Labour will expose scandal of STPs
14 Sep 2016
Speaking ahead of the Opposition Day Debate, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Diane Abbott said: “We want to hold the Government to account for these plans, which could have devastating consequences for frontline services across England.“So far we’ve seen no consultation on these plans, which have been drawn up in order to hide enormous damage to the NHS.
“We will be calling on Government to publish the evidence it has been hiding, to close the deficits with funds not more cuts, and to scrap the STPs if they can’t demonstrate real improvements.”
Notes
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* Labour will today lead an Opposition Day in Parliament attacking the Government’s STPs (Stability and Transformation Plans) for the NHS-Labour will argue that the plans have been drawn up in secret, without any evidence and without any consultation.
* Labour will also argue that the secrecy is to hide huge deficits in the NHS caused by Tory underfunding, as well as ferocious cuts to services, including beds, units, departments and whole hospitals.
* Labour criticism has been reinforced ahead of the debate by analysis from the independent King’s Fund, which said even with ‘eye-watering’ cuts it will ‘not be possible to achieve financial balance’.
The King’s Fund analysis is here http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2016/09/stp-leaders-challenges-care-budgets?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=thekingsfund
The Labour Party Opposition Day Debate motion states: That this House notes with concern that NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans are expected to lead to significant cuts or changes to frontline services; believes that the process agreed by the Government in December 2015 lacks transparency and the timeline announced by NHS England is insufficient to finalise such a major restructure of the NHS; further believes that the timetable does not allow for adequate public or Parliamentary engagement in the formulation of the plans; and calls on the Government to publish the Plans and to provide an adequate consultation period for the public and practitioners to respond.
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