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Spin Doctors
Monday March 13 2000 Reporter John Ware Producer Janice Finch ![]() ![]() Experts interviewed by the programme accuse the government of creative accounting to increase the apparent amount of extra funding. Sometimes "Extra" money for the NHS is announced, without revealing that it is not new money. Sometimes, "extra" doctors are announced without acknowledging they are already in the system, and critics say that misleading comparisons are made with EU spending averages.
Scroll down for related links Ian Bogle, Chairman of the BMA Council, concludes: "They are seeking to portray themselves as doing better than they are, both in workforce terms and in financial terms. I think if they came open with the profession and with the public, we would actually assist them with moving forward."
John Appleby, Programme Director at the King's Fund tells Panorama:
The Comprehensive spending review Panorama shows how on 16 July 1998, Frank Dobson announced the result of the government's "comprehensive spending review" would be an extra £21 billion pounds of investment in the NHS over the following three years. The real budget increase was less than half that amount - £10.3bn. However, the government used creative accounting - cumulatively counting each year's increase along with the next years to get their figure. Despite initial advice from the Health Department's communications chief against using cumulative totals, and subsequent criticism from the Treasury Select Committee, the Prime Minister continues to quote the £21bn increase. According to Romola Christopherson
John Appleby, Chief Economist at the Kings Fund tells the programme: "I think it was very misleading. ¿ It's the wrong way of actually presenting the figures. I've never seen it done before."
Waiting lists This year, the Government also claimed to spending a "new £320m" on reducing waiting lists. Yet, this figure is precisely the same amount as the sum spent last year on waiting lists but allocated under a new label - the "modernisation fund". Last year, Frank Dobson made the first of four announcements about a "boost" of £20m to pay for the Instant Booking system to reduce waiting lists.
Accident and Emergency funding Panorama shows how the government announced £30 million extra spending on Accident and Emergency "modernisation schemes" four times:
According to Ian Bogle:
Doctors In August 1998, the government announced that it was on course to deliver its promise to deliver an extra 7000 doctors. According to the BMA, this figure was not quite as impressive as it would seem. Dr Bogle tells Panorama:
Raising spending to the EU average According to the King's fund, The Prime Minster's announcement that spending on the NHS would be raised to the EU average doesn't add up. The Government calculates that the EU average spend is 7.9% of GDP. The King's fund say that this figure is a crude average which does not take into account the different sizes of EU countries - giving Germany the same weight as Luxembourg - and that the real figure is 9%. Therefore, they calculate that rather raising spending by 5% annually to match the EU, the real annual increase needed is 9.7% Appleby tells Panorama
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