{"id":56650,"date":"2025-05-08T23:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T23:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/nhs-plans-unthinkable-cuts-to-balance-books\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T23:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T23:20:00","slug":"nhs-plans-unthinkable-cuts-to-balance-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=56650","title":{"rendered":"NHS plans ‘unthinkable’ cuts to balance books"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The NHS in England is planning “previously unthinkable” cuts to try to balance the books, health bosses say.<\/p>\n

Services including diabetes care for young people, rehab centres and talking therapies are in the firing line, according to NHS Providers, which represents health managers.<\/p>\n

Staff, including doctors and nurses, also face the axe – and some NHS trusts are stopping overtime for doctors, putting the drive to cut the hospital waiting lists at risk.<\/p>\n

NHS Providers said some of the savings were “eye-watering”, but the Department of Health and Social Care said NHS services should focus on cutting bureaucracy and driving up productivity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The figures come after initial accounts for 2025-26 suggested frontline NHS organisations were going to go nearly \u00a37bn over budget, an overspend nearly 5% above what they have been given by government, despite ministers increasing funding by \u00a322bn over two years.<\/p>\n

One chief executive of a large hospital trust said it was looking to shed 1,500 jobs, some 5% of its workforce, including doctors and nurses.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a boss of a mental health trust told the BBC they had had to stop accepting referrals for adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), while waits for psychological therapies exceeded a year.<\/p>\n

They said morale had “never been lower” among staff.<\/p>\n

Other services at risk include stop smoking services and palliative care.<\/p>\n

The closure of some maternity units is also being considered, although part of that is down to the falling birth rate which has seen a number of services being under-used.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Consequences<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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NHS Providers received evidence from 114 trusts, more than half of the total in England.<\/p>\n

Nearly all said they were cutting or planning to cut jobs which in many cases would affect clinical staff such as doctors and nurses too.<\/p>\n

A majority also reported they were looking at closing services or at least scaling them back.<\/p>\n

NHS Providers interim chief executive Saffron Cordery said NHS managers were having to think the “previously unthinkable”.<\/p>\n

And she said while they would do their best to protect patient care, she added: “Let’s be clear. Cuts have consequences.”<\/p>\n

She said pay rises for resident doctors – previously known as junior doctors – and inflation had eaten into the extra money the health service had been given.<\/p>\n

But the Department of Health and Social Care said the extra funding being provided should be enough.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman said: “We have underlined the need for trusts to cut bureaucracy to invest even further in the front line so we can support hard-working staff and deliver a better service for patients and taxpayers’ money.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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