Anyone who knows anyone who works in the NHS, knows it is working at bursting point, not least because of the huge drain on recruitment imposed by the transfer to Foundation status. Now it seems the Conservatives are being accused of burying bad news until their conference is over:
A report compiled by the health service regulator Monitor is understood to say the NHS is heading towards a £2 billion deficit.
But a senior figure from the organisation told the Observer they had been ‘leaned on’ by Whitehall to delay publishing until at least next week, despite being due to release the report last month.
The NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) was also due to publish their quarterly report around the same time.
‘We are being leaned on to delay them and I have a suspicion that the sensitivity would be less after the Tory party conference,’ one Monitor official said.
The data is believed to show hospitals in England ended the first quarter £800million in the red, and are on course to lose £2billion by next March.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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