STPs and National News

The Guardian reports that Professor Stephen Hawking’s speech to the Royal Society of Medicine is exposing the policy-driven reality of NHS underfunding and moves towards a US-style insurance system. This led to exchanges with the secretary of state for health and NHS doctors on NHS reform (Why won’t Jeremy Hunt come clean?). A November 2016  report found there are many plans for A&Es and maternity units being downgraded or closed via implementation of “STPs”

The Telegraph and Daily Mail report that STP plans to close A&E are being kept ‘secret’ and could put lives at risk, according to leading doctors Telegraph on secret plans to close A&E and Daily Mail and secret NHS plans for hospital closures.

The Financial Times reports that “Patients will wait longer for non-urgent operations and for treatment in accident and emergency departments while some “low value” surgical procedures will be scrapped” and “Bed closures are also likely as local plans to shift more spending out of hospitals and into the community — so-called Sustainability and Transformation Plans — come into effect FT and STPs.

For latest NHS information on STPs, go to https://www.england.nhs.uk/systemchange/ or for independent STP views go to Kings Fund STP news.