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LGA Councils respond to GP rescue package
Cllr Izzi Seccombe, the Local Government Association's Community Wellbeing spokeswoman, responds to NHS England's multi-billion pound plan to improve GP services.
"We are pleased that the NHS is investing in GP services, but councils have always maintained that the best way to reduce pressures on doctors is to increase spending on prevention. Pumping money into the NHS while councils receive less social care and public health funding is a false economy that will make it harder to prevent illness and avoid the need for people to visits GPs in the first place.
"Councils, with their responsibility for public health, carry out a wide range of vital prevention services, tackling issues such as teenage pregnancy, excessive alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, sexually transmitted infections and substance misuse. It is these vital services which are essential to alleviate the pressure on the NHS."
View report: https://www.england.nhs.uk/2016/04/gpfv/
Notes to editors
Government announced a 9.7 per cent reduction in public health funding between 2016/17 and 2020/21 – which in cash terms is more than £330 million. On top of this was a further £200 million cut in-year in 2015/16.
