Stick to the day job! NHS chief criticised over cancer risk claim

LEAVING the EU could put the lives of 30,000 cancer patients at risk, the head of NHS England claimed yesterday.

In a highly political intervention, Simon Stevens said a Brexit could plunge the economy into a ‘tailspin’, with severe consequences for the finances of the NHS.

The NHS chief, a former adviser to Tony Blair, claimed it would hit plans to upgrade cancer services, drive up the cost of medicines and jeopardise proposals to improve mental health services.

Critics last night dismissed the warnings, and urged Mr Stevens to focus on his ‘day job’, where he has presided over a £2.45billion spending deficit – the worst in the history of the NHS.

The future of the health service has become a key battleground in the referendum, with Brexit supporters claiming the NHS could benefit from an ‘independence dividend’ worth billions of pounds by diverting Britain’s EU membership fees to the health service.

In its first televised broadcast tonight, Vote Leave will claim the money saved by quitting the EU would be enough to build a new hospital every week. But Mr Stevens said any financial bonus would be more than wiped out by the impact of a financial downturn, which he claimed would follow Britain leaving the EU.

Asked about the likely impact a Brexit would have on the NHS, he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘We can see that we’ve got a clear plan to improve cancer services – saving 30,000 lives over the next five years – we need to upgrade our mental health services, we need to strengthen primary care. In order to put the fuel in the tank, we will need the proceeds of economic growth.’

Mr Stevens said some of its 130,000 European doctors, nurses and care workers could quit the NHS in the wake of a Brexit because of uncertainty over work visas. And he insisted the NHS could cope with continuing levels of immigration from the EU provided it got more funding.

Defending his intervention, he said it was ‘perfectly reasonable’ for the NHS to lay out the ‘practical realities’ of what impact a Brexit would have on the institution.

But former Labour foreign secretary Lord Owen criticised Mr Stevens for suggesting the NHS would be better off if the UK stayed in the EU. He accused him of making a ‘very considerable mess’ of the NHS and said he should ‘stick to his job, which is to manage the health service a great deal more successfully’.

‘If there’s any danger to the NHS it is in staying in,’ he added.

Defence Minister Penny Mordaunt also questioned whether public servants such as Mr Stevens and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney should be making such political statements. ‘The public have got tired of this constant stream of hysteria from the Establishment,’ she said. ‘But it is not going to have traction with the public. They are fed up with it.’

David Cameron defended the right of Mr Stevens to speak out, saying people want to hear from experts.

Comment – Page 14

‘Danger to NHS is in staying in’