Workers Revolutionary Party - £1bn NHS underspend

The News Line: News Friday, 31 August 2007 £1bn NHS underspend

Health workers demonstrating against cuts outside Kingston Hospital in March this year

Public sector union UNISON yesterday called for a ‘fresh start’ in response to a forecasted £983m surplus in the NHS.

Mike Jackson, Senior National Officer for UNISON said: ‘Undoubtedly the NHS is in a stronger financial position, but the under-spend of almost a billion pounds has led to a lot of unnecessary heartache.

‘Staff had a below-inflation pay award staged, more than 20,000 jobs have been lost and in some areas services and training has been reduced.

‘Now that there is a new team at the Department of Health we look forward to a fresh start.

‘More solid financial oversight of NHS trusts needs to happen; and savings should be ploughed back into frontline patient care and valuing staff with decent pay awards, instead of endless and empty reforms.’

Responding to the publication of the NHS finance figures Dr Peter Carter, General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: ‘It is, of course, very important that the NHS is on a firm financial footing but we have to ask at what cost this has been achieved?

‘In our view freezing and deleting health workers’ posts, cutting services to patients and raiding training budgets is not the right way to balance the books.

‘We now have a curious situation where the NHS is forecasting a surplus of nearly a billion pounds but is unable to find jobs for thousands of newly-qualified nurses desperate to put their new found skills and commitment to work.

‘At the same time nurses already working on hospital wards and in the community have seen their workloads increase as they are expected to do ever more with even fewer resources.

‘If there is taxpayers’ money laying idle in NHS bank accounts let us put it to good use by investing it in frontline staff and getting thousands of newly-qualified nurses into work.’