Councillors warn NHS funders against ignoring city’s changing population

Draft figures published earlier this year suggest that the city could lose £84m for health services from 2014.

Although a final decision will not be made until December, following a consultation, politicians in Leeds have already urged decision-makers to recalculate.

Councillor John Illingworth, chairman of Leeds City Council’s health scrutiny board, said: “They are claiming the population has not grown as much as expected and that’s why we’re not getting as much.”

But he said it appeared that places where the population was in better health than Leeds would get more funds, adding: “I don’t think that’s fair. I feel quite strongly that Yorkshire is getting a raw deal at the moment.”

In August, Coun Keith Wakefield, leader of Leeds City Council, voiced his “deep concern” in a letter about the proposals.

He said: “Given we are already facing unprecedented budget cuts from central Government to our council, if these reductions were to go ahead, the impact on our city would be massive, and could have a significant detrimental effect on the integrated approach we are taking with our partners to tackle and reduce health inequalities.”

Coun Wakefield also said the suggested figures highlighted a disparity between the north and south of England, with the north receiving a reduction of 3.84 per cent but the south getting an increase of 1.78 per cent.

He said he hoped all views would be taken on board before the decision was made.

Representatives from NHS England told councillors at a meeting of the scrutiny board that a final decision was not being made until December and any funding cut would be staggered over time.

The consultation process is already under way – and included a workshop event in the city last month.

A representative of the three Leeds Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), which have taking over planing and allocating payments for local healthcare, was among those at the event and recommended that extra factors were taken into account.