Another mega NHS shake-up, with a serious threat to patient services, is underway by stealth, Unite, the country’s largest union, warned today (Wednesday 26 October).
Unite said that the 44 Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) for England heralded yet another reconfiguration of the NHS which could see closures or relocations of local hospitals and A&E departments.
Unite, with 100,000 members in the health service, has branded the STPs as ‘Slash, Trash and Privatise.’
The STPs are being driven by NHS England with the aim of improving services by looking at them ‘in the round’ – but the union said that they will mean extensive cuts to services as the health service struggles to implement £20bn of so-called ‘efficiency’ savings.
The 44 STP ‘footprints’ for the disparate geographical areas each have their own plans, which had been prepared by mainly local NHS apparatchiks with no public involvement, and had to be submitted to NHS England by 21 October which will then decide when the individual STPs can be publicised.
The limited public consultation process is due to start in January 2017, with implementation expected later next year.
Unite national officer for health Sarah Carpenter said: “What we have here is another attempt to reorganise the NHS by stealth in the name of improved services.
For full article Unite – The Union 26 October 2016