Councillor Ruth Dombey, Leader of Sutton Council and South London Partnership Health Lead, said:

“The South West London Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) has been developed by a wide range of NHS partners across the area and there has been some strategic engagement by them with the public and other interested bodies. Boroughs have been informally updated on this work – and we welcome our NHS colleagues’ recognition of the need to strengthen joint working to integrate services and improve outcomes for our residents.

“However, as boroughs, we are concerned that the NHS centrally has not allowed the publication of our STP and that this is raising worries about its content and the process around its development. I am therefore publishing the South West London STP to increase transparency and support the development of robust plans that will deliver better services and outcomes across our area.

“The six boroughs in South West London agree with our NHS colleagues that we need a much greater emphasis on prevention, self-care and integrated care as close to home as possible. We also recognise that considerable further work is needed to develop the detailed plans to deliver these changes and to ensure that our residents are able to access high quality hospital care when they need it and where they need it. We look forward to working with our NHS colleagues as they develop their plans to ensure that all the residents in our area have access to excellent healthcare.”

The South West London Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) can be viewed and downloaded from here.