London Health Emergency WAITING list NHS treatment for over 300,000 residents of north east London will grind to a halt in April, as the Redbridge and Waltham Forest health authority runs out of money.
The crisis situation spells out the desperate plight of some health authorities under the To ries' crazy market system.
The authority faces an end of year deficit of up to f6 million, with a further reduction in its budget for 1994/5 and in following years as a result of the Tory health reforms.
The only contracts health chiefs will place for 1994-5 will be for emergencies, maternity, urgent cases, and treating those waiting over 18 months.
Rocketing
There will be no elective admissions to Whipps Cross or the new £70 million King George Hospital at Goodmayes. Waiting lists at King George's, which rose 38% in the three months to last November, will rocket upwards.
The cuts mean that Redbridge Healthcare Trust which runs King George's faces a worse financial crisis, with a projected £2.5 million deficit next year.
Already the Trust has axed 35 jobs to save f600,000. Further cuts seem inevitable.
To add insult to injury, Redbridge residents could find that while they face a minimum 12 month wait for elective admission to their brand new local hospital, patients from neighbouring Barking & Havering could be admitted before them, because their health authority has just increased its contract with the Redbridge Trust.
Unions at King George's have already begun to organise a campaign of resistance to any further cuts, while Whipps Cross has seen consistent struggle against repeated cutbacks by the crisis- ridden Forest Healthcare Trust.
NO HEALTH CUTSI 585 fundholding family doctors are expected to share out a