Brown slashes £2m off capital hospital budget

In a report last week, Hospital Development revealed that in one of his last acts as UK chancellor, Gordon Brown slashed the capital budget of the English NHS for 2007-8 from £6.2bn to £4.2bn, potentially delaying the government’s hospital rebuilding programme in England.

The “West Lothian” question, whereby Scottish MPs can exercise votes on legislation in England, but English MPs cannot do the same on Scottish legislation, has been fired at Brown again, who avoided similar cuts to Scottish and Welsh NHS budgets.

At a time when the new Prime Minister is at pains to demonstrate his commitment to a clinically-led modernisation of the NHS, the cuts are being made within the context of an increasingly difficult public expenditure environment.