THE GREAT NHS GAMBLE: Local NHS services facing major overhaul

Today, the Wigan Post and its sister titles across Johnston Press examines the 44 regional blueprints drawn up to remodel the NHS in an attempt to fill the £22bn financial hole the NHS is facing by April 2021. If the plan isn’t implemented in Greater Manchester, it is estimated there will be a £1.973bn hole in the budget: the biggest in the country.

It means health chiefs must make more than £700 in efficiency savings per head of Wigan borough’s population.

Many of the five-year plans around the country have been criticised for being shrouded in secrecy and filled with jargon, and campaigners fear they will lead to creeping privatisation of the NHS.

Makerfield MP Yvonne Fovargue said today that the authorities are being asked to deliver “unrealistic savings targets” and “working to impossible timescales”. But Greater Manchester has been working on its plans for more than a year longer than most.

And Wigan hospital trust chief executive Andrew Foster said that much of the criticisms levelled at other plans don’t apply locally, with transparency a top priority and the creation of a blueprint which avoids shutting services - including hospitals - which should work if it carries on at the present rate.

But the British Medical Association says Greater Manchester needs a huge £700m for in capital resources to make the local plan work.
More to follow ...