Birmingham’s NHS short-changed by £56 million a year

New figures produced by the House of Commons Library reveal that Birmingham’s National Health Service (NHS) is being short-changed by £56 million every year compared to other parts of the country – and the shortfall is set to rise to over £70 million by 2020. The figures which show how much the Birmingham NHS (known as Birmingham CrossCity CCG) is funded for every person in its area. This year the figure amounts to £1,209 per person – but this is £82 per head less than the English average. And the shortfall is set to rise to over £90 for every person by 2020/21. Yet the city remains confronted by some of the worst health outcomes in the country including the worst rates for infant mortality. I provided the following quotes to the media: ‘These figures are truly shocking but they explain why our NHS is at breaking point.’ ‘Although we have some of the biggest health needs, we are being underfunded compared to the national average.’ ‘And it’s only going to get worse over the years to come.’ ‘If we were funded at the same rate per person as the rest of the country there would be an extra £56 million coming into our National Health Service every year.’  ‘You have to ask: why does Theresa May think we in Birmingham are worth less? The Government seems to be able to find £1.5 billion pounds to give to its friends in Northern Ireland but it can’t give us the same money as elsewhere to run our health service.’

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