NHS advised: Cut 137,000 jobs

The NHS has been advised to let up to 137,000 employees go amid the recession, it has emerged.

An evaluation of the health service’s ranks and efficiency was completed by consultancy McKinsey and Company and states that the body can afford to drop 137,000 people from its payroll.

These plans should be executed, it adds, if the NHS is to meet its target of saving £20 billion by 2014.

However, the consultancy’s proposals have not been accepted, according to health minister Mike O’Brien. He stated: “The government does not believe the right answer to improving the NHS now or in the future is to cut the NHS workforce.

He added that when it comes to front-line medical representatives in “maternity, nursing and primary care”, the organisation needs more hands rather than fewer.

The NHS has been under the microscope in recent weeks as the US looks to it in its quest to devise an effective healthcare system. High-profile figures who have defended the organisation as a result include Gordon and Sarah Brown, David Cameron and Professor Stephen Hawking.