by Robin Sivapalan

Health Secretary Hewitt says the NHS will benefit from pain and instability.

The picture for Hackney:

• Homerton Hospital has a £7million shortfall – not because of financial mismanagement, but because of changes to the national tariff before the start of the financial year.

• Barts and the London, relied upon by Hackney residents for cardiac and cancer care, is set to lose £30million.
• City and Hackney Primary Care Trust, which provides local community services like health visiting and district nursing, has already lost around £13 million through a government initiative called ‘top slicing’. The PCT is now implementing smaller cuts (£701,000) as part of the government commissioning a ‘Patient-Led NHS policy’.
• The PCT is also signed up to the introduction of private GPs (already established in Hackney, but set to expand).
• Jobs lost under the ‘restructuring’ of the PCT, particularly affecting black and ethnic minority workers.

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