Hampshire Patients Get a Tenth Less Than Average and a Fifth Less Than Geordies

12.13.17pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 11th Apr 2005

Hampshire MEP and Eastleigh parliamentary candidate Chris Huhne highlighted higher planned funding for Labour's heartlands in the north of England as a key cause of problems in the local National Health Service.

Mr Huhne said that Labour was pushing more cash into primary care trusts as they take over the key role of commissioning local services, but trusts in the north are planned to get the lion's share.

"We will get a fifth less per head than Tynesiders. Although I recognise that we are relatively well off in the South, and that we also have fewer health needs than in areas with more deprivation, the bias against the south in these figures is so strong that I cannot believe that such big funding gaps are justifiable particularly as our costs are higher" said Mr Huhne.

Mr Huhne, who is an economist by background, says that if elected next month for Eastleigh he wants to get together an all party group of Hampshire MPs to press the Health department on funding for the county.

Mr Huhne's figures on relative spending plans follow the dramatic warning of the chief of Southampton's biggest health trust that there is a need for "radical change" or a "reduction in the level of services offered to patients" if he is to meet the Government's financial targets.

Mr Huhne said that the letter confirmed that the local health trusts, which serve the whole of southern Hampshire, are facing an unprecedented funding crisis as the costs imposed on them by the Government have outstripped the extra funding.

"Hampshire is getting a lousy deal from Labour on the NHS, and needs more local control if we are to have world-class healthcare" said Mr Huhne. "Hampshire and the Isle of Wight primary care trusts get one fifth less spending per head than Tynesiders, and the Government simply has to recognise that this is not enough for local needs. It has mandated sharp increases in costs, like the generous new contract for junior doctors, without the money to pay for them" said Mr Huhne.

Mr Huhne said that his information was that the crisis was not confined to the Southampton University Hospitals NHS trust, the biggest in the area. The various units in Hampshire and Isle of Wight strategic health authority - the umbrella body for the local NHS - were together running a deficit of more than £50 million on a £1.8 billion total budget just one month before the end of the financial year, he said.

"This financial squeeze on local services is happening despite growing evidence that patient care is not as good as it should be" said Mr Huhne. As evidence of below average or deteriorating standards in the local NHS, Mr Huhne cited the above average waiting times when people attend accident and emergency at the Southampton General, cancelled operations, the closure of wards with nurses told to stay at home, the closure of the Mount Hospital in Bishopstoke despite promises of alternative local facilities first, a doubling in spending on temporary "agency" nurses at Southampton, and the fall in the number of hospital beds locally compared with 1997 when the Government came to power.