YP Comment: NHS heading back in time - MP warns of '˜smokescreen for cuts'

Labour's John Mann says that attempts to find hundreds of millions of pounds in savings are in danger of taking Yorkshire's health services back to the 1960s.
MP John Mann warns that savings are danger of putting Yorkshire's health services back to the 60s.MP John Mann warns that savings are danger of putting Yorkshire's health services back to the 60s.
MP John Mann warns that savings are danger of putting Yorkshire's health services back to the 60s.

The Bassetlaw MP told Parliament that a ‘Sustainability and Transformation Plan’ for South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw designed to meet a £571m budget black hole for the area’s NHS and social care organisations in the next four years, was little more than a ‘smokescreen for cuts’.

Some people might find the MP’s claims that new mothers are being told to weigh their own babies, that women face weeks of delays in getting breast cancer screening and that the planned downgrading of a children’s unit is leaving parents facing 80-mile round trips to take their poorly children to hospital for overnight stays, over the top. But it must be recognised that the future of the NHS cannot be safeguarded by cutting services, whether it’s the number of health visitors or eye tests in schools.

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His stark warning comes just a day after the respected IPPR think-tank warned that Yorkshire is facing a colossal £2bn NHS deficit by the end of the decade unless more funding becomes available, or dramatic savings are made.

The spotlight has certainly intensified not only on the question of how we fund our health service, but also its very essence.

Last month, the Red Cross said the NHS was facing a “humanitarian crisis” with hospitals and ambulance services struggling to keep up with rising demand, and while Theresa May rejected this description as “irresponsible and overblown” it highlighted the growing sense of alarm felt by many people.

We all benefit from the NHS and the passion it arises is testimony to the warm regard in which it is held. But the time has come to set aside political differences and work out a sustainable future, or face the bleak alternative.

Making work pay - Poverty remains a big concern

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In her first statement as Prime Minister, Theresa May attempted to reassure those “just about managing” to avoid poverty, saying she understood the challenges they were facing.

But the scale of the problem facing those that are living on the breadline should not be under-estimated. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s annual state of the nation report, published last year, more than a million people in Yorkshire are living in poverty while the region now has the dubious distinction of having the highest share of in-work poverty in the North of England.

We are not talking about feckless layabouts content to sponge off the state, these are ordinary working people who are struggling to make ends meet and who, in many cases, aren’t.

Take Claire Robinson from Leeds. She works as a hospital domestic and in the last few years has seen the cost of living rise faster than her wages. It should never be the case that those on the dole are better off than those, like Claire, who get up and go to work each morning, but many people feel they are penalised for having a job.

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Poverty in 21st century Britain might not equate to the dreadful conditions endured by past generations and we certainly aren’t talking about the Victorian workhouses that Charles Dickens wrote about so powerfully, but in this day and age nor should we be.

If this Government really wants to make work pay then it needs to ensure that everyone in this country has a genuine living wage, irrespective of how old they are or the type of job they have. Otherwise what kind of message are we sending to those sitting idly at home in front of the TV.

Train fiasco - Northern Rail’s bungling

Over the years we’ve heard all kinds of excuses for delayed train services in this country – from the wrong kind of snow, to fallen leaves on the lines.

But just when you thought the rail network couldn’t become any more of a laughing stock, Northern Rail found itself at the centre of yet another farce yesterday when a train driver pulled out of the station at Burley in Wharfedale... without the conductor.

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Passengers were left stuck in carriages while a taxi was summoned to pick up the guard. The fiasco, described by the company as an “operating incident”, caused one of the busiest services of the morning, from Ilkley to Leeds, to be terminated at Menston, half way down the line, and led to long delays for commuters travelling afterwards between Ilkley, Leeds and Bradford.

To cap another bad day at the office for Northern Rail a train fault then caused cancellations on the Skipton line. You really couldn’t make it up.