Left Foot Forward reveals the truth behind the Tory-supporting Sun’s alarming claims about NHS spending - there were 72,000 extra nurses between 1998 and 2008.
The Sun has launched an unfounded attack on the Government’s record on the NHS. In an editorial last Friday they claimed that Labour’s increased investment in the health service “hasn’t gone on nursing staff” but “penpushers”.
This is simply wrong. According to the NHS Information Centre’s 1998-2008 Staff Overview report there have been an extra 270,000 staff – of which just 16,000 are new managers.
There have been:
• 39,000 extra doctors;
• 72,000 extra nurses;
• 18,000 extra therapists;
• 20,000 extra qualified scientists and technicians;
• 64,000 extra clinical support staff.
The other figures they quote, from a Conservative party Freedom of Information request on doctors on duty in A&E departments at night are irrelevant. The College of Emergency Medicine state that:
“Emergency Departments (ED) should have an Emergency Medicine (EM) Consultant on-call at all times”
It would be inefficient to have senior doctors sitting in empty rural emergency departments, as many of the ones cited by the paper are, but they are on hand if necessary. This is backed up by the standards from the college which outline the duties of an EM consultant:
“A significant proportion of this work will require the consultant to be present within ‘normal’ working hours, to enable engagement with other specialties and Trust management.
“An on-call EM consultant may return to the ED to provide direct senior clinical input into selected, serious cases as well as providing telephone advice on clinical, medico-legal and ethical issues.”
16 Responses to “EXPOSED: The Sun’s false claims that NHS spending “hasn’t gone on nursing staff””
Reuben
IMHO the distinction between good spending on nurses and doctors and bad spending on managers is a bit of a red herring. The fact that nurses and doctors have a direct and tangible role in actually fixing people seems to give rise to the utterly idiotic impression that they are who the only ones who add value. In reality the NHS is a massive organisation, continually faced with huge, important and difficult questions of resource allocation – amongst other things. Quite a few highly skilled ‘pen pushers’ might actually be a good thing.
Anon E Mouse
Shamik – I probably wouldn’t have published this story. Who cares what The Sun says?
Just heard the next Chancellor, George Osbourne, on Today and as he notes because of this governments insistence on taxing the majority of people in this country with their NI jobs tax, it appears the NHS will be the biggest contributor to the new rates in the UK.
Thanks to New Labour we now have the NHS workers getting shafted to pay for the fiscal incompetence of this useless government.
Henry
Hmmm, I wonder how many millions of people will get screwed if Boy George becomes Chancellor. You can be sure the Murdochs won’t care.
I could never take the Sun seriously as the voice of the working class after I heard that the editor (now promoted upstairs) used to fly to Venice for Sunday lunch at a fancy restaurant. Talk about effete elitists.
Anon E Mouse
Henry – Quite agree about hypocrisy – I remember Richard Littlejohn slapping down that awful Polly Toynbee, who it transpired, for all her hectoring and lecturing about global warming flew to her villa in Italy twice a month.
And people wonder why the public are cynical about them…
diana smith
exposing Sun's false claims about NHS spending http://tinyurl.com/ykfekee
#cameronmyths