Diane calls on Coalition to come clean over health spending

Diane has called on the Coalition to come clean about cuts to health spending after a poll by a leading union showed that thousands of NHS workers are already having to work harder to cover cuts to staff.

The Coalition announced that spending on health would be ring fenced and NHS funding would increase in real terms between now and 2014-15. However, their sums included ‘double counting’ the £1bn allocated for social care, which means in reality health spending will experience cuts.

Figures released today from the UK’s largest public service union, UNISON found that out of 8,000 NHS workers, 80% said they have already had to take on more work, and half said their hospital was struggling with staff shortages - problems which could set the NHS back decades.

Diane said:

“It is utterly misleading of the Coalition government to continue to say that health spending has been ring fenced when staff on the frontline can see evidence to the contrary every day of the week.

Hospitals up and down the country have had to make staff cuts, redundancies and increased work load and yet they are continually being told that health spending is not being cut.

It is about time the Coalition came clean about what their plans for the NHS actually are and stop doing a disservice to thousands of ordinary, hardworking people who have been forced to work harder and longer, to cover the staff shortages and job losses caused by cutbacks to budgets.”

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