Friday, February 02, 2007
Debt is the obstacle to reform
The statement by British Medical Association today that one of the biggest obstacles to structural reform of the Welsh NHS is the growing mountain of debt within the service certainly accords with what I am being told by health and social care professionals.
Official figures have estimated that the NHS will be £36.4m in debt by the end of this financial year. This is in addition to its historical accumulated deficit of £101m, which dates back to at least 2000. The Assembly Government has agreed that it will write off some £16m of this debt which was incurred before 2001, bringing the amount repayable to just over £86m. #
Dr Tony Calland, chair of the British Medical Association's Welsh Council, said, "Designed for Life is based on the reconfiguration of services, which mean the setting up of new services to replace those that will be closed down. But when the NHS has this amount of debt, there is no money to set up new services until the old ones are closed down.
This is precisely the point I raised with the health minister in the Assembly before Christmas. It is possible to achieve long term savings within the NHS by reconfiguring services and treating people in a different way. However, that requires up-front investment. Without that investment then hospital, ward and bed closures are just cuts, which will cause more long term problems for patient care. We need to make sure that alternative provision is in place before closing down existing services.
Official figures have estimated that the NHS will be £36.4m in debt by the end of this financial year. This is in addition to its historical accumulated deficit of £101m, which dates back to at least 2000. The Assembly Government has agreed that it will write off some £16m of this debt which was incurred before 2001, bringing the amount repayable to just over £86m. #
Dr Tony Calland, chair of the British Medical Association's Welsh Council, said, "Designed for Life is based on the reconfiguration of services, which mean the setting up of new services to replace those that will be closed down. But when the NHS has this amount of debt, there is no money to set up new services until the old ones are closed down.
This is precisely the point I raised with the health minister in the Assembly before Christmas. It is possible to achieve long term savings within the NHS by reconfiguring services and treating people in a different way. However, that requires up-front investment. Without that investment then hospital, ward and bed closures are just cuts, which will cause more long term problems for patient care. We need to make sure that alternative provision is in place before closing down existing services.
