Leaked Documents Spell Out Brutal Health Care Cuts In Britain

March 28, 2010 (LPAC)—The British government is planning brutal health care cuts, including cutting personnel by more than 10%, banning joint replacements and closing down wards and ambulances. Secret documents that have fallen into the hands of the Daily Telegraph which reveal that the government proposes to cut more than £20 billion from the National Health Service budget, including £5 billion in London alone. This includes a cut of 10,000 of the 100,000 NHS employees, the loss of thousands of hospital beds, reduction in ambulance call-outs, and replacing medical professionals by less-skilled assistants. The final details of the plans will not be released until next autumn, well after the general elections.

The documents were drafted by the Strategic Health Authorities of the NHS. One documents marked "restricted" and circulated among SHA directors states, "The financial environment demands that the trend in workforce growth must be reversed" and reduction of the workforce by 10% or "further" will be required. Community care budgets, which cover general practitioners' offices would be cut, and changes would include "how patients get in contact with and receive services, such as through greater use of the internet and email." SHA call for banning clinical procedures "that have little or no benefit to those receiving them, for example some joint replacements" (who the hell goes through total joint replacement surgery unless he or she needs it?). Ambulance calls and emergency rooms will be cut as well.

 

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