NHS Reorganisation

The Minister of State, the right hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Jane Kennedy) and I both come from the same neck of the woods and I have the greatest respect for her. I have heard her use an expression that is often used in Liverpool: ““God loves a trier.”” Well, the Minister really tried today to sell the merits of the reorganisation of PCTs, but I am afraid that she was not very persuasive to Opposition Members. Reorganisation of my local PCT, which is three years old and cowed by debt, would be disastrous. Next month, Bedfordshire Heartlands PCT will be £20 million in debt, and the only way left for it to recover that debt is to restrict emergency services, which is almost a contradiction in terms. When I spoke to the chair and chief executive of the organisation and asked how they intended to restrict emergency services, the answer was frightening. They want GPs to keep patients with them for longer before calling an ambulance to send them to hospital. I asked what would happen if I were a parent with a child with suspected viral meningitis. What should the GP do in such circumstances? The answer was that they would like the GP to make sure that the child really had the illness. Whereas previously, a GP would dial 999 and have the child sent straight to hospital, now the PCT wants the GP to hang on to the patient. The proposal caused concern in several areas, not least at Bedford hospital. On Saturday, a consultant from the hospital brought me an e-mail, which I shall happily hand to the Minister once I have removed the top. Bedford hospital is £12 million in debt and its recovery plan to achieve a reduction includes cutting 10 theatre sessions a week, closing two wards and the children’s physiotherapy unit, and restricting the use of agency nurses and doctors. The list goes on. The e-mail states that unfortunately, there will be a"““serious financial situation . . . where we will be requiring to make a further all-round cost improvement of 7.1 per cent.””" to achieve"““a further saving of £2.27 million””." The cuts to achieve that saving will be a further £530,000 from nursing, a further £375,000 from theatres, a further £1.02 million from medical pay, and a further £200,000 from critical care. Those are all front-line service cuts, in addition to the recovery plan. Only £100,000 of those cuts of £2.27 million will come from administration. The e-mail concludes with the words, ““An awesome challenge””. It is indeed. Members of my PCT do not want reorganisation. The PCT is only three years old and is staggering under its debts. As the Health Committee report noted, reorganisation will cause damage from which it will take 18 months to recover. The move is not advisable, and will do nothing to aid Bedford PCT or Bedford hospital. We want to get rid of SHAs, but the Minister asks who would oversee PCTs. May I suggest that she or the Department could do so? SHAs are accountable to nobody and have allowed PCTs to go into debt—by £20 million, in the case of my local PCT. The SHA has no purpose whatever in Bedfordshire. Perhaps if the Minister oversaw PCTs we might have a more efficient service.