Oxfordshire’s Heath Scrutiny Committee is being lobbied by unions and service users to order the Primary Care Trust to launch a full public consultation on public health cuts.
Oxford is a city of extremes: men and women living in the working class estates of the city die seven and six years earlier than those a few miles away in affluent areas of Oxford.
Over the last five years the NHS Public Health Directorate has put together specialist teams to improve life expectancy for working people. Now the PCT, to save cash, proposes that these teams are sacked without even consulting with the communities they serve.
Mark Ladbrooke, the Unison convenor for Oxfordshire PCT, explains: “The PCT hoped to slip this closure under the radar by announcing the job losses in an internal document to staff but our union members and their clients were having none of it. They contacted the union and we discussed these plans with local councillors and MPs. Service users and fellow health professionals rushed us messages of support.”
