Is local election Purdah obscuring Starmer's NHS cuts?

[BlueLeanie]

It's local election time, so public bodies are expected to be careful about the announcements they make. The level is different from a General Election, but most organisations tend to work to the same policy to avoid misunderstandings.

We've seen the grand announcement about NHS England, the cuts at ICB (Integrated Care Boards) has generally slipped under the radar as most people have no idea what they do, but now there's talk of local trust cuts turning up on local media 800 here, 600 there, 300 over there.

If you start adding up the figures and looking at the percentages, it's potentially over 100,000 FTE roles across England, but everything seems to be really quiet about it. No headlines, no union noise. Is this a Purdah thing or has nobody really noticed?

 

[Magdalia]

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) announced job losses on 31 March.

Cambridgeshire County Council and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor have elections on 1 May.

Nominations closed on 2 April.

A BBC News report is here:

Hundreds of NHS support jobs to go at Addenbrooke's Hospital

About 500 posts in finance, communication and administration are affected, says a hospital trust.

www.bbc.co.uk

A hospital trust has announced the axing of hundreds of non-clinical jobs.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) had been asked to cut "the cost of our support functions to April 2022 levels", a spokesperson said.

About 500 posts were affected in areas such as finance, communication and administration. CUH runs Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.