MP calls for fairer health funding (From The Advertiser Series)
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MP calls for fairer health funding
4:20pm Tuesday 8th January 2013 in News By Janet Gleeson
THIRSK and Malton MP Anne McIntosh has called on Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter to carry out an urgent review of the funding formula which gives people across the county £200 less in health funding than most areas of Britain.
Health providers in North Yorkshire receive £1,410 for each resident a year, £200 less than the national average, despite it being England's largest county geographically and having a high proportion of elderly residents, who use more NHS services.
Miss McIntosh said: “I secured a further meeting with Dan Poulter on this issue of chronic underfunding for a rural sparsely populated area with a growing population of elderly people with specific health issues.
"The funding allocation figure shows that per head of population North Yorkshire receives substantially less than other urban parts of Yorkshire and less even than neighbouring counties like Cumbria.
"This shortfall hampers efficient use of community hospitals such as the Lambert, St Monica’s, Malton Hospital and the Friarage as well as the provision of health care through GPs and community nurses.”
Miss McIntosh is now taking the funding campaign to the chief executive of the new commissioning board, Sir David Nicholson, with the backing of fellow North Yorkshire MPs.
