Borough anger at NHS funding

Local authority scrutiny of NHS services has prompted a London borough to protest to the government about health authority funding.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is to complain that funding for Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster health authority in 2002-03 will be£40m below its weighted capitation target, after HA officials appeared before its overview and scrutiny committee.

The local authority said that although HA funding had increased by£40m on the previous year, the shortfall on its capitation target would mean that 'local people will have to wait even longer for improvements in their health services'. Councillor Ernest Tomlin, committee chair for social services, health and housing, said he would 'take our complaint to the highest level of government'.

But HA chief executive John James said the gap had arisen because of the area's rapid population growth. Although he would like the government to meet the funding target more speedily, Mr James accepted that it was 'impossible to change these things quickly'.

He added: 'I do not think we are particularly hard-done-by, but local authority councillors who come to this with fresh eyes may find it puzzling.'