How will acute services review change Greater Manchester healthcare?
Plans for the continuing reconfiguration of Greater Manchester’s acute services will be revealed later this year as the region moves towards healthcare devolution.
The devolution process, which sees Greater Manchester taking control of its £6bn health and social care budget, is being managed by Jon Rouse, chief officer of Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. The reconfiguration will see reviews of most of Greater Manchester’s services and covers seven acute trusts. The specialties involved are:
- benign urology
- breast services
- cardiology
- critical care and anaesthetics
- neuro-rehabilitation
- orthopaedics
- paediatrics
- respiratory
- vascular services
Jon Rouse told Health Service Journal that the strategy will be ready later in the summer. Funding of £80m has been promised to support the change process — but not signed off — by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Mr Rouse refused to be drawn on whether there were savings to be made in the acute sector, commenting that it would not be possible to give a figure until the impact of fully operational community services was seen. He did comment that he would prefer a more medium-term approach to the allocation of capital, and promised that he would lobby for changes to the system of control totals.
Further information
Healthier Together: What is healthier together?
HSJ: Greater Manchester plans major hospital services shake-up