‘Cut spending on nurses to plug £4.5bn gap’
CASH-STRAPPED NHS trusts have been ordered to slash spending on doctors and nurses in a desperate bid to plug a £4.5billion black hole.
Hospitals as well as mental health and community units in England must urgently review staffing levels and draw up battle plans that could see some services closed and others merged.
Part of this could involve banning or restricting the use of agency workers who are paid eye-watering sums for emergency cover.
As the new financial year starts, NHS bosses have been told of the scale of the cuts required. England’s health service has been given a budget of £165bn for the year, which is the same as last year in real terms.
But spending is being put under additional pressure by the continuing cost of covering strikes by junior doctors, which NHS England says has cost more than £1.5bn so far and affected more than 430,000 appointments.
The true figure is thought to be significantly higher and is due to rise further this year after the British Medical Association voted in favour of strike action with a new mandate lasting until September 19. The ballot also approved the use of other action despite a pay rise offer of up to 10.3%.
The NHS is also haemorrhaging money on agency workers, whom it relies on to fill staffing gaps. There are believed to be 44,000 vacancies for registered nurses and 9,000 for doctors – and locum doctors can earn thousands for a single 12-hour shift. The agency spending is at least £3bn a year – the equivalent of 31,000 full-time nurses.
NHS Providers, the membership organisation for NHS trusts in England, said: “Trust leaders are being pushed to the very limits of what is possible and there will be a situation where they have to make difficult choices about keeping basic services going versus investing in quality and improvement for the future. We are in a situation where we will be patching something that’s already a bit patched together.”
One NHS chief said: “We have been asked to think the unthinkable to break even. That will be impossible without closing beds and significantly reducing staffing numbers, and NHS England have been clear that beds must not be closed. Who is seriously going to propose closing and merging A&Es or maternity units in an election year?”
NHS England said: “NHS organisations are developing plans for the new financial year and will be looking to deliver the best value for taxpayers and patients within the resources available.”