Department of Health may need emergency cash injection – but is it already too late?

Last Updated: February 5, 2016By

150601-chomsky-privatisation1
The destruction of the National Health Service in England is following Chomsky’s pattern very closely.

This story shows that it does not have enough funds – perhaps because the private companies are taking too much for themselves?

As a result, staff numbers are being cut, reducing the government department’s ability to do its job (let alone the ability of the health service it is supposed to manage).

Already people have been complaining about the service.

How long until the Conservatives swing the axe?

The Department of Health may need an emergency injection of extra money so it can pay its bills between now and the end of next month, Whitehall sources have told the Guardian.

There is growing speculation at senior levels of the NHS that Jeremy Hunt’s department may have overspent its £116.3bn budget for 2015-16, despite having received £3.1bn more than last year.

On Thursday the DH said it will cut around 650 jobs to reduce its running costs. Non-senior staff numbers will be slashed from 1,800 to between 1,200 and 1,300 by April 2017 in a bid to decrease its running costs by 30% in the next five years. It will also merge employees from the three London offices to premises at 39 Victoria Street.

The Treasury and DH have been examining the possibility that the latter may need to have its departmental expenditure limit (DEL) for this year raised because the NHS’s deepening financial crisis means it can no longer balance its books, well-placed Whitehall sources with knowledge of the discussions said.

Source: Department of Health may need emergency cash injection | Politics | The Guardian

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No Comments

  1. Terry Davies February 5, 2016 at 9:58 am - Reply

    clearly Hunts and Keogs secretaries, trust managers and non frontline staff should have a decrease in salaries with no redundancy available due to incompetence.
    The axe should swing towards the trust managers in all NHS hospitals and salaries be reduced for all directors with no consultants employed for directors. It should not be directed towards frontline staff like nursing and doctors but agencies and franchises for private companies cleaning hospitals etc.should be removed with no franchise renewal. more money provided for training and less for agencies providing nurses should also be seriously considered to reduce costs and improve care standards.

  2. amnesiaclinic February 5, 2016 at 11:20 am - Reply

    Very, very sad that people don’t see what is happening. Within living memory people died because they couldn’t afford to see the doctor. The misery that was caused was solved by the NHS – and now it is disappearing before our eyes.
    Unless people wake up and fight hard for it.

  3. Catherine Cooper February 5, 2016 at 11:51 am - Reply

    Frightening! What happens to us if it collapses and private companies take the remains?

    • Mike Sivier February 5, 2016 at 12:43 pm - Reply

      That does seem to be the intention.

  4. Joan Edington February 5, 2016 at 12:42 pm - Reply

    “Non-senior staff numbers will be slashed from 1,800 to between 1,200 and 1,300 by April 2017”.

    If anything needs slashed it’s the senior staff, not those at the workface.

  5. casalealex February 6, 2016 at 7:29 pm - Reply

    Well, Davy Boy, we do understand how busy you have been with all the warring stuff and all the lies you have been shoving down our throats for the past six years; but no worries you’ve still got another four years to go, so I am sure you will find the time to tax the air we breathe and sanction more of us to death; which is so blatantly obvious!

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