NHS cuts plan for Coventry and Warwickshire - council pledges to monitor closely - The Coventry Observer

NHS cuts plan for Coventry and Warwickshire - council pledges to monitor closely

Coventry Editorial 31st Jan, 2017   0

PLANS for £267million of NHS cuts in Coventry and Warwickshire in the next five years will be closely monitored by Coventry councillors, they have pledged.

It is unclear how much power they will have to influence NHS changes, although councils will be a key compenent in delivering more co-ordinated health and social care in future.

We reported month the proposals for University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire (UHCW), Nuneaton’s George Eliot Hospital (GEH), as well as across mental health provision and community services.

Under the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) – patients admitted to hospital will be sent home early “even if they have not yet fully recovered” in order to receive care at home and relieve pressure on hospital A&E departments and wards.




Pregnant women would be encouraged to have home births with the support of newly established and expanded community hubs.

People would also be given better support to enable them to die at home rather than in hospital.


A new Acute Stroke Unit would be established at UHCW, with care at GEH and Warwick Hospital ceasing.

Stroke victims will be admitted to to the UHCW unit for initial care before being moved to rehabilitation beds at GEH and Warwick and then back home with the support of the Early Supported Discharge (ESD) team.

STPs are an NHS England-led approach to meeting the health and social care challenges up to 2020 of a rising population, budget pressures, and people living longer.

A leading Coventry city councillor is seeking to ‘reassure residents’ the council will ensure decisions on the future of health provision in Coventry are fully scrutinised.

Councillor Faye Abbott, Labour cabinet member for adult services and lead councillor for the STP, said: ‘Although it is critically important for the council to continue to work with health organisations in progressing the STP, I want to assure people that by discussing it in council meetings it certainly doesn’t mean we’ve ‘signed up’ to it.

“As it currently stands the STP is lacking in detail and transparency of what it will actually mean for people who need health and care services and I know that has been a great concern to people.

“Over the next months and even years the details of the potential impact of the STP will become clearer and I will be ensuring both that any decisions go through the correct decision-making process and that we are on hand to fight for residents by scrutinising and testing those decisions.

“I want to make sure any changes are made for the right reasons and will benefit the people that matter, our residents.

“My views as Cabinet Member are echoed by many Councillors, specifically the Leader of the City Council, Cllr George Duggins in his letter to the chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire STP board, and the chair of the Coventry Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Damian Gannon in his letter to Jeremy Hunt MP.”

The STP report also places a greater emphasis on preventative care – particularly for the frail, elderly, smokers and the high-risk obese – in order to reduce attendance to hospital and A&E attendance by 21,000 people each year.

Coventry and Warwickshire’s STP Board is made up of nine organisations including hospitals, mental health and community services, local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups.

The report was submitted to NHS England in October and was drawn up consultants for Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) and led by UHCW chief executive Professor Hardy.

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