Sunday, March 06, 2005

The Battle of Margaret's shoulder (3)

Following the "Tory stunt" of raising the profile of Margaret's poor shoulder, this article on the BBC website attracted my attention. It hasn't appeared on Ceefax and I don't really know what to make of it!!

My understanding of the health service these days was that funding did follow patients, and as a result, treating 2% more patients should lead to increased funding to encourage more positive behaviour!! As it is, they now have a £1.7m shortfall, strange...

I also fail to see how closing beds will reduce the shortfall as staff costs still need to be paid, the wards will still be heated etc. The only way to reduce costs in the short term is by cutting staff and contractor costs. This is unlikely to be popular in a prospective election year.

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