Training budget? What training budget?3 Dec 2007

Why now may be a good time to book one of our courses!

It is not often that Primary Care education is featured on the national news but that is what happened recently. It was all part of the item predicting a huge underspend in the NHS this year.

It is strange that an underspend can be just as politically bad news as an overspend. The explanation goes like this. The government earmarks a large amount of taxpayers' money to be spent on the health of the taxpayers. If that money is not spent, it effectively means that the taxpayer is being deprived of healthcare to which the government thinks they are entitled.

A large proportion of this underspend was caused by Strategic Health Authorities syphoning off money which had been destined for the further education of people working in the NHS. The result of this education in fields such as diabetes and coronary heart disease prevention would be to improve greatly patient care.

The amount involved is nearly £400,000,000! That is an awful lot of education which NHS workers have been deprived of. It would have enabled nearly 700,000 people to complete one of our diploma-level courses!! The withdrawing of this funding is also the reason why the Primary Care Training Centre and other educational organisations are not finding life easy at the moment.

When you consider doing one of our courses, don't forget to approach your local SHA Directorate of Workforce & Education for their help in paying for the course. They have funds available - use them.

The Yorkshire & The Humber SHA has already provided additonal funding this year and a limited number of places are available. If you work in this region, please contact us for more details.