Oral Answers to Questions

Anna Turley Excerpts

Tuesday 5th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

First, may I ask the right hon. Lady to congratulate, on my behalf, GPs in Slough, who have benefited from the Prime Minister’s challenge fund? Alongside a number of other schemes, it has had a significant impact on reducing emergency admissions in her area. The answer to the point she makes is that we are investing an extra £8 billion in the NHS over the course of this Parliament—it is £10 billion when we include the money going in this year. We have said that we want more of that money to go into general practice, to reverse the historical underfunding of general practice, which I completely agree needs to be reversed.

[Anna Turley (Redcar) (Lab/Co-op)]

3. What proportion of hospital trusts are in deficit.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Ben Gummer)]

Three-quarters of trusts are reporting a deficit for the conclusion of the first half of this financial year.

[Anna Turley]

John Appleby, the chief economist at the independent think tank the King’s Fund, said recently that although the Government claim they will get an increase in funding in the NHS, they have

“in effect, already spent the money”

because of the scale of the hospital deficits. In my South Tees area, the deficit for 2014-15 is nearly £17 million. Will the Minister accept that the Government have totally lost control of NHS finances?

[Ben Gummer]

The first point to make is that this Government have provided the money for the NHS that it has asked for—this is money the Opposition refused to say they would pledge at the last election. The second point to make is that Jim Mackey, the new chief executive of NHS Improvement and one of the best chief executives in the NHS, has said that he will help to get hospital trusts in control next year, and that, with the transformation fund announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, we are confident we will be able to get hospital trusts into balance next year.