No bailouts! NHS overspenders face shutdown

HOSPITAL units face closure in areas which have overspent their budgets.

NHS chiefs are drawing up lists of centres that will have to make ‘difficult choices’. A report published by NHS England warns that some districts and services are effectively relying on ‘bailouts’ from other parts of the country.

It said: ‘Some organisations and geographies have historically been substantially overspending their fair shares of NHS funding and their control totals.

‘In effect they have been living off bailouts arbitrarily taken from other parts of the country or from services such as mental health. This is no longer affordable or desirable.’

The authors warned that action would be taken in the next 12 months to cut back services that are overspending.

‘Going into 2017/18 it is critical that those geographies that are significantly out of balance now confront the difficult choices they have to take,’ they said.

‘Where necessary this may mean explicitly scaling back spending on locally unaffordable services.’

Any cutbacks or closures are expected to be made as part of a ‘sustainability and transformation plan’.

The Health Service Journal, which revealed the cutbacks proposal, calculated that Staffordshire was the most likely to face cuts, having breached its control total by £68million last year.

The Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire area overspent by £45million, 3 per cent of its income.

An NHS England spokesman said: ‘It is grossly unfair if one part of the country continually overspends at the expense of other areas.’