£6bn health budget now in local hands

Lord Peter Smith

HEALTH leaders are preparing to tackle Greater Manchester’s health inequality as the region becomes the first in the country to take control of its £6 billion health and social care budget tomorrow.

For the first time doctors and managers will be able to tailor budgets and priorities to directly meet the needs of 2.8 million local users.

Since the announcement was made last February NHS officials and politicians have been working to establish a system to manage local health needs.

Lord Peter Smith, chair of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Strategic Partnership Board, said: “Establishing the new system has been the crux of our focus for the past 12 months and we have made unprecedented progress. We are in a great place ahead of a new era for health and social care services.”

High on the agenda will be mental health and wellbeing concerns. The system will also look at health behaviour - it is believed more than two-thirds of early deaths in Greater Manchester are caused by factors that could be avoided by lifestyle changes.

The plan aims to establish a new relationship between public services, citizens, communities and businesses to change approaches to health and wellbeing.

Greater Manchester will remain part of the NHS with nationally-agreed targets, but leaders will have increased freedoms to tailor the budget. Greater Manchester will receive £450million to support development of the system - which will effectively be a pilot scheme for similar devolutions nationwide.