Public sector union Unison yesterday slammed a demand from foundation trust (FT) regulator, Monitor, that NHS hospitals make at least 50 per cent bigger savings (cuts) than previously ordered.
The union said: ‘It shows that the lessons of Mid-Staffs have not been learned.
‘That trust was so concerned with saving money to become a foundation trust, that people died and patient care really suffered.’
At the end of last year, the Department of Health ordered hospitals to make budget cuts of four per cent a year as the first step towards £20bn of ‘efficiency savings’.
Monitor calculates that hospitals must make savings of 6-7 per cent a year to be certain of balancing their books to become Foundation Trusts.
In a letter to trusts, Monitor said it had revised its figures upwards on the basis of the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, inflation expectations set out by the Office of Budget Responsibility and new NHS operating rules.
A Unison spokeswoman told News Line yesterday: ‘The government is demanding £20bn in efficiency savings. Already that is leading to hospitals having to cut staff, including nurses and in some cases doctors and consultants.
‘Wards are closing and operations are being restricted.
‘Expecting hospitals to make even bigger cuts is going to be really damaging for patient care.
‘Monitor should be looking at quality instead of balance sheets.
‘The government should drop the Health and Social Care Bill which is going to cause further misery.’
BMA Council member, Anna Athow, speaking in a person capacity, said: ‘Monitor’s demand for savings of six per cent to seven per cent per annum over the next five years equates to a 33 per cent cut over five years.
‘Clearly, a funding cut of this scale, means that hospitals will not be able to continue to provide all services comprehensively.
‘Unless they make these cuts, Monitor will not allow the remaining 70 NHS trusts to become Foundation Trusts.
‘The government and the health bill have stipulated that they must all become FTs by 2013.
‘Hospitals are already having their funding drastically reduced.
‘The logic is crystal clear: any hospital that cannot drastically reduce its costs, either by slashing staff numbers to dangerous levels or simply not providing “unprofitable” services, will not be recognised by Monitor as an FT, and will be merged, run down or closed or sold off to the private sector.
‘What Monitor’s letter does is announce an acceleration of the mass hospital closure programme.
‘The health unions must get their act together and refuse to accept the so-called £20bn efficiency savings, and mobilise to stop the redundancies and closures with a general strike and occupations.
‘This government must not be allowed to get away with decimating our NHS hospital network, to open the door for the private sector.’
Nigel Edwards, acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said there were serious doubts about whether hospitals could achieve the revised efficiency savings without ‘fundamental changes in the way services are delivered’.