STOP THE STP'S IN BIRMINGHAM & SOLIHULL!

We have been campaigning for over three years now to save our local Hospital services, an issue we care about passionately. This is our third petition with 38 Degrees.
The STP's for our area, Birmingham & Solihull , were published only recently and without any public consultation. They are ill thought out and dangerous. Lives will be put at risk.
The plans will affect EVERYONE; young/ elderly/ expectant Mothers/ Carers/ those with disabilities/ Mental Health problems and also local Pharmacies.

Also, the STP document doesn't seem to mention or explain that already more patients are being made to travel across our huge city to other Hospitals at a distance for even ROUTINE treatment and surgery (nor any of the practical, mental, emotional, financial implications of that); or whether that will continue with the inevitable consequences for patients and staff at local Hospitals.

The impression being given, is that if these plans were in place, they would stimulate more cohesion between the NHS & Social/ Community Care, with more patients being treated at home/ in the community instead of their local Hospital.
However, in reality, the Council haven't got the funding and don't know where they will get it from to actually implement such a scheme! They have of course at this time, been starved of funding, but past mismanagement of funds (ie wastage of public money) has been happening for years, whoever has been in power in that time to cause it.

Despite that, they still want to force these plans onto the public, with all of their very serious implications, including paving the way for PRIVATISATION of essential local services. And what happens if people won't be able to pay for those services? A return to the `Hard Times'' of the Victorian era.

Although some of those responsible for these plans are claiming they are `the only game in town', we do NOT believe that is true, as other Councils in England have publicly and strongly opposed their STP's, refusing to sign them off, thus showing they really care about their constituents.

We would therefore like to ask the Birmingham & Solihull Health Scrutiny Committee, to show that they also care about their constituents/ patients and do the same, by telling Birmingham City Council (who are leading these plans, working with NHS England) , that they will NOT BE APPROVING the STP's.

The committee is made up of Councillors from ALL Main Parties & from a variety of local areas and so the responsibility falls on all of them; that is, it is not just on one Main Party.