NHS went on £1bn spending spree to avoid surplus in financial year - The Times 27th May 2008

Hospitals and NHS managers were pressured into spending hundreds of millions of pounds before the start of the financial year to “hide” a £1 billion surplus. Opposition parties have accused the Government of encouraging NHS financial mismanagement after it emerged that some trusts had been ordering millions of pounds of equipment “as long as they could be invoiced before the end of March” – the end of the financial year.

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