Crunch time for the national health service

Wed, 03 Jan 2007

English healthcare faces a testing time this year, a conclusion that may drive even greater levels of people to seek private health insurance and health cash plans. According to a new study, deficits in the NHS must be resolved this year if an improvement is to be made. Experts from the Department of Health have dismissed the findings.

The study was conducted by the thinktank Reform, and argues that the present government, due to a failure to meet costs and invest in modernisation, has weakened the health service . The Department of Health were quick to dismiss the findings, instead making it clear that the NHS remains steady.

The lead researcher, professor Bosanquet of Imperial College London, said: "The DoH has been so busy fire-fighting that it has not developed a process for getting real value. The beginning is the abolition of deficits to allow a fresh start; then investment in new services and competition can follow."

A DoH spokesman retorted: "By the end of the current financial year the NHS will be in overall balance, and by the end of 2007/08 it will deliver a surplus. But there is no question of deficits being wiped out. It would be unfair for overspending organisations to [be] bailed out by those that underspend. Reform has already led to greater choice for patients of where they go for treatment, record low waiting times, a fall in deaths from the big killer diseases and services being delivered in a community setting - meaning increasingly efficient use of resources and better, more convenient care for patients."
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