SOUTH West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt has blamed the Government’s ‘boom and bust’ approach to expenditure on health services and the unfair formula used to allocate funding for the threats posed to services at the Royal Surrey County Hospital. Speaking in a House of Commons debate called by the Conservative Party on the Government’s record on public health issues Jeremy highlighted how the Government’s failure to understand the difference between morbidity and mortality had resulted in a grossly unfair funding formula. In Guildford and Waverley the hospital and community health services budget for 2007-08 is to be increased by 2 per cent because of the number of older people in the area, but reduced by 25 per cent because of a lack of deprivation. However, the most significant burden of disease – morbidity – is age-related need and as such areas with larger number of older people should receive a larger increase in funding.Jeremy said: “As a result of problems in the funding formula we are facing the potential closure of the Royal Surrey County Hospital. Not only that but we had to wait twice as long as people in Manchester for ear, nose and throat elective surgery and three times as long for trauma and orthopaedic work as people living in the Prime Minister’s Sedgefield constituency.”Jeremy also criticized fluctuating nature of the Government’s funding of healthcare. Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust last year received a budget increase of £9 million, but that this year the same area had been told to reduce spending by £16 million. Jeremy said: “There is a phrase for this type of approach - boom and bust. If we are to see a real improvement in public health it requires sustained investment over a period of time, not boom and bust. The future of our hospitals depends on secure funding not the wildly fluctuating levels that we have seen over the past few years.”The full text of Jeremy's speech is available online at the following link: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm061205/debtext/61205-0011.htm#06120571000133