Government has 'no cash for Future Fit', says BMA

The medical union says that its investigation into the cost of funding Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP) has shown that at least £9.5 billion will be needed to complete all the projects included.

Dr Stephen Millar, the BMA's West Midlands regional chair, said the plans, including Shropshire's bid to reshape services at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital Telford, will be unachievable if the Government does not provide long-term investment.

He said: "Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin told NHS England that it would need an alarming £311m in capital funding in order to deliver these so called 'transformation' plans.

"This is on top of millions of pounds needed for a backlog of other repair work.

"With NHS budgets severely strained, funding from capital budgets is often used to prop up day-to-day running costs in the NHS.

"The reality of what is needed to implement transformation plans is unachievable if the Government does not provide the long-term investment desperately needed."

STPs are being created across England and have been seen by critics as a way of forcing through cuts to health spending.

Their advocates say the plans are about creating health networks which provide more effective and efficient care for the public.

Dr Millar has criticised the STP process, arguing that it has been carried out behind closed doors, and is "fast becoming completely unworkable".

He said: "The NHS and social system is at breaking point and the STP process could have offered a chance to deal with some of the problems facing the NHS.

"But from its inception, this process was carried out largely behind closed doors, without proper consultation and input from those on the front line.

"The plans are fast becoming completely unworkable and have instead revealed a health service that is unsustainable without urgent further investment, and with little capacity to transform in any meaningful way other than by reducing the provision of services on a drastic scale."

The BMA investigation found that 37 of the 44 STP footprint areas have a total projected capital demand of £9.53 billion.

Commenting on the findings, Dr Mark Porter, BMA chair of council, said: "From its very beginning this process was carried out largely behind closed doors, by rushed health and social care leaders trying to develop impossible plans for the future while struggling to keep the NHS from the brink of collapse.

"These figures are especially concerning given that everyone can see a huge crisis unfolding within our NHS, with record numbers of trusts and GP practices raising the alarm to say they already can't cope. The NHS is at breaking point and the STP process could have offered a chance to deal with some of the problems that the NHS is facing, like unnecessary competition, expensive fragmentation and buildings and equipment often unfit for purpose, but there is clearly nowhere near the funding required to carry out these plans."