NHS deficit doubles to over £500m

The NHS deficit in England has reached £512m - more than double the amount last year, according to the BBC.

Nearly a third of the 566 NHS organisations failed to break even with a hardcore group of 63 responsible for 70% of the deficits.

The unaudited figure for the 2005-6 financial year is £100m less than mid-year forecasts. Over 12,000 jobs have been cut, wards closed and operations delayed as NHS trusts have struggled with finances.

£512 million is less than five weeks' worth contribution to the EU at the £115m-a-week level we'll be paying from next year, thanks to the bad deal Blair did in December. Is this money better sent to an organisation whose auditors haven't been able to tell us how they spend the majority of their money...for eleven years running? Or saving the jobs, wards and operations this shortfall in NHS funds is costing?

Which will have the biggest impact on improving people's lives - fire-hosing more billions at the expensive, fraud-ridden EU, or saving our hospitals? There's really no contest.

Time Gordon Brown demonstrated his Prime Ministerial potential by this simple decision about how public money is spent. Stop the Cheques to the EU, and this threat to patient care is over in a bit more than a month.