Kentish Express Ashford & District
‘We are being asked to back health plan that has left public in dark’
Councillors strongly criticise transformation plan for services
County councillors have delivered a withering assessment of proposals for a radical shake-up of health care across the county.
While the councillors narrowly voted to endorse the draft Sustainability and Transformation Plan, they did so only after they had heaped criticism on the blueprint.
The STP will set out the way in which health care services will be provided in the long-term in Kent.
It will indicate how changes will be needed to cope with increased demand for patient care against a backdrop of declining budgets.
Across Kent and Medway, £3.4 billion was allocated for health and social last year but overspent by £141 million.
It is estimated that without change, there will be a shortfall of £485m by 2020.
Conservative Cllr Graham Gibbens, the politician in charge of public health, was among those refused to support it at the vote, along with 34 others.
Cllr John Simmonds, the Conservative deputy leader of KCC, abstained.
Among the more forceful critics was Labour councillor Roger Truelove, who said: “The fact is that what we are being asked to do is to give some kind of public REASSURANCE: KCC leader Cllr Paul Carter acceptability to something the public has been kept totally in the dark about.”
He described a meeting to discuss to consider the STP in which those attending had been given an hour and a half to discuss how they would look after themselves in the event of there being no care available.
Cllr Andrew Bowles, the Conservative leader of Swale council, said he had been involved in health care for 20 years and could not back the STP.
“We do need a new approach – that is blindingly obvious and services are creaking under pressure. We are being asked to endorse the direction of travel and nothing I have heard so far can persuade me to endorse this.”
“We had a £2m fund for transformation.
“And what has happened to that fund? £1.8m has been used up In serving historical debt, leaving little to do what we should be doing,” he said.
Cllr Trudy Dean, Liberal Democrat group leader, said: “How do we think we are going to solve the problem when we do not have enough GPs on the ground when they are absolutely the crucial cog in driving the transfer of services to GP surgeries?”
She said the draft plan was “unreadable and large chunks of it are bereft of any meaning.”
Ukip councillor Hod Birkby said the STP was pure fantasy and plans for round-the-clock 24-7 care were “pure fiction... we can’t do it, we haven’t got the training, we haven’t got the staff, we haven’t got the money.”
KCC leader Paul Carter did his best to reassure members, saying: “Nobody is pretending this is easy territory.
“Do we abdicate our responsibilities or do we grab the opportunity and use our experience to help deliver better services and better outcomes for people in Kent and Medway?
“I believe passionately that we can.”
One key focus for the STP will be ways in which GPs can offer patients more treatments that would ordinarily be carried out at hospitals.
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‘We do need a new approach – that is blindingly obvious and services are creaking under pressure’