NHS ‘has spent’ £1bn preparing for Lansley


by Sunny Hundal    
3:01 pm - May 31st 2011

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A key criticisms levelled at Conservative plans on the NHS is that they are freezing funding in real terms.

But in addition to that, critics say, the NHS will face even more of a funding squeeze because Andrew Lansley’s proposals themselves will cost money.

They will cost money because they require significant internal organisational change. How much will that cost?

In the Financial Times today, Philip Stephens says the figure has reached £1 billion already:

By some Whitehall accounts, up to £1bn has been spent by health authorities in anticipation of the shake-up – this at a time when the NHS faces the tightest financial squeeze since the 1950s.

Further costs will pile up if the government extends the present pause in the passage of legislation through the House of Commons. The intelligent, if initially painful, course would be for the government to cut its losses. As one Whitehall adviser says of the progress of the NHS bill: “Things can only get worse.”

Wow. (via @RichardBlogger).

Stephens goes on to say that Cameron must abandon the NHS reforms or he’ll sink with them.

Choice and competition are useful tools to drive efficiency and innovation. An expanded role for clinicians in commissioning and closer alignment of medical and social care provision would be equally sensible. There is also significant scope to save money by slimming down NHS bureaucracies. None of these things require Mr Lansley’s costly bureaucratic revolution and lucrative merry-go-round for NHS managers. Nor do they demand that doctors become accountants and employ their own armies of managers. All are possible within the existing NHS framework.

It is quite unusual to see a government make such a egregious, unforced error. The poll tax was probably the last example of a policy as badly conceived as it was politically self-destructive. This time, Mr Cameron must take the blame. He was warned last autumn of this particular train crash, but prime ministerial self-confidence tipped over into careless arrogance.

Brutal, but true.

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. Phil Hunt

The NHS is one issue that the Tories can rarely win votes on, because a large section of the electorate suspect them of wanting to privatise it. So, politically, the best thing they can do is do nothing but do it well — no big initiatives.

Lansley’s plans may well consign Cameron to a single term of office.

2. Charlieman

OP, Sunny: “They will cost money because they require significant internal organisational change. How much will that cost?”

In my teens, I learned a smidge about mitigation cost. You must have a fund to protect you from freak events.

But “preparing for Lansley” is not like a tidal wave. We don’t know whether Lansley will deliver a tidal wave or a trickle of reforms. So do nothing.

3. Tyler

OK, so let’s just keep funnelling money into the woefully inefficient NHS with little regard for how its spent.

Brilliant idea.

4. the a&e charge nurse

[3] “OK, so let’s just keep funnelling money into the woefully inefficient NHS with little regard for how its spent” – what extraordinary ignorance.

The NHS provides pretty good outcomes despite spending far less than France, Germany, Switzerland, and certainly the USA, if we look at cumulative spend over the last 50 years – I mean we are talking about serious sums of money when we factor in the year on year on year gap that exists between funding the NHS and comparable European neighbours.

Still, once Lansley privatises health so cash that would once have been spent on clinical activity is diverted toward the profiteers efficiency will improve tenfold – by that I mean efficiency in trousering large sums of money not the clinical variety that poor old Tyler seems to know almost nothing about?

5. the a&e charge nurse

Oh, by the way, Tyler are you an advocate of “any willing provider” – one of the central planks in Lansley’s covert privatisation scam?
http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/A11839.pdf

If you are I hope some of them turn out to be marginally more “efficient” than the bullies at the privately run Winterbourne View unit, in Hambrook?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/31/abuse-at-leading-care-home

6. the a&e charge nurse

[3] oh dear, it looks like Southern Cross is wobbling all over the place – who should be responsible for clearing up the literal and indeed, metaphorical shit if they go bust?

According to Aunty “Darlington-based Southern Cross recently reported half-year losses of £311m. The company, which operates 750 homes, warned then that it was in “critical financial condition”. There has been mounting concern over the situation among the elderly residents and their carers and relatives”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-13611766

The market in action so to speak?


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  2. Aaron Ramsden

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  3. Political Animal

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT <"There's no money left."

  4. Political Animal

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT <"There's no money left."

