{"id":82184,"date":"2025-05-09T06:27:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T05:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=82184"},"modified":"2025-05-09T06:33:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T05:33:00","slug":"labour-is-destroying-the-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/05\/09\/labour-is-destroying-the-nhs\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour is destroying the NHS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2025\/may\/09\/nhs-hospitals-england-cuts-financial-reset\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Guardian reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Hospitals in England are cutting staff, closing services and planning to ration care in order to make \u201ceye-watering\u201d savings demanded by NHS bosses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Rehabilitation centres face being shut, talking therapies services cut and beds for end-of-life care reduced as part of efforts by England\u2019s 215 NHS trusts to comply with a \u201cfinancial reset\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"sign-in-gate\">They add:<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England\u2019s new chief executive, has ordered them to make unprecedented savings during 2025-26 to avoid a projected \u00a36.6bn deficit becoming a reality.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>They then note:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Trusts are planning to shrink their workforce by up to 1,500 posts each to save money, even though they fear that could damage the quality or safety of care provided.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">A survey of 160 senior figures from 114 trusts found that:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\n<li class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">47% were cutting services and another 43% were considering doing so.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\n<li class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">37% were cutting clinical posts and a further 40% may follow suit.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\n<li class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">26% were closing some services and 55% more may do so.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">It seems necessary to note four things.<\/p>\n<p>First, people will suffer as a direct result of this.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the funding for these costs is available. Just end quantitative tightening, and the capacity of bond markets would be freed if Rachel Reeves insists she cannot raise taxes on wealth, which she very clearly could. She could also run unfunded deficits. There is nothing to stop her from doing so.<\/p>\n<p>Third, people voted Labour to save the NHS, not to destroy it. If it carries on as it is, people will end up accepting Farage\u2019s offer of a US-style privatised NHS funded by insurance premiums, disastrous as it would be, because Labour will have destroyed all the value that the NHS has supplied, and all for absolutely no economic gain.<\/p>\n<p>Fourth, the Assisted Dying Bill is back before the Commons next week, and NHS end-of-life care is being cut. I do not see these as unrelated events. It is impossible to do so.<\/p>\n<p>There is a sickness at the heart of this government. It is destroying the NHS. Nye Bevan would be profoundly ashamed of them. I doubt Labour can survive this. Nor do they deserve to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As The Guardian reports: Hospitals in England are cutting staff, closing services and planning to ration care in order to make \u201ceye-watering\u201d savings demanded by<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/05\/09\/labour-is-destroying-the-nhs\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,204,35,87,147,118,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-economic-justice","category-economics","category-health","category-inequality","category-labour","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82184"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82189,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82184\/revisions\/82189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}