NHS Finance — 15 Nov 2005 at 19:19

I beg to move,

That this House supports the provision by the NHS of comprehensive, high quality health services, based on need and not ability to pay; notes that, despite unprecedented resources provided to the NHS, NHS trusts were over £600 million in deficit in 2004–05 and predicts deficits approaching £1 billion this year; believes that these deficits threaten the delivery of NHS services, through service cuts, freezing of staff vacancies and redundancies, bed closures and the closure of services in community hospitals; further believes that the uncertainty caused by proposed primary care trust restructuring should not be used to obscure responsibility for financial recovery and service continuity; wishes to see resources reach front-line healthcare providers; regrets the lack of savings in NHS overhead and administration costs; and calls on the Government to intervene to ensure that the long-term interests of patients are not damaged by short-term financial decisions.

I beg to move, To leave out from "House" to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:

"welcomes the Government's record levels of investment in the National Health Service, with expenditure set to rise to over £92 billion by 2007–08; notes that by this date £70 billion, more than ever before, will be going to the NHS front line; congratulates the Government on delivering investment and reform, leading to historic improvements to NHS services and capacity, reducing waiting times to their lowest in nearly a generation, from over two years to a maximum of six months, and to a maximum of 18 weeks by 2008, employing nearly a quarter of a million more NHS staff than in 1997, including 78,700 more nurses and 27,400 more doctors, and undertaking the largest hospital building programme in the history of the NHS, including investing £100 million in a community hospitals programme; further notes that the NHS has achieved overall financial balance in each of the past four years, and last year carried a deficit of around only 0.4 per cent. of total resources; compares this with the record of the previous Government which left the NHS with a £460 million deficit in 1996–97 which amounted to almost 1.5 per cent. of total resources; and agrees that, given the record increases in health funding available coupled with the strengthening of Primary Care Trust commissioning, all NHS organisations should be able to live within the resources available to them and to provide excellent services to their populations."

Question put, That the original words stand part of the Question:-

The House divided: Ayes 231, Noes 312.

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