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Osborne Confirms MCR's NHS Devo Deal
Chancellor backs plans for NHS England to hand control of health care spending to Greater Manchester's ten councils
CHANCELLOR George Osborne has confirmed the news that NHS England is ready to hand control of its £6bn health care budget to Greater Manchester's ten local councils in an unprecedented move by Westminster towards DevoManc - read here.
"Treating a person as a whole - rather than by separate conditions - is designed to bring long-term benefits and independence."
Osborne said: “We’re discussing a plan for bringing together the NHS and social care in Manchester so we provide better care for patients. This is exactly what we want to see more of in our health care. It’s also about giving Greater Manchester more control over things run in Greater Manchester – which is what our vision of a Northern Powerhouse is all about.
"It’s early days, but I think it’s really exciting development. We’ll be working hard now with Greater Manchester and NHS England on getting the details right so the arrangements work best for patients.”
Dr Hamish Stedman, chair of Salford Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "This is genuine opportunity to enhance health outcomes for the people of Greater Manchester by aligning health and social care and public sector reform. Treating a person as a whole - rather than by separate conditions - is designed to bring long-term benefits and independence.”
Central Manchester University Hospital
Lord Peter Smith, chair of Greater Manchester Combined Authority, said: “We are committed to working in partnership with our NHS colleagues throughout the city region to take this forward and I would like to thank those colleagues, and NHS England, for their hard work so far in enabling us to reach this point.
"By ensuring that decisions about health for Greater Manchester are taken in Greater Manchester, we can ensure we have a system specifically tailored to the needs of people in our area."
The rest is from a release issued on behalf of the NHS and the ten councils of Greater Manchester:
'The 10 local authorities, 12 Clinical Commissioning Groups, 14 NHS partners, NHS England and the government can confirm they are in discussions on a groundbreaking agreement for health and social care.
'It is hoped that an agreement will be reached shortly for Greater Manchester health and social care leaders to work with NHS England and the Government on the future of health and social care. This is about creating joint decision-making on an integrated care approach - which recognises the link between physical, mental and social wellbeing.
'NHS care will remain free for patients, national standards of care will continue to apply to all NHS services, and the local NHS will continue to meet or exceed service improvements set for the NHS in the annual Mandate agreed between the Government and NHS England.
Manchester Town Hall
'The move – which could see Greater Manchester make its own decisions around the health and social care needs of its residents – follows the historic devolution settlement with Government on November 3, 2014. Greater power for the cities in the north is central to the government’s vision of a Northern Powerhouse.
'Following the original devolution deal, NHS England invited the GMCA, Greater Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and the area’s NHS providers to develop a plan for joining up - or integrating - health and social care across Greater Manchester. These plans also fit within a place-based approach to health and care reform in the context of the national Five Year Forward View set out by NHS England.'
Councillor Cliff Morris, GMCA lead on health, said: “Our ambition is clear: To move from being one of the places with the worst health outcomes in the country to becoming one of the best and we believe this could be a huge step towards that goal. By fully integrating health and social care we can focus on preventing illness and promoting well-being across all age groups.”
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A positive outcome from this would be to stop all the Hospital Trusts competing against each other.
The worry I have is that the boroughs will not get as much as Manchester. This happens in London. The big central London teaching hospitals are a world away from those in darkest Dagenham and Croydon. Will the MRI be a centre of excellence and the Royal Oldham/Bolton/Tameside etc be left with crumbs off a rich man's table. Food for thought.
Good work chap
Funny how Osbourne seems to be doing so much for the North West, he'll be accused of bias soon
It's kind of a win win situation for him. If it works he goes down in history as a hero. If it doesn't, no-one in Greater Manchester can ever blame a co-existing conservative central government for their woes and Labour's stranglehold on the region is broken
Osborne is MP for Tatton. If Cameron loses the election,he will need a power base for the battle with London centric Boris as a future leader. A man who insulted Liverpool and who has no idea where half the places outside London are. Not a very good start for a potential PM. Osborne can sell himself as a one nation Tory from the North West. He is a very clever man. He has made Andy Burnham look silly by pressing ahead with devolution in the area he represents. The national labour party look more and more London centric and do not seem to have any plans for the North of any relevance.
Andy Burnham does a good job of making himself look silly. Literally. He looked like he had a full face of make-up on the news last night
So, no more NHS for us. Manchester Regional Health Service it is. The unchallenged noggins in our town hall will do ANYTHING for more power.
Which Town Hall Phil? Peter Smith is from Wigan, Cliff Morris from Bolton.
MHS Is now being bandied around as a term. What is the bet that the handing over of the money symbolically takes place at Trafford General the first NHS hospital.
People seem to be missing the point that this gives the opportunity to better integrate health and social care, which would (e.g.) reduce 'bed blocking' and enable much better care in the home, and also be potentially beneficial for mental health care, all things which the current NHS leadership has shown little appetite for. Of course the worry remains that, if the Tories stay in power, it's a big step towards breaking up the NHS.
