Anger at cost of NHS reforms

The NHS reforms will cost £300m more than expected, the Government has admitted.

Unison, the public service union, accused ministers of wasting money after the Health Secretary revealed that implementing the Health and Social Care Act is now expected to cost the taxpayer between £1.5bn and £1.6bn.

The cost of rolling out the reforms was initially thought to be between £1.2bn and £1.3bn, Jeremy Hunt said in a written statement to the House of Commons.

The news comes as the Department of Health's annual accounts for 2011-12 showed that 28,000 NHS jobs were lost in just one year.