MP calls for Parliamentary debate on "unfair" Health funding formula that hits the East Riding.

GRAHAM STUART MP has called for a Parliamentary debate on the allocation of health funding which he says leaves the East Riding out in the cold.

According to information submitted by Graham Stuart in January, every man woman and child in Beverley
and Holderness has less spent on their health than nearly anywhere in the rest of the country. Residents are hit twice as the Primary Care Trust receives around £85 less per person than the national average because it falls foul of a funding formula which sees more cash going to other areas. The MP has determined that only two other PCTs in England have a lower per person health spend.

Prior to the election the MP vowed to act to help the PCT close the funding gap and take the issue up in the House of Commons, which he has now done:

Could we have a debate as soon as possible on the allocation of health funding? ...The Labour party put in place a gerrymandered allocation of health funding, which means that the good people of the East Riding, for instance, have only £1,200 per head spent on their health care, whereas the people of Hull, who are much younger and generally fitter, receive 50% more. It is simply wrong." House of Commons, 27th May 2010.

Health funding is calculated using a complex formula which is designed to ensure that funding is allocated to areas of greatest need. The formula takes account of the population and then adjusts it for things like the overall age and additional needs which an area may have. The total population number for the PCT is weighted using this formula to arrive at a figure known as the ‘unified weighted population’.

East Riding PCT, with a population of 336,700 has a ‘unified weighted population' of only 300,199 for the year 2009/10. Yet in neighbouring Hull the formula means the population of 250,000 becomes a ‘unified weighted population of 316,634.

Graham Stuart has determined that in order for the East Riding to get its “fair” share, it would need to be allocated a further £28.4 million in 2009/10 – £84 per actual person.

Links:
Graham Stuart MP
House of Commons