Royal College of Nursing backs British health service cuts (1/5 of NHS budget)

[Hannah Bell]

The open support being offered by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to the Conservative Party/Liberal Democrat government’s budget cuts in the National Health Service (NHS) underscores the role of the trade unions as defenders of the profit system.

The RCN, a professional and trade union body of 400,000 nurses and health care assistants in the UK, has started a campaign called “Front Line First”. Its purpose is to disarm the rank and file and lay down the necessary steps for the coalition government to impose £20 billion of cuts in the NHS over four years in England and billions more in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These cuts account for one-fifth of the total NHS budget and will be made in the guise of “efficiency savings”. Tens of thousands of NHS jobs are at stake and patient care will be in great danger.

Dr. Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, has written to members as part of the campaign. He wrote, “It’s no secret that the NHS needs to save billions of pounds across all four countries of the UK, including at least £20 billion in England alone by 2014—that’s one fifth of its entire annual budget”. Stressing that these cuts are inevitable, he said, “We want to make sure these savings are achieved in the best possible way—so they don’t affect patient care...The RCN calls on its members to report stories about waste... They have also formed a website to launch this campaign.

It is a big lie that budget cuts to public health are unavoidable. The previous Labour Party government provided some £1 trillion— enough to fund the NHS for 10 years— to bail out the banks and the financial elite... Although the RCN tries to fool its members into looking here and there to report waste and seek out innovations, this will do nothing to protect nursing jobs considering the mammoth scale of the so-called “efficiency savings”. Nor will it prevent the curtailment of patient care, but will only pave the way for further inroads into services...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/nurs-a09.shtml

[KakistocracyHater]

1. see how the Country Club Class is unified? they plan these nightmares in

those clubs. we MUST network & stop this.

[Lasher]

2. Global class warfare.

We'll get our turn right after the November elections.

[xchrom]

3. Well we've their opinion -- let's ask the rank and file

A couple of years after the coalition goverent
Screws this up -- royally.

[Hannah Bell]

4. "screws it up"? they *want* to defund it.