Free healthcare may need a rethink, says NHS boss

SENIOR health chiefs have questioned the viability of free universal healthcare as NHS providers revealed they overspent by a record £2.45 billion in 2015-16.

Experts warned that Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, may be forced to ask the Chancellor for emergency funding within weeks, raising the prospect of Treasury officials taking direct control of individual hospital trusts.

The figures, announced yesterday, show that the deficit among NHS pro- viders tripled last year over the previous year, although the Nuffield Trust accused the Government of complex accounting practices that “flattered” the figures.

The think tank said the true deficit was likely to be more than £3.2 billion.

Separately it emerged that up to 50 hospitals face losing A& E or specialist units after running up record deficits.

Emergency departments near other units offering similar services may have to close because it is no longer safe to keep them open without enough staff to cope with the rising number of pa- tients, hospital bosses warned. Last year was the busiest on record for casualty departments, with 23 million attendees.

A shortage of senior doctors and rising number of patients mean an estimated 30 to 50 hospitals face decisions on merging services.

NHS Improvement, the body that oversees trusts and foundation trusts, said providers spent £3.64 billion on agency and contract staff in 2015-16, £1.4 billion more than planned.

But health experts warned that the unprecedented deficit was down to demand for services increasing faster than funding.

Richard Murray, of the King’s Fund, said: “Overspending on this scale is not down to mismanagement or inefficiency in individual trusts. It shows a health system buckling under huge financial and operational pressures.

“At the same time, performance against key targets is deteriorating, and concerns about quality of care are increasingly widespread.”

NHS Improvement said that between January and March this year providers as a whole missed the Accident and Emergency waiting target of seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours.

Meanwhile, the waiting list for routine operations reached 3.34 million during the same period.

Susan Acott, chief executive of Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, said that in the light of the deficit, Britain should be prepared to question the principle of universal healthcare free at the point of demand.

She described the financial situation faced by her own trust as “bleak” and “incredibly pressurised”.

Stephen Dalton, head of the NHS Federation, which represents most providers, said the health service could “easily reach crisis point… unless national support and local planning come together exceptionally well”.

To bring operating costs back into balance, hospitals and other providers will have to cut costs by 4 per cent this financial year and next, according to Sally Gainsbury, of the Nuffield Trust.

GP leaders have decided to canvass the profession on industrial action after rejecting the Government’s longterm plan for general practice as “inadequate”.