DH - NHS in good financial health - 6 Jun '08

• Extract from : http://tinyurl.com/5zbxx2

The NHS continues to be in good financial health with a £1.658 billion surplus for this financial year, the Department of Health announced today.

The new figures have been published in the 'Quarter 4' report which looks at the NHS financial performance in January-March of this year, and looks back over the year as a whole. The NHS will end the year with an overall surplus of £1.658bn, that will stay within the NHS to improve patient care. This compares to a £515m surplus in 2006/07, and a £547m deficit in 2005/06.

There has also been improvement on reducing the gross deficit, which is now £122 million, down from £917m gross deficit in 2006/07; and £1,312m in 2005/06.

Commenting on the report David Flory, Department of Health's Director General of NHS Finance, Performance and Operations said;

• "We can look back on 2007/08 with pride. The NHS was set up to meet the health needs of the population. Our performance in 2007/08 has shown that sixty years on, the NHS is still delivering on its commitment to provide the best quality care for all.
• "This healthy surplus is a further indication that the NHS is now on a stable financial footing. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of those in the NHS, organisations now have the headroom and confidence to invest in transforming patient services, whilst having the flexibility to respond to fluctuations in demand. This will be important for taking forward the Next Stage Review and implementing the 'visions' that clinicians have developed in Strategic Health Authority regions."

'Quarter 4' reports that as well as strengthening its financial position in 2007/08 the NHS has also met some challenging targets over the past year. For example;

• We have made significant progress towards meeting our target of treating patients no longer than 18 weeks after their referral by a GP. We have met the milestone targets for March 2008 of 85% of admitted patients and 90% of non-admitted patients starting their treatment within 18 weeks of referral. The NHS is confident of meeting the final December target.
• The NHS has made great strides in reducing waits for diagnostic tests. Key diagnostic waiting times have fallen by 97% in 2 years. Patients can now expect to wait an average of just 2.1 weeks compared with 6.1 weeks in April 2006 and 97% of patients now wait less than 6 weeks.
• MRSA infections are down 30% on the same quarter in the previous year. This indicates that the MRSA target is firmly within reach. In addition, C. difficile infections in the 65s and over are down 23% on the same quarter in the previous year.

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