Budgets for weight loss, stopping smoking and sexual health services being cut by 90 per cent of councils

Half of GPs report the loss of services in their areas because of 'scandalous' government cuts

Cuts to weight management programmes and addiction services lead to greater costs for the NHS in future, councils warn (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Weight loss, addiction and sexual health services are being devastated by cuts to local authority budgets, which doctors warn have left them with almost nowhere to send patients looking to improve their health.

In an effort to balance the books, nine out of 10 councils in England are cutting public health programmes vital for addressing childhood obesity, teenage pregnancy and lowering rates of preventable cancers and disease.

This includes the loss of award winning schemes which have been shown to save money for the NHS and has resulted in more pressure on appointments as patients are referred for surgery inappropriately.

The investigation by the magazine for GPs, Pulse, revealed that 69 out of 80 councils that responded to requests under the Freedom of Information Act said they have cut their budgets for public health programmes in 2018-19.

As part of its investigation, Pulse also surveyed GPs who said the loss of services for their patients are a “scandal”.

More than half of doctors reported cuts to weight management and alcohol addictions services, while 48 per cent had lost services to help smokers quit and 49 per cent had lost sexual health clinics or testing.

Since 2015-16 the Treasury has slashed the public health grant for England by 10 per cent, a loss of more than £531m up to 2020.

While the government pledged to protect frontline services, the Pulse investigation found:

• A service in Essex which assess frail elderly patients and their homes for trip hazards has been cut to save £2.2m a year – a move the local clinical commissioning group says “poses a significant risk to patient safety”;
• Wolverhampton has cut counselling services for young people with mental health problems, to be replaced by a school-led “resilience” scheme;
• In Rotherham, the council has cut an award-winning, weight management service in a bid to save £1m next year, although experts say more patients are now being sent for surgery inappropriately.

South London GP Dr Alex Bobak, who has a special interest in smoking cessation, described the cuts as “appalling”. He said: “Services are being cut wholesale. In general, councils are not providing the services and it’s a scandal.”

In Lincolnshire, Dr Kieran Sharrock told Pulse they had lost weight management services and could only offer patients a diet sheet printed off Google, adding: “It makes conversations between GPs and patients very difficult.”

Dr Elliot Singer, a GP in London, said the loss of weight management often meant further treatment was out of reach for patients, adding: “You try to refer someone for bariatric [weight loss] surgery but they can only have it if they’ve undergone 12 months of a weight management programme – but there isn’t one.”

In all, Pulse found that funding for sexual health programmes has been cut by 2 per cent this year, following a 5 per cent cut the previous year, and budgets to tackle alcohol and drug misuse have been cut 3 per cent – following a 6 per cent cut in 2017-18.

“These findings are not unexpected,” said Cllr Izzi Seccombe, chair of the Community Wellbeing Board at council representative body, the Local Government Association, which is calling for budget cuts to be reversed.

Despite ambitions to improve the public’s health, she said many councils were facing difficult decisions about schemes “including stopping them altogether” and the wider NHS would pay the price.

“Early intervention and prevention work by councils to tackle teenage pregnancy, child obesity, physical inactivity, sexually transmitted infections and substance misuse, is vital to improve the public’s health.

“Not only does it reduce the risk of people having their lives shortened by conditions such as heart and liver disease, cancer, and Type 2 diabetes, but it also keeps the pressure off the NHS and adult social care.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Local authorities are best placed to make choices for their community, which is why we are investing more than £16bn in local government public health services over the current spending period.’

This comes as MPs on the Commons Health Committee heard from experts about the lack of services available around the country to help young people who were already obese and overweight.

TV chef Jamie Oliver told the committee that the government’s decision to water down its childhood obesity strategy, which came into force with a tax on sugary drinks last month, had been a “massive disappointment” and he said the government had failed British children.