Yorkshire doctors' chief warns of cuts threat to healthcare

THE chairman of a group of hundreds of family doctors in North Yorkshire has written to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to warn that multi-million-pound cuts will cause “irreparable damage” to front-line healthcare.

The North Yorkshire and York primary care trust (PCT) has announced swingeing cuts to services for 800,000 people in a desperate battle to slash debts of 29m.

The chairman of the North Yorkshire branch of YOR Local Medical Committee Ltd, Dr John Crompton, who represents 900 GPs, has written to Mr Lansley urging him to overhaul the way the NHS is funded as part of planned reforms of the health service.

Dr Crompton, who is a GP in Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, has stressed that the current funding allocation to North Yorkshire is the 13th lowest of all the 152 PCT areas and is 12 per cent below the average for the region.

He said: “For many years now local GPs have been working with NHS North Yorkshire and York to try to bring down the deficit, but we have grave concerns about the potential impact of these proposed cuts.

“This is a blinkered short-term goal which has the sole aim of balancing the books and ignores the fact that it threatens to do irreparable damage in the long-term. We could see local patient services lost, demand for hospital care increase and, ultimately, it will also cost the NHS more money.

“We want to preserve and develop health care in North Yorkshire and York and we believe changes can be made which won’t lead to high quality services being dismantled.”

The Yorkshire Post revealed last week that childless couples will be denied fertility treatment and patients will have to wait longer for surgery as NHS chiefs attempt to reduce the predicted 29m overspend during this financial year. Other services under threat include counselling and physiotherapy.