Great Ormond St hospital cancelled operations and wards
Great Ormond Street hospital has revealed they have had to cancel operations, close beds and close wards because of a funding crisis. The famous children’s hospital blamed a systemic financial crisis.
This year nearly 100,000 sick children entered for world-renowned care, hundreds more than the hospital was paid to treat – so the hospital needs to make up £1.7m.
A small sum when its budget is a hundred times that – but to balance the books by April, it has closed beds, offered nurses less money for extra shifts and cancelled some operations.
Critically ill children who can only be looked after there will not be turned away but morale is low.
Nurses have briefed a newspaper that the cuts are devastating for a hospital that has never wasted money. One parent’s experiences appear to back up the claims.
The hospital is an example of the paradox at the heart of the politics of health.
The government says Great Ormond Street and the NHS has more money than ever before. The hospital gets £50m more – nearly a third of its budget – than six years ago.
This year, English hospitals and community health get an extra £5.1bn – but more than three quarters is eaten up on higher pay and new working practices.
The reduction in junior doctors’ hours and indexing staff pensions all cost more. It also costs £900m on running new buildings and hospital drugs, leaving just over a billion pounds left of the extra money.
The Conservatives have hammered NHS failure this week -Michael Howard is now pushing further on what’s traditionally been seen as Labour territory.
On Tuesday, he will announce plans to allow patients who do not get a rescheduled operation within four weeks to move to another hospital thereby denying the original hospital the fee it would have got for the surgery.
This year nearly 100,000 sick children entered for world-renowned care, hundreds more than the hospital was paid to treat – so the hospital needs to make up £1.7m.
A small sum when its budget is a hundred times that – but to balance the books by April, it has closed beds, offered nurses less money for extra shifts and cancelled some operations.
Critically ill children who can only be looked after there will not be turned away but morale is low.
Nurses have briefed a newspaper that the cuts are devastating for a hospital that has never wasted money. One parent’s experiences appear to back up the claims.
The hospital is an example of the paradox at the heart of the politics of health.
The government says Great Ormond Street and the NHS has more money than ever before. The hospital gets £50m more – nearly a third of its budget – than six years ago.
This year, English hospitals and community health get an extra £5.1bn – but more than three quarters is eaten up on higher pay and new working practices.
The reduction in junior doctors’ hours and indexing staff pensions all cost more. It also costs £900m on running new buildings and hospital drugs, leaving just over a billion pounds left of the extra money.
The Conservatives have hammered NHS failure this week -Michael Howard is now pushing further on what’s traditionally been seen as Labour territory.
On Tuesday, he will announce plans to allow patients who do not get a rescheduled operation within four weeks to move to another hospital thereby denying the original hospital the fee it would have got for the surgery.
http://www.channel4.com/news/2005/03/week_1/06_ormond.html
