1,700 NHS professionals axed in budget cuts

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The Guardian has revealed that 1,700 members of NHS staff will be axed as part of government spending cuts.

The Department of Health has not officially announced the job losses; however, it has been revealed that members of staff affected by the cuts were notified by post in June. Representatives from the DoH have refused to answer direct questions from the Guardian newspaper regarding the situation.

It is believed that the members of staff affected were employed to work on a number of health projects, including reducing obesity and encouraging sensible drinking. The professionals, including specialist doctors, dentists, nurses, dieticians, nutritionists and psychologists were hired to work alongside civil servants to implement important new programmes.

The team were employed to work at the Department of Health offices in London and other parts of the country; they were working to reduce the amount of money spent by the NHS by improving general health and reducing the burden caused by obesity, poor diet, alcoholism and smoking.

In June, letters were sent to the affected members of staff; the letters claimed that changes to NHS priorities in light of the increasing government deficit may cause them to be at risk of redundancy. Health Minister, Andrew Lansley, is planning significant changes to the NHS in a bid to make it a more effective and efficient service. As a result of the changes, the staff involved in the programmes will probably lose their jobs; this news was confirmed by a document published on the department’s intranet system, which revealed that funding for programme budgets would be stopped.

The human resources department of the DoH claims that around two thousand members of staff will be affected by the cuts; only 300 of these are protected because they are civil servants employed on specific programmes.

The Department of Health said the budget for public health programmes is being reduced to make more money available for front-line services and direct patient care; however, critics have slammed the move, claiming that investment should be focused on cutting costs in the future by tackling serious health problems including obesity, regular drinking and smoking. 

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