§ 4. Mr. Peter Luff (Mid-Worcestershire)If he will make a statement on the measures being taken to tackle the deficits of (a) the Worcestershire acute hospitals trust and (b) the South Worcestershire primary care trust. [116527]
§ The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Hutton)The West Midlands South strategic health authority is currently working with both trusts to ensure a return to financial balance at the earliest possible opportunity. This will be helped by an increase of more than 30 per cent. in the resources available to the South Worcestershire primary care trust in the period 2003 to 2006.
§ Mr. LuffI thank the Minister for that answer. Despite the increase in resources of which he speaks, however, the South Worcestershire primary care trust is consulting on a range of painful options involving cuts in the local health service, including downgrading the minor injuries unit at Evesham community hospital, and the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is suffering in a real struggle to bring its large cumulative deficit back into balance. On three occasions, Ministers have refused to answer my parliamentary questions on when the hospital trust will be obliged to write off its cumulative deficit. It is important for the doctors and nurses at the hospital to know what cuts in their services might be threatened, in order to bring the deficit down. I would ask the Minister—[Interruption.]—I have asked this question three times before; this is the fourth time. When will the hospital trust be obliged to write off its cumulative deficit?
§ Mr. HuttonI understand the hon. Gentleman's concerns about the health service in his constituency. He will know that NHS regulations require trusts to restore financial balance within three years of the deficit arising, and that is the time frame within which his local trust must operate. I hope that that answer is helpful to him. As he is not being partisan today, I would like to offer him this comment in an equally non-partisan spirit. I hear his concerns about the resources going into his local NHS—we all do, on this side of the House—but I would simply ask him to reflect on the plausibility of his critique, given that his party voted against the resources going into the national health service at all. I hardly think that he is in a position to bemoan the lack of resources going into the NHS in Worcestershire when he and his hon. Friends voted against the increases.
§ Mr. Michael Foster (Worcester)Will my right hon. Friend conduct an urgent review of the services provided by Worcestershire acute hospitals trust and South Worcestershire primary care trust to see exactly what the impact of a 20 per cent. cut in funding would be on those services?
§ Mr. HuttonI am not sure that I need to carry out a thorough review to decide that. Such a cut would be devastating for the NHS in my hon. Friend's constituency, and the one sure way to prevent it from happening is to make sure that that lot never get returned to office.
§ Dr. Richard Taylor (Wyre Forest)What response does the Minister plan to make to the highly critical 9 report from the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, which has just been issued, on the situation at the new Worcestershire hospital?
§ Mr. HuttonI have not had the chance to read the report, but, like all reports written by the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, I will study it very carefully indeed.