A LABOUR Councillor has this week claimed that hospital services in Goole will be put at risk by the cost of reorganisation made necessary by the government’s health reform bill.
But the town’s Conservative MP, Andrew Percy says Coun Keith Moore has got it wrong and is misleading the public.
Coun Moore says that figures the Labour Party has seen show that Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts have been told to hold back two per cent of their budgets in the next two years to pay for re-organisation costs.
The result, he said, would mean that nearly £30m would be held back by N Lincs and East Riding Primary Care Trusts.
With up to 90 per cent of hospital income being sourced from Primary Care Trusts, hospitals are likely to face severe cuts in finance, he said.
“This news puts paid to the theory that financial challenges facing the NHS are a consequence of the Nicholson Reforms which Labour commissioned,” said Coun Moore.
“While Nicholson requires savings to be made, which are re-invested back into the NHS, the Tories are engaged in an additional re-organisation which will cost the NHS £3billion.”
He went on: ”Since May 2010 there has been a 152 per cent increase in the number of patients who waited longer than 18 weeks for treatment.
“I have deep concerns that services and beds in Goole and our other hospitals will now be cut.”
Responding to Coun Moore’s claims, however, Mr Percy said “I am disgusted that Coun Moore is misleading people with dodgy figures and incorrect information.
“Under Labour, Goole lost countless beds including the Bartholomew House unit, the Rivers Ward and more hospital beds in 2008.
“The pressures faced by the Hospital Trust arise because of the Nicholson Challenge. This was set by Labour before they left power and requires the NHS to make savings of £20 billion in the next few years.
“Secondly, the Hospital Trust has not been told to hold back any money to pay for the NHS reforms, which actually save billions of pounds that are being re-invested back into the NHS.
“There are 15,000 less NHS managers since we came to power but 5000 more doctors, midwives and health visitors.
“In addition, the most recent figures up to March 2012 show that our hospital trust started treating 19 out of 20 patients within 16 weeks and half of local patients start their treatment within four weeks. Our Trust does better than the national standard.”
