Sunday 15th July 2012 | 00:05

Andy Burnham: Government loses grip on NHS finances

Labour Party press release

- 6 in 10 hospital trusts miss savings target as David Cameron cuts NHS budget for second year running

- 'Bed-blocking' up as council cash crisis hits NHS efficiency drive

- 19 NHS trusts in South West launch bid to break away from national pay

- Labour calls Commons vote to enforce Coalition Agreement on health spending

Labour will tomorrow (Monday July 16) force a vote in the House of Commons calling on David Cameron to honour his central pledge at the 2010 General Election not to cut the NHS.

The move comes as new research shows the NHS being engulfed by a growing financial crisis and signs of financial distress across the system.

The Health Service Journal shows more than half of hospital trusts in England - 6 in 10 across both the acute and Foundation Trust sector - have missed efficiency targets and are off track on savings plans.

Labour will tomorrow argue that the financial crisis has been intensified by a £3 billion re-organisation that has distracted and destabilised the NHS at a crucial moment.

In addition, official Government figures show that David Cameron has now inflicted two successive budget cuts on the NHS - in breach of the Coalition Agreement. This has wiped £800 million from the NHS budget.

As the NHS struggles to cope, there are increasing signs of financial distress across the system, random rationing and divergence from national policy:

A leaked document from the Chief Executives of 19 hospital trusts in the South West details plans to reduce staff pay in a break away from the national agreement - defying claims by the Deputy Prime Minister

New figures show delayed hospitals discharges have increased by 29% since August 2010 and now cost the NHS £600,000 per day - a direct consequence of the funding crisis facing council care budgets

125 different treatments being restricted or dropped since the Election – including on the basis of cost in defiance of NICE

Monday's vote will call on the Government to return £700m to the Department of Health budget, half of the Treasury claw-back. Labour believes the Government should act to ease the crisis of social care funding facing Councils to ease the pressure on hospitals. Council care budgets have been cut by £1.3bn under this Government, resulting in longer stays in hospital by older people due to difficulties with discharge arrangements.

Andy Burnham MP, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, said:

"Barely a street in Britain could escape David Cameron's air-brushed face at the last Election and his promise not to cut the NHS. The reality is he has now cut the NHS budget for two years running and threw it off course with a distracting £3 billion re-organisation.

"We are now seeing the direct result of Cameron's broken NHS promises with over half of hospitals in England missing savings targets.

"Ministers have lost control of NHS finances and what we are seeing is an increasingly crude and random approach to reducing costs. 125 treatments have been restricted or stopped - leaving some patients with the agonising choice of paying to go private or going without. But Ministers repeatedly claimed that there is no rationing by cost in the NHS.

"A clear sign of the chaos engulfing the NHS is the move by a break-away group to cut pay and break national pay arrangements - in open defiance of a promise by the Deputy Prime Minister to prevent regional pay.

"Labour will force a Commons vote on the Government's NHS betrayal and call on the Treasury to return £700m to the Department of Health to fulfil its election promises.

"On Cameron's watch, we are seeing budget cuts, job losses and a postcode lottery running riot. They inherited a successful NHS and in just two years have reduced it to a demoralised and destabilised service that is fearful of the future."