Editor's blog Tuesday 2 March 2010: Sum foolish things

Oh for fuck's sake.

For.

Fuck's .

Sake.

Here we go again: basic health budget maths
Alright. There are 152 PCTs in England. Their average budget is half a billion pounds each. Yes, it's a generalisation, but it works.

And the above story wants us to get worked up over "the analysis, which used figures from the public board meetings of 100 trusts, shows the health service overspend this year is more than £130 miliion".

Small change on a big budgets
If anybody is seriously asking us to believe that a £130 million overspend on a £97 billion budget merits serious policy or even media attention, perhaps that person should sit down, and think more carefully about the issue.

Overspending is not ideal. But the NHS is not there to hold a surplus.