NHS NERVE

by MONITOR
IT is worth remembering that Britain's National Health Service is the world's fourth-biggest employer, with more than 1.3 million staff, including 400'000 nurses, 30'000 consultants and 32'000 doctors. Trying to change an organisation this large, to make it “fit for 2008, not 1948” as Tony Blair put the challenge yesterday, is a bold undertaking. The government is half-way through its overhaul of the NHS and Mr Blair obviously had no choice in his speech to senior doctors and nurses but to insist that he would press on with the reform programme despite the accumulating financial problems and their impact on hospital closures and job losses. To slow down the pace of reform or to abandon it altogther would be politically unthinkable and leave the NHS in a worse state than it was when the overhaul was started. The predicted 700 million pounds deficit by the end of this year is likely to lead to the loss of 20'000 jobs. However, Mr Blair emphasized that it represents less than one per cent of annual turnover and he criticised the media for overplaying its importance. He also, oddly, claimed that the deficits are helpful by showing up where there is poor management. The Prime Minister's language in insisting that “now is the time to hold our nerve” was revealing. The trade union Unison responded that “he has a nerve when hospitals are closing, there are swingeing job cuts and privatisation.”