Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the (a) percentage and (b) real terms change in funding for patient services at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in the 2025/26 financial year.

As a multi-site trust, the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (NWAFT) receives funding for patient services on a trust wide basis, rather than a site basis, given the integrated nature of its services and pathways. This funding supports patient services across its three acute sites, specifically Peterborough City Hospital, Hinchingbrooke Hospital, and Stamford and Rutland Hospital, as well as a range community sites across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough where the trust also provides services.

In line with the national planning timetable, the trust remains in discussion with commissioners outside of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to finalise the contracts for 2025/26, and therefore the funding reflects the assumptions in the trust’s 2025/26 Annual Plan.

The 2025/26 Annual Plan reflects the national financial assumptions of 4.2% cost base inflation, less a 2.0% efficiency requirement and 0.5% convergence adjustment. In addition, the available funding for additional elective activity has reduced in 2025/26. Overall, for the NWAFT, this results in a 0.9% increase in funding for 2025/26, which represents a 3.2% reduction in real terms, 1.2% net of the 2.0% standard efficiency ask.

In making funding decisions, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board seeks to ensure funding is aligned to the National Health Service’s three strategic shifts and the services offered under a new model of care.