More NHS job cuts likely in 2007

9.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 8th Jan 2007

Health services under threat due to job cuts!

The number of job losses in the NHS will increase in the new year as part of a drive to cut costs, the pressure group Health Emergency has predicted. It estimates that more than 22,000 jobs were lost in 2006 and 2,500 beds closed across the UK.

The cuts will increase because of Government pressure to balance the books by the end of the financial year, the group said. Results of reviews by strategic health authorities will be released in the new year, which could mean the closure or downgrading of wards. A leaked Department of Health document predicted yesterday that there will be a shortage of GPs and nurses in four years' time.

Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson said "Last year's worrying figures are dwarfed by the projected losses for this year in this week's leaked Department of Health paper. The Health Secretary has kept her job whilst thousands of doctor and nursing posts are lost. We now have the bizarre prospect of a national shortage of nurses whilst hospital trusts are making nurses redundant because of a financial crisis."