International Shia News Agency

NHS reorganization was biggest govt. mistake

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The reorganization of UK’s National Health Service (NHS) was the biggest mistake Prime Minister David Cameron’s government has made, senior Conservatives have reportedly admitted.

A number of senior Tories made the comments in a report published by The Independent on Monday, as the NHS faces a mounting financial crisis amid the government’s reforms and cuts to health services.

A senior Cabinet minister said the main mistake that the Tory-led Coalition has made was the restructuring of the NHS, a move which he regretted.

A former policymaker at 10 Downing Street also said in retrospect the NHS shake-up “was a mistake.”

Another Tory member said Chancellor George Osborne had the opportunity to have stopped the restructuring, but “didn’t take it,” while one insider said the NHS reform plans by former Health Secretary Andrew Lansley were “unintelligible gobbledygook,” meaning like nonsense.

This is while experts also criticized Cameron’s government over the NHS reforms.

Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s governing council, said the government’s restructuring of the NHS has caused profound and intense damage to the health services.

“Rather than listening to the concerns of patients, the public and frontline staff who vigorously opposed the top-down reorganization, politicians shamefully chose to stick their head in the sand and plough on regardless,” said Porter.

In response, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt defended his predecessor regarding the NHS reorganization, saying Lansley’s “structural changes are saving the NHS more than £1 billion a year.”

This comes as Britain’s leading healthcare professionals have warned that the NHS is at “breaking point” and its “founding principles” are at risk. NHS England has predicted that if no additional funding is given and demand continues to grow, the health service could be £30 billion in the red by 2020.

 

 

Source: PressTV

 

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