Political meddling hurting the NHS

LONDON: One of Britain’s most senior doctors will urge the government on Wednesday to halt its “bad policies and shocking incompetence,” which he says are damaging patient care and wasting money.

“Care is suffering, jobs are disappearing, patients and staff are paying the price,” Paul Miller, chairman of the British Medical Association’s consultants committee, will tell doctors at a conference.   

Miller’s criticism comes as the government prepares to reveal on Wednesday the size of the deficit run up by the National Health Service in the last year.

The overspend is expected to be between £600 and £700 million in England last year and health administrators are under pressure to get their finances back into order. More than 10,000 job cuts have been announced in recent weeks as health trusts struggle to balance their books.   

Miller will also criticise the government over money spent on failed hospital building projects and private treatment centres. He wants Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt to abandon further health service reorganisation, end the hiring of external management consultants and “stop thinking that moving care out of hospital will save money.”