16/11/00 "Minister short changes Kingston's NHS again!" - Davey Problems with local NHS mount as Health Authority receives disappointing spending increase Following the recent announcement of next year’s budget for Kingston and Richmond Health Authority, Kingston & Surbiton's MP has uncovered that this is one of the lowest allocation rises in the country. The final national rankings, put Kingston 75th out of a total of 99 local health authorities in England. The figure for Kingston & Richmond amounts to just 0.69% of the additional money on offer and is the 4th lowest percentage increase in London. Commenting on the allocation figures, Edward Davey said; " Unfortunately, this is history repeating itself. These figures show we have come a poor 75th out of 99 Health Authorities in England." "Ministers and Whitehall repeatedly fail to recognise we have our own real problems here in Kingston. Once again, when it comes to funding to put these right we have come bottom of the pile." "According to ministers’ own figures, 1.31% of all operations in Kingston were cancelled on the appointed day or after admission, in 1999/2000, compared to a national average of 1.13%. Kingston Hospital’s in-patient list only fell by 2% this year while outpatient waiting lists in the area are on the increase." "Yet the Government only gave us one extra bed and two nurses to tackle these problems this winter. "My only hope is that once inflation rises and the costs of implementing the new NHS plan and the National Service Frameworks are taken out of this figure, there is something left over to tackle these long standing problems." Notes Read the NHS Performance Indicators for Kingston. There are 782 people on out-patient waiting lists locally, compared with 563 people in March 1998 (the first year the figures were collected). See the Government's Annual Report. For Kingston Hospital Ordinary &
Day Case Admissions the percentage change from 30 Sept
1999 (7,253) to 30 Sept 2000 (7,132) equals -2%. Check
the Government data on
waiting times. KINGSTON NHS CHALLENGE Edward Davey MP will be presenting the Minister of Health with a compilation of constituents’ problems in December to highlight the need for resources in Kingston as part of his Kingston NHS challenge campaign. If any residents have examples of local problems they can send them to his constituency office at Liberal Democrats 23A Victoria Road, Surbiton, KT6 4JZ or use the contact form on this site. |
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