Key health services in Medway, including mental health and domestic violence prevention, face a £1 million cut under new government budgeting.

The Royal College of Nursing in the South East is calling for the proposed reductions to local authority public health coffers to be dropped, ahead of the Chancellor’s spending review announcement next week.

In June he revealed that £200m would be taken from councils in January 2016. Of that, £23m from the South East, and £1,042,000 Medway alone.
Kent is facing the biggest cut in the region, of £4,040,000, compared to Surrey having a £2,201,000 cash reduction.

Services affected by the cuts could include child health, suicide and domestic violence prevention, drug and alcohol, sexual health, weight loss and stop-smoking support and wider mental health provision including befriending services for older people.

Cllr David Brake, head of public health in Medway, said: “We are obviously not happy about these cuts. We are going to have to do a line by line total of the money being spent in all areas and adjust accordingly.

“There will be a reduction in the services we provide, of that there is no doubt, and every area must be addressed.”
He added that while the council does some “extremely good work in many areas”, no single part of the public health service has been earmarked for protection against the cuts.

Therapeutic House mental health centre in Park Avenue, Gillingham, provides intensive treatment for people with personality disorders and is also due to close this year after Medway CCG decided to stop funding the service.

Analysis by the faculty of Public Health found that the knock-on cost to the NHS could be in excess of £1bn. Jeannett Martin, an RCN director said: “The government cannot say that they are protecting the budget for the NHS and at the same time make huge cuts to council-run health services which are there to keep people well and out of hospital. The NHS will end up paying for these savings many times over.

“These plans will also disproportionately hit poorer communities and will make health inequalities worse.

“If the government really wants to put prevention at the heart of health care then the Chancellor should think again and withdraw these damaging proposals when he announces the spending review in November.”

Medway hospital is already having a deficit crisis after paying financial consultant Tim Bolot, and his company, £1m over a year to sort out the finances only to see the deficit treble from £10m to £30m.

The hospital, which has been in special measures since 2013, employs about 4,000 staff with an annual turnover of £215m.