The Department of Health has been working jointly with NHS London, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games—LOCOG, as I understand it is known—and the Government Olympic Executive to ensure that the NHS will be fully prepared for the 2012 games.
How does the Minister reconcile those comments with those of Azara Mukhtar, the deputy director of NHS London, who said at a recent meeting that
“additional funding was not going to be forthcoming to support the commitment to offer free healthcare for those participating in the 2012 Olympics,”
and that there were therefore serious
“concerns about how to resolve the cost and resource implications without diverting funding from services for Londoners”?
Fairly easily. The Department of Health has provided NHS London with an extra £1.5 million for this financial year, which it has confirmed meets its current requirements. The Department is also in discussions with NHS London authorities on the provision of further funding, and we are going through some figures that they have provided us with. At the moment they look to be figures for a worst-case scenario, but we want to go through the detail and examine what is needed. However, we are certainly clear that the health needs of Londoners will not be compromised and that the health needs of visitors will be met.
But the figure of £1.5 million that the Minister just cited is well short of the £30 million that is the estimated cost to London of putting on the games. Will the Minister publish the information that NHS London has given him, as well as the understanding reached when the games were bid for, about how much they would cost Londoners through the NHS?
First, the figure that the hon. Gentleman gave is contrary to some of the figures that have been circulated recently, which have actually been larger. NHS London has put forward a figure of £41 million, as a cost spread over four years. That is based on planning assumptions that appear to be based on a worst-case scenario, and were made last summer. We know that there is a good deal more planning work to do, to ensure that we estimate the cost much more carefully and get the figures right, and that we must work with NHS London so that our health care needs are delivered.