The Conservatives claim that NHS trusts are planning to cut the jobs of 651 hospital doctors in England over the coming years.
Andrew Lansley, shadow health secretary, said the evidence makes a mockery of the government’s claims to be protecting frontline NHS spending.
Half of the trusts that responded to the freedom of information requests said they were planning reductions in the numbers of full-time equivalent doctors and nurses.
The proposals would see 2050 fewer nursing roles across England. NHS West Midlands said it would be shedding 922 nurses by 2014.
The information obtained by the Conservatives on the numbers of full-time equivalent doctors and nurses is based on freedom of information requests to 169 hospital trusts. Of those, 47 trusts responded with data for two or more financial years.
Lansley said: “Under Labour the number of managers has risen five times faster than the number of nurses. We will cut NHS bureaucracy by a third and we will make sure frontline patient care comes first.”
Meanwhile, addressing nurses at the Royal College of Nursing’s annual conference, the Prime Minister pledged to protect NHS staff pensions.
He won a standing ovation after heaping praise on nurses’ role in the NHS and promising to protect frontline investment in the NHS and not impose a public sector pay freeze.
He said: “You can’t protect the NHS and not include those that work in it. You work hard for your pensions, you deserve your pensions. So we will stick to the plans we have announced. Your pensions are safe with us.”
Also addressing the Royal College of Nursing congress, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg guaranteed that money saved through an ambitious cost-cutting programme would be ploughed back into the health service “penny for penny, pound for pound”.
The Lib Dems intend to cut PCT management and administration costs, saving £800 million a year, scrap strategic health authorities, saving £140 million a year, and slash the Department of Health in half, saving £100 million a year.
He also argued that both the GP and consultant contracts had been “poorly negotiated with no benefit for patients” and would be replaced.
