Labour will announce an immediate moratorium on sustainability and transformation plans if the party wins the general election, with shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth vowing to review proposals in all 44 areas.
Mr Ashworth said proposed closures of hospitals as part of plans to reconfigure health services have caused widespread “concern and confusion”.
He criticised a perceived lack of transparency in the STP process and said a Labour government would establish a new body, NHS Excellence, to lead the comprehensive review.
Mr Ashworth said: “We have listened to the hundreds of patients and campaigners up and down the country that have been pleading with the government to hear their concerns about their local services.
“Threats of hospitals being closed, A&E services moved miles up the road, and children’s wards being shut, have caused widespread concern and confusion. What is more, these decisions have been decided behind closed doors, with no genuine involvement of local people. It’s a disgrace.”
The Public Accounts Committee recently said it was “unconvinced” that STPs would achieve integration of health and social care services, with “credible, robust and rigorous” plans developed in “very few areas”.
HSJ reported last month that national NHS leaders are preparing to pin-point STP areas that must make “difficult choices” to scale back “unaffordable” services.
The Next Steps for the Five Year Forward View, published by NHS England in March, said some areas have been “living off bailouts arbitrarily taken from other parts of the country or from services such as mental health”.
Article originally published by Health Service Journal
