Editor—News that pressing financial problems have caused NHS trusts in Suffolk to set new “thresholds” to treatments such as joint replacements reinforces concerns raised by a recent BMA survey of medical directors of trusts in which over a third of respondents anticipated reductions of key services in response to funding shortfalls.1,2 What has hitherto escaped comment is how cuts in services are far more likely to be felt in some parts of the country than others.
Deficits in the NHS are invariably presented as a problem of financial mismanagement, but the pattern of deficits shows that the current resource allocation model discriminates against particular communities. According to the recently published accounts for 2004-5,3 89 out of 303 (30%) English primary care trusts ended the year in deficit. The table shows how 301 of these trusts are distributed accorded to fifths of deprivation and rurality.
Table 1.
Distribution of primary care trusts in deficit, 2004-5. Values are proportions (percentages) unless stated otherwise
|
Rurality
|
|||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deprivation | Most urban fifth | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Least urban fifth | Total | Average primary care trust per head turnover, 2004-5 (£) | ||||||
| Most deprived fifth
|
1/34
|
(3)
|
3/19
|
(19)
|
0/7
|
(0)
|
N/a
|
N/a
|
4/60
|
(7)
|
1359
|
||
| 2nd | 2/15 | (13) | 2/22 | (9) | 0/10 | (0) | 1/8 | (12.5) | 1/5 | (20) | 6/60 | (10) | 1209 |
| 3rd | 2/8 | (25) | 1/6 | (17) | 5/16 | (31) | 6/19 | (32) | 7/11 | (64) | 21/60 | (35) | 1133 |
| 4th | 2/3 | (67) | 2/9 | (22) | 7/13 | (53) | 7/16 | (44) | 3/19 | (16) | 21/60 | (35) | 1093 |
| Least deprived fifth | 0/1 | (0) | 3/4 | (75) | 8/14 | (57) | 9/17 | (53) | 17/25 | (68) | 37/61 | (61) | 1013 |
| Total | 7/61 | (11.5) | 11/60 | (18) | 20/60 | (33) | 23/60 | (38) | 28/60 | (47) | 89/301 | (30) | |
| Average primary care trust per head turnover, 2004-5 (£) | 1321 | 1218 | 1110 | 1081 | 1072 | ||||||||
N/a=not applicable.
Primary care trusts serving populations that are in both the most rural and the least deprived fifth were most likely to be in financial difficulties. Seventeen of the 25 (68%) in this category were in deficit. These trusts received the lowest funding allocation per head (£995). By contrast, only 3% (one of 34) of the primary care trusts serving populations that are in both the most urban and the most deprived fifths failed to break even in 2004-5. These trusts received the highest funding allocations per head (£1405).
This shows that poor financial management can at best only partly explain why some trusts are in deficit. The pattern of deficits implies that NHS funding provides insufficient resources for rural areas, for comparatively affluent areas, and, most particularly, for areas that are both rural and affluent. The risk is that such measures will result in NHS services being subject to a new postcode lottery, in which rural residents are more likely to lose out.
See News, p 1426
Competing interests: None declared.
References
- 1.Coombes R. Rationing of joint replacements raises fears of further cuts, BMJ 2005;331: 1290. (3 December.) [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.British Medical Association. Funding difficulties in the NHS. A survey of medical directors of trusts in England. London: BMA, 2005. www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/content/nhsfundingdifficulty?OpenDocument&Highlight=2,NHS,trust,shortfall (accessed 7 Dec 2005).
- 3.Department of Health. NHS organisations annual accounts surplus and deficits 2004-05. London: DoH, 2005. www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidanceArticle/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4119175&chk=JuzTDZ (accessed 7 Dec 2005).