Our response to the Capped Expenditure Programme proposals
What the NHS needs is an open culture, where local people are given opportunities to contribute from the very beginning and throughout decision making.
The Capped Expenditure Programme (CEP) is a joint programme being led by NHS England and NHS Improvement to address local funding deficits in 14 areas across England.
Critics have said that the proposals will lead to delayed operations, patients being denied treatment and hospital wards closing.
However, with limited information about the proposals being shared with local Healthwatch, our National Director, Imelda Redmond said:
“It’s clear the health service faces deeply challenging times but the solutions don’t lie in closed rooms, rather in honest conversations with patients, carers and communities. The last thing we need is a chain of knee-jerk reactions driving poor decisions that don’t make sense to people.
“What the NHS needs is an open culture, where local people are given opportunities to contribute from the very beginning and throughout decision making. A good place to start would be by ensuring local Healthwatch are more consistently involved in these discussions.
“Where difficult choices do have to be made, people need clear information explaining the rationale and outlining how the NHS will track the impact to ensure no one is left without the care they need.”
“Those at the top of the NHS have sent strong messages through the Five Year Forward View Next Steps about why and how communities should be involved, but this needs to run through the heart of everything the health service says and does.”
Five steps to ensure communities have their say
We believe that when it comes to changes to health and care services, the NHS should follow five key steps to ensure that communities have a say in decisions that will affect them.
