A Bleak Outlook for Patients

9.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 3rd Oct 2005

After endless reorganisations our local NHS services are now provided by 3 different "Trusts". All of them have given notice that they are running in the red - to the tune of some £11 million in all. That means that patients face longer waits for diagnosis and treatment in the next 12 months as the necessary cutbacks begin to bite.

When I met the Chief Executive of the Pennine Trust, which provides all our mental health care locally, he told me that a £1 million black hole would lead to a halt in nurse and consultant recruitment. Already extended delays of up to 14 months face some Stockport residents who need treatment. For a long time mental health has been a cinderella service, even though one third of all patients need access to it.

Meanwhile the Foundation Trust that runs Stepping Hill Hospital is to cut 80 posts to fill a £5 million shortfall, and when I spoke to the Primary Care Trust, responsible for running clinics and community health services, their Chief Executive said they were facing a gap of £5 million as well.

When you add all that together it means that between them our NHS Trusts are £11 million adrift, and it will be patients who lose out, with longer waits, and higher risks. Regular readers won't be surprised to hear that more than half of that deficit is due to the miserly funding formula the Government uses when allocating money to the NHS in Stockport. Unfortunately it is exactly the same problem that faces our Police service, and our schools - no-on in Whitehall seems to have grasped the fact that it costs as much to provide care for patients in Hazel Grove and Bramhall as it does in the rest of the country.

Perhaps the most worrying point was that each NHS Trust plans to get back some of their missing money by charging one of the other ones - simply passing the problem round between them! How much time, effort and money does that take? Government talk of 'patient choice' and 'creating a market' threatens to bring mayhem.

As one of Stockport's Liberal Democrat MPs I am taking the problem up in Westminster. Clearly the Government needs to look at their figures again. It is part of a bigger problem, with the Stockport NHS deficit only a small slice of the national picture, with other Trusts around the country announcing that they are running well over £130 million into the red. That means hardship and anxiety for thousands of patients and families.

Doctors and staff do an amazing job for patients who need their care. But I fear that waiting lists and complaints are set to grow as overwork and staff vacancies take their toll. It is a bleak outlook for patients.

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