Local hospitals could be 'crippled' if Government cuts go ahead
Following a leaked Department of Health memo which revealed that there will be a critical shortage of nurses and GPs in the longer term, further research by the London Assembly Conservatives has revealed that there may be as many as 13,000 jobs cut across London.
This potentially means that there may be 2,500 losses in local boroughs alone.
The predicted reduction in the NHS workforce for this year is 2.7%, equating to 37,000 nationally. Figures released on compulsory redundancies in the NHS during the first six months of this financial year showed that one-third of all redundancies were in London.
These figures did not include details of job losses as “posts not filled” but they do give an indication of the scale of the problem for London.
Tony Arbour, Assembly Member for Hounslow said
“These latest figures show just how much this Government’s half-baked policies are destabilising the NHS and making the work of local Primary Care Trusts and hospitals virtually impossible. The prospect of job losses across the NHS in Hounslow, Kingston and Richmond will not only be unsettling for the staff themselves, but patients will also continue to lose confidence in the services the NHS should be providing at critical times in their lives.
West Middlesex hospital could be crippled if these proposals are implemented. I and my colleagues will resist them.”
January 5, 2007