Trust in debt asks staff to work for no wages

The Daily Telegraph reports today that a health trust is asking doctors and nurses to work without pay because it is millions of pounds in debt.

Managers at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust have written to workers at its three hospitals to see if they will put in a day's work as "a voluntary contribution".

The trust, which has cut services because of a £16 million deficit last year (NB. not even a day's worth of cash that's flowing to the EU) is also encouraging staff to postpone taking a week's holiday to "help avoid additional costs".

Bolton: Hospital cuts and services protest demo

Angry demonstrators walked from the town centre to the Royal Bolton Hospital to protest at the latest proposed cuts in jobs and services, reports the Bolton News.

The procession was organised by Unison, the staff union at the hospital.

Last week regional health bosses, NHS North-West, announced plans to move initial tests in ear, nose and throat, urology, gynaecology, general surgery and orthopaedics into independently-run Clinical Assessment Treatment Centres.

Hospital chiefs predict this will result in £3.7 million being cut from the Royal Bolton’s yearly budget and the loss of up to 130 jobs.

Brighton: £9m spending cuts planned

Town hall bosses are looking at £9 million of cuts to services next year to keep council tax below the Government cap of 5% - reports The Argus.

Although the budget has yet to be released, The Argus understands there is a funding gap between what Brighton and Hove City Council needs to spend to maintain services and its Government grant.

It is about 5% of the total budget of £200 million.

In November, it emerged the council would have to find £20 million in savings in the next three years to keep council tax below 4.9%.

This is on top of £3 million of cuts to street cleaning and social services to balance the overspend so far this financial year.

It now appears the council needs to find £9 million in cuts to balance the books next year.

More than 111 posts are expected to be axed, including 24 positions in social services and others from management and administrative roles.

A maximum of 46 redundancies were planned but Unison said the number was falling due to a number of departures and people being moved to different departments.

Adult social services will see savings of £1.7 million, including cuts to agency staff. Schemes such as the Palmeira Project, which looked after disabled children, will now be moved to an alternative service at The Drove in Portslade.

Green councillor Simon Williams said: "We are now seeing the effects of the Government's poor grant settlement to Brighton and Hove City Council biting into services for some of the most vulnerable people in the community.

"While the council has tried to minimise the impact on service-users, it's an inescapable fact that, with job cuts totalling two per cent of the wage budget, services for some of the most vulnerable in our community will suffer."

Leader of the council Simon Burgess said "We are always having to run to keep still, that is why council tax goes up.

"Where we make savings other things start costing more.

"The costs of looking after the elderly, young people and the environment, for instance, is always increasing and we have to carry on caring for people even while Government isn't meeting the increasing costs."

Councillor Paul Elgood said: "We are now concerned cuts are going to be made to frontline services and we are going to lose some of our best staff."

Harlow: Closure still an option for NHS walk-in centre

The long term future of Harlow’s walk-in centre is still hanging in the balance, according to the local health chief – reports the Harlow Star.

West Essex Primary Care Trust chief executive Aidan Thomas has confirmed that closure is one of the options he is looking at for the Wych Elm centre.

Mr Thomas told a press conference on Tuesday than nationwide government cuts in the NHS had left the PCT no choice but to look at a number of money-saving ideas. A new PCT strategy is being launched to make £8.5 million of annual savings in future in order to meet government targets.

The PCT has to cut around £750,000 from centre costs to meet the budget shortfall.

Savings elsewhere of £300,000 are set to be made by revising long-term medication prescriptions, and a further £800,000 by giving heart patients cheaper medicine.

Harlow MP Bill Rammell is quoted as saying: "I will do everything in my power to stop closure; I do not believe it will close."

But would that include voting against the EU budget deal, which would save vastly more than the cash needed to keep this centre open?

Sussex: Police facing cuts of £9.4m

Wide-ranging cuts to policing in Sussex are needed to fill a multi-million pound "black hole" in funding caused by government cuts - reports The Argus.

MPs and the Police Federation reacted with fury to news that up to £9.4 million savings must be made by 2010.

Accountants Ernst & Young have already been brought in by Sussex Police to look at the problem and Deputy Chief Constable Geoff Williams has been tasked with leading the "2010 challenge".

