Labour MPs welcome NHS grant

 The North West London Hospitals NHS Trust got a nice surprise recently with the announcement of a £24 million grant from the government. The allocation of this money stems from the decision to remove the Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) regime. The RAB was introduced in 2000 to penalise health trusts with deficits. The money from the government will reduce the deficit for the current year of the NWLH NHS to £1,555,000.

Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, and Dawn Butler, Labour MP for Brent South welcomed the news, as each have campaigned extensively to save the borough’s health services. Said Mr Gardiner: “I am delighted that Patricia Hewitt has allocated this enormous sum from government reserves to enable the trust to balance its books. I have long argued that the accounting rules that asked the trust to generate a surplus on an already reduced budget should no longer apply. The secretary of state has now accepted this.” Ms Butler was similarly pleased and said: “This is great news for everybody in Brent to know that this change in the finance regime means that we are getting our deficit slashed to more a manageable amount. Through working hard with my constituents, we have made sure that Brent is one of the gaining trusts.”

The hospital trust, which runs Central Middlesex Hospital and Northwick Park Hospital, has total debt of £17.3 million which includes the new sum of £1,555,000 and the debts carried over from the 2003/04 and 2004/05 years.