Local NHS is overspending by 20% because it needs to! – Farron demands that Chancellor calls off the cuts

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer calling for a new deal for funding local health services.

This week it has emerged that even after saving £30million in spending, the NHS in Morecambe Bay is still spending £1.20 on our healthcare for every £1 we receive from government. The threat of making an additional £572million in savings is now hanging over local health services. This eyewatering figure would have to be identified in the next two years.

Tim has hit back, saying that our local NHS is not inefficient and that the Chancellor should change the funding formula to allow for the fact that health in rural areas is more expensive to deliver.

Tim says, "Unlike most trusts, our area needs three hospitals and more GP surgeries because we cover such a huge rural area. It's time the government stopped punishing us for this and accepted that it costs more to provide health care in rural places.

"This week local NHS leaders had to take the unprecedented step of stating that local hospitals won't close. The fact that they felt they needed to say this speaks volumes. Our excellent NHS staff here are being forced by government to make savings that are downright dangerous. That's why I have written to the Chancellor to tell him to call off the cuts."