Shock plans for the sell-off of the NHS were uncovered yesterday when NHS bosses published a proposal to reduce reliance on public money. A staggering £500 million is to be slashed from one area’s NHS budget as details of the government’s NHS cuts programme leaked out.
The Cambridgeshire document appears to be a blueprint for savage cuts and blows the lid on government plans to privatise the NHS. The sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) have been dubbed “slash, trash and plunder” by campaigners.
Tory plans to cut £22 billion from the NHS budget by 2020 could see thousands of beds lost and units closed, including A&E departments. Doctors have raised concerns about being shut out of the plans.
Most of the proposals were shrouded in secrecy before being published, with NHS England ordering managers not to give out information until bosses had given approval.
The Cambridgeshire plan was initially led by Dr Neil Modha, the chief clinical officer responsible for Cambridgeshire’s disastrous £800m Uniting Care Partnership contract for services for elderly people.
Full story in The Morning Star 22 November 2016