Sefton Central MP Bill Esterson has blasted the government over cuts to public health funding after figures showed that Sefton had lost £4.46m from its budget since 2015.
Analysis from the Labour party and verified by the House of Commons Library found that public health funding in Sefton was cut by 17 per cent in real terms since 2015.
Public health teams in Sefton have carried out vital work to control the spread of Covid-19, including local outbreak planning, and crucially, promotional work to support the vaccine rollout. In 2021/22, the public health team (like all other public health teams in England) also took on responsibility for costs associated with the provision of the anti-HIV drug pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and services related to it.
Mr Esterson said: “It’s unbelievable that during the worst public health crisis of our time – the coronavirus pandemic – public health didn’t feature in the Government’s Budget. The public health team in Sefton have worked so hard to keep us all safe during the pandemic, and I’m grateful to them for everything they have done. It beggars belief that despite their hard work, the services they run have experienced such devastating cuts. Our local public health team has had more than £4m cut from its budget over the last five years. The cuts have affected stop smoking services and programmes that should help give our children the best start in life. Our public health teams, who have done so much to keep us safe during the pandemic, deserve much better.
“There will be no levelling up unless health inequalities are tackled and we prevent cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other life-limiting conditions. But that demands fully funded local public health services. The Government’s short-sighted decision will have long-term consequences for our nation’s health, with costly knock-on impacts our NHS. Prevention should be key to improving the health of our country.”
Local public health teams are responsible for stop smoking services, sexual health services, health checks, public mental health, drug and alcohol services, children’s public health services, programmes to tackle obesity, amongst other key public health programmes. Their work is crucial because it supports people to stay well and helps prevent health problems. In Sefton, people in the north of the borough live, on average, 12 years longer than those living in less affluent areas in the south. Factors like poverty, unemployment, poor housing and unhealthy environments contribute to this ‘health gap’ and the public health team work to try to close the gap.
Mr Esterson said: “The cut to the team’s funding fails to prioritise vital work on air quality and life expectancy, and fails to recognise that public health staff have spent almost two years working flat out to tackle the worst public health crisis in living memory.”
In last month’s Autumn Budget and Spending Review, the Government announced no real terms change to the total public health grant, which means no more funding for local public health teams in 2022/23.
Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Said: “Our NHS is in crisis and patients are waiting longer for treatment thanks to years of Tory cuts and a failure to recruit the doctors and nurses needed. In communities across the country the Tories have cut the vital public health services that prevent people becoming seriously ill, ultimately putting more pressure on local hospitals. To save lives we need to keep people well, but instead public health services are set to be stretched again thanks to this Conservative government.”
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