TEEP THE WORKING £500m surplus has not stopped juggernaut of NHS cutbacks beds in Oldham, Rochdale, Fairfield and North Manchester, and Lancashire acute is seeking to cut 127 jobs to slash its wage bill by f4m.
In the North East the County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust is seeking to axe 700 staff to balance its books.
In the West Midlands, Coventry's brand new £400m Wallsgrave Hospital has announced a third reduction in bed numbers and a job freeze as it wrestles with a £15m deficit.
In the East of England, Huntingdon's Hinchingbrooke Trust faces "rescue" package which amounts to a 2-year stay of execution, with a loss of 25% of its caseload, as Cambridgeshire PCT struggles with a £51m deficit.
In Norfolk, after a year of cuts and cash savings, the merged PCT also faces a £50m deficit, and plans involve cuts in mental health and closure of 40 community beds. In Suffolk, Ipswich Hospital after a traumatic year of short-sighted cuts, must make further savings. In the West of England jobs and hospital services in Weston Super Mare and minor injuries units throughout Wiltshire are among a series of targets for cutbacks.
Cuts are looming in Surrey and Suffolk, despite repeated delays in the consultation process. Sussex faces a loss of services in either Eastbourne or Hastings, while services in Worthing, Brighton and Haywards Heath are also under threat.
In London, a major acute services review has been postponed, but it is clear that services are under There have been bed and ward closures, job losses, frozen vacancies and deliberately lengthened waiting times threat in north London with the plans to close A&E at Enfield's Chase Farm hospital, NE London with the sword hanging over services at King George's Hospital, Ilford, major cuts aimed at slashing a massive £41m from spending at Epsom & St Helier in SW London, and a review pending in SE London, with Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup the likely victim of cutbacks to tackle a local £65m deficit.
Commenting on the ongoing cutbacks, LHE's Information director Dr John Lister said:
"The cuts we have uncovered are all ongoing and upcoming, drawn from press coverage since April l: we know these are only the tip of the iceberg as Trusts and PCTs come under pressure to slash back their budgets this year, in advance of tighter times to come - effectively stockpiling cuts."
Many cutbacks decided last year are still taking effect, and many areas -such as parts of London, Surrey and Sussex, are awaiting the outcome of controversial reviews.
"Patients are waiting needlessly, newly qualified nursing and other staff are being turned away from the NHS, and morale among existing NHS staff remains at rockbottom.
"What's worse is that while these cuts are ripping in to the public sector provision, hundreds of millions are being squandered on pointless and over-priced contracts with the private sector.
"If ministers do not change course, Gordon Brown will go down as the Prime Minister who in his first year in office did the most irreparable damage to the NHS."
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