NHS Reorganisation

I am glad to hear that the hon. Gentleman has come to our view. He is correct that SHAs have lost all their purpose and are therefore no longer a worthwhile or value-for-money option for the taxpayer. Indeed, SHAs have come under attack from Government Back Benchers. During Health questions last week, the hon. Member for Warrington, North (Helen Jones), who is not in her place, said about the Cheshire and Merseyside SHA,"““I, my constituents and many Labour Members have no confidence any more in what is an increasingly Stalinist and out of touch health authority””," to which the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody)—who, I am glad to see, is in her place—added,"““It is not nearly that competent.””—[Official Report, 31 January 2006; Vol. 442, c. 159–60.]" The way in which SHAs have undertaken their responsibility for performance management is a disaster. The Secretary of State has sent in turnaround teams to PCTs—proof, if ever there was, of the failure of SHAs to oversee those trusts, and an immense additional and avoidable burden on the taxpayer. I would not mind the Government paying McKinsey were there no Merseyside and Cheshire SHA, but the imposition of KPMG on 18 trusts up and down the country at vast expense shows that the SHAs have not been doing their job. The taxpayer is paying twice over, and over the odds the second time: once for the SHA employees who are supposed to keep trust finances in order and once for the consultant to sort it all out. Surely the Department should ensure that it employs people who can do the job and sacks those who cannot. The turnaround programme is proof that SHAs are not up to it, that this three-year-old Government design has failed and that SHAs should therefore be scrapped. In any other walk of life, and under any other Government, it would be plain that SHAs have failed, and that some, such as Surrey and Sussex, have presided over an almost complete collapse in their health economy. We can, and should, dispense with SHAs. We just wonder whether the Government have the courage to take that obvious step. We now come to the ambulance trusts. In June 2005, the Government’s review of ambulance services, ““Taking Healthcare to the Patient””, was published. It recommended a reduction in the number of NHS ambulance trusts from 31 to 28. However, on 14 December 2005, the Department of Health began consultation to reduce the number of NHS ambulance trusts to 11, aligned with Government office for the region boundaries. That consultation will close on 22 March. The Health Service Journal reported on 22 September 2005 that the Department of Health expects the changes to be in place by July—a bit swift for a genuine consultation. No one in the ambulance service called for this change.