NHS Faces Big Cuts After Budget Makes Big Promises
Alistair Darling made some big promises in his budget speech, a budget that would tackle borrowing and secure a road to economic recovery. Usually it takes a few days for critics to pick out the little flaws we all failed to miss in the budget but by the end of his speech the nation was already pretty unconvinced. Ultimately we were all left confused as to how the government planned to achieve spending cuts of 38bn a year.
It was a budget that was remarkably underwhelming considering its hugely overrated proposals. At a time when the country needs a boost more than ever and with a general election looming like a dark cloud, this budget presents a party deficient of new ideas and does not look promising for labour if they wish to remain in power for the next five years.
Although much of Darling’s proposal consisted of vague tax adjustments but the majority of the budget seems to come from an increase in efficiency and spending cuts. A total of 4.3bn worth of cuts each year has been dropped on the NHS with orders to make huge savings and improve efficiency.
4.3bn may seem like a tall order, and it is, but its nothing compared to the 20bn that NHS Chief Executive David Nicholson says is required the NHS through the years ahead. Nicholson claims that spending cuts are not the answer and improving productivity would be fundamental to their success before considering drastic action.
The department of health outlined a number of key areas to make savings including lowering the prices of goods and services bought by the NHS, saving up to 1.5bn. Tackling staff sickness absence could save over 500m, making use of land and buildings more efficient would save 70m and reducing energy usage could save up to 60m. They also aimed at improving productivity in staff by 3.5bn, 2.7bn from improved patient care, 1.5bn from reducing unnecessary prescriptions and 2bn in management savings.
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Tags: alistair darling, budget, employment, GP, Health, healthcare, hospitals, jobs, nhs, nurses, nursing, recruitment
