The King's Fund -
This report illustrates the pressures on NHS finances, with a quarter of NHS trust finance directors surveyed for the report expecting to overspend their budgets this year. Analysis of the data collected for the report shows that the nursing workforce increased by almost 9,000 over the past six months to nearly 315,000 – the highest on record. This underlines the choice facing hospitals: whether to balance the books or maintain quality of services, with many choosing to recruit more nurses despite their budgets being stretched to the limit. It warns that cracks are beginning to appear in NHS performance as a result of the growing financial pressures and rising demand for services.
