Doctors warn of financial crisis in hospitals

Saturday, 27 August 2005 12:00 AM

Doctors' leaders are warning that a financial crisis hitting many hospitals in England could lead to further job losses and department closures.

The British Medical Association (BMA), which says it has received details of hospitals facing difficulties in trying to balance their books, has written to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt expressing doctors' concerns about future cuts.

Paul Miller, chairman of the BMA's consultants' committee warned in his letter that further cuts to hospital services would "pose a significant threat to patient care and innovation in the NHS".

Star ratings published by the Healthcare Commission last month showed that a quarter of NHS trusts in England ran a deficit last year. Some trusts having already introduced cost cutting measures such as placing restrictions on recruitment and closing hospital beds.

"We are deeply concerned that managers running frightened for their jobs are making knee-jerk decisions about the reduction or closure of services in response to short-term funding problems," Dr Miller said.

He added that consultants were increasingly infuriated that despite additional Government investment in the NHS, extra resources were not reaching front line health services.

Doctors had grave concerns about whether value for money was being achieved, Dr Miller said.

The BMA said it intended to survey all survey all NHS trusts in England to get a more accurate picture of the situation.

But the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health service managers, expressed disappointment that the BMA had attacked health bosses.

Dr Gill Morgan said it was "simply untrue" to suggest that managers making decisions about how to balance their budgets had no appreciation of the long term effects on patient care.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "Patient safety is top priority for the NHS and any actions that trusts take to manage to reduce the deficits should not lower the quality of care provided to patients."

"We have encouraged the NHS to use a range of strategies in order to reach financial balance without reducing spending on agency staff."

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