CUTS THREAT TO HEALTH

WE have repeatedly expressed concern about the threats presented to the health of the people of Stockport by the planned cuts in services.

The closing of 200 beds in Stepping Hill hospital and the reduction in consultants (50 per cent), and the planned loss of 500,000 GP appointments, are just the most shocking of the changes that will reduce the access of patients, particularly older people, to high quality healthcare.

We have been patted on the head and told that all will be well because of the planned reorganisation of (underfunded) community services and the merging of health and social care.

There is in fact no research evidence that this will reduce the need for hospital treatment. Now we learn, from responses to Freedom of Information requests (reported in The Observer December 11) that the government’s £4 billion a year Better Care Fund has failed utterly to deliver on its aim of keeping people (particularly older people) out of hospital by increasing social support. This is entirely in line with the evidence we have cited.

If the Stockport Together plan – a castle built on sand - goes ahead, it will be impossible to meet the legitimate needs of seriously ill people.

The consequences will be obvious; hospitals unable to cope with the influx of patients, or vulnerable patients dying at home.

We call on councillors to think again before signing up to what could threaten the lives of those who voted for them. Theresa Tallis Chair Stockport NHS Watch Raymond Tallis Emeritus Professor of Geriatric Medicine University of Manchester ‘glorious victory’ when only 10,000 homes are built on Stockport’s green belt instead of the 12,000 currently proposed. George Barnes, name and address supplied