Staff cuts already planned, warns nurses’ leader
pharmafile | May 4, 2010 | News story | | NHS trusts, election, general election, nurses
The leader of nurses in the UK has warned that NHS trusts around the country are already planning significant job cuts.
Royal College of Nursing general secretary Peter Carter says a survey of its members has revealed the extent of the planned cuts, made necessary by budget pressure on the service.
NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson has made it clear that as much as £20bn in savings will have to be found by 2014. Staff costs represent more than 40% of all NHS spending, and health service organisations all agree that savings have to be found.
Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems have all pledged not to cut patient services, but local NHS organisations are already preparing to reduce staff numbers.
An RCN survey covering 26 of the 168 English health trusts found that 5,600 jobs were already earmarked for cuts, possibly rising to more than 36,000 in a ‘worst-case scenario’ if the trend were to be repeated across all hospital trusts.
Trusts will try to make most of the cuts through ‘natural wastage’ rather than compulsory redundancies over the next three years.
The survey also found that many nurses already felt that patient safety was being compromised because of staff shortages.
Mr Carter said: “Despite assurances that the NHS budget will be protected, the reality is that trusts are making deep and dangerous cuts to staff numbers now, with further cuts planned for the future.
“We would urge whichever party forms the next government to work with the RCN to devise ways of making the savings that we know are possible within the NHS, whilst protecting frontline care.”
Mr Carter says the cuts could be worse than those seen during the NHS budget crisis of 2005-6. The RCN believes at least 22,000 posts went during that period, but Labour’s Andy Burnham says in reality just a fraction of this total number of jobs were lost, with many trusts finding alternative ways to make savings.
The RCN says it will launch a campaign to keep a check on the extent of cuts, and will also share ideas about how to make the health service more productive without damaging patient services.
Savings could be made from other parts of the health service, but just how much and how easy to deliver they would be is contentious. The Liberal Democrat plan is to scrap Strategic Health Authorities entirely, saving nearly £130m a year. Also planned is a return to PCT administration and management costs back to 2005-06 spending levels, representing a saving of £800m.
The Lib Dems also believe they can save a further £19bn, but have not made clear how most of this sum will be generated. One area is the ‘better care better value indicators’ – which includes the promotion of cheaper and generic prescribing – which the Lib Dems say could generate £3.6bn in further savings.
The NHS Confederation, which represents NHS managers, has put forward its own plans to help produce greater efficiencies. Among its priorities is reducing levels of sickness and absence, cutting use of agency staff and overtime, and making better use of outsourcing and shared services.
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