Declares that the Petitioners are concerned that the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill, with its proposed changes to the NHS, will adversely affect NHS services for residents across Blackpool South.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to amend the Health and Social Care Bill so as to secure existing levels of funding and service provision for NHS patients in Blackpool South.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Mr Gordon Marsden, Official Report, 19 December 2011; Vol. 537, c. 1168.]
[P000994]
Observations from the Secretary of State for the Health Department:
The Government remain committed to ensuring that the funding for NHS services grows in real terms in each year of this Parliament. The Government have introduced the Health and Social Care Bill precisely to ensure that existing resources within the NHS are used better, with decisions being made by clinicians and their patients.
The decisions as to how resources are spent locally to provide services is, however, a matter for the local NHS, and my Department will bring the concerns raised in this petition to the attention of the NHS in Blackpool.