At a recent Stop The Cuts Alliance public meeting, Andrew Turner came under the spotlight in relation to proposed cuts to the NHS. We got in touch with Andrew Turner’s office and received this response today. Ed
The Island’s NHS have never said there will be 600 job losses over the next four years, although like all public sector organisations they do face financial challenges.
They have developed detailed plans on how they will face up to those challenges whilst at the same time maintaining, and in some cases improving, patient care.
In fact as part of the reorganisation St Mary’s Hospital will secure ‘trauma unit’ status which is important in terms of the long term future of NHS provision on the Island, and they have a 3% increase in funding this year over and above last year’s financial settlement.
Pause in the Health and Social Care Bill
There has been a pause in the progress of the Health and Social Care Bill for a listening exercise and to ensure that the final Bill when enacted is as robust as possible and commands wide public support.
We intend to get across the message more clearly that this Bill will transfer power from managers, to patients and their GPs, who know them best.
The Bill will also continue the process, started under the Labour Government, for some procedures to be carried out by the private sector. As long as the private sector is not allowed to ‘cherry pick’ which services they provide that will also be good for patients.
If private providers can offer the best service at the right price, patients should not be subjected to an inferior service because of political dogma or ideology.