The problem is caused by a funding gap between the money likely to be available from government grant and council tax and the amount required to maintain current spending levels.

Sussex Police says it wants to find ways of saving money which will have a minimal effect on frontline policing.

But cuts will have to be made when the projected funding problems begin in 2008 and the Ernst & Young report examined several options for what it described as "disinvestment opportunities".

Among the savings being looked at are:

* Reducing the opening hours of smaller police stations.
* Amalgamating Worthing and Adur districts, and a review of how the Gatwick district fits into the county's force.
* Reducing diversity training.
* Sharing the £500,000-a-year police helicopter with Kent and Surrey.
* Scrapping bonus payments to officers and changing the current shift pattern, described as "not fit for purpose".
* Closing a police training centre, based at a former nuclear bunker site in Kingstanding, near Duddleswell in Ashdown Forest.
* Closing the police's occupational health unit and library.
* Selling off old police station sites in Lewes, Worthing, Crowborough and Petworth - although the towns would be provided with new police stations.

Sussex Police says that if savings are not made it could find itself in the red by between £6.2m and £9.4m in 2010.

Deputy Chief Constable Williams said: "We remain committed to local neighbourhood policing and to strengthening protective services. But we must achieve this against a backdrop of diminishing resources.

Continued effort in reducing the overall budget will now become a regular feature of Force business."

Mark White, secretary of the Sussex Police Federation, said: "Like the police authority, we are disgusted with the lack of government financial support, given that Sussex is already one of the poorest-funded forces in England.

"The Government sets us more and more targets and hoops to jump through and yet it is not willing to give us the money to achieve this. It is disgraceful that when this country is facing the greatest terrorist threat it has ever known, we are expected to fight it with ever-dwindling funds.

"We are a frontline county in the fight against terrorism with our vast coastline and one of the busiest airports in the world. Surely ensuring that we receive adequate funding to continue that fight should be a priority."

MPs were equally furious with the plans.

Wealden MP Charles Hendry said: "This is a retrograde step. The police have been trying to provide longer opening hours and use stations as custody centres, particularly in Crowborough and Hailsham.

"It was starting to make people feel more confident about policing in rural areas and this will totally undermine all the good work. It will be greeted with great dismay."

Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley said of the proposal to merge districts: "MPs will be protesting to the Home Secretary that making a mess of our local policing is not something he needs to do. He should fight the Treasury if necessary."

Lewes MP Norman Baker said: "They are unwelcome and slightly desperate measures. I will strongly oppose any cuts to hours in police stations in my constituency.

"We should be going in the opposite direction, not having closed' signs all over the place. Ernst & Young needs to understand these are not disinvestment opportunities' but cuts."

Ernst & Young urged the police force to make sure that all planning around cuts "is clear and transparent" as this will "help to guard against potential concerns by those working for the force".

Grantham: Future looks "gloomy" for Grantham Hospital

The future looks "gloomy" for Grantham Hospital according to members of a group put together suggest a range of options for services - reports the Grantham Journal.

Grantham's Clinical Reference Group - which comprises medical staff from the hospital, managers, a GP and a patient representative - is working to develop medically safe options for the town's services.

But documents given to the Journal in November showed divisions among consultants over what services are safe and how to approach the future of the hospital.

Former hospital medical director Jim Campbell told the meeting he regretted supporting the removal of Level 3 critical care from Grantham.

A&E consultant George Oduro said he believed the position of Grantham Hospital was irretrievable and that the Trust was moving towards one main hospital with a series of smaller supporting hospitals.

He also said managers were trying to shift responsibility for the decision to downgrade Grantham Hospital on to clinicians.

Harrogate: Residents set to face council tax increase

Council tax in Harrogate could go up by 4.4%, reports the Harrogate Advertiser.

Harrogate Borough Councillors are being asked to approve the rise – which is the same as last year’s increase – as part of next year’s budget.

The budget, has already been approved by the council’s cabinet and is set to go to the scrutiny committee and before the full council for final approval.

- Article contributed by: P.C, Dishforth

Tuition fees 'may rise to £6,000

A survey of England's university managers has raised fears of tuition fees rising to at least £6,000 a year, with fees for some science courses potentially reaching £10,000 - reports the BBC.

