Yet more broken government promises on NHS

The drop in NHS spending is yet another broken promise from a broken government, UNISON said today, describing the Autumn Statement as a ‘crushing disappointment’.

The Autumn Statement was time for the government to stop hiding behind lies and broken promises, and to make the real investment needed to protect patients, and the services they depend upon, the union said today.

Christina McAnea, UNISON head of health said:

“The Autumn Statement is a crushing disappointment, and has effectively ignored the damage austerity has done to the NHS. Hospitals are full to bursting, and 6000 nurses have already been lost since the coalition came to power.

“The UK Statistics Agency findings come as little surprise to us, they represent yet another broken promise from a broken government that is failing to protect the services on which patients desperately rely.

“These findings will be disheartening for NHS staff, who have been working hard to maintain services in the face of the 20bn of so called ‘efficiency savings’. Osborne promised these savings would be reinvested back into patient care, but this is plainly not the case.

“The government’s lies about NHS funding have been caught out; the Autumn Statement should have been high time to end the smoke and mirrors, and to make good on the promise to invest and reinvest savings into patient care. But it did not. The health of the nation is too valuable to put at risk.”

UK Statistics Agency chair Andrew Dilnot has demanded clarification from Jeremy Hunt on claims that NHS spending has gone up, after an investigation from the watchdog concluded that in real terms it was lower in 2011/12 than it was in 2009/10.

ENDS