Matthew Taylor

Liberal Democrats | Truro and St Austell

CORNISH MPS TACKLE HEALTH MINISTER

A delegation of Cornish MPs are meeting with Health Minister Lord Warner tonight to discuss Cornwall’s NHS crisis.

The MPs will tackle the minister over Government plans to postpone a decision on changes to the hospital funding rules that have thrown the Royal Cornwall Hospital into crisis by at least a year.

The delegation, led by Truro & St. Austell MP, Matthew Taylor, will urge Lord Warner to bring forward the review of the funding formula, which ties hospital funding to local wages.

Mr Taylor spoke out after the Health Commission recently published findings which gave the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust a "weak" rating for patient services and use of resources. He said it was clear that the Government's decision to link local hospital funding to Cornwall's very low local wages was directly putting patients at risk.

“The link to wages has cost the Royal Cornwall Hospital trust millions in government funds, since Cornish wages are the lowest in the country yet most hospital staff are on national pay scales.

“At my request, the government has commissioned academic research into this funding formula. I understand that study, already on Ministers’ desks, shows that the funding tie to low local wages is unfair, yet they aren’t prepared to agree any funding changes for at least another year.”

Commenting on the Government's announcement of a new "efficiency league table" with sixteen "performance indicators", Falmouth & Camborne MP Julia Goldsworthy said:

"The Government is right when it says money is being wasted in the NHS, but the biggest cause of waste is constant Government interference and target setting.

"Front line staff are already working at full stretch to meet the hundreds of targets set in London during the last nine years. If the Government wants a more efficient NHS, it should be reducing the amount of bureaucracy, not increasing it!"