VAT saving will harm NHS jobs’

LABOUR wants to axe a VAT loophole which could jeopardise thousands of health workers’ jobs.

Eight NHS trusts have set up private companies and transferred 3,000 support staff such as cleaners and porters into them.

A Health Service Journal report suggests a further 16 trusts have similar plans, affecting 8,000 staff.

Trust chiefs in York reckon they could save £4.9million in VAT. Gloucestershire Hospitals could be £3.5million a year better off.

The switch saves cash because healthcare is not VAT-rated. Firms can claim refunds. Trusts can’t.

But staff then cease to be NHS employees and there are concerns over recruits’ pay and conditions.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth fears the practice could spread to doctors and nurses.

In a l etter to t he Government, he warns: “This means an unacceptable two- tier workforce. It’s a sign of just how s t r etched NHS finances have become that hospitals are reaching for ever more complicated schemes to save money.”