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| David Ruffley MP has today demanded that Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority (SHA) is abolished after it emerged that it has overseen an overspend in excess of £110 million in the last financial year. |
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| Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA area is one of the four worst performing areas in the country. |
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| The role of the SHA is to give financial advice, training and support to health trusts in the region. |
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| In the last financial year the collective overspend of all health trusts in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire was in excess of £110 million. The five worst offending trusts in the region are as follows: |
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| • Cambridge City PCT Overspend £13,678,000 |
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| • North Norfolk PCT Overspend £12,219,000 |
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| • Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust Overspend £11,905,000 |
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| • West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust Overspend £11,833,000 |
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| • Suffolk West PCT Overspend £11,460,000 |
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| West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust is the seventh worst performing Hospital Trust in the country with an overspend that is 12.1 percent of its turnover. |
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| David said: |
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| “The Strategic Health Authority for Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire is supposed to support and advise the local Primary Care Trusts and Hospital Trusts. But it is overseeing a £110 million overspend. The SHA has simply not been doing its job. |
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| “In the last year it has overseen a collective overspend in excess of £110 million. How on earth was this allowed to happen? |
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| “This ineffective Quango has failed in its remit, failed the health service in our region and worst of all failed the people of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. |
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| “The SHA, which itself costs millions of pounds to run, should be scrapped and the money redirected to those who need it most – the professionals and patients. |
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| “The extra investment this Government says is going into our NHS simply isn’t reaching the front line.” |
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| 8 June 2006 |
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