Resist the Tories’ STP plan—to Slash, Trash and Privatise the NHS

Uniting the local fights in a national movement to keep our NHS public can wipe the smug grin off this Tory privatiser’s mug (Pic: DoH Flickr)

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The Tories’ NHS plans will mean hospital closures across England.

Their Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs), which divide England into 44 “footprints”, will cut hospital services in two thirds of England, according to the BBC.

The STPs hope to shift care from hospitals onto “primary care” based in the community.

But council social care services have been slashed.

This has meant that patients often cannot be discharged because there aren’t enough social care packages.

That’s set to worsen. Responding to news this week that the government is not going to increase funding to councils, the Tory chair of the Local Government Association said, “Social care faces a funding gap of at least £2.6 billion by 2020.”

He added that “our most vulnerable continue to face an ever more uncertain future”.

There is growing opposition to the STPs, with local groups springing up across England to oppose them.

The fact that the King’s Fund health charity, which supports the STPs, has been critical shows that they are in trouble.

Now we need to unite those fights.

The national “It’s Our NHS” protest on 4 March is our chance to do that.