Cash-strapped NHS sheds 17,000 employees

Friday, 27 April 2007 12:00 AM

Financial problems in the NHS have led to a loss of frontline staff, opposition politicians have claimed.

The 2006 workforce survey shows the number of people employed by the health service has fallen by 17,000 since September 2005, including the loss of 2,456 qualified nurses.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb argued this shows the true scale of the financial crisis in the health service. He claims nurses and ambulance posts have been particularly affected by the cuts, leading to low morale and compromising patient safety.

"Doctors and nurses are the heartbeat of the NHS. It is crazy that we are investing in training more nurses and doctors but then cutting back on posts. This is a total failure of workforce planning," he argued.

However, the Department of Health (DoH) maintains frontline staff have not been targeted, arguing the number of full time doctors and nurses has increased while the number of NHS managers has fallen by 2,564.

But Mr Lamb rejected this as "government spinning and denial". Frontline medical jobs have been lost "as a direct result of this government's appalling mismanagement of the NHS," he argued.

Health minister Lord Hunt insisted the NHS is working to improve its frontline clinical capacity. The "small drop" in headcount must be put in the context of the 279,454 rise in staff numbers since 1997, he argued.

"We must also remember that the NHS continues to deliver for patients," Lord Hunt continued.

"This year we have record-breaking short waits for treatment and thousands of extra lives saved from improved cancer and heart care, meaning that 90 per cent of in-patients now rate their care as good or excellent."

NHS Employers further argues that the drop in staff numbers does not mean employees were made redundant but that these positions were "taken out of the system".

Director Steve Barnett said: "The number of actual redundancies in the NHS is small compared with the total number of posts that have been lost through vacancy freezes, reducing the use of agency and temporary staff and redeploying staff."

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• health
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• nhs
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• nhs organisation
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• nhs personnel
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• nhs spending