The NHS blame game.

This documentary follows a week of news of hospital ward closures and job cuts. Given that more billions of pounds from our taxes are going into funding the NHS than ever before, why are our hospitals failing? We hear in detail about the debts owed by Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust and how the current debt of nearly three quarters of a million pounds nation wide has arisen. Helen Nellis of Bedford Hospital NHS Trust describes the Department of Health's role in causing their debt by insisting on, for instance, the enormous pay rise consultant surgeons were given. Consultant surgeon David Skipper says that the pay rise and new working plan he was given makes no difference to his actual work commitments to the hospital and that NHS 'performance targets' have proved deterimental. We hear from key figures from the Department of Health and independent economists, intercut with John Ward interviewing Patricia Hewitt.