South Devon health bosses behave ‘like arsonists’, says MP

'I’m absolutely livid'

South Devon’s healthcare bosses have been accused of behaving ‘like a bunch of arsonists’ over the ending of a ground-breaking agreement with Torbay Council.

Torbay’s Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling has called on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to intervene on behalf of thousands of vulnerable adults in the bay.

The chief executive of the South Devon NHS Healthcare Trust recently explained why the trust needed to end its current arrangement with the council to provide adult social care in the bay.

Joe Teape told a meeting of the trust’s board that the arrangement was costing the NHS £35million a year, and it had a statutory duty to call a halt.

The trust, he said, was required by law to balance its books, and the Torbay agreement had to go. It has been running for more than 20 years and has been held up as a model for other parts of the UK and Europe to follow.

Health authorities in Finland are said to be looking at the model with a view to implementing it there.

Reacting to the news, Mr Darling said the so-called Section 75 agreement had meant people could leave hospital in Torbay more speedily than anywhere else, and had also given people a single source of co-ordinated care.

He said the trust had in effect served divorce papers on the council, which will have to pick up the bill for care at the end of a 12-month transition period which has already begun.

“They have crossed the Rubicon,” he said. “The pretence that everything’s going to be OK is for the birds and I’m absolutely livid.

“When the health bosses, and not just the current ones, have allowed us to get into this state, really difficult decisions end up being made, and we saw that a few days ago.

“This is disastrous, and the Secretary of State needs to intervene. The bizarre thing is that the government is saying that this integration is the direction of travel we should be going in, and at the same time our local NHS bosses are behaving like a bunch of arsonists.”