Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to the King’s Fund report on NHS finances, said:
“David Cameron promised not to cut the NHS but that is precisely what is happening across the country as NHS organisations struggle to balance the books. As financial panic spreads, services are going downhill.
“This growing financial crisis in the NHS has its roots in David Cameron’s disastrous decision to break his promise of ‘no top-down re-organisation’. It created confusion when the NHS needed stability and distracted attention from the financial challenge at the worst possible time. When people see the growing number of NHS organisations in deficit, it will add to the pressure on the Prime Minister to justify spending £3 billion on consultants, lawyers and unnecessary redundancy payments.
“Alongside that, severe cuts to social care have intensified financial problems in the NHS. The cutting of support from older people in the home has been a false economy and left thousands more older people trapped in hospital. This can’t go on.
“Staff morale is at an all-time low because of this Government’s gross mismanagement of the NHS. Doctors and nurses pleaded with the Prime Minister to halt his re-organisation because they knew it would leave the NHS weakened and on the wrong path. They were right but Cameron refused to listen and must now accept responsibility for solving a financial crisis of his making. It is no wonder that people have concluded he can’t be trusted with the NHS.”
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