Hewitt under fire from NHS staff

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has come under fire from NHS staff over job losses caused by government reforms.

Mrs Hewitt defended the reforms at the Unison conference in Gateshead as she was heckled by angry delegates.

Amid boos and hisses from the crowd, the Health Secretary said that only 7% of NHS organisations were responsible for 50% of the NHS' debt.

She said: "We've written a very big cheque for the NHS and we are proud of it. But it's not a blank cheque, it never has been and it never will be."

Mrs Hewitt said that change and reform were necessary if the founding ethics of the NHS were to be preserved.

More than 7,000 job losses have been announced by NHS Trusts in England and it is feared that as many as 13,000 jobs could be lost due to government reforms.

Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis warned that NHS staff may resort to industrial action over the job cuts. He said: "We are being told that somehow jobs will be disappeared or left unfilled without patients and staff feeling the pain - what utter nonsense.

"Unison cannot stand by and watch staff suffer in this climate of fear. We will be supporting members who feel that they have no option left other than industrial action to protect jobs and services.

"We will not stand by and watch our members made scapegoats for hospital debt. The Department of Health has been disingenuous about why, after so much investment, the NHS is now in financial difficulty. It's as if Trusts have somehow frittered away all they have been given. The truth is so extraordinary it is hardly believable."

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "The Labour Party is no longer the party of the NHS. The government is now saying it is prepared to see the NHS die.

"The government is in total denial about the NHS crisis. Labour's financial mismanagement of our NHS is responsible for redundancies and cuts across the country. Their boom and bust approach is costing us millions, as thousands of doctors and nurses - trained at vast expense to taxpayers - are being made redundant. This is an appalling waste of capacity."

(KMcA)