The health care of people across Teesside is being put at risk as the NHS is being forced to find millions of pounds to fund redundancies and cope with high inflation, according to John Healey MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health on a visit to Stockton.
John, visiting the area at the invitation of Stockton North Labour MP, Alex Cunningham, met with health workers to hear firsthand about their anxieties and understand just how budgets were being affected. Alex said:
“I am really glad that John had taken time out of his busy diary to come and speak to residents and health workers in Stockton North.”
“Nationally there is real concern about the reckless plans put forward by the Tory-led Government to overhaul the NHS. Their top-down plans are unpopular, unwelcome and pose a huge risk to the NHS.
“Despite the Prime Minister’s claims that he has not cut the Health Budget, the reality here on Teesside is that the baseline budget for NHS Stockton-on-Tees is set to increase by just 2.2%. With inflation at 4% and expected to rise the reality is that the local NHS is effectively facing a real cut in spending power.
“On top of that, redundancies will cost the local NHS many millions of pounds, with NHS Stockton liable for the biggest share of the £8.5 million redundancy costs expected across Teesside.”
John Healey, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, said it isn’t just about budgets:
“David Cameron’s reckless overhaul of the health service is not what the people of Stockton expected when he pledged to protect the NHS. We all remember the airbrushed posters, but the reality is the NHS is his biggest broken promise to date.”
