Government dismisses call to ringfence public health budgets

摘要

The government has rejected a recommendation from a major parliamentary inquiry to ringfence public health budgets for at least the next 10 years. Last April, a House of Lords select committee inquiry into the sustainability of the NHS and adult social care condemned public health budget cuts as "counterproductive." It called for the restoration of funding. But in its response published on 20 February, the Department of Health said that it would not accept the recommendation. "Public health is about far more than the services funded through the grant [given to local authorities]," it said. "The transfer to local government provided the opportunity to join up public health with decisions on other local services such as housing and economic regeneration in the interests of improving the health of the local population.