NHS redundancy payments cost taxpayers £435m

[oldironside]

Almost half a billion pounds has been paid out to NHS staff made redundant as part of the government's controversial health shakeup, leading to warnings that private companies are stepping in to fill the vacuum at the heart of the health service.

The government's sweeping health act, the biggest single set of changes experienced by the NHS, replaced 170 organisations with 240 new ones, but resulted in the loss of 10,094 posts.

snip

Andrew Gwynne, the shadow health minister, said the government "has placed the NHS on a path towards privatisation". Gwynne said the NAO report "lifts the lid on the government's shambolic re-organisation of the NHS. Ministers took £3bn away from patient care and blew it on redundancy payoffs, leaving thousands of jobs unfilled.

"Since David Cameron entered Downing Street, over 4,000 nursing posts have been axed and one in 10 hospitals are now short-staffed."

Scum. Absolute scum.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jul/10/nhs-changes-cost-taxpayers-redundancy