This is dangerous; very dangerous. The NHS is already suffering a shortfall in funding in the billions, and the Social Care bill is expanding at a phenomenal rate. Merging the budgets is a great idea; but handing it to local authorities isn't. It creates a local health service and diminishes the strength of the NHS, whilst allowing councils to spoon health funding to prop up social care funding. At a time when reduced funding for the NHS is crippling services; Osbourne knows that handing this poison chalice to the local authorities means that the inevitable and imminent funding crisis can be blamed on Manchester and not the government.
And carrying with the bloated, inefficient bureaucracy of the NHS is a good idea? I think not. Way past the time for a change. When it's bedded in in Greater Manchester, it needs rolling out across the rest of England.
I'd sooner have George Osborne as elected mayor of Manchester than the City Centre Czar and other online cranks
George Osbourne political skills have finished Andy Burnham career,he has managed to drive a huge wedge the size of the M1 between Labour councils and most local MP in Greater Manchester and Burham.Burnham must be feeling sick seeing the the smiling faces of Osbourne and Leese together today at the announcement, who he must feel have totally stitched him up. Also the second part of Osbourne brilliance is that no longer will all the local chums of Labour like Mr Schofield be able to use a Tory Party conference in the city to moan about the NHS because all Osbourne has to to turn around and point out is that they the Tory government are no longer responsible for NHS decisions in the region that's all the responsibility of the Greater Manchester council and Mayor(likely all Labour).So if hospitals are closed or nurses sacked take all your complaints in future to the Labour Party. Finally Mr Schofield chum Mr Burnham deserves all he gets because he has shown that he is not truly interested in devolving power,he is a typical Labour centrist,who wants socialism run from London.There is nothing wrong with Labour MPs who are loyal to the people and interests of this region but there is everything wrong with Labour MPs who do nothing but merely serve the interests of London.
...and several Labour MPs from Greater Manchester have already put the needs of the London party above what is good for Greater Manchester...
David; please stick to the point you wish to make and get some perspective. Whilst the editor of ManCon may or may not be left leaning, you credit him with relationships and much more influence than he actually has. It's beyond boring.
The editor of this website was more than happy to publish here a picture of his son meeting Burham and tell us what a good bloke he was.Even when readers pointed out Burnham failings over Mid Staffs and the shambles over the Labour run NHS in Wales he persisted in his praise for Burnham.Well today Leese his hero,by sitting sitting down with a Tory chancellor and health secretarywith Burnham nowhere to be seen,has clearly and rightly told Burnham to bugger of.Leese is going to do what's right for Greater Manchester.
Very true. Thirteen years in power and they still put all the resources in to the South. Blair having to do a whistlestop tour of the North because people were so disgusted at their betrayal of Daresbury in favour of Oxford and the stitching up of Manchester over the national stadium and the announcement of Crossrail after they had cancelled the Big Bang on our Metrolink. Did anyone see Harriet Harman in her pink bus on the Wirral. Surprised the Princess of Peckham knows where Birkenhead is
The record of the last Labour government is irrelevant. This is the north: vote Labaa.
Why do people always refer to the "bloated, inefficient bureaucracy of the NHS"? Compare it to the US health system (private provision, so assumed to be ultra-efficient) if you want to see bloated bureaucracy: admin costs there are way, way more than in the NHS.
...er...because it has one?..
Public money always means bureaucracy. However, it is a relatively cheap bureaucracy i.e. more money goes into frontline healthcare
What has been signed off in Manchester is an opportunity to try something that has been talked about for a long while and is much-needed: an integrated approach to health and social care. It is just a pity that the experiment is finally being tried at a time when both social services and health have a gaping hole in their finances. That is a big barrier to overcome...
It might be argued that the hole is there precisely because of the over centralised nature of the organisation and the tendency for it to become the subject of pantomime party-political debate in the Westminster bubble where the only outcome is who can promise to throw the most money at the thing in a typical top-down manner. You cannot simply hold health in its own silo as though our own heath was divorced from the myriad other social, ecinomic and environmental factors that shaoe our lives.Devolution promises to be a colossal step forward and in joining things up offers the prospect of a much more efficient and effective service.
Er...I think I said the same thing: it's a necessary move, albeit a leap into the unknown.
The NHS and Social services always have a gaping hole in their finances whichever party is in power. The Leaders of Manchester have turned round and said that they are sick of London dominance over everything and party allegiances are irrelevant. This is about 2.8 million people who want to manage their own affairs,not about the wounded pride of Andy Burnham and the Labour party. What has National Labour ever done for Manchester. After years of voting Labour those constituencies still have the worst of everything from Health to Education(Look at Oldham with half it's children leaving school unable to do basic English) Compare that to neighbouring Bury which had Tory MPS throughout the Thatcher and Major eras and the contrast is staggering. The Labour party in London do not care a jot about the Northern working class in this country. It is time you all woke up to it. Vote them in again and it will be the same old rubbish,London getting all the investment and the rest of us fighting for a few million to keep our decrepit trains running. We have a chance now. Good local Labour and a supportive Tory government. Don't throw it away.