Graham, Tom and Ian

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Tories praise £200 million health cuts at Stockport Full Council

by Lib Dem team on 3 July, 2015

Stockport’s Full Council meeting on 2nd July was treated to lectures from Conservative councillors Syd Lloyd and Oliver Johnstone on why the government is completely right to be cutting £200 million from health spending this year.

The explanations were met with incredulity from the Lib Dem and Labour benches, and with good reason.

Speaker after speaker from the Lib Dems and Labour, some with decades of professional medical experience, pointed out how the Tories simply didn’t seem to understand not only how healthcare works but also how council finances work.

If current levels of spending continue (rising in line with inflation), the NHS in England will have a spending gap of £30 billion by 2020. The NHS has a plan to close that gap, which they presented before the election.

They want the government to increase spending in the NHS by a further £8 billion a year (hence the Lib Dem’s costed pledge to do just that) and the other £22 billion they aim to find from efficiency savings in the NHS.

How do you save £22 billion on efficiencies? A major way is to invest more in public health – all the spending that goes to stopping people needing to take up expensive hospital beds in the first place. And what spending does the government  and Stockport Tories want to cut? That’s right – the very public health money that’s a key part of the strategy to stop the NHS collapsing in just a few years time.

The Stockport Tory proposal was defeated by the Lib Dems and Labour who are calling on the government to think again on this critical issue for the NHS.

   2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. Ann Smith says:

    I wonder if the Tories on the Council know what Public Health refers to. My experience of them is that they don’t keep themselves well informed on issues that people really do need to understand.
    Public Health Is all about preventing ill health. For example, healthy eating, exercise, infant vaccination, education on avoiding teenage pregnancy and the illegal drug culture.
    It requires a large and well funded programme of education, research and action. If effective, the health budget will benefit enormously because of improved outcomes.

  2. Arthur lampkin says:

    Didn’t the Stockport Public Health Department combine and therfore be part of the council and not part of NHS anymore with the closure of Stockport Primary Care Trust.

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