Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Local MPs Despair At Latest Hospital Crisis

Crispin Blunt and Peter Ainsworth condemn discrimination against the South East and call for the end of the government's monopoly in healthcare provision

Since the establishment of the Surrey and Sussex NHS Healthcare Trust in 1998 Crispin Blunt MP (Reigate) and Peter Ainsworth MP (East Surrey) have long made clear the scale of the problems besetting the provision of local healthcare. They have both consistently challenged the Trust to meet the needs of their constituents, as attested by their press releases and websites. The Trust has been dogged by disgraceful political interference; successive chief executives and boards have not been able to meet government targets for treatment and performance; the allocation of funds has been inadequate. Mr Blunt and Mr Ainsworth issued the following joint statement in response to the Trust’s most recent crisis plan:

“The latest plan, published by Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust, will affect thousands of our constituents. The measures are a short-term reaction to yet another funding crisis. Nothing in the new plan begins to tackle the fundamental failings of healthcare provision in south east England.

“Four times the Trust has been granted a financial rescue packages, taking funds from elsewhere in the NHS. Each package has carried with it an obligation to place the Trust on a more stable financial footing. The difference this time is that the £17 million support offered demands stringent cuts. No pretence has been made of rectifying the underlying £30 million of debt or the structural deficit which currently amounts to £30 million every year.

“The response to each new crisis has been the same. The Trust sacks managers and executives then offers the new management more money. As the cycle inevitably repeats itself more managers are sacked and more money offered. It is clear that the system not the management is to blame.

“The executives of the Strategic Health Authority, and their predecessors on the Regional Health Authority, have failed in their duty to protect the interests of patients. The south east is one of the most expensive parts of the country in which people live and work. Despite this, since 1997, central government has discriminated against the south east in its allocation of resources for healthcare. It is little wonder that it has proved so difficult for local hospitals to recruit and retain permanent staff when NHS employees, on national pay rates, can enjoy a greater quality of life elsewhere. As a direct result, the cost of contract and temporary staff has risen to some £19 million a year.

“The new management now plans to cut services and dismiss staff. However, our constituents still need healthcare and treatment from somewhere. They are suffering under a system which is fixed against them. We are now calling on the Strategic Health Authority to stand up for local people rather than act as a shield for ministers in Whitehall. They should stop simply sacking staff for failing to achieve the impossible.

“Over the last eight and twelve years respectively, we have watched at close hand the delivery of healthcare for our constituents. We can only draw the conclusion that a National Health Service designed in 1948 is no longer fit to deliver healthcare for a prosperous nation in the 21st century. It should not come as a surprise that a state-run service, which employs over a million people, is unresponsive and inflexible. It is also capricious, as thousands of our constituents will soon discover.

“The time has come for an end to a government-run National Health Service. While we believe that it is the proper function of Government to ensure access to healthcare for all, regardless of ability to pay, it should be for others to provide and manage that healthcare. The wretched consequences of a overly-bureaucratic and monolithic health service, which is being felt by our constituents with increasing force lead us to the conclusion that real improvement will come when the Government ceases to be the principal provider of the services itself.”