Kings Fund NHS report more proof of Government failings - Webb
Responding to the new King's Fund report, Deficits in the NHS, suggesting that the NHS deficit could exceed £1 billion, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Steve Webb MP said:
"These deficits have Patricia Hewitt's fingerprints all over them. The new contracts for GPs, consultants and other NHS staff, were all negotiated centrally.
"All of the targets that Trusts have to meet are determined centrally. The Government cannot tie the hands of Trusts, telling them how much to pay their staff and what targets they have to meet, and then condemn them for not being able to balance their books.
"These are huge deficits which highlight gross financial mismanagement by the Government. To spend record amounts on the NHS and still to have almost daily announcements of cuts in frontline services beggars belief.
"The breakneck pace of Government reform means that Trusts are having to resolve problems that have built up over decades in a matter of weeks. Far from speeding up the pace of reform, as the Prime Minister has said, it needs to take place at a more gradual rate to give Trusts a chance to plan carefully on a long-term basis."