NHS devolution: the route to tackling health inequality?
The announcement that the £6bn NHS budget in Greater Manchester will be devolved to the city region has taken many by surprise. The government has already devolved £2bn of spending to the city region. This proposal (the details of which still need to be worked up) is worth three times that amount, devolving nationally controlled structures such as hospitals and GPs to merge with local support and community care services. Greater Manchester will create a new ‘health and wellbeing’ commission to control the flow of money across the system, and to create links between primary and community and residential care.
