MP says Minister must act over county's health provision
Telford MP Lucy Allan warned the Secretary for Health not to "sit on his hands" and called for him to hold Shropshire's health boards to account over what she says is an inequality in funding between the county's hospitals.
Ms Allan was speaking as she opened a parliamentary debate on health inequality, and she called again for Matt Hancock to intervene and review the Future Fit process.
She said Telford & Wrekin's population is worse off than Shropshire's in almost every health index, but that the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital will receive the bulk of millions of pounds of funding in the controversial hospital shake-up plans.
She criticised the decision by the county's two clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in January to base Shropshire's only A&E department in Shrewsbury.
Ms Allan said: "Telford is a post-war new town created on the east Shropshire coalfield and the town has areas that are amongst the most deprived areas in the country.
"It has by every measure significantly worse health outcomes than Shropshire, which as a county has by almost every indicator better outcomes than the national average and significantly better outcomes than Telford.
"What we have seen is a joint CCG representing these disparate areas deciding to direct the bulk of this funding and to move existing resources to the more affluent areas from an area of deprivation.
"This is a clear failure of the duty to narrow health inequalities.
"Healthcare spending is the one part of the mix that Government can control, and it is right to expect healthcare spending to be focused on tackling both unequal health outcomes and unequal access to healthcare.
"The allocation of funding to local commissioners rightly includes an adjustment for health inequalities based on the mortality rate, so an area with a higher mortality rate such as my borough of Telford & Wrekin will get more funding per head than an area with a lower mortality rate such as neighbouring Shropshire.
"But this is not the end of the matter."
Prioritise
Ms Allan referred to Theresa May's first speech outside 10 Downing Street as prime minister, in which she said she would prioritise health inequality.
"But July 2016 was a very long time ago," said Ms Allan, "and since that date we have heard a great deal less about this injustice, and during that time inequality of health outcomes between those in affluent areas and those in areas of deprivation persists."
She said although Telford & Wrekin Council's health and wellbeing board had worked "extremely hard" to hold the CCG to account, councillors had not been listened to.
"Of course it's not about spending more, and poor health is not just about healthcare, it's a much wider issue.
"But if the NHS is overlooking its statutory and its constitutional and its moral duty to properly consider health inequalities when making major spending decisions then it is my view that the Secretary of State has a legal duty to act.
"He cannot just sit on his hands and say 'well, it is down to local clinicians'.
"It is not enough for government or NHS England to hand over the cash to a joint CCG and then say 'job done' as far as health inequality is concerned.
"CCGs also have a duty to narrow health inequalities and if they are not complying, and in my area they are not, I would like to ask the minister how is it we can hold them to account."
The secretary of state did not attend the debate, but the department of health was represented by junior minister Jackie Doyle-Price.
The minister said the department would not pre-judge Telford & Wrekin Council's impending formal appeal for Matt Hancock to review the Future Fit decision, but would support Ms Allan.
She said: "I can assure her that when it does arrive on the Secretary of State's desk he will consider it impartially."
