Mary reveals million pound cost of Wakefield NHS jobs losses

Wakefield MP Mary Creagh has revealed the hidden costs of redundancy pay-outs in the district arising from David Cameron’s NHS re-organisation.

The figures come as a leaked report from the Department of Health confirms the full costs of the reorganisation at over £3 billion.

New, official figures list the costs of NHS redundancies in every community during the first year of the Tory-led Government's NHS re-organisation (2010-11).  Figures reveal that Wakefield’s NHS has already been forced to spend £1.2m laying off staff - only for many expected to be re-employed elsewhere in the system. And this is just the first phase of redundancies - further damaging figures are expected in the summer.

The new figures come as a leaked Government 'business case' for its Health Bill confirms the vast overall costs of the Government’s NHS reorganisation. It confirms that at least £24m in Wakefield is being held back from NHS patient care to pay for the reorganisation, in the form of a Government-ordered 2 per cent Primary Care Trust budget hold back in 2011-12 and 2012-13.  This amounts to £3.45bn across England.

Mary said: "People will want to know why our local NHS has been forced to waste over a million pounds on payouts only for many of the same staff to be re-employed in the new NHS organisations.  This is only the first wave of redundancies - more are expected later this year and next as part of the Government’s reckless NHS re-organisation that will cost at least £24m in our area alone.

"By pushing ahead with a re-organisation no-one wants, the government is taking millions away from Wakefield’s NHS front-line just as it needs to focus on patient care.”