Plans to devolve £6 billion a year of health spending to Greater Manchester will lead to closer integration between the NHS and social care and improve results for patients, George Osborne has claimed.
The Chancellor insisted the massive expansion of devolution would not weaken the NHS nationally but would give Manchester greater control of its own affairs.
The announcement was given a cautious welcome by organisations representing doctors and nurses, who support better integration between health and social care but are anxious about another extensive reorganisation of the way the NHS is run.
Under the plans, responsibility for the money will be given to 10 local councils from April next year.
The Chancellor has championed devolution to Manchester as part of his vision to create a "northern powerhouse" to rival London and he said the plans were a part of the aim.
He said: "We're discussing a plan for bringing together the NHS and social care in Manchester so we provide better care for patients."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article