The recent cuts to public services have come as no shock to most people. The Government has made it extremely clear that these cuts are vital if the United Kingdom is to recover from the economic downturn and as a nation we are beginning to feel the impact of these cuts more and more as time passes. However, as the Government have announced their intention to slash the NHS budget by 20bn we are left asking the question: are cuts in this area going to cost more than just jobs?
Cuts to funding for public services have been both large and wide spread and have resulted in reductions in availability of such services as well as job losses. Natural, many people have been against such cuts especially those which they feel may greatly affect the quality of their lives. Unfortunately, given the country's current financial situation such cuts have to be tolerated to a large extent and most people have been prepared to do just that. However, when it comes to the NHS such drastic cuts could result in more than a reduction in the quality of people's lives. Many believe that these cuts could in fact result in the loss of life
It is no secret that the NHS has been under massive scrutiny for a while and at times there has been a media frenzy surrounding issues within the NHS which have caused the general public great concern.
Accusations of poor standards of hygiene, patient care and efficiency never seem to be far away when it comes to the NHS and the majority of both Doctors and Nurses seem to be of the opinion that the NHS is already over-stretched. With cuts totalling 20bn and possibly resulting in the loss of 100,000 frontline staff surely patient care and efficiency can only suffer further
Katherine Murphy the chief executive of the Patient's Association has warned that such cuts will result in longer waiting times and more needless deaths
The cuts will take place gradually between now and 2014 and the full consequences of these cuts remain to be seen, but one thing is certain there will be consequences