‘It’s a cover up to deny public true picture of the NHS,’ said Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth. ‘We demand full transparency so everyone knows the real state of the NHS when casting their vote’
Government officials have been accused of a “cover up” over a reported delay in the publication of NHS trust deficit figures until after the general election.
The data, which will show the full scale of the deficit posted by trusts in England in the last financial year, had been scheduled to be published next Thursday – two weeks ahead of the election on 8 June.
But, according to the BBC, the figures will not be released as scheduled due to “purdah rules”, which ban the Government from making any kind of announcement about new or controversial initiatives or laws that could sway the outcome of the vote during an election campaign.
NHS Improvement, which expected to publish the figures next week, had estimated an end of a year deficit of £750-850m earlier this year, but it is predicted to exceed this.
Full story in The Independent 19 May 2017