CONTROVERSIAL changes to NHS funding are unlawful, campaigners have said.

Isle of Wight NHS supporters say they fully support a national campaign group’s application to the Supreme Court over further funding cuts in the NHS.

Isle of Wight Save our NHS is putting its weight behind 999 Call for the NHS’s appeal to the Supreme Court for a review of a proposed new cost-cutting NHS contract, that aims to 'manage demand' for health care.

Initially dubbed the Accountable Care Organisation contract, last year NHS England rebranded it as the Integrated Care Provider contract.

Christine Lightbody, co-founder of Isle of Wight Save Our NHS campaign group, said: “Our campaign is focused on stopping and reversing Isle of Wight NHS cuts and sell offs, but we recognise that this appeal to the Supreme Court is about something that affects us all and the whole of the NHS in England.

"The Government’s plans to transfer almost all NHS services into local Integrated Care Systems are going to lead to a lot of cuts.

"On the Isle of Wight there are already concerns over services disappearing, clinics closing or actually not functioning any more, waiting times to get GP appointments and treatment, the continuing disappearance of previously statutory services, staffing and the increased reliance on unpaid and under-qualified persons to fill the gaps left by sustained under-staffing and the removal of essential services budgets.

"The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Sustainability and Transformation Plan has to become an Integrated Care System by April 2021 at the latest.

"The majority of the British public will be outraged when they find out what’s really going on. I can’t bear to think of our great NHS being destroyed.”

The Supreme Court application is being handled by the London-based human rights law firm Leigh-Day, which is currently handling a number of High Court challenges to NHS cuts and downgrades.

Sam Jeffries, member of Isle of Wight Save Our NHS said: “A year ago the Isle of Wight NHS commissioners announced that under the acute services redesign, many critical care services were set to be moved from the Isle of Wight.

"Patients needing high risk and complex emergency and elective surgery would have to go to Portsmouth and Southampton, this despite a recent a report by the Nuffield Trust (commissioned by NHS England) suggesting that acute services in geographically isolated locations such as the Isle of Wight, should be retained."

NHS England told the Judges in the Court of Appeal that the Integrated Care Provider contract would enable innovation and integration - implying this would cut costs without restricting or denying patients’ access to treatments.

Campaigners say there is no real evidence to support it.

Sharon McNamara, another member of Isle of Wight Save our NHS said: “The judges should come and find out what’s really happening here. The Isle of Wight CCG and council are already implementing new cost-cutting accountable/integrated care models, but where’s the evidence that this is improving the quality of NHS services — despite the best efforts of NHS frontline staff? We simply can’t see any.”

Over 2000 members of the public have crowdfunded the 999 Call for the NHS legal challenge, including people from the Isle of Wight.