By Professor John Robertson

In the Observer today, the above, and:

Hospitals are being forced to cut medical staff, threatening their ability to care for patients, senior health leaders have warned.

NHS trusts are reporting budget deficits after the chancellor Jeremy Hunt gave England’s health service £2.5bn extra funding, which only covers inflation and pay increases.

The UK’s ageing population and the impact of having more than 6 million patients waiting for more than 7.5m treatments means that demand on the health service has increased substantially.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/05/cuts-will-result-in-patient-deaths-hospitals-shed-medical-staff-after-being-told-to-balance-the-books

Further staffing cuts in NHS England staffing will exacerbate an already worrying level of staffing. Using NHS Scotland as an obvious comparator, as you might do with drug deaths or child poverty:

NHS Scotland’s staffing levels are up by 28,772.2 WTE since September 2006. That is a 22.6% increase.

NHS Scotland staffing levels have increased by 7,197.4 WTE, or 4.8%, from the same point last year and by 9.4% since December 2019 .

NHS Scotland has higher staffing per head than NHS England – 28.5 WTE staff per 1,000 people in Scotland (Dec 2021), compared to 21.4 in England WTE (Oct 2021).

https://www.gov.scot/news/nhs-workforce-at-new-record-high/#:~:text=NHS%20Scotland%20has%20higher%20staffing,England%20WTE%20(Oct%202021).

That difference of 7.1 per 1 000 people between England and Scotland doesn’t look that big expressed that way but it means, overall:

1. There are 38 624 more NHS staff in Scotland than there would be if it was run by the Conservatives.
2. There are 418 900 fewer NHS staff in England than there would be if it was run by the SNP.

Footnote: 5.44m population in Scotland and 56m in England