The BBC reports today that the NHS is facing the most severe and sustained financial shortfall in its history after 2011, according to a report by health service managers.
The NHS Confederation report says the health service in England will not survive unchanged and conference attendees have been told that they face an "extremely challenging" financial outlook.
The report reveals that the NHS in England is facing a real-terms reduction of between £8bn and £10bn over the three years after 2011.
During the same period the government plans to hand the European Union £30.6 bn (gross) or £18bn (net), despite EU auditors criticising the accuracy of the EU's accounts now for 14 years in a row. These audit failures are accompanied by regular reports of waste and fraud involving very large sums.
The report says that the cost of new treatments and the ageing population are two of the factors causing the inflation in the health service.
According to the OHE, the £8-10bn at stake would cover the costs of family or mental health services for one year, 2 years of cancer treatment, normal births for 27 years or over one and a half years of prescription charges.
When is the government going to take seriously the major funding threats essential public services face, and cut this scandalous and unjustifiable waste of billions of pound on an organisation that cannot tell us with any certainty how that money is being spent, yet whose employees and bureaucrats and MEPs clearly live a lavish lifestyle?
Showing posts with label health services. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health services. Show all posts
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Friday, 20 June 2008
Charity props up NHS cancer care
The NHS relies heavily on charitable donations for the treatment and support of children and teenagers with cancer, research reported by the BBC suggests.
Up to half of funding in NHS specialist cancer centres in England and Wales comes from charities, a team of health economists has calculated.
Some oncologists said without charity support many services would not exist.
The funding level raises questions about the government's responsibility for cancer care, the researchers say.
The report's author, Dr Dyfrig Hughes, said, "The take-home message is that it is a significant contribution towards work which arguably should be paid for by the NHS."
A total of 51 charities have been set up specifically to assist children with cancer and 340 charities had made some kind of financial contribution, the University of Bangor team report in the Journal of Child Health Care.
A further 28 organisations had been set up to provide funds for hospices.
Figures from 2003 show that between £25m and £38m (depending on the method of calculation used) of funding for cancer care came from national charities, compared with between £38m and £55m coming from the NHS.
Yet these sums are tiny factions of the amount of money the government pays to wasteful organisations like the EU, following the government's pledge to pay 63% more a year to the EU from last year.
With the net payments now reaching £115 million every single week - in total £6bn a year - even the upper figures given for cancer care amount to less than a week's money given to the audit-failing EU. Right priorities?
Study author, Dr Dyfrig Hughes, said the charity figures could be an underestimate, as they did not include the many hospital and local charities which also provide funding.
"For things which might be labelled as luxury that's fine, but essential things should come from central resources to ensure equal access," he said.
Up to half of funding in NHS specialist cancer centres in England and Wales comes from charities, a team of health economists has calculated.
Some oncologists said without charity support many services would not exist.
The funding level raises questions about the government's responsibility for cancer care, the researchers say.
The report's author, Dr Dyfrig Hughes, said, "The take-home message is that it is a significant contribution towards work which arguably should be paid for by the NHS."
A total of 51 charities have been set up specifically to assist children with cancer and 340 charities had made some kind of financial contribution, the University of Bangor team report in the Journal of Child Health Care.
A further 28 organisations had been set up to provide funds for hospices.
Figures from 2003 show that between £25m and £38m (depending on the method of calculation used) of funding for cancer care came from national charities, compared with between £38m and £55m coming from the NHS.
Yet these sums are tiny factions of the amount of money the government pays to wasteful organisations like the EU, following the government's pledge to pay 63% more a year to the EU from last year.
With the net payments now reaching £115 million every single week - in total £6bn a year - even the upper figures given for cancer care amount to less than a week's money given to the audit-failing EU. Right priorities?
Study author, Dr Dyfrig Hughes, said the charity figures could be an underestimate, as they did not include the many hospital and local charities which also provide funding.
"For things which might be labelled as luxury that's fine, but essential things should come from central resources to ensure equal access," he said.
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