Memorandum by Mr John Flook, Finance Director,
County Durham and Darlington Health Authority (PS 47)
1. This note has been prepared in order
to provide a response to the Health Select Committee concerning
a letter (dated 2 December 1998) written by Mr Ken Jarrold, Chief
Executive of County Durham and Darlington Health Authority. Mr
Robin Moss referred to the letter in the course of giving evidence
to the Committee on 29 October 2001.
2. A fully copy of the text letter is attached
for information.
3. It will be noted that the letter refers
at length to the historic under-investment in capital stock across
the local health economy and uses evidence referred to by Mr John
Flook in the course of his evidence to the Health Select Committee.
4. The essential purpose of the letter to
the then Acting Regional Director is summarised in the three points
listed on page 4. These were to ask the Regional Office to:
— support the case for a special allocation
of Public Sector Capital to County Durham and Darlington from
the Modernisation Fund;
— give priority to the particular needs
of County Durham and Darlington in the allocation of available
public sector capital; and
— support the case that revenue pressures
created by our reliance on two major PFI schemes should be recognised
by additional weighting within the revenue resource allocation
formula.
5. As suggested by Mr Flook on 29 October
2001, it is clear that the letter was a bid to the Regional Office
for recognition of past under-funding and for the allocation of
additional resources.
6. The final point relating to the resource
allocation formula has been subsequently addressed, in part, through
the allocation of "smoothing" resources to the Trusts
in a manner that excludes those funds from the Authority baseline
allocation in the determination of distance from target for the
purpose of the distribution of resources.
1 November 2001
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