THE LABOUR government announced 18,000 NHS staff sackings in England yesterday, with a deal with the Treasury signed off to hand the health service an extra £1 billion to cover the cost of redundancy pay-offs.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting sought to justify the sackings by claiming that patients and NHS staff tell him the health service has ‘too many layers of management, too many layers of bureaucracy’.
‘People want to see the front line prioritised, and that is exactly what we’re doing,’ he claimed.
Speaking on the eve of tomorrow’s hospital resident doctors strike, he said he was meeting with NHS leaders yesterday afternoon and would tell them ‘we’re finally on the road to recovery’.
In a speech to health managers at the NHS Providers’ conference in Manchester yesterday afternoon, Streeting said: ‘We’re now pushing down on the accelerator and slashing unnecessary bureaucracy, to reinvest the savings in front-line care.’
NHS Providers’ chief executive Daniel Elkeles rejoiced in the mass sackings, declaring: ‘This is a pragmatic step that means planned redundancies can now go ahead.
‘It reflects the flexibility of a three-year settlement, allowing some funding to be brought forward in order to generate future savings to go into front-line care.
‘However, we must recognise the position of staff affected by these changes – people who have offered commitment and service to the NHS – who face a very uncertain future.’
Patricia Marquis of the Royal College of Nursing warned: ‘Front-line services need more investment, but to do this off the backs of making thousands of experts redundant is a false economy.
‘Expert registered nurses working across NHS England and ICBs don’t just run vital public health programmes and oversee care programmes for the vulnerable – they connect the NHS and social care services with one another.
‘To imply these are administrators shows a complete lack of understanding of their roles and how they contribute to patient care.
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