Seventh report from the Select Committee on Estimates : together with the proceedings of the committee on 25th May, the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committee D and appendices, session 1948-49 : the administration of the national health services.

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Estimates

Date:: 1949

Credit: Seventh report from the Select Committee on Estimates : together with the proceedings of the committee on 25th May, the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committee D and appendices, session 1948-49 : the administration of the national health services. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$/ t ' 106 22, March, 1949.] ‘ ; 4 , PE, ne » a) 3 ’ \y Fg Met ake ae a [Continued. mitted by the 15th October, had first of all to be prepared by your Management Committees, and they had to be prepared by the 31st August, and I do want you to appreciate the shortness of time which existed from the Appointed Day, when Management Committees became opera- tive, to the end of August, to get anything that was going to be factual in support of their budget. In point of fact, we were told exactly the same as the Teaching Hos- pital Boards were told: to prepare our budget on facts. 1196. You were told by the Regional Board?—Yes, in exactly the same terms as the Teaching Hospitals; but in point of fact, since that day the Regional Boards giving notice to us of the change of usage of certain of the hospitals within the group, which seriously affects the financial position; in other words, throws the bud- get completely out of gear. Mr. Kenneth Lindsay. 1197. Could we have the figures for your budget?—Our budget for 1949-50 was £831,928, and, compared with the last com- pleted financial year, upon which the figures were based, and upon which we had not taken into account the increase of salaries and wages and so on, which have already been referred to, the figure was £701,149. Our supplementary budget would give us a year’s expenditure of just over £900,000. Chairman. 1198. When you say supplementary, you mean for the current year?—Yes. Our supplementary figure would reveal an annual expenditure, spread over the twelve months instead of eight, of just over £900,000. Chairman.] So that in effect, you did calculate to spend next year something like £70,000 less than the year now covered. Mr. Selwyn Lloyd. 1199. That, I think, comes to this. Have there been any alterations? We have got the figures put in as at 15th October for all the various boards. Has this figure of yours, Mr. Julian, been revised since then?—(Mr. Julian.) The figure of 1949-50? 1200. The figure put in on the 15th October?—It has only been revised by the Ministry. That is the budget that I put in —£13,946,000—and the only thing that has happened since then is that I have been requested to cut it by £1,280,000. 1201. When were you asked to cut it?— Within the last month. 1202. What I am getting at is that you had not put in any supplementary s4 —I had put in a supplementary budget for 1948-49 but in between the time I put it in 1203. But you had not increased your estimate for 1949-50?—No. : 1204. Had you,; Sir Frederick?—(Sir Frederick Alban.) We would have followed © the same procedure. The only adjustment that has been made in my figure is in connection with the salaries of specialists. (Mr. Scarth.) We certainly put in a supple- mentary, but, if I may say so, I think it is wrong to use the term “ supplementary.” It_ is a revised estimate, because next year ‘we have to put in a supplementary, in September. 1205. I agree. As far as St. Thomas’s is concerned, has their figure been revised? —(Mr. Howard.) I have nothing to add to what I have told you about how our figure was presented to the Ministry. We have no knowledge yet of what figure the Minister has included in the estimates. 1206. I am talking solely from the point of view of the Board of the hospital?—As between us and the Ministry, we have had no revision. ; ” Chairman. — 1207. When we come to Mr. Weston, © your estimate was £830,000 as given on the 3ist August, but you have since then become quite satisfied that that is not enough?—(Mr. Weston.) That is right. 1208. Have you revised your figure?— We have not been requested to do that, and I would like to mention, in connec- tion with this, that in addition to what I have just mentioned, that is, the change of user of certain hospitals within the group which affects the financial position as a whole, there has been since that -date an all round increase in certain nursing sef- vices and an increase in domestic salaries which has made our budget not real at all. It has taken reality out completely. Yet on that figure which we presented in August, we are being asked to cut. Mr. Selwyn Lloyd. 1209. Has that reality been taken out of the Regional Board budgets too?—It must have been. 1210. In view of what Mr. Weston said, I cannot understand why the Regional Boards have been content to leave their figures of 15th October without revision.— | (Mr. Julian.) There is this, that we are asked to devise our requirements for 1949-_ 50 at the 15th October. We required Hos- | pital Management Committees to put in- their requirements from which our budget | was made up, and that budget was sub- +$