Crucial NHS plans criticised for 'lack of detail'
A VITAL strategy that will involve slashing nearly £300 million off the NHS budget in Coventry and Warwickshire over the next five years was published this week – and it came under immediate attack for its vagueness and lack of detail.
The proposals – known as a Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) – are due to go out to public consultation. But critics argue that the public won’t have a clue what they’re being consulted upon because the STP contains no specific measures concerning particular localities or services.
Professor Anna Pollert, who is both chair and secretary of the South Warwickshire Keep Our NHS Public (SWKONP) campaign, told the Herald: “It is full of hollow, vague language and euphemisms for cuts, such as ‘service reconfiguration’, ‘consolidation’, ‘alternative ways of working’ and promoting ‘greater independence’. There are ‘workstreams’, but what does this mean?”
Prof Pollert added: “STPs are driven by a combination of NHS underfunding, new budget cuts, and the government’s determination to shift the NHS from a clinically-driven service towards US-style models that fit more readily with private insurance-based and corporate-managed healthcare.”
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