NHS is back in black

The introduction of a more transparent and fair financial system has resulted in the NHS being in surplus and enjoying a robust fiscal strength, it has been claimed.

Noting that last year saw an overall deficit of 547 million in NHS accounts – Foundation Trusts excluded – the Department of Health has recorded a net surplus exceeding 500 million pounds for 2006-07.

Furthermore, the number of NHS bodies recording a deficit has fallen from a third last year to 22 per cent this financial year.

While accepting that “difficult decisions” have been made to cut costs in some areas, the department reports “very few” redundancies in clinical jobs, with the NHS employing an additional 3,267 doctors and 526 more full time permanent nurses over the last 12 months.

Patricia Hewitt, health secretary, said: “If we hadn’t taken decisive action to deal with the overspending, the NHS deficit would have doubled again this year.

“Instead, the NHS has a fairer and more transparent financial system than ever before.”

She added that the health service is now better placed to make use of an additional eight billion pounds of funding it is due to receive this year, which will be used to provide customised care to patients, while reducing waiting lists and paying for newer medication.

Following the publication of these figures, trade union Unison called on the government to use some of the money from the “underspend” in the last financial year to fund pay rises in full for healthcare workers, rather than carrying out existing plans to stage pay increases.