NHS cuts

What is UNISON fighting for?

Across the country, support staff, management, planning and IT roles are being slashed and vacancy freezes put in place. Some clinical roles are being cut too, with some vital services set to cease altogether. Without skilled staff, planning and efficiency will suffer and people can’t be kept well or cared for safely and with dignity. We won’t stand by while:

• Patients wait longer, in worse conditions.
• Fewer appointments are booked.
• Staff training and service standards fall.
• Essential equipment goes unchecked.
• Critical resources run out of stock.

If these cuts occur, the burden will simply shift onto already-stretched colleagues. What’s more, these cuts are a false economy. The government’s 10-year health plan calls for more use of technology, better planning and joining up of services and more health prevention. Yet these are the areas where jobs are being cut.

We will never cut waiting lists by cutting essential staff.