Valerie calls for a debate on the NHS

I am alarmed that NHS Walsall CCG may have to find savings of £22 million. This is going to have a direct effect on the Manor Hospital and social services in Walsall.

On 15 September 2016, I asked the following question at Business of the House Questions to the Leader of the House:

Valerie Vaz MP: May we have a debate on the NHS? I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Eltham (Clive Efford). NHS Walsall clinical commissioning group, my local CCG, has had to find savings of £22 million. That is going to have a direct effect on Walsall Manor hospital and on social services. They need extra money, rather than to have to make cuts, so may we have that debate?

David Lidington MP: The Government have delivered in full and up front the additional money that the chief executive of the NHS said that he needed to deliver the NHS’s plan. The NHS plan involves looking at how health services in different parts of the country need to change and evolve to become the kind of services that we will need in future. Those are rightly decisions for the local NHS because the needs of urban and rural areas, and of one part of the country and another, may differ significantly.

The Government needs to support the Manor Hospital and local authorities to enable them to have integrated health and social care.

NHS Walsall CCG’s annual general meeting is on Wednesday 21 September 2016 and local people are encouraged to attend.