Government to Blame for Oxford Job Losses

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 15th May 2006

Reacting to rumours today of 600 job losses from the NHS in Oxford, Dr Evan Harris, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, said:

"These losses are a direct result of the target culture in the NHS, which has forced local hospitals to waste money chasing political targets at all costs. The refusal of the Government to give our local NHS Trusts enough time to achieve financial balance has made huge job losses, including redundancies, inevitable, just as I predicted.

"Patient care and waiting times will be affected, and, as the health service has admitted, there will be less choice about where to be treated.

"It was cynical of the Government to delay this announcement till after the local elections.

"The tragedy is that Oxfordshire has spent years struggling to fill vacancies and is now having to close posts. Meanwhile Patricia Hewitt claims that job cuts like this are a sign of a strong and efficient health service - what planet is she on!"

"This is only from one of the several NHS Trusts in Oxfordshire. I fear worse is to come".