Thread by @danielgoyal

Yesterday’s announcement by this Govt about winter beds was really devious and dishonest.

The message they were sending to the public was ‘we are investing in the NHS to prepare for Winter’

The reality was quite the opposite…
1/7

Their goal is to push the NHS deeper into a spiral of failure and boost the private sector. But the public won’t stand for it. So they need to look like they are strengthening the NHS without actually strengthening it in anyway.

So they announce “£250m for 5000 extra beds for winter”!

On the face of it, great! We need more capacity to handle winter. We need more like 20k but 5k is better than nothing.

But it isn’t more capacity. It’s just more beds. Actual beds…

And only 900.

And only by April 2024

Typically, announcing an expansion in bed capacity means an expansion of the NHS - beds, staff, consumables, investigation capacity. So to expand the bed base by 5000 would mean expanding the staff numbers and consumables and CTs, etc…

But this is a capital investment not an expansion of the NHS budget. A capital investment means money into the infrastructure itself.

Imagine then, more patients but the same number of staff and scanners, etc…

The money to staff the beds will have to come from the current NHS budget. The actual staff will need to come from the already diminished staff pool. Or depend more on agency staff.

The overall effect is to weaken the NHS. Stretch it even further.

So Sunak and Baker put out the announcement as if they are helping the NHS but actually they will break it and it’s staff even further. But they got their good NHS PR; they convinced some of the public that they care about their health and access to healthcare.

As I say, devious and malicious. As it stands, NHSE is heading for another catastrophic winter. Like last year, thousands will die who don’t need to. But we can’t say we haven’t been warned. And we can’t say the govt had no time to prepare. They simple chose not to! Unforgivable