Dear Prime Minister,
We write as charities in membership of the Specialised Healthcare Alliance, a broad coalition campaigning on behalf of patients with rare and complex conditions requiring specialist NHS care.
The NHS budget for these services is over £14 billion. They include services for the most vulnerable patients with the rarest conditions, as well as those for more commonly known conditions, including brain and spinal injury, cancer, Cystic Fibrosis, HIV and Multiple Sclerosis.
Each of the main political parties has supported national commissioning of these services since the last General Election. There are now concerns that otherwise desirable collaboration with local commissioners could in future jeopardise consistent national standards of care across the country.
We therefore call on you to pledge that, should you form the next Government, you will maintain and protect national budget-holding and accountability for prescribed NHS specialised services.
We are writing to each of the main parties in similar terms and look forward to your response
Yours sincerely,
Paul Lenihan, Action Duchenne
Alan Heywood-Jones, Alpha-1 Awareness UK
