‘Short-sighted’ public health cuts need reversing

New House of Commons Library analysis by the Labour Party have triggered calls for a reversal of cuts to public health, workforce and capital budgets to help deliver the NHS Long Term Plan.

The analysis shows that budgets for stop smoking services and interventions experienced a 36 per cent cut to just £2.09 per head between 2013/14 and 2016/17, while sexual health promotion, prevention and advice services have received a 29 per cent cut per head- reduced to just £1.23.

Furthermore, planned expenditure between 2017/18 and 2018/19 is set to involve a further 22 per cent cut to stop smoking services and interventions- leaving expenditure at just £1.92 per head in this year.

The cuts coincide with the ONS saying that the UK’s slowdown in life expectancy is second only to the US among developed nations, while drug related deaths in England and Wales have hit an all-time high and obesity rates among Year 6 children have also hit a record high. Ongoing Conservative Party health cuts are forcing 85 per cent of councils to reduce their public health budgets this year.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care, Secretary, said: “These deep cuts to public health services are completely short-sighted and will only lead to wider pressures on the NHS and adult social care services. Ministers who boast of their commitment to prevention won’t be taken seriously whilst at the same time cutting vital services that support pregnant mothers, help people stop smoking or tackle sexually transmitted infections and substance misuse.

“Not only are these cuts completely misguided, they also shamefully mean some of the most vulnerable in society are failed again as they go without treatment and support. These latest cuts – part of a package of £1 billion worth of cuts to health services next year – must be reversed in the imminent NHS Long Term Plan.

“With health inequalities widening and life expectancy even reversing in some of the most deprived areas we should be expanding public health services not slashing them further. Labour would fully fund public health services, target health inequalities and prioritise the health and wellbeing of every child.”

The research also reveals that the NHS workforce training budget has plummeted by 4.7 per ceny over the past five years, with Heath Education England, which manages the NHS’s workforce and training budget, consequentlyforced to reduce its expenditure by 7.6 per cent in real terms between 2013/14 and 2017/18.