Vice-chancellors from the Russell Group - the top 20 universities which conduct the most research - said maximum fees of £3,000 would have to at least double following a review of the system in 2009.

A questionnaire was sent by the Guardian newspaper to every university in England, almost all of which charge the maximum £3,000 fee. Some 40 vice-chancellors responded - most anonymously

One Russell Group head suggested families should expect to save much more for their children's education.

Comparing the average funds available to teach an undergraduate in England, £7,300, with those available in the United States - some £11,500, he said there were only two ways to bridge the gap.

"One is by increased government grant, which seems unlikely in the present circumstances, the other is by a higher tuition fee charge," he added.

If the government claims that it's not affordable to improve the quality of Britain's university graduates by contributing to resources available to teaching, rather than allowing universities to pile yet more financial burdens on students, then it's clearly time to cut unjustified government spending from elsewhere.

The government claims that education is a top priority. But that doesn't really match with forcing still more debt onto students while planning to waste £115 million every week on payments to the European Union.

Essex: Police support funding cut by £2.6m

Funding for hundreds of police community support officers (PCSOs) in Essex has been slashed by £2.6m, reports the Colchester Evening Gazette.

Top officers in the county say the cutbacks will mean cash for nearly 200 PCSOs will have to be found from elsewhere, possibly by upping the force’s council tax quota.

The news comes after the Home Office scaled back its recruitment targets for PCSOs from 24,000 to 16,000.

Robert Chambers, chairman of the Essex Police Authority, said: "We were going to get our quota of the PCSOs but, because there is now only funding for 16,000, we won’t be getting our funding."

- Article contributed by: Mr & Mrs L.C. M, Colchester

Health care cuts are 'half-baked' policies

Compulsory redundancies could cripple' our hospitals and cause residents' confidence in the NHS to plummet, it has been claimed - according to the Richmond & Twickenham Times.

According to research by the London Assembly Conservatives, as many as 2,500 jobs could be axed in NHS health trusts across south-west London, including Hounslow, Kingston and Richmond.

Tony Arbour, Richmond and Hounslow's Assembly member, said: "These latest figures show just how much this Government's half-baked policies are destabilising the NHS and making the work of local Primary Care Trusts and hospitals virtually impossible."

The research comes after a leaked Department of Health memo recently revealed there will be a critical shortage of nurses and GPs in the longer term. The memo contained proposals for 37,000 NHS job cuts across the capital within the next 12 months.

Tony Arbour AM added: "The prospect of job losses across the NHS in Hounslow, Kingston and Richmond will not only be unsettling for the staff themselves, but patients will also continue to lose confidence in the services the NHS should be providing at critical times in their lives.

"Kingston and the West Middlesex hospitals could be crippled if these proposals are implemented. I and my colleagues will resist them."

Kingston hospital, where many borough residents receive treatment, say they have been holding a number of vacant posts in anticipation of reduced activity or income and efficiency savings.

They confirmed that 20 clinical and administrative staff are at risk of redundancy, but claim that many of these will be redeployed into vacant posts within the trust.

A spokesman said: "The trust's consultation on workforce reductions has come to an end and decisions have been made as a result of feedback from staff and unions and it is vital to clarify that not all staff at risk will be made redundant."

Police face cuts in cash squeeze

Police forces have warned Ministers they may have to cut officer numbers because of a squeeze on funding, reports the Yorkshire Post.

A document prepared by the Association of Chief Police Officers and Association of Police Authorities says that Treasury-imposed budget curbs could have a "significant impact" on local policing.

The Police Federation, representing more than 140,000 officers, says that growing demands on the service to provide high visibility policing and combat anti-social behaviour mean forces need a five percent a year increase in funding simply to stand still.

Chairman Jan Berry told Sky News: "We’re having enough trouble at the moment keeping our head above water."

Yet the Home Office will only receive a funding increase of 2.7% a year between 2008 and 2011.

Look on bright side says hospital boss

The head of a hospital trust battling to get its finances under control has urged staff to look on the bright side following a series of cuts - reports The Argus.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has been working to save £15 million and this has led to workers being made redundant and beds being closed.

The trust also has one of the highest MRSA rates in the country.

