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PMQs

22 March 2006

Tony Baldry (Banbury):
What possible justification can there be for making nurses and other medical staff redundant at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford and the Horton hospital in Banbury?

The Prime Minister:
It is important, surely, to put that into the context of the overall numbers of nurses in the Thames Valley strategic health authority. There have been almost 3,000 more nurses and almost 400 more consultants. Now it is correct that the John Radcliffe hospital has severe financial difficulties. That is why we are looking, with the hospital, at how it can get over them—but let the hon. Gentleman be in no doubt at all that in real terms the increase in the funding is almost 7 per cent., and there has to be a finite amount of money available. What is happening with the new financial system in the national health service is that for the first time, a proper account is being kept and hospitals have to live within their means—and it is important that they do so. In some cases that will mean hard decisions, but as one of the chief executives of one of the trusts was explaining the other day, those are necessary for the long-term health of the national health service.