28.07.17
BMA ‘deeply concerned’ about CEP plans to slash £500m from 13 areas
Doctors have today warned that ‘secret’ plans for severe cuts that could extend waiting times, reduce access to services and merge or close hospitals are being considered by the government.
The BMA has said that the capped expenditure process (CEP) introduced in April this year instructs commissioners and providers in 13 areas across England with the largest budget deficits to make considerable cuts and ‘think the unthinkable’ to balance the books by April 2018.
The areas have now submitted plans to NHS England, and Simon Stevens has warned that yet more “difficult choices” are on the way.
The doctors’ union sent 13 Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to the areas to see their documents. Only eight replied and none of the organisations released their plans to the BMA.
This has led the health group to say it is “deeply concerned” about extreme cuts being on the horizon under the CEP and the secretive manner with which the plans have been handled.
“These plans could have serious consequences for doctors working on the frontline and for the care and treatment patients receive and can expect in hospitals and GP surgeries in these areas,” said BMA council deputy chair, Dr David Wrigley.
“It is bad enough that brutal cuts could threaten the services but it is totally unacceptable that proposals of this scale, which would affect large numbers of patients, are shrouded in such secrecy.”
Dr Wrigley argued that the government needed to “stop and think” before pressing ahead, as cuts on this scale and in this timeframe would have a devastating impact on patients and staff.
“Our NHS is one of the very best healthcare services in the world, with hugely talented staff but it relies too much on the goodwill of the staff who dedicate their lives to helping patients,” he continued.
“This simply cannot go on. The government must provide adequate funding for the health service before it is too late.”
The BMA also quoted one trust chair who anonymously claimed that they were “descended on and asked to think the unthinkable in no time at all”.
“The NHS seems to go into a zone of secrecy as an automatic reaction. That’s the thing that really upsets me – the secrecy of it all and the ridiculous pace in which solutions are to be crafted and agreed,” the chair stated. “It’s the management culture too – it’s all hierarchical power and bullying. Even the most modest proposals would cause uproar.”
But an NHS England spokesman told national press: “While this report is just recycling old claims from several months ago, the NHS has always had to live within the budget that Parliament allocates, and the usual requirements for public consultation on any suggested major service reconfigurations of course continue to apply.
“However, it is grossly unfair if a small number of areas in effect take more than their fair share at the expense of other people’s hospital services, GP care and mental health clinics elsewhere in the country.”
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