Truss would divert NHS funds to social care as hospitals stop routine Covid tests. Foolhardy?
Truss: open mouth, insert foot.
Tory leader candidate Liz Truss would divert £13 billion earmarked for the NHS to social care, to catch up on delayed Covid treatment there.
Is that a good idea? It’s certainly populist. But isn’t diverting funds away from the NHS when routine asymptomatic Covid testing is about to end – and the disease has this summer caused almost twice as many deaths as last summer – extremely foolhardy?
Nobody expects the ending of tests to last because a surge of new Covid cases is expected in the autumn. But the decision to end asymptomatic testing has alarmed health experts who have cautioned against dismantling the surveillance of Covid while cases remain high.
As it is, the chief executive of health think tank the King’s Fund has said handing the money to social care is “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
Richard Murray said it was “not a sustainable solution to the health and care crisis”.
In any case, it is unlikely that the money will actually materialise.
It is supposed to come from increased National Insurance contributions announced under Boris Johnson last year – but Truss wants to scrap the rise and find the cash from the general tax take (which is a contradiction in terms; public funding and taxation doesn’t work like that).
So as the NHS faces its worst winter crisis yet, the front-runner to be the new prime minister wants to take the imaginary money that was going to help it, and let it do its nonexistent good in social care. LUNACY!
Source: Liz Truss plan to divert NHS funds to social care is ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’
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Not sure where to post this, Mike. Your video clips from quite a few of your stories are missing now. Not sure if it’s clear at your end that readers can’t see them. Hope all is well, good luck
Is anyone else having this problem?
Would that be the funds that the tories haven’t stolen yet…to make the NHS totally collapse?
“So as the NHS faces its worst winter crisis yet, the front-runner to be the new prime minister wants to take the imaginary money that was going to help it, and let it do its nonexistent good in social care. LUNACY!”
That last paragraph of yours reminded me of that old Soviet Union joke: A high up offical makes a visit to a tractor factory and asks one of the worker’s about how well the 5 year plan is going. The worker replies,”As normal, comrade. You pretend to pay us and we pretend to make tractors.”
So Liz Truss is now aping the old Soviet Union!!!