Health minister Simon Burns has insisted that the NHS must make frontline services a “priority” as new figures were released by a union showing clinical staff accounting for half of planned job losses in the health service.
Mr Burns said a survey from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) showing that almost 40,000 NHS posts across the UK face being lost over the next three years “flies in the face” of government workforce data showing a rise in the number of doctors and nurses.
“What is important and what the government and the Department of Health have made quite plain to the NHS is that priority has got to be given to protecting and supporting frontline services,” Mr Burns told BBC Breakfast.
“We are honouring our pledge for real-terms increases in funding, there is this £20bn efficiency saving where every single penny has got to be reinvested in frontline services so that patients are at the heart of care.”
Mr Burns said, for the 15 months up to the end of December last year, the number of nurses in the NHS increased by 2,677. Even in the last quarter of 2010 the number of nurses rose by just over 1,200, he said. He added that there was also an increase of around 3,000 doctors.
His remarks come as Dr Peter Carter, RCN chief executive, said it was a “myth” that the government was protecting the front line against cuts and said shedding staff could have “catastrophic consequences” for patient safety and care.
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