Charities fear worst as NHS funding cut

Support for the city's older residents now under threat

- Sentinel Reporter

TWO longstanding charities have warned that services they run for elderly people in the city are under threat of closure due to NHS funding cuts.

The Beth Johnson Foundation's Dementia Advocacy Service and Saltbox's CareLink befriending and health intervention service, say they have both had their annual grants cut by the NHS's Integrated Care Board.

Both services support older local people at 'their most vulnerable times' and the organisations say that the funding cuts will leave them 'isolated and alone at their time of greatest need.

The Sentinel has reported how the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) has approved an operational plan for 2025/26 involving an 8.2 per cent reduction in its budget, in order to meet nationally-set savings targets.

Councillors are demanding further information about £306 million of NHS cuts which will see 1,100 jobs slashed.

Sue Read, chief executive of the Beth Johnson Foundation, said it has been left stunned by the funding decision.