Minister says NHS care is improving

Patricia Hewitt, the secretary of state for health, has suggested that care for patients has improved despite the problems confronting the NHS regarding funding.

The comments came following the news that a Staffordshire hospital is to make up to 1,000 hospital workers redundant in the latest example of NHS funding problems.

“The majority of our hospitals are not only improving patient care and not only hitting the targets but they are doing it with these very substantially increased budgets,” Ms Hewitt said on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.

Ms Hewitt also explained that the number of workers in the NHS has risen considerably since Labour came into office and that the current staff “deserve” the money they are paid.

“I am very proud of the fact that not only do we have far more staff in the NHS than we ever had before ? we have got nearly 80,000 more nurses in the NHS than we had in 1997 ? we are paying them more because they deserve it.”

In a recent speech to the UK Public Health Association, Ms Hewitt spoke of the “changing approach” needed to 21st century healthcare.

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