With the onset of winter the issue of the NHS is cropping up again . The A&Es are over-stretched and are unable to cope with the heavy demand they are facing because of under funding, shortage of doctors, nurses and support staff. The main sufferers are the patients, who have to queue for hours on end to get any treatment. This has been happening year after year with no solution in sight. It is a sad reflection on the state of affairs in the health service. The Government covertly allowing this situation to continue in order to privatised the NHS through the back door by sub contracting to commercial providers.
The NHS chief who quit in protest at Government underfunding warned today that most other London hospitals are “struggling” to cope. Lord Kerslake resigned as chairman of King’s College Hospital NHS trust last night, complaining of “inexorable pressures” to continually cut budgets at a time of rising patient demand, and in-creased costs of drugs and medical supplies. After receiving strong backing from the hospital’s senior clinicians, today he said the problem extended far beyond King’s, in Denmark Hill, and its sister hospital, Princess Royal in Orpington.
The King’s trust board has been warned it risks a £96.4 million deficit by the end of the financial year if there is a harsh winter and it fails to make further savings. Other big trusts are in a similar position, with Barts Health, which runs five hospitals in east London, facing an £85 million deficit.
Lord Kerslake told BBC4’s Today programme: “I’m deeply concerned about the position generally, actually in London, where most of the hospitals are struggling. There is also a big issue with social care, which got no additional funding in the Budget.”
When senior members of the NHS are admitting there is a crisis in the NHS, that means it is time to take appropriate action to stop this American style privatisation of the health service, before it is too late.
Baldev Sharma
Rayners Lane, Harrow
