More than a third of NHS primary healthcare trusts, which fund hospitals in England, are running deficits that have led to a cutback in surgical operations and seen calls to close casualty departments, according to a joint study by The Guardian and the think tank Civitas.
The analysis, which used figures from the public board meetings of 100 trusts, shows the health service overspend this year is more than £130m. The Department of Health has warned trusts they cannot enter the new financial year in the red and health authorities which do not cut costs face repaying cash from next year’s budget or being subjected to central control.
The funding gap has already had an impact on patients, with GPs in Hertfordshire being told to get “approval” for a list of procedures including hysterectomies, removal of “skin lumps and bumps” and tooth extraction. Managers have advised the family doctors that in many cases “it is usually better to wait to see if symptoms resolve themselves”.
Although the government has said the health budget would not be cut, analysts say that even with “zero real growth” the NHS will face a shortfall of £20bn by 2013 - a gap that will grow to £38bn by 2016.
James Gubb, head of health policy at Civitas, said the tide of red ink was “of huge concern” given the tight budgets the NHS will be facing very soon.
Read more at The Guardian.
