Health Services (Gloucestershire)

There are all sorts of reasons why some organisations have got into financial problems, as the hon. Gentleman will be aware. The traditional approach to this issue—which has been taken by this Government and previous Governments—was to shift resources around the health economy to bolster different organisations and help them out. My first meeting with the then Doncaster health authority involved discussions on that very issue. We talked about helping out other parts of South Yorkshire using the balances and surpluses in Doncaster. This has become an issue because of the reforms that the Government have set in place to improve the national health service. Also, with the introduction of payment by results, and of GP-based practice commissioning, it is important that the NHS should be in good financial order.