Andrew Dismore

At today’s Mayor’s Question Time, London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore AM asked London Mayor Sadiq Khan to support local people, health workers, clinicians and Councils over the Government’s cuts plan for North Central London NHS. (Video here)

Mr Dismore asked the Mayor:

 

‘A 31 page internal NHS cuts plan to plug the £183.1m budget gap in North Central London NHS uncovered by The Guardian would mean patients in Barnet and Camden, as well as Haringey, Enfield and Islington, waiting even longer for operations, patients being denied access to an increased number of treatments, cuts to financial support for patients with serious, long term conditions including brain damage, downgrading or closure of hospital units and doctors spending less on drugs. Clinicians and NHS staff have expressed deep concern, with the Royal College of Surgeons calling the changes “devastating” to healthcare provision. Will you join me in calling for an immediate halt to the implementation of these plans until a full consultation can take place and residents’ views can be heard and the plans can be properly scrutinised and debated in public?

 

‘Would you agree that the secrecy surrounding this  NHS cuts project is designed to surreptitiously  sneak through unpopular and dangerous cuts, and that  such a  lack of transparency can only further undermine public trust? Have you seen that the proposals include cuts such as:

 

• Patients having to wait longer than the maximum 18 weeks for planned operations;
• rationing of care through patients being denied some surgical treatments;
• Hospital units being downgraded or shut as a result of “service consolidation”?

 

‘If you have seen the document yourself, would you agree that  in it the Government’s NHS regulators  have ordered the local NHS including the Royal Free and  University College London to implement draconian cost-cutting measures and to “think the unthinkable” in their demand  for savings: they say “We recognise that these choices may be difficult for a number of reasons [because they include] … options that impact on quality of care [and] options that would be difficult to implement” ?

 

The Mayor said that he was very concerned about access to local NHS services. The plans were not up to local NHS organisations but were the result of political choices by the Government. Consultation was required, and any plans going to consultation should have the support of clinicians and be clinically sound with the Mayor is taking it up with the NHS to demand proper consultation. This policy was the result of last 7 years of patient cuts and a major consultation was required.

The Mayor agreed with Mr Dismore, that without a doubt it was down to central Government and top down reorganisation.