The government has said that it will increase money to the NHS year on year, so why are cuts being made in the NHS? Could it be that the NHS managers are out to show that the NHS will be hit by this government regardless of the actual finance available? or are the NHS managers saying that taxpayers’ money has already been withdrawn? If the latter, why are the NHS managers not saying to government you promised no cut in the money for the NHS, why is there now a cut? Another possibility is that NHS managers have overspent their budgets and are having to cut to make the books balance, if so that is the incompetence of the NHS managers. Have any journalists thought to ask what is going on in the NHS? if they have what are the answers?
It is easy to report surveys, but what is the real reason for these cuts?

@1 – It’s because the government’s commitment on NHS funding is to increase it in line with overall inflation, whereas the inflation of healthcare costs is actually considerably higher due to Britain’s ageing population. So a real terms funding shortfall develops, which is what is causing the problems. The NHS trusts are having to make savings because their funding is not going to keep up with demand. There’s no conspiracy. Some NHS hospital trusts have historical deficits, but most NHS trusts don’t.

@2 Chaminda
Thanks for your reply, what you seem to be saying is that despite the extra money the government is putting in to the NHS, the demand is so great due to an ageing population that there is always a bottomless pit of money required and the NHS managers have decided that Physiotherapy services are the ones least required. This view is in contradiction to the first paragraph of the article which states ‘despite the government’s promise to protect patient care’ as if it is the government’s fault that physiotherapy services are being cut not the NHS managers deciding that physiotherapy is the service least required.

Is physiotherapy a front-line service? If so, the fact that there is seemingly a three-month waiting list across the Midlands (my wife required some – went private and got it next day!) suggests that it was already not performing properly.

It’s not just physio services. Mental health services are getting whacked too in my neighbourhood.

We’re not seeing redundancies, but what we are seeing is vacancies not getting filled when people leave their jobs, building projects getting frozen, training budgets getting slashed. That sort of thing.

3.

Of course it is the government’s fault. If it wanted care to keep pace with patient need it would increase the amount the NHS gets by the appropriate amount, not by the lower inflation rate. That was the government’s decision, not the decision of the NHS.

I think you will find that all NHS services are being trimmed by about 20%. The commitment to that was started last year by David Nicholson.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5524693/NHS-chief-tells-trusts-to-make-20bn-savings.html

@4 Watchman
As I’m sure you’ve already figured, ‘front-line service’ is a bit of a weaselly phrase. Physiotherapy is used on hospital wards to rehabilitate patients for discharge, and in hospital outpatients as part of other treatments. It is also provided in the community by PCTs (though the community services are all being reconfigured). Demand exceeds supply, but the total size of the healthcare pot is fixed.

Physiotherapy does not generate as many column inches as cancer drugs, but it does make a lot of sense and delivers bang per buck by reducing disability and getting peoples life back closer to normal.