Labour Should Be Ashamed Of Health Service Ruin - Teather

10.42.10am GMT Tue 18th Mar 2008

MP Sarah Teather and local health campaigner James Allie are opposing Labour's health cuts

Brent's Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather has called on the Government to properly support local health services in Brent after an independent review revealed a culture of incompetence in the borough's health trust led to a £24million financial deficit.

The Taylor Review branded the financial management of Brent tPCT "slipshod", describing an attitude of "resistance and apathy" towards those who tried to warn of the true scale of the unfolding financial disaster. Taylor also concludes that managers tried to massage the figures, holding back invoices in a "deliberate ploy undertaken at the end of successive financial years … to assist the construction of a favourable end-of-year financial position."

The review goes on to describe how the tPCT board ignored the "cumulative negative effects" of their belated attempts to balance the books, with severe consequences for patient services in the borough. The crippling cuts have included GPs surgeries in some of the poorest areas in Brent, school nurses, help for people to quit smoking, sex and alcohol advisory services and physiotherapy services for children with special needs.

Local Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East Sarah Teather said:

"Labour's health bosses should be ashamed of themselves. The appalling financial mismanagement of Brent tPCT has had catastrophic consequences for the people of our borough.

"This review has revealed a culture of incompetence at the very highest levels in our health trust. First bosses ignored the problem, then they tried to hide the problem, and then they decided that local residents should pay for their chronic incompetence.

"People in Brent are now suffering savage cuts to essential services. Those responsible for this catalogue of errors must be held to account, and the Labour Government that abandoned Brent to such damaging practices must now give Brent tPCT the support they need to get back on track."

Related Link:

http://www.london.nhs.uk/resourcelib/BRENT.pdf.