LOCAL MP Jeremy Hunt took the fight to save local hospital beds to the top when he took part in a government debate about the future of community hospitals. Mr Hunt, MP for South West Surrey, spoke last week at Westminster Hall in a debate on health funding inequalities. His involvement follows last week's disturbing news that the budget of the Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust (PCT), responsible for a total of 51 community care bed closures across the Waverley borough, is below the national average for PCT's throughout the country. Last year, the Guildford and Waverley PCT had a budget of £215,301 which equates to £910 per patient. Yet, the average across England is £1,003 per patient and according to the Department of Health, the Guildford and Waverley PCT should have received even less, just £833 per patient. Mr Hunt spoke specifically about the financial crisis that the Guildford and Waverley PCT currently faces that is directly attributable to their decision to temporarily close beds at hospitals in Farnham, Haslemere, Cranleigh and Milford. "The Guildford and Waverley PCT has received generous increases in spending," he said. "The spending for our area increased by nine per cent last year and is due to increase by eight per cent this year, increases of £18 million and £19 million respectively. Despite that, it is in crisis. "Cranleigh Hospital faces closure, the number of beds are also being cut back in Haslemere and Farnham community hospitals. A specialist rehabilitation centre, Milford, that has an enormously long track record of helping elderly people from the area make a complete recovery after strokes, also faces closure. "The PCT is currently closing one-third of the community beds as an emergency measure, despite the fact that it flies in the face of local NHS strategy. What is going wrong? The PCT has apparently been overspending and it is being asked to reign in that spending. "However, considering the funding allocations, it is spending nine per cent less than the national average, despite the higher cost of delivering health care in the area, but the funding formula after the weighting states that it is spending too much. "This year it is spending £16.3 million more that it should be, but the weighting formula states that it should be spending 17 per cent less than the national average. "Let us be clear, according to the formula, the Department of Health expects one of the most expensive areas of the country for delivering health care, with a much higher proportion of elderly people than average, to deliver that health care spending about a fifth less money than the national average per head. "Why is that? Is it simply because the weighting formula states that people in the Guildford and Waverley PCT area are healthier than those in other parts of the country and therefore it needs less money. "I say to the Minister that it is very easy to look at areas such as Surrey and paint them in one's mind as a uniformly prosperous place, but nothing could be further from the truth. "When waiting times are increasing and access to community beds is decreased, wherever it is, the people who suffer the most are those who have the least, and they are the ones who will suffer if the funding formula is not changed," he added.
