second opinion: market madness
WORKERS, MAR 2005 ISSUE
The internal market has become an obsession with Blair's gang. John Hutton, a junior minister at the Department of Health, says the government should end the redistribution of surpluses to less successful hospitals and schools and allow the more successful ones to retain the money "to improve their services".
This is the rhetoric that destroys the efforts of workers to improve their services. Hospital managers have warned government they will have to close wards before the end of the month because they have run out of money for this financial year.
Some hospitals are already millions in deficit and considering ward closures to balance the books. And Labour promised its NHS reforms would deliver real improvements!