Conservatives: Lansley response to Reed letter |

Tuesday 31st July 2012 | 17:48

Conservatives: Lansley response to Reed letter

Conservative press release

Andrew Lansley has responded to Labour MP Jamie Reed's letter asking him to investigate reports of nurses being forced to clean wards.

Mr Lansley wrote:

Thank your for your letter.

There is no need to investigate the Government’s ‘lost grip’ on NHS finances because no grip has been lost. The NHS delivered a system-wide surplus in 2011-12 of £1.6 billion – which the NHS now has available to invest for services for patients in the future.

I have, nonetheless, always been clear that there are some hospitals in the NHS which are facing significant challenges – challenges either swept under the carpet or exacerbated by the previous Labour Government. Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is one of these organisations.

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is itself taking action to become a clinically and financially sustainable organisation. The actions it is taking are set out clearly in its Tripartite Formal Agreement (TFA) published on its website – a document which also sets out clearly the challenges the Trust is having to overcome. These include:“The Trust’s first full year of payment for the two PFI funded hospitals will amount to £38.8m – 9.1% of the Trust’s 2010/11 income. Increases fixed in the contract at RPI increase CIP [cost improvement plan] requirements disproportionately.”

I do hope you recognise the dismal legacy of PFI debt left to the NHS by the Labour Government, which NHS hospitals are having to deal with. Notwithstanding the challenges facing some parts of the NHS, I do assure you that the situation would be far worse in Wales, where the Labour Party is cutting the NHS by 10%.

Thank you, again, for writing