Health cuts 'will put lives at risk' say doctors protesting against plan to axe jobs and wards
Health Secretary Andy Burnham wants the NHS to make Ј20bn of cuts by 2014
Patients’ lives will be at risk if the NHS goes ahead with secret plans to sack hundreds of doctors and nurses and close dozens of wards, clinicians warned last night.
Top doctors spoke out after a shock survey revealed that managers at cash- strapped NHS trusts were planning a devastating wave of cuts after the election.
The poll revealed that a third of hospitals plan to sack doctors and other clinicians – which the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) warned could lead to further tragedies like that at Mid Staffordshire, where 1,200 patients died on a filthy A&E ward.
A quarter expect to make nurses and healthcare assistants redundant, while a further 25 per cent plan to directly cut patient services – slashing the number of beds or operations provided.
The survey of NHS finance directors, in the respected Health Service Journal magazine, makes a lie of ministerial claims that post-election cuts will not affect the frontline.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham wants the NHS to make Ј20billion of cuts by 2014 – and insists the savings can be made without affecting patient care.
But the survey indicates that this statement is, at best, wildly optimistic.
Dr Andrew Goddard, the RCP’s director of medical workforce, said last night: ‘Reducing clinical staff is a quick fix when times are tight, but ends up costing far more in both financial and human costs in the long term.
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‘We must not fall back on the panicked slash-and-burn policies of the past if we are to avoid repeating the horrors of Mid Staffs.’
Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb said: ‘After 13 years of Labour government it is scandalous that we are facing the prospect of cuts to frontline services. It’s very far from what was promised and what voters should expect.’
Both the main parties say they will increase NHS spending in real terms after the election.