Demand for spending cuts to be dropped

North West nurses are calling for council public health cuts to be dropped from the Chancellor’s spending review – including a £1 million reduction in Oldham.

In June George Osborne announced that £200 million would be cut from local authority budgets in January. Regional Royal College of Nursing bosses spoke out earlier this year after it emerged that over £31 million of the losses would be made in the North West.

Now nurses are calling for the plans to be dropped completely after it emerged the total bill to the NHS could be over £1 billion.

The cutbacks could hit school nursing, suicide and domestic violence, drugs and alcohol, sexual health, weight loss, smoking and wider mental health provision, even “befriending” services for the elderly. RCN North-West director Estephanie Dunn said: “It is no good for the Government to say they are protecting the budget for the NHS but then to make huge cuts to council-run health services that are there to keep people out of hospital. The NHS will end up paying for these savings many times over.”