23,561 NHS staff members (net) have lost their jobs since the Tories came to power, but what I have discovered today is that the job losses have not been uniformly spread. In short, the North of England has had to bear the brunt of the job losses (experiencing 70% of the job cuts) while the South of England has suffered just 30% of the job losses.
That only tells half of the picture. When you examine the job losses by region an even more alarming picture emerges. The wealthiest, and dare I say it Toriest, parts of England have actually experienced no job losses. The South East of England has actually grown its NHS workforce since the May General Election, while the North West of England alone has experienced more than 6,500 job losses. That type of inequality in redundancy policy is very difficult to understand. The figures for job losses in the south would were actually made look more egalitarian by the inclusion of the South West. Analysts of the socio-economic profile (and voting patterns) of the South West will agree that it is much less wealthy, and dare I say it Tory, in profile than other parts of the South.
It is interesting to note that the East of England, an area which is undergoing the fastest pace of privatisation, has actually suffered nearly 3,000 NHS job losses since May 2010. These bell weather voters switched to Labour at the local council elections, and this might give a minuscule insight into why. The East of England is clearly not getting the favourable treatment that the South West is being shown.
This news comes on the back of two other Tory policy announcement. Staff in the South East are to be paid much much more than staff in the North of England as regional pay is phased in for 2014. In addition, patients in the South East are to be allocated an extra £1,750 per parliament. That money is to be found by cutting patient funding in the, yes you guessed it, North West/East of England by up to £3,000 per patient.
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