Kay Phillips

The MEN front page story of cuts of £1billion from the NHS budget for Greater Manchester will leave most people stunned. The scale of attack is horrifying.

You could not possibly cut this amount of money without it having an effect on patient care.

It would mean fewer staff, and more pressure on those who are left. It would mean more chaos, potentially leading to the problems that we have already seen at mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.

I don’t believe that you can claim to cut ‘back-room’ staff without an impact on frontline services.

I doubt very much whether the fees paid for overpriced PFI deals will be cut, or there will be a halt called to contracts with private providers.

If this is the start of things to come for our public services, it is imperative that people get together to organise ourselves to oppose these cuts. We must unite, staff, patients, and trade unions to defend our National Health Service.