The Impact of Austerity on the Care Industry

Thursday, 16th July 2015

Following the ‘Great Recession’ of 2007-08, the coalition Government that came to power in 2010 adopted a policy of austerity to address the United Kingdom’s economic deficit. This policy – the slashing of public spending, the increase in taxation (predominantly VAT) – has been treated by both Government and the media as if there is no alternative. This is not true, and the impact of the policy across the public sector has been clear not least to those who work in it or who rely upon it.

The coalition Government declared that the NHS was one of the spending areas that would supposedly be protected or ‘ring-fenced’ from the austerity axe and this policy was restated by the Conservative party which emerged victorious from the 2015 election to govern alone.

These claims, however, have not meant that the NHS has escaped the worst ravages of austerity. The BMA (British Medical Association) declared that the NHS was ‘buckling under pressure’ in a report published last year. The Nuffield Trust’s Into the Red? report found that in the financial year 2013-14 NHS and foundation trusts were £100m in the red, contrasting with the £383m surplus enjoyed the year before. Anybody watching the news at the turn of the year will be aware of the chaos that ensued in spite of NHS staff’s heroic efforts.

Risking enflaming an already combustive situation is the new Government’s commitment to a ‘seven-day NHS.’ Whilst NHS pay rises are restricted under austerity for the foreseeable future, the new plans seem likely to undermine workers’ pay structures in addition to dispensing with higher pay rates for unsocial hours. There is a danger that, however lofty the Government’s aspirations, in the current climate a shift from a five- to a seven-day NHS will be done on the cheap and only by undermining the working conditions of the workforce.

Andy McKeon – the Into the Red? report’s co-author – stated that the service was approaching ‘a tipping point.’ He said, ‘Demand for NHS services shows no signs of abating. With hospital finances increasingly weak, growing pressures on staffing, and the goal of moving care out of hospitals and into the community proving elusive, the NHS is heading for a funding crisis this year or next.’

Mark Porter, the BMA’s council chair said, ‘Every part of our health service is suffering, from understaffed, overworked hospitals to GP practices that are being overwhelmed by the sheer number of patients coming through the surgery door. It is clear that many problems in the NHS are coming to a head. We need politicians to stop chasing votes by coming up with short-term policy gimmicks, especially the pointless obsession with competition as enshrined in the Health and Social Act that delivers no benefit to patient care.’