NHS Update

.Although this is lifted directly from the Guardian it is late. It was just too important not to post on it's own thread. It confirms entirely my suspicions in an earlier post, http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/2010/10/if-you-care-about-nhs-you-must-read.html

...."Meanwhile, sources in Westminster have told the Guardian that the NHS will shrink by "a fifth" with a radical overhaul of the treatments offered to patients and the sweeping relocation of many services because rising demand will outstrip the resources available to the health service.

Although the health budget is ring-fenced, many within the service say that cost pressures are rising far faster than taxpayer funding.

This week the chancellor will announce that £500m will be taken from the NHS to pay for cuts in local authorities' social care budget, arguing that it is better for the elderly to be in residential homes than in ward beds.

In order to save money, it has emerged NHS trusts are already closing surgical wards, no longer making available treatments considered non-life threatening such as in vitro fertilisation and denying many basic operations on the grounds of cost.

One source close to the government told the Guardian: "A fifth of everything the NHS does today will stop."

The NHS Confederation, which represents 95% of organisations in the health service, warns that even with protection of its budget the health service will still be "hard hit" by spending cuts and called for political leaders to be "frank and realistic about the impact on the public".

Nigel Edwards, the confederation's acting chief executive, said: "The public need to go into this with their eyes wide open. The NHS may have some limited protection to its budget but it still faces a potent cocktail of financial pressures."

The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/17/george-osborne-cuts-spending-review