Government plans for NHS ‘efficiency savings’ cannot be delivered without rationing of services, Labour’s new shadow health secretary has warned.
Speaking on the closing day of the party’s annual conference in Brighton today, Heidi Alexander said she would ‘fight the Tories’ with ‘every bone in her body’ in a bid to save the NHS from cuts.
On the Government’s plan to plug the forecasted £30bn NHS funding gap with just £8bn, Ms Alexander said that ‘savings on this scale cannot be delivered without putting patient care at risk’.
She said: ’Everyone knows it, but I’m prepared to say it. These “efficiencies” will mean cuts to staff, cuts to pay, rationing of treatments.’
Ms Alexander said that Labour ‘will not sign up to these plans to squeeze the NHS when those who work in the NHS say this would harm services’, telling Prime Minister David Cameron: ‘If you press ahead with plans that put patient care at risk, get prepared for the fight of your life.’…
Read full article in Pulse.