National Health Service staff are suffering from the effects of recruitment freezes and increased workloads even as the Government promises NHS spending will be protected, according to a survey this week.
Unison said that its poll of 8,000 staff found that hospitals are responding to demands for efficiency savings by stopping recruitment, outsourcing services and reducing staff posts.
In response, Labour renewed its charge that NHS funding is set to fall in real terms over the next four years, and not rise as Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has claimed.
Under plans inherited from Labour and re-affirmed in Chancellor George Osborne’s spending review, the NHS is under orders to find £20 billion in efficiency savings by 2014.
Eighty per cent of staff surveyed reported an increase in workload and 77 per cent said they had suffered more stress over the past year. Fifty-nine percent said their workplace was employing fewer staff, and one in two reported staff shortages.
Nearly half of workplaces and departments that responded to the survey said they expected to stop hiring staff in order to make savings.
Unison head of health Karen Jennings said: “Our survey explodes the myth that the NHS is protected from spending cuts. How can this be true when trusts are being asked to make savings to the tune of £20 billion? At the same time, we know that the NHS faces an unquantifiable increase in demand as a result of cuts to local authority and other public sector services.”
Responding to the survey, Shadow Public Health Minister Diane Abbott 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”.
Last week, Shadow Health Secretary John Healey accused ministers of “double counting” money in the NHS budget committed to social care. “When £1 billion switched from the NHS to social care is taken into account, the Government has not protected the NHS as it promised. It’s not the real terms increase of 0.4 per cent they claimed, it’s a real terms cut of 0.5 per cent”, he said.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Better care can cost less and all over the NHS, people are making changes to improve care and save money. Together, our efficiency drive and reform proposals will create a high quality health service that empowers staff and puts patients in control.”
