Deeper financial cuts would impact patient safety, warns trust

UHP should be commended for telling the truth about the effect of savings demanded. Many other Trusts are in similar circumstances and should consider being as honest. NHSE persists with the fiction that dramatic savings can be made without compromising services or safety. If enough Trusts called this out NHSE could not put them all in special measures or impose penalties (that further harm patients) without incurring a political and media storm.

Every year ICBs and providers congratulate themselves for producing a ‘balanced budget’, not telling the public about what that means. Telling the truth could spark a much more useful National conversation on the Health Service.