities.

Last month the NHS Commissioning Board rejected a proposal to change the way health money is handed out to local areas based upon a new ‘fair share’ assessment. Instead, it simply increased budgets across the board.

Speaking in the Commons, Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams expressed his concern at the decision and said his constituents were not getting their fair share of NHS funding.

“It is disappointing to hear that the NHS Commissioning Board has decided not to implement a fairer funding formula,” the North Yorkshire MP told Mr Lamb.

“What does the Minister suggest I say to my constituents who potentially face having services withdrawn, when, in the same region, areas such as Barnsley receive almost 30 per cent per head more in funding?”

Mr Lamb, who represents a rural constituency in Norfolk, said funding allocations must be based on hard evidence, and that his officials are now collecting data on the cost of delivering community health services – with a view to giving rural areas a fairer deal.

“As a Member of Parliament for a rural area with an elderly community, I understand [Mr Adams’s] concerns – but allocations have to be based on solid evidence,” Mr Lamb said. “The area where we do not have the evidence is on community services.

“The data will start to be collected on that and we will, therefore, be able to demonstrate whether community services cost more in rural areas, as I suspect they do.

“If that is the case, the allocation formula will be able to reflect that.”

In a speech last night, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was due to unveil plans for a ‘paperless NHS’ which would see billions of pounds saved by the improvement of IT systems.

“The NHS cannot be the last man standing as the rest of the economy embraces the technology revolution,” he was expected to say.

“It is crazy that ambulance drivers cannot access a full medical history of someone they are picking up in an emergency – and that GPs and hospitals still struggle to share digital records.

“Previous attempts to crack this became a top down project akin to building an aircraft carrier. We need to learn those lessons – and in particular avoid the pitfalls of a hugely complex, centrally specified approach.”