The soverment s behted doction to somip means teetee charges for nursing care in nursing homes (all of which are privately owned) represents a step forward.
but leaving soca care subec. to mantes puts crucal cea sions in the hands of private, profit-seeking institutions. As pensioners leader lack lones said Residential and nursing homes will find themselves in the ridiculous position of having to start the meter running every time someone wanes help to Worse, the proposal to establish new "Care Trusts" talon charge of care spanning charges for care, eroding a fundamental principle of care being provided free at point of use and funded from taxation.
Tion of 5600m wa ealth and social services means that fo harder to reduce them. Brown has hidden behind of Intensive Therapy Unit ying rhetoric while holding beds and other specialist serHS spending to the impo vices can be deli nered sibly tight limits set by the But short-sichted limits on Tories, creating a massive NHS pay, lagging far behind it harder to recruit vital support staff, whose efforts keep By the time the first injec- hospitals running. 1 0 a sperate NI PS The third big problem is Swat tac praca capausion almost all soaked up by exist- of "acute" ing debts and deficits, bring- cal beds - with an extra 2,000 promised or 2004 - is TOo htservices. Waiting lists, too, tle to compensate for the have been inflated by the massive extent of the bed making it crosures sorcca tatouga b) 21 ycars of Tory cash limits. (short-stay) hospiworkers, trade unions, or campaigners. haps penon on the cu ra Cil ams uriley to ofter any A new Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service (PALS) will also be ach hospital, to "act as an independent facilitator" to handle But the danger of the new PALS being sucked into acting as PR for the Trusts must be as great or even greater than the pressures Thene have already been a desultory attempt to lunch a campaign in defence of CHCs: at face value, there is a good case But few CHCs have any stomach for a fight: most have diously avoided any campaigning activity or contact with health This leaves the few good C-iCs a soft target for Milburn and his
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