Cuts that betray NHS key values

These are troubled times for the National Health Service, which is why its core principle of a comprehensive service available to all is more important than ever.

But tell that to the dozens of isolated terminally patients who have been told they can no longer get NHS transport to hospice appointments.

West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group, which bought the Kent and Medway Patient Transport Service, says this transport was only ever provided as a ‘goodwill gesture’ by previous contract holder G4S.

This is a slap in the face for local hospices, who understood themselves to be covered by the previous contract under NSL and asked this to be made explicitly clear when G4S took over the £90 million contract in July.

The fact this never happened is an absolute abdication of responsibility for some of the county’s most vulnerable people in return for a modest cash saving.

What makes this decision more short-sighted is the fact that many terminally ill people who previously benefited from the CCG’s largesse may well become forced to attend A&E – and place further pressure on an already creaking infrastructure.

There is an assumption here – long prevalent in government – that the volunteer sector will once again pick up the pieces. But this won’t happen here.

Many of the terminally ill people affected cannot leave their homes without trained medical assistance, something hospices and their volunteer mini-van drivers cannot provide.

No one is under any illusion about the state of NHS finances, but this policy flies in the face of the values on which free healthcare is built.