According to the East of England Strategic Health Authority, no NHS hospital trusts in the region are currently forecasting a year-end deficit for 2009-10. The overall forecast surplus for the East of England SHA remains at £167 million, but one primary care trust—the Peterborough PCT—is forecasting a year-end deficit.
It is about this time of year in previous years that PCTs in financial difficulties have tended to go to their local hospitals to say that they have been overpaid or that there has been over-performance; they demand money back, thus precipitating a sudden unexpected deficit or financial crisis. Can the Minister assure me that no PCT or hospital trust in the east of England is involved in that sort of negotiation and that by the end of the year there will be no such sudden unexpected financial problems?
I understand that East of England SHA supports Bedford Hospital NHS Trust and Bedfordshire PCT by providing mediation on a number of issues affecting the contract between the two parties. The most significant mediation in respect of payment for out-patient services concerned a payment of £2.5 million to the trust. Such issues do arise, but they are usually resolved by mediation.
That is a great improvement. When the Health Committee produced a report on NHS deficits in 2006, the east of England was one of the four areas in the greatest difficulty, but the money that the Government have put into the national health service has made it possible to smooth out the problems in the area.
As Chairman of the Select Committee on Health, my right hon. Friend knows a great deal about this subject. There has indeed been an impressive turnaround in financial performance in recent years, culminating in the achievement of a £40 million total surplus by acute NHS trusts in the east of England in 2008-09. The fact that the present Government have invested extra money, rather than cutting money like the last Conservative Government, shows that we are delivering where they failed to deliver.
Given increasing concern about the potential for deficits in hospital trusts and PCTs in the east of England and elsewhere, what reassurance can the Minister give about the Government’s commitment to implementation of the national programme of screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms, which have killed 30,000 men since 2002? I have been told by a vascular surgeon that the financial situation in Norfolk has effectively blocked the introduction of a screening programme there, and that similar circumstances exist elsewhere. Delay will kill more men. What commitment will the Government give to ensuring that screening takes place for men over the age of 65?
That is a good question. We want to ensure that we deal with screening issues as effectively as possible. The chief medical officer has been considering some of the issues, and I shall have a word with him and report to the hon. Gentleman on his conclusions.