Responding to the report, UNISON head of health Christina McAnea said:
“This report is yet more evidence that the Health and Social Care Act should never have got past the Bill stage, and it highlights the very serious financial problems facing the NHS.
“What with the dual threat of the £20bn of so-called ‘efficiency savings’ and the enormous burden of PFI repayments, this report raises very serious questions about how these ongoing financial problems are likely to affect the quality of care for patients.
“Austerity isn’t working, yet the government persists with an agenda that puts the health of the public at significant risk.
“What is apparent from this report is that the government still doesn’t have a plan B to solve the financial problems of the NHS, other than carve it up and sell it off to the highest bidder, regardless of their records on patient satisfaction or quality of care.
“There is no clear message from the government on what should happen when hospitals fail financially. Hospitals are too important to fail, but in the new cut-throat market free-for-all they’ve created, that prospect becomes more and more likely, and the only people to suffer are the sick and the vulnerable.”
ENDS
