NHS Trust £1 billion deficit

[unclebulgaria67]

In figures just released, it was found that NHS Trusts have run a deficit of £1 billion in just 3 months.

 

The government have increased funding in the NHS, but not related to healthcare inflation or taking into account the increased numbers using the NHS.

 

Hospitals are having to pay a fortune for agency Nurses, because they can't get enough. Within one NHS Trust in the London area, they have 1600 vacancies across different job roles. Yet the government have a policy from 2016 to remove from the UK foreign workers who have not reached £35k per year in 5 years of being here. This will include many non EU Nurses.

 

Meanwhile government will fund HS2 at the cost of £40+ billion and Trident replacement at £100 billion. Surely time has come to prioritise spending on essential services and infrastructure. NHS, Housing, basic transport network, schools.

 

I am not convinced of any long term plan and it is being made up as they go along. Has been the case with successive governments over a long period. The UK has a golden opportunity to use rising population through immigration and record low interest rates, to invest in the infrastructure the country needs. The IMF and leading economists have said that UK government should be investing for future prosperity. Instead the current government are relying on mostly foreign investment which will come at a price and profits will end up going abroad.

[Tawnyowl]

Hi unclebulgaria67

I am sure this thread will warm up shortly.

Some very interesting points on your post.

In fact so scary i nearly fell of my chair.I have returned to read it a few times today.

 

Just also to warm things up a touch what do you think of this.

 

Report: 'Fraud costing NHS up to £5.7bn a year'

The NHS in England could be losing up to £5.7 billion a year because of fraud, according to new report.

 

Former Department of Health counter-fraud expert, Professor Jim Gee, helped produce the report for PKF Littlejohn.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033b9pq

 

A article with a video that says a few things.

 

NHS in financial crisis after posting £1 billion losses in just three months

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nhs-in-financial-crisis-after-posting-1-billion-loses-in-just-three-months-a6687501.html

 

I just missed the BBC news report at 18-30 mentioning this deficit.I will post it another time.

[goodatresearch]

It is indeed worrying, however I would like to make a point about having to employ agency staff. There is one hospital who used to pay enhanced weekend payments to theatre staff to clear the backlog on an overtime basis i.e. on top of their normal weekly hours. The powers that be said they would not pay enhanced pay so the staff said forget it. They now pay agency staff to do what would normally be overtime and they receive much higher pay than was paid to the permanent staff. Sheer madness. The daft thing about this is that some agency staff also have permanent jobs within the NHS and do agency work on their days off.

[determindator]

Sounds like privatisation around the corner.

[unclebulgaria67]

Sounds like privatisation around the corner.

 

The Tories will privatise it in a sneeky way. They will get private companies take over services, who will provide basic services on NHS terms, but better faster services if you pay cash. Waiting times for operations will be extended leaving people in pain and people will be told if they paid cash, they could get it done next week. It is already happening and will get worse. It will be a 2 class system, based on ability to pay.

[tobyjugg2]

The Tories will privatise it in a sneeky way. They will get private companies take over services, who will provide basic services on NHS terms, but better faster services if you pay cash. Waiting times for operations will be extended leaving people in pain and people will be told if they paid cash, they could get it done next week. It is already happening and will get worse. It will be a 2 class system, based on ability to pay.

 

Already is, they just expand that side,

and all simply done by reducing investment and increasing demand targets.

.. and threaten the doctors doing the works salaries just in case that doesn't work quick enough.

 

... but that is what the populace has voted for

[obiter dictum]

The main expenditure is agency staff needed just to make the NHS function on a daily basis

 

7000 front line clinical NHS staff have been made redundant since 2010. 4000 of which are senior nursing positions.

 

This question has to be WHY??

 

The response given by Jeremy Hunt is that NHS trusts "Flex up" with agency staff when extra nurses are in demand such as winter months. Only problem is those winter months are 12 months of the year

[unclebulgaria67]

Already is, they just expand that side,

and all simply done by reducing investment and increasing demand targets.

.. and threaten the doctors doing the works salaries just in case that doesn't work quick enough.

 

... but that is what the populace has voted for

 

The populace voted Tory because the Tories scared them that Miliband/Sturgeon would be running the country.

 

They won't like it when older people needing hip or knee replacements are told it is at least a year of agony or £7k and they can get it done next week. It will become cheaper for people to take a trip over to a French hospital to have an operation and i believe people are already doing this,

[tobyjugg2]

They won't like it when older people needing hip or knee replacements are told it is at least a year of agony or £7k and they can get it done next week. It will become cheaper for people to take a trip over to a French hospital to have an operation and i believe people are already doing this,

 

only a year - if only.

18 months for a friend two years ago, and that was only after escalation by the GP.

The waiting list time requirements in many areas have been long shelved, and even before that there were (and are) many little tricks for consultants to get the clock reset

[obiter dictum]

Funny waiting times are no longer mentioned in the media

 

They are at their worst in the last seven years

 

http://www.patients-association.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/waiting-times-report-crunch-time-july-15.pdf