Mayor Dave: 'Scandal' of Government Underfunding of Local Health and Social Care Services
Mayor Dave Hodgson has slammed the 'scandal' of 'chronic underfunding by the Government of local health and social care services in Bedford'. The effects of this include not only the ongoing extreme pressure on Council services at a time of rising need, but also the consideration by local NHS Commissioners of drastic measures such as the deferred proposal to end all IVF treatment on the NHS in Bedfordshire.
In a post on Facebook, Mayor Dave wrote:
"You may have seen that last week the Bedfordshire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) deferred until November a decision on proposals to stop commissioning specialist fertility treatment and to end all IVF treatment on the NHS in Beds, and also NHS commissioning of over-the-counter medicines and gluten free food prescription.
So uncertainty over these proposals continues, but while I have never held back from holding the CCG to account and have been very critical of it attimes, the fact that it is having to consider such major cuts is another illustration of the chronic, desperate underfunding by the Government of health and social care services in Bedford Borough. It is nothing short of a scandal, and it is local patients, families and the entire Bedford Borough community which are made to suffer.
This scandal of the government's appalling underfunding of health and social care services is not only evident in these proposed cuts but will reveal itself again this winter, for example, as an under-resourced Bedford Hospital battles to manage heightened demand, in common with hospitals across the country. Time and again, it is the excellent staff on the front line who have to contend with the consequences.
If you want to read exactly what the commissioning proposals are, and the recommendations which were deferred, you can do so on the CCG's website here (see Item 10, on the right-hand side of the page):https://www.bedfordshireccg.nhs.uk/page/?id=3965"