England’s biggest hospitals veto NHS budget over patient safety fears

[Northerner]

England’s biggest hospitals are refusing to sign off their annual budget deal with the NHS, claiming that the £1.7bn of cuts involved will mean they can no longer guarantee the safe care of patients.

In an unprecedented move, hospitals that provide 75% of all NHS hospital care, have vetoed plans drawn up by Monitor, the NHS’s financial regulator, to reduce their income to help the service balance its books.

“We have now reached the point where patient care is at risk,” the hospitals said.

NHS Providers, which represents 94% of hospitals, said its members could no longer “achieve the impossible” by absorbing a fifth successive year of cuts to the payments they receive for treating patients under the tariff system.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/...pitals-refuse-nhs-budget-patient-safety-fears

 

[trophywench]

Good for them!

We await the outcome with interest ..........

 

[HOBIE]

Does that mean the staff wont be able to park right outside & leave there cars ALL day. 🙂

 

[trophywench]

This isn't about carparking anyway - it's staffing levels in the whole hospital.

There's been enough fuss already about there not being enough nurses on wards as it is and how the heck can they get rid of nurses and doctors and admin staff, porters etc and keep the consulting, investigations and response times within reason, let alone the inpatient care.

I don't WANT surgeons to have to work longer hours for the same money Hobie, if I have to have a major op I want him to be bright-eyed and bushy tailed when he does it, not knackered from doing 2 other major ops that day. I don't want a consultant to be too tired to listen to me or work out what's wrong with me. I don't want the MRI scanner who looks at the pictures, to not notice something. That's how mistakes are made when everybody is tired.

Would you work longer hours for no more pay?

They already can't recruit people into Diabetology locally as the newly qualified do their stint in the clinic - see the Consultants rushing off to do ward rounds and deal with emergencies - and decide it's far too busy for them.