  5. LLPaulJ

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  6. LLPaulJ

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  7. neilrfoster

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  8. neilrfoster

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  9. Amy Potter

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT <"There's no money left."

  10. Amy Potter

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT <"There's no money left."

  11. Felix Cohen

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  12. Felix Cohen

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  13. Tweet4Labour

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT < Oh the Tory Payers Alliance seems strangely quiet!

  14. Tweet4Labour

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT < Oh the Tory Payers Alliance seems strangely quiet!

  15. sunny hundal

    Think Lansley's NHS reforms will save money? £1 billion already spent (wasted) in preparation http://bit.ly/jh7XYT (via @richardblogger)

  16. sunny hundal

    Think Lansley's NHS reforms will save money? £1 billion already spent (wasted) in preparation http://bit.ly/jh7XYT (via @richardblogger)

  17. Mabel Horrocks

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT < Oh the Tory Payers Alliance seems strangely quiet!

  18. Mabel Horrocks

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT < Oh the Tory Payers Alliance seems strangely quiet!

  19. Jon Spiers

    Think Lansley's NHS reforms will save money? £1 billion already spent (wasted) in preparation http://bit.ly/jh7XYT (via @richardblogger)

  20. Jos Bell

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT <"There's no money left."

  21. skippy 1

    Think Lansley's NHS reforms will save money? £1 billion already spent (wasted) in preparation http://bit.ly/jh7XYT (via @richardblogger)

  22. Andy Hicks

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent »1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT <"There's no money left."

  23. Keith Wilson

    “The poll tax was probably the last example of a policy as badly conceived… [as the govt’s #NHS reforms]” http://t.co/vIxcWDm

  24. Carl Baker

    “The poll tax was probably the last example of a policy as badly conceived… [as the govt’s #NHS reforms]” http://t.co/vIxcWDm

  25. Little Metamorphic O

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  26. Jamie Ellison

    RT @libcon NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT < Oh the Tory Payers Alliance seems strangely quiet!

  27. Grahame Morris

    RT @libcon: NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for #Lansley's health reforms<not been passed by Parliament yet> http://t.co/hpnhgYT

  28. antony rayner

    RT @libcon: NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for #Lansley's health reforms<not been passed by Parliament yet> http://t.co/hpnhgYT

  29. Glen Davies

    How long would Cameron have to work to recover Lansleys lost billion already spent in anticipation of health reform http://bit.ly/jhgM8J

  30. James Mills

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  31. sajj

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  32. Ma

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  33. Brian Moylan

    RT @libcon: NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT … #ukpolitics #nhs #nhsreform

  34. Michael Bater

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  35. Robert Frost

    Think Lansley's NHS reforms will save money? £1 billion already spent (wasted) in preparation http://bit.ly/jh7XYT (via @richardblogger)

  36. Watching You

    Think Lansley's NHS reforms will save money? £1 billion already spent (wasted) in preparation http://bit.ly/jh7XYT (via @richardblogger)

  37. Noxi

    RT @sunny_hundal: Think Lansley's NHS reforms will save money? £1 billion already spent (wasted) in preparation http://bit.ly/jh7XYT (via…

  38. paulstpancras

    NHS ‘has spent’ £1bn preparing for Lansley | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/IN0b1A8 via @libcon

  39. Rosa Edwards

    NHS ‘has spent’ £1bn preparing for Lansley | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/IN0b1A8 via @libcon

  40. ann morgan

    NHS ‘has spent’ £1bn preparing for Lansley | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/qtV52sA via @libcon

  41. ann morgan

    NHS ‘has spent’ £1bn preparing for Lansley | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/qtV52sA via @libcon

  42. Staffordshire UNISON

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT

  43. Daniel Pitt

    NHS has already spent £1 billion preparing for Lansley http://bit.ly/jh7XYT #ConDemNation

  44. ‘Shameful’ anti-reform Lib Dem peers, the slowest recovery for 180 years, and is the Labour shadow cabinet half asleep? Round up of political blogs for 28 May – 3 June | British Politics and Policy at LSE

    [...] Conspiracy reveals that the NHS has already spent £1billion preparing for Lansley’s reforms, and Left Foot Forward documents disgruntlement at the [...]





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