CAMPAIGNERS have staged a demonstration against plans to restructure the NHS in York.

The Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) aims to save £420 million in the region and will have a noticeable local impact, but campaigners say details are so vague the public is effectively being kept in the dark.

Last night protesters gathered at City of York Council’s West Offices ahead of a meeting of the health and wellbeing board, to express their concern at the apparent secrecy of the plans, which fail to explain how cuts will be made.

Campaigners also expressed general concern about the difficulties currently faced by the NHS.

STPs are being produced in 44 areas of England to redesign NHS services. York and Ryedale are included in the Humber Coast and Vale area, which also includes Hull. The area has a population of 1.4 million people, of whom 23 per cent live in some of England’s most deprived areas.

Anne Leonard, a member of Defend Our NHS York, said: “The STP plans have been drawn up without public consultation, which is actually legally required. The public consultation has been derisory.

“The plans themselves are so vague we are completely in the dark as to what they are.

York Press:

“There’s a big problem with so many Clinical Commissioning Groups being amalgamated under one heading.”

So far, the only published details outline broad plans to improve services, however “the plan is silent on where cuts will fall to save £420 million”,York Central MP Rachael Maskell has said .

The organisers of the demonstration, York People’s Assembly, said work needs to be done to ensure local people get the care they need.

The group wrote on social media ahead of the meeting: “We want to send the clearest message that [health decision makers] must target the government for more cash.

“And because the leadership of the Clinical Commissioning Group, York Hospital and other local NHS bodies will be present, we won’t be letting them pass the buck... they must work together to get the care York needs.”

Meanwhile, The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Yorkshire and the Humber has warned patient care is being put at risk and is calling on the Government to address what it calls the health and social care crisis.

According to figures, six Yorkshire and Humber hospitals - including York - recently registered an OPEL 3 incident, otherwise known as a red alert.

Glenn Turp, the regional director of Royal College of Nursing Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “Staff are under pressure to discharge patients to help free up beds... It is a vicious circle with community health and social care also struggling to cope with demand... our members are frustrated and disturbed when they see patients having to be treated in corridors, waiting in ambulances outside hospitals and not cared for in the way we’d wish for our own loved-ones.”