THREE YEARS TRAINING FOR THE DOLE Trust. THOUSANDS of jobs are being axed in piecemeal cuts and closures by NHS Trusts throughout the country: and even more are at risk.
In London, the big totals are well-known. University College Hospital plans a new wave of 500 redundancies, bringing a 12- month total of 700. Guy's-St Thomas's plans to slash 2,000 jobs (30% of the workforce) to cut £75m from spending: already the redundancies are being pushed through - in batches of 29, to deny staff the 90 days notice due to groups of 30 or more.
In Glasgow, 3,500 jobs are at risk, and in other big cities thousands of NHS jobs are threatened. But smaller Trusts throughout England, Wales, Scotland and the north of Ireland are also cutting jobs in smaller numbers, after decisions taken by secretive Boards behind closed doors, and without attracting big headlines. In Warwickshire alone, 700 jobs have been slashed this year.
Desperate to cut spending to balance their books, all Trusts are looking at ways of cutting numbers of qualified and highly-skilled staff.
Amid a massive increase in numbers of managers on telephone number salaries, thousands of nurses, health visitors, and qualified support staff are being thrown out of work through 'skill mix reviews', sometimes to be replaced by less qualified, lower paid staff.
More and more students are completing nursing or other professional training to find there is no job for them. But these staff are not 'redundant. There is work literally waiting for them to do. As waiting lists soar above the million mark and hospitals struggle to cope with a new winter 'flu epidemic, it is clear the NHS is being stretched to breaking point.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! The unions have already let too many jobs disappear without a fight. The TUC demonstration on November 20 must mark the start of a concerted fightback in every hospital and 'Enough is Enough!' Assemble 11am Jubilee Gardens, London SE 1 (Waterloo tube)
RUMOUR has it that the new Department of Health head office in Leeds employs a senior manager with the exclusive task of promoting massive bed and hospital closure programmes along the lines of London's Tomlinson report.
The effort hardly seems necessary. Even in London, Tomlinson's proposal to axe ten SOCIALIST OUTLOOK LIBERATION supplement, November 13 1993 hospitals and 4,000 beds has already been overtaken by the galloping cash crisis created by the Tory internal market system.
So far 24 hospitals are under threat of closure in London, with more looking to make cutbacks, as tens of millions of pounds are removed from health budgets in the capital. No less than 13 of London's 17 purchasing health authorities stand to lose out, some losing as much as 10% of their budgets, as a result of the new funding formula introduced by the Tories.
But cash pressures are increasingly being felt by Trusts throughout the country, forcing managers to contemplate similarly massive cuts in hospital services.
Especially hard hit are the big cities. Hospitals in Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, Sheffield, Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast and other cities are being forced to close vital wards, beds and services for lack of cash.
Naturally, as they look for ways to dress up these cuts for public consumption, Trust bosses and health authorities are reaching for the rhetoric of the Tomlinson Report, which asbeds in SCOTLAND. Under current plans Glasgow stands to lose upwards of 1,200 beds, Tayside 900, Ayrshire and Arran 400 and Fife 250. Six hospitals face closure in Glasgow, including the Western Infirmary which according to UNISON faces a £9m overspend. • In the West Midlands, funds to buy treatment ran out only months into the financial year, bringing a halt to non-urgent surgery at the Alexandra Hospital, Redditch. Meanwhile to refer patients to the local Solihull hospital, since there is no money to pay for treatment. Consultants at the Good Hope Hospital in Sutton list patients, have been told to cancel all • The axe is swinging towards thousands of NHS Solihull's non fund-holding GPs have been told not Coldfield, who had been treating too many waiting
demo: NOV 20