News brief - 17/01/20 View this email in your browser
Official reports have this week warned of deepening crises within the NHS and Probation Service, at a time when Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, is misleading the public as to how large his government's funding plans for the NHS are.
A recent investigation by HM Inspectorate for Probation Services found that 60% of probation staff were severely overworked, that workers receive inadequate training, and that building facilties were "unfit for purpose".
Elsewhere, A&E departments reported their lowest success rate at meeting their four-hour waiting target and a new report warned that almost half of stroke departments were facing shortages of stroke consultants.
Unions and campaign groups warned the NHS and Probation Services are falling deeper into crisis and lives will be lost if the government does not intervene.
This comes in the week that the NHS Long Term Funding Plan Bill entered Parliament, enacting Boris Johnson's pledge to increase NHS funding by £33.9 billion a year in order to reach the goal of £148.5 billion in funding by 2024.
However, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has been criticised for misleading the public when it comes to describing the scale of this investment. He announced that this was the biggest cash injection the NHS has ever seen, but when inflation is taken into account, it is far from it.
He has also been under fire this week for responding to the failure of A&E departments to meet their targets by floating a proposal to scrap targets altogether. Shadow Health Secretary, Jonathon Ashworth, pointed out that this may raise suspicions the government is simply moving the goalposts to hide their own failures. After all, abandoning targets will not solve the underlying problems of staff shortages and overcrowding that have caused hospitals to struggle meeting them.
More on these stories below.
NHS Funding Bill enters Parliament in week report warns lives are being lost due to staff shortages
The NHS Long Term Plan Funding Bill, which will enshrine in law the Prime Minister’s promise to provide an extra £33.9 billion every year to reach an annual cash injection of £148.5 billion by 2024, entered Parliament this week.
Read the report
NHS Funding Bill enters Parliament in week report warns lives are being lost Probation staff face unreasonable workloads, inadequate training and poor working conditions, Inspectorate finds
A report published this week by Her Majesty’s Probation Service Inspectorate has criticised the National Probation Service for its management of staff and their working conditions.
Read the report
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