I'm sure most people will have seen this story, at least as a headline.
However, hidden away in the story itself is the following somewhat telling
line
>However, the service could also be stuck with 3,200 extra consultants and
16,000 other staff it can 'ill afford to pay', such as technicians and
health scientists, according to the documents.<
Who said Carter wasn't about privatisation?

Staffing shortage threatens NHS
BY AIDAN RADNEDGE - Wednesday, January 3, 2007 
A hospitals crisis is looming, with thousands of jobs left unfilled in the
NHS within five years, according to a leaked report. 
There is likely to be a shortage of 1,200 GPs, 14,000 nurses and 1,100
junior doctors by 2011, the Department of Health has admitted. 
However, the service could also be stuck with 3,200 extra consultants and
16,000 other staff it can 'ill afford to pay', such as technicians and
health scientists, according to the documents. 
The report angered unions, who say it is the result of a £1billion hole in
the NHS budget, a 'yo-yo attitude to workforce planning' and 'a complete
absence of joined-up thinking'. 
The pessimistic forecasts are contained in a draft report which sets out
radical ways to cut the NHS wage bill between 2008 and 2011. 
It suggests holding down pay rises to about two per cent next year, despite
a 'a real danger of industrial unrest'. 
The report, leaked to the Health Service Journal, also recommends
encouraging more doctors to train as GPs rather than specialists, and for
the use of more temporary staff on short term contracts. 
But it acknowledges that cuts in nurses' training would be 'felt in the
workplace in the next few years', leaving too few new staff to replace those
retiring or quitting. 
The Royal College of Nursing said: 'All this is at a time when nurses are
being made redundant, newly qualified nurses can't find work and thousands
of NHS posts are being lost.' 
The DoH insisted the report was a 'prudent and sensible' piece of analysis. 
It added that 18,000 extra nurses and more than 2,400 GPs were recruited in
the two years to September 2005.

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