Council leaders have agreed to launch a review into how £306 million cuts to NHS services will affect patients in Stoke-on-Trent.

Staffordshire and Stoke Integrated Care Board (ICB) approved an operational plan for 2025/26 which includes swingeing cuts to services in order to meet national savings targets.

Both Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Staffordshire County Council are opposing the changes due to concerns over the impact on residents and the possibility of costs being 'shunted' onto local authority services.

Leaders at the city council are particularly concerned about planned changes to continuing healthcare, mental health provision and access to autism assessments.

The ICB has insisted that it is committed to maintaining service quality, and says that in some cases provision could improve due to overly restrictive care being reduced.

Cabinet members at the city council have now agreed to commission an independent review on 'the potential impact of changes to funding in the NHS on the health and well-being of the population of the city'.

Councillor Duncan Walker, cabinet member for adult social care, told Tuesday's cabinet meeting that it is important to understand how the cuts will affect the most vulnerable residents in the city.

He said: "Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB approved a business plan for 2025/26 which will require a £306 million cut to the budget in-year, which clearly is impossible to envisage without serious damage to local healthcare services.

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent councils have opposed the adoption of the plan, as it was likely to be unsafe and not in the best interests of the population."

Cllr Sarah Jane Colclough, cabinet member for children's services, said: "The sheer scale of these savings is worrying. Services as we know them may no longer be available for patients when they need them, shunting the cost to the local authority or further down the road.

"I fully support the independent review to see what is going to happen to patients, in particular children."

Cllr Sarah Hill, cabinet member for finance, added: "I'm very sorry for our health colleagues that they're facing this, but we can't allow our residents to suffer."

According to a council report, the changes to NHS services will place increased demand on already over-stretched adult social care.

The council estimates that in a 'worst case scenario', this will mean £7 million in additional costs for the local authority, with a £4 million impact on self-funders.

Council leader Jane Ashworth says that an independent report on the potential impact, produced by experts, will strengthen the argument against the cuts.

She said: "We need to do a proper deep dive to understand what the state of health provision in the city is going to be once these changes have been made.

"We need to have a proper document written by people who are unimpeachable in their knowledge, that we can take to government."