Britain?s state-funded National Health Service (NHS), in deficit despite record investment, faces a difficult and challenging year, Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday as he met health bosses to discuss the financial crisis. Blair?s government is trying to reform the NHS to make it more efficient but despite record investment, it is expected to report a 623 million pounds overspend.

Media reports have said some 7,000 job cuts have been announced across the service in recent weeks but a spokesman for the Department of Health said many of the job losses affected temporary or agency staff and reflected «natural wastage». Blair and Secretary of Health Patricia Hewitt met the chief executives of several Primary Care Trusts to discuss the system. ?There is a year of challenge which is going to be very difficult but, on the other hand, there (are) still massive improvements happening,? Blair said after the meeting. ?Waiting lists are falling, cancer and cardiac care are improving, admissions are improving(and) you?ve got a huge hospital building programme going on. However, it is our job to make sure that all this extra investment is used properly to get the best benefit for the patient.?

Observers are puzzled as to why so many hospitals are cutting jobs and delaying non-emergency treatment because of cash shortages given that the government has been pumping record sums into the service. Critics say the money has been poorly spent on middle managers rather than frontline medical staff.