NHS Budgets

I often wonder if NHS budgets are not flexible enough.

We now have to spend money on Herceptin, which will have to come at the expense of other services. Herceptin will probably come under the drugs budget and every other department will fight that they don’t have to give money to the Pharmacy to support this treatment.

Perhaps, for example all cancer treatment should come under a defined cancer budget. Thus, the person in charge can use the resources flexibly as the needs require. For instance, I heard from a heart surgeon, that due to modern methods, he is doing much less surgery than he was five years ago. Has the money been reallocated successfully and quickly?

Or has it just disappeared into some black hole, as if it’s not spent, it’ll be lost?