FOLLOWING similar warnings by the King’s Fund and other bodies, the BBC has announced that the NHS in England faces a funding gap of up to £2bn, about 2% of its budget, for the next financial year.
The Department of Health has responded that it was ‘confident’ it would ‘make the savings necessary to meet rising demand’.
The Department of Health also commented yesterday that ‘The NHS is on track to make £20bn savings this parliament and we are confident that it will continue to make the savings necessary to meet rising demand.’
The £20bn of savings has been achieved by savage cuts and closures, and now more are on the way!
Chris Ham, chief executive of healthcare charity the King’s Fund, said that the worry for government must be that financial problems were spreading beyond ‘the usual suspects’ and that ‘many more hospitals are now in that position’. It is believed that up to 100 NHS trusts are gripped by the financial crisis.
Asked if some hospitals would run out of money, he said: ‘There is a real risk of that this year and particularly next year.’
In 2015/16 about £2bn (the same amount as the projected funding gap) from the NHS budget will be put into the Better Care Fund, intended to help the NHS and local councils provide more integrated health and social care.
‘It’s a good idea,’ said Ham. ‘But it’s money that would have gone to paying hospitals so they’re having to find even bigger efficiency savings to balance the books and deliver good standards of patient care. That’s a very, very big ask.’
‘There needs to be a longer-term resolution of the funding issues facing the NHS because, after four years of no growth in the budget, it’s hard to see where the savings will come from.
‘The impact is already being felt on patient care. We need an honest discussion about how much more money is needed and where will it come from to ensure the sustainability of the NHS that we all value so highly.’
Anita Charlesworth of the Health Foundation think-tank said: ‘There is a “pincer” – as the NHS takes on more nurses, drug prices are rising and their pension costs are rising, as part of government policy.’
And she warned: ‘We’re not going to find this money behind the sofa, so it really would mean the Treasury stepping in. If it can’t do that, we’re faced with cutting services and cutting quality.’
Very big battles lie directly ahead, since the Treasury have forced through over £20bn of cuts, and will not reverse that policy – rather it will drive forward for bigger cuts, major hospital closures and privatisation.
Simon Stevens, the new Chief Executive of NHS England, played a major role in bringing in Foundation Trusts and the beginnings of the health market under the Blair government. He left to become president of UnitedHealth, the largest US health insurance company.
Stevens has now been brought back into the NHS to complete the privatisation job that he began under Blair.
His programme for resolving the financial crisis of the NHS is to close the majority of District General Hospitals.
They are to be replaced by small hospitals, and groups of family doctors and hospital specialists working together in the community. In other areas, small hospitals will take over the running of GP services; or be part of chains of profit-seeking private healthcare providers.
He intends to bring in a system, that we are told works excellently in the USA, of small hospitals linked to networks of GPs and backed by private healthcare companies, where private medicine reigns supreme, makes huge profits and people are frightened of falling ill.
This is the crisis programme that Stevens, NHS England and the government are poised to implement.
The trade unions must respond at the forthcoming TUC Congress with a decision that that they will fight all hospital closures with occupations to ensure that they carry on providing the required services.
They must add that they will support occupations with a general strike to bring down the rotten coalition and bring in a workers government. This will finance and develop the NHS by nationalising the banks, and the major industries, including the drug companies, as part of a developing socialist planned economy.