A GOVERNMENT Minister has raised hopes of a better deal on health funding for York and North Yorkshire in a parliamentary debate.

Health Minister Dan Poulter was quizzed by York Outer MP Julian Sturdy about disparities in the amount of NHS funding the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group receives compared to other areas.

The debate was secured after Mr Sturdy and York Central MP Hugh Bayley met a City of York Council health committee to discuss ways of securing fairer allocations.

The MPs have said the current NHS funding formula centres on deprivation but not age or an area’s rural nature, and Dr Poulter said he would air concerns about this with NHS England.

He said funding must go to areas “of greatest health-care need” and promised a further meeting with the York MPs to update them on a review of the system.

Mr Sturdy said: “This is yet another step on the road to securing improvements in healthcare in York and North Yorkshire through reform of the funding formula.

“It costs about eight times more on average for the NHS to care for a patient who is over 85 than one who is in their 40s. York and North Yorkshire has one of the highest populations of over-85s in the north, and my constituents are really suffering under the current formula.”