Article by David Simmonds CBE MP 

I have welcomed the announcement that NHS Trusts in the constituency will benefit from a debt write-off as part of the Government’s announcement to scrap £13.4 billion of NHS debt across England. The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which includes both Hillingdon and Mount Vernon Hospitals, will benefit from a £94,951 debt write-off and the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, responsible for Mount Vernon Cancer Care, will see a £146,886 debt write-off.

This debt write-off will rid more than a hundred NHS hospitals of historic debt, freeing them up to invest in maintaining vital services and longer-term infrastructure improvements. This announcement also comes alongside a new NHS funding model to make sure the NHS has the necessary funding and support to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

The changes will provide much needed financial support during this unprecedented viral pandemic, as well as laying secure foundations for the longer-term commitments set out last year to support the NHS to become more financially sustainable.

This is part of a package of major reforms to the NHS financial system, designed in a collaboration between the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, which will begin from the start of the new financial year.

This package is launched in combination with a simpler internal payment system to help NHS trusts in dealing with the coronavirus response, which was agreed with NHS England last week.

This significant change will mean hospitals will get all the necessary funding to carry out their emergency response, despite many hospitals cancelling or limiting their usual services such as elective surgery or walk-in clinics due to the virus.

The Government continues to support and protect the NHS throughout the coronavirus outbreak, by:

• Ensuring the NHS has any extra resources it needs to tackle the virus, including access to a £5 billion Covid-19 Response Fund.
• Increasing the capacity of the NHS, with new, temporary NHS Nightingale Hospitals opening in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate.
• Providing free carparking for NHS workers at hospitals.
• Bringing recently retired doctors and nurses back into the NHS to help bolster our fight against coronavirus.

I am delighted that both The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust will benefit from the Government’s announcement to reset NHS finances.

This will help put NHS hospitals, mental health and community services across Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner in a stronger position not only to deal with coronavirus in the short-term, but on a stable footing in the long-term as well.

The Government is committed to doing whatever it takes to tackle coronavirus – and this announcement will help provide the NHS with the financial certainty it needs to respond to the pandemic and help save lives. I will always make the case for funding the health and care services our community needs, and I shall continue working with my colleagues to ensure that the Government delivers support locally.