A consistently high number of bed-blocking patients have to stay in hospital longer than necessary until other organisations such as social services can sort out a care home place for them or provide proper support in their own home.

In a New Year message to staff, chief executive Peter Coles said improvements had been made but there was still a lot of work to be done and the next few months would be a challenge.

The message follows the news earlier this month that hundreds of hospital workers could strike after a union representative from GMB complained he was "frog marched" out of the building when he was made redundant.

Mark Thomas was escorted from the Royal Sussex by security guards after being called into a meeting and told he was losing his job as part of 500 cuts in posts at the trust. The trust plans to cut 40 jobs from its facilities department, where Mr Thomas worked, over the next month.

GMB branch secretary Mark Turner said: "Of course it has been tough but it has mainly been tough for those at the lower levels who are having to pay for the incompetence of management that allowed the finances to get into the state they did.

"Morale is at rock bottom at the moment and the next few months are going to be even harder."

Wimbledon: Patients hit by high drug costs

A radical shake up in prescribing medicine could mean some of the borough’s sickest residents are forced to pay more for drugs – reports the Wimbledon Guardian.

Since January, doctor’s surgeries in Sutton and Merton have been encouraged by the primary care trust (PCT) to prescribe regular medication to last for 28 days at a time.

This could result in some patients on regular medication having to fork out a prescription charge of £6.65 every month, rather than paying the same charge for a longer-lasting supply.

Geoff Martin, head of campaigns for pressure group Health Emergency and a Unison official said: "It sounds to me like the PCT is using this as an opportunity to claw back more money and will hit some people very hard in the pocket.

One Merton resident, who did not wish to be named, used to pay £13.30 for a six-month supply of two types of drugs she has taken regularly since having cancer.

She is furious about the new regime, now facing a £159.60 a annual bill, saying: "I may have to do without one of the drugs now, if I can’t afford it."

- Article contributed by: R.A. C-H, Wimbledon

Leeds: Shortage of midwives blamed in baby death inquest

A shortage of midwives was blamed at an inquest last month as a factor in the death of a baby girl at Leeds General Infirmary, reports the Yorkshire Post.

Caitlin Rose Simpson died suddenly after birth as a result of an infection which could have been prevented if her mother had been induced sooner, the hearing was told.

It took almost three days from when mother-of-four Janine Howarth’s waters broke to her giving birth, because of a lack of beds and medical staff in the delivery suite.

Yorkshire: Cut is “severe blow” to police cover

The chairman of Humberside Police Authority has described a Home Office refusal to reinstate funding for Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) as a "severe blow" to neighbourhood policing – reports the Yorkshire Post.

Cllr Graham Stroud and Chief Constable Tim Hollis wrote a joint letter to Ministers asking them to reconsider a decision to withdraw funding for PCSOs announced in December.

Cllr Stroud said: "We had the courage to advance our recruitment of PCSOs, fully believing the government would honour its commitment to help us fund our programme.

"Now we are left in a very difficult position. The unprecedented pressure on police budgets is so severe that it is unlikely that we will even be in a standstill position … this could also mean that police officer numbers will be put seriously at risk."

Recruitment of PCSOs had been a major strand of Labour’s 2005 General Election manifesto.

But the U-turn on the second phase of the programme is likely to leave Yorkshire with 600 fewer PCSOs by 2008 than voters were promised.

Sadly the money to pay for these PCSOs and much more besides was promised in December 2005 to the European Union instead. An extra £2.5bn a year was awarded to the EU by Tony Blair despite auditors having been unable to tell us how the EU has spent the tens of billions of pounds of public money it has already received over the last twelve years.

Policing is just one of many public services which are now set to suffer.

Struggling midwives left feeling the pain

The Royal College of Midwives today released a survey of heads of midwifery across the country which has revealed that, while births are on the rise, two thirds claim that their units were understaffed and more than one in five saying they had lost staff last year.

Quoted in the Daily Telegraph, Louise Silverton, the deputy general secretary of the college said:

"Heads of midwifery are in charge of making sure that women have a good birthing experience and that is very hard when a third of those who responded to our survey said their maternity services budget had been cut, that a total recruitment freeze was still in place in many units and that newly-qualified midwives are not getting jobs.

