Find the real cure for crisis in NHS, MPs say
‘Work together in best interest of patients’
DOWNING STREET, Ministers and health service officials must stop bickering and find real solutions to the NHS funding crisis, an influential parliamentary committee has warned.
The public has yet to be convinced that “transformation plans” for the NHS are anything more than “just a cover for cuts in services”, according to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
In a report published today, the committee of MPs, which oversees how public money is spent, calls on the Department of Health, NHS England and Downing Street to work together “in the best interests of patients”.
Recent figures from the IPPR North thinktank suggest the NHS in Yorkshire is facing a £2bn deficit by the end of the decade, even with the extra funding promised by the Government.
Local health service bodies are drawing up proposals, known as Sustainable Transformation Plans (STPs), as part of a major NHS efficiency drive to fill the budget gap.
An analysis by The Yorkshire Post of the emerging plans revealed the scrapping of emergency stroke services at four hospitals were among the cuts being considered.
The PAC report warns Ministers that local bodies are being asked to solve “multiple problems” without a proper understanding of what can be achieved.
Tensions between NHS England’s chief executive Simon Stevens and Downing Street have become public in recent weeks with Prime Minister Theresa May apparently irritated at Mr Stevens continuing to make the case for more money despite the Government injecting extra cash.
PAC chairman Meg Hillier MP said: “Few trusts feel they have a credible plan for meeting the financial targets they have been set by Government. At the same time, the Government seems unable to get its own house in order – plundering NHS investment funds to plug holes elsewhere, and falling out in public over its longer-term strategy.
“Contradictory statements about funding from the Prime Minister and head of NHS England are an insult to taxpayers who deserve an honest, grownup conversation about future finance and service provision.”
The PAC report calls for a “clear and transparent recovery plan” for parts of the health service in financial trouble and explain the benefits of STPs to the public.
The IPPR analysis suggested the NHS in West Yorkshire will face a £1bn deficit by 2021 unless changes to services are made.
The Government seems unable to get its own house in order PAC chairman Meg Hillier MP
Across the Humber and Vale area – including North Yorkshire – the figure is £420m, while in South Yorkshire it is £570m. The funding gap amounts to between £300 and £400 per person across the region.
A Department of Health spokesman said: “We are united behind the ambition to make the NHS the safest, highest-quality healthcare system in the world – which also means ensuring financial sustainability for the future, and the hospital sector’s financial position has now improved by £1.3 billion compared to this time last year, with 44 fewer Trusts in deficit.”
LABOUR’S DISARRAY – it could not even hold the once safe seat of Copeland when the local maternity hospital is threatened with closure – is such that it cannot effectively hold the Government to account. Cabinet Ministers like Jeremy Hunt (Health) and Sajid Javid (Communities) have not been properly challenged by the Opposition over the disconnect between hospitals and social care that is exacerbating the beds crisis.
It’s left to thoughtful former ministers, like Hull’s much-respected Alan Johnson, to use backbench debates to explain that the additional levy on council tax bills to fund the care of the elderly has been more than offset by costs incurred by local authorities in implementing the National Living Wage. Even then, it is junior Ministers who are entrusted with defending the Government’s decision-making.
This matters because Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, a scrutiny body that is proving far more effective than the Shadow Cabinet, has warned that public “bickering” between Theresa May and the NHS over funding is an “insult to taxpayers”. Statistical semantics detract from the fact that such strains will only intensify as a result of an ageing population and that there needs to be effective oversight of the Sustainability and Transformation Plans tasked with implementing the latest changes. And while most patients want a consensus, even this requires Labour, the party which founded the NHS, to engage with the process. Yet where is Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ainsworth? Who is he – and what is he doing?