{"id":3772,"date":"2015-04-20T16:28:29","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T15:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3772"},"modified":"2015-04-21T11:41:12","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T10:41:12","slug":"how-can-tories-be-trusted-with-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3772","title":{"rendered":"How can Tories be trusted with NHS?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The coalition government has left a huge hole in NHS finances and services under significant strain with a real risk that patient care will suffer according to a new report published by The King’s Fund. It says the NHS has deteriorated over the last two years with key targets being missed and waiting lists at the highest level for years.<\/p>\n

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Missed\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>waiting time targets include in key areas such as accident and emergency and cancer treatment. Which party will protect the NHS is a central battleground in the election, although not a priority issue for the Tories.<\/p>\n

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The coalition has left an NHS already in the throes of a cash crisis, with low availability of hospital beds made worse by delayed discharges from hospital. The report found that NHS staff are under significant pressure and morale is an increasing cause for concern.<\/p>\n

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The first King\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fund report found the Health and Social Care Act pushed through by the ConDems had been damaging and distracting. Labour has vowed to repeal the act and stop privatisation.<\/p>\n

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The King\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fund has warned that trusts are falling into major deficit in the last financial year of this Parliament. It warns that:\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015b<\/strong>By month nine of 2014\/15, the NHS trust sector was running a year-to-date deficit of \u00c2\u0141467m with a forecast end-of-year deficit of \u00c2\u0141448m.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Growing crisis in A&E<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Waiting times have also had a knock on effect from a growing crisis in A&E even during a mild winter. It said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpressure on A&E departments can have a knock-on effect in the rest of the hospital\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.. last winter, the number of cancelled elective operations peaked at 2,424 compared to 1,298 in the same week in the previous year.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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NHS financial warnings have also been echoed in a report by the Financial Times about huge hidden deficits being run up by under pressure hospital trusts. These are likely to amount to, according to the FT, around an accumulative deficit of \u00c2\u01413.9 billion by next April.<\/p>\n

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These figures it says, will only emerge after the election. NHS providers finished 2014-15 with hidden deficits of \u00c2\u01411.6 billion and face a further \u00c2\u01412.3 billion deficit by April 2016, according to the FT.<\/p>\n

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Extra money already promised by George Osborne will not fill the budget shortfalls. And \u00c2\u0141750 million of emergency financial support awarded in December will have to be repaid.<\/p>\n

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Labour is already pointing to forward planning by the NHS which reveals a cut of 2,000 nursing posts within the next three years, 1,500 of those posts will be lost in mental health services.\u00c2\u00a0 And while the increasingly desperate Tories have promised \u00c2\u01418bn\u00c2\u00a0more for the NHS, they will not say how they will find the money or how they will make \u00c2\u014112bn in welfare cuts.<\/p>\n

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Broken promises<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Andy Burnham said accused the Tories of broken promises. On the Health and Social Care Act he said:\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey pushed through a damaging re-organisation without the consent of the public and the NHS has gone downhill\u00c2\u00a0ever since. Thursday May 7 \u00c2\u00a0is shaping up to be David Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s day of reckoning on the NHS.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn 2010, Cameron said he would cut the deficit, not the NHS. What this report reveals, is that he is on course to create a large deficit in the NHS.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is scandalous that he spent \u00c2\u01413bn on a re-organisation that has left the NHS worse off. Hospitals are now trapped in a financial vicious circle with bills for agency staff running out of control and staff failing to keep pace with demand.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat is clear is that the fragile\u00c2\u00a0NHS we now have\u00c2\u00a0can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take five more years like the five it has just had. It can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plan for deeper care cuts in the next Parliament.<\/p>\n

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It urgently\u00c2\u00a0needs new leadership and a change of course. Labour has set out a better\u00c2\u00a0plan to restore the NHS, rebuild it as a national health and care service and\u00c2\u00a0invest \u00c2\u01412.5bn extra a year – on top of Tory spending plans – to fund 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more GPs.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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And while David Cameron likes to paint \u00c2\u00a0the Tories as the party which protects the NHS, \u00c2\u00a0Labour MP Andrew Slaughter has been in a three-year battle to save A&Es and hospitals from closure. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m angered when I hear David Cameron talk about how he wants to protect the NHS.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy area, like so many others, has seen a sustained and direct attack on the NHS. North west London is being used as a test ground for the wholesale closure of A&E departments across England.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe plans in this area are to reduce A&E services from\u00c2\u00a0nine down to only five for two million people. Four have been ear-marked for closure, two of those have already been closed.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is a two week wait,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he says for a GP appointment. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe London Ambulance Service has been in crisis with sometimes people waiting for 2 hours in pain for an ambulance.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Nearby Charing Cross hospital (pictured) is earmarked for total demolition. From being one of the largest teaching hospitals in the UK, it is being knocked down and replaced with flats.<\/p>\n

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In its place will be a small unit with 24 beds run by GPs offering elective day surgery. Andrew Slaughter says the coalition impact on the NHS has been horrendous.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe NHS has not been protected\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 says Andrew Slaughter who is standing for re-election in Hammersmith with Unite support . \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have had a three year battle to save services from closure and demolition.<\/p>\n

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Cuts have caused chaos<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tories have not protected frontline services as they promised, their cuts have caused chaos. The NHS will not survive as we know it if we allow them another five years to slash and burn.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Barrie Brown, Unite national officer for health says it is a worrying time for staff. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf Cameron and his gang get in again then the privatisation agenda will accelerate\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he told UNITElive. \u00e2\u20ac\u015b There are staff who may have been in the NHS for 20 years who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if they will have been transferred to a private company like Virgin or Serco by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is a clear danger that services will be fragmented because of the environment created by the Health and Social Act. Private companies are looking to cherry pick profitable areas.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bStaff satisfaction and morale are falling. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen a two-year pay freeze and then Hunt, for the first time ever, even during Thatcher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Government, totally rejecting the recommendations of the pay review body for 1.2m staff in England.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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  The coalition government has left a huge hole in NHS finances and services under significant strain with a real risk that patient care will suffer according to a new report published by The King’s Fund. It says the NHS has deteriorated over the last two years with key targets being missed and waiting lists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[224,29],"wps_subtitle":"With services at breaking point, and morale at all time low - how can we trust them again? ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3772"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3780,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772\/revisions\/3780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}