"This survey should make it very clear that maternity services are being pared back at a time when the Government's manifesto pledges to give all women choice over where and how they give birth as well as being supported by the same midwife throughout her pregnancy.

"Unless midwifery services are expanded there is no hope of these manifesto commitments being achieved."

The report goes on to cite cutbacks in the use of qualified staff and in training budgets, with a third saying their training budget had been cut by more than 75% and two thirds by over 50%. 66% of senior midwives who responded also reported that their NHS trusts were in deficit in 2005-06.

MPs need to decide whether, faced with clear shortages such as this, they are going to approve sending billions more pounds to the audit-failing EU when the EU budget deal comes before Parliament, or more properly save that money for such essential services.

Particularly Labour MPs, when such a service relates to a clear manifesto commitment.

Business training for the police to cut £250m

Facing cuts in government funding, police forces are being advised by the Treasury to focus much more on getting 'value for money' from investigations, reports the Daily Telegraph.

One proposal is for officers and every new recruit to be given business management training, as the Treasury is distressed that police officers 'lack business skills'.

The Treasury is looking to save £250 million each year, equating to £37m a year needed to be saved by large forces like those in Devon and Cornwall, with an annual budget of around £248m.

Demonstrating the likely result of such cuts, the reports cites the example of the Durham Constabulary, which recently announced that it is shedding 100 officers.

Yet the savings of £250 million a year that the government is seeking to make, and is likely to have a frontline impact on police performance, represent just over two weeks worth of our contributions of the EU budget (at £115 million a week net, from 2007).

Just two weeks of not paying the EU would prevent these cutbacks having to be made to essential police resources. Where are our MPs' priorities?

Operations cancelled as NHS runs out of money

In this report on January 4th, The Times summarises the ongoing financial crisis in the NHS and its serious implications for patients.

It cites examples from across the country of how the NHS is having to deny patients basic surgery in order to balance their books before the end of the financial year.

Cutbacks include the cancellation of routine operations that would treat basic but painful problems such as wisdom teeth, bunions, knee complaints and bad backs.

Patients are also being warned to expect long delays before getting appointments - already up to 16 weeks in Yorkshire and 17 weeks in Norfolk.

The cause of these problems remains the deficits many NHS trusts are facing and their attempts to cut their expenditure in order to recover their debts before the end of the financial year in April.

The North York and Yorkshire Primary Care Trust is named as having a deficit of £24 million - which means patients in Yorkshire are being left in pain for months on end for an amount of money that equals less that two days worth of our contributions to the European Union budget.

Would many really notice the effect on their lives if the EU were denied a mere couple of days worth of our payments? Unlikely. Yet thousands of patients in pain would certainly be relieved if the NHS were given the money instead.

MPs need to show where their priorities really lie and vote against the EU budget deal authorising billions more pounds for the already lavishly-funded EU, so that the money can be spent far more effectively on essential public services instead.

NHS scandal as 37,000 jobs go

The Daily Express today exposes a secret government report that predicts a crippling shortage of nurses, paltry pay rises, job cuts and strikes in the NHS.

At least 37,000 jobs are thought to be in danger this year alone as the government seeks to lower the NHS’s wage bill through a 2.7% cut in the workforce.

The leaked document, given to the Health Service Journal, shows that by 2010 there will be a shortage of 14,000 nurses, 1,200 GPs and 1,100 junior doctors. Around 3,200 hospital consultant positions will also have been shelved because the NHS will not be able to pay them.

One solution the document proposes to the crisis of a lack of funds is to prevent young doctors becoming consultants. Instead a cheaper grade of staff called a "sub-consultant", would be created.

It also suggested that nurses could switch to "local" pay scales, which would take more account of the relative worth of the area in which they worked, effectively meaning some nurses could face pay cuts.

Janet Davies of the Royal College of Nursing is quoted saying: "All this at a time when nurses are being made redundant, newly qualified nurses can’t find work and thousands of NHS posts are being lost up and down the country."

Dr Jonathan Fielden, chairman of the BMA’s consultants’ committee is also quoted, saying: "It is absurd to suggest that the NHS needs fewer hospital consultants. To suggest that there should be fewer consultants, and of a lower grade, will destroy the gold standard of specialist care that patients rightly deserve."