The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Alan Milburn) has announced that the first £600m of the £2bn earmarked in the Budget for the National Health Service will go straight to hospitals and family doctors (our Lobby correspondent writes).
In an unprecedented move he decided to invoke special powers to order health authorities to spend the cash on "better, faster, frontline services". Those on that front line, including primary care groups, will decide how best to use the money.
Mr Milburn warned that a further £60m would be held back from hospitals which failed to meet Government targets on cutting waiting lists, reducing in-year deficits and increasing efficiency. Priority had to be given to ending the lottery under which the provision of medicines and care could vary dramatically depending on where a patient lived. More cash would be focused on services which based their spending plans on the deprivation of a local community, as well as its size.
Whitehall sources said that the end result would be to focus on treatment and prevention rather than on health bureaucracy.
Mr Milburn said: "These new resources for the NHS have to make a real difference to patient care right across the country. They have to be spent on real services. That is why I am using my powers of direction to make sure these new resources go straight to the family doctors who will then make most of it available to hospitals and NHS trusts."