FIND A SHORTAGE, FIND THE STATE:

Hewitt tells hospitals with deficits to delay operations: Minister orders trusts to get finances under control NHS thinktank warns cash problems may get worse (John Carvel, December 7, 2005, The Guardian)

Cash-strapped NHS trusts should delay operations until the new financial year in April to cut down their financial deficits, the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, told MPs yesterday.

In a robust defence of her policy of zero tolerance of overspending, she said it was better for hospitals to cancel operations and leave capacity idle than for local NHS commissioners to run deficits, forecast last week to reach £948m across England by the end of March.