by Robin Sivapalan
Health Secretary Hewitt says the NHS will benefit from pain and instability.
The picture for Hackney:
- Homerton Hospital has a £7million shortfall – not because of financial mismanagement, but because of changes to the national tariff before the start of the financial year.
- Barts and the London, relied upon by Hackney residents for cardiac and cancer care, is set to lose £30million.
- City and Hackney Primary Care Trust, which provides local community services like health visiting and district nursing, has already lost around £13 million through a government initiative called ‘top slicing’. The PCT is now implementing smaller cuts (£701,000) as part of the government commissioning a ‘Patient-Led NHS policy’.
- The PCT is also signed up to the introduction of private GPs (already established in Hackney, but set to expand).
- Jobs lost under the ‘restructuring’ of the PCT, particularly affecting black and ethnic minority workers.
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