NHS CONSULTATION SLAMMED AS A "SHAM" AS CUTS ARE BULLDOZED THROUGH TO DODGE MEDIA SPOTLIGHTFriday 24th November 2006 09:07
Health campaigners have condemned a major NHS consultation exercise in Kent and Medway as a sham -- and they say a leaked document proves health bosses are out to bamboozle the public. There are plans to demonstrate about it at a Strategic Health Authority 'health summit' next week.
Under the slogan 'Creating an NHS Fit for the Future', local NHS managers are conducting the most far-reaching review of health services in Kent since the NHS began, in 1948.
They are gearing up to propose drastic changes that will determine the shape of the local NHS for many years to come ? possibly including the closure of at least one hospital.
But campaign group Health Emergency says:
* NHS bosses are not telling the whole truth about the reasons for the review or what will actually happen to local services;
* the review is being rushed through with indecent haste to avoid a genuine public debate and is driven by a cash crisis;
* the NHS bodies charged with running the review are themselves in chaos and struggling to cope with it.
* the door will be opened to more private health companies draining more cash away from the NHS
Not telling the whole truth
In late October, the local NHS published a very thin (eight-page) 'Fit for the Future' discussion document. It claims that the review is being carried out primarily to modernise services and make them better for patients. And it talks in vague, general terms about modern ways of delivering healthcare ? especially the idea of more ?care in the community?. With the document comes a highly leading questionnaire, clearly designed to get the responses that NHS bosses want.
The document talks about ?overspending? and the need to achieve 'best value'. But it does not spell out the massive financial pressures that are being felt by Primary Care Trusts and acute hospital Trusts across Kent and Medway ? as a result, not of ?overspending?, but of government policy.
The document contains not one word about the government's policy of privatising and marketising the NHS at breakneck speed -- which is what really lies behind this review. These policies mean that huge private (often American) healthcare corporations are increasingly 'cherry-picking' the easy, profitable work within the new NHS 'market'.
As a result, NHS hospitals are to be drastically restructured to make them fit for market. District general hospitals, providing local services for local people, will be replaced by more centralised services -- with many people forced to travel long distances for facilities such as Accident & Emergency, and women's and children?s services.
Behind the scenes, private consultancy firm McKinsey, who act as the shock troops of the Department of Health, have already been at work to begin identifying which hospital services in Kent and Medway must be lost. But NHS bosses are saying nothing publicly about this work -- or how much McKinsey were paid for it.
We are promised more services that will be delivered, somehow or other, 'in the community' -- yet cottage hospitals and other community services are actually being cut as a result of the financial turmoil in the NHS.
Indecent haste
An identical Fit for the Future review in Surrey and Sussex has provoked an unprecedented storm of controversy, with many thousands of people marching, signing petitions and forming campaign groups to save their local services. This has been dragging on since May -- and publication of detailed proposals for service changes, previously scheduled for November and then December, has now been put back to the New Year.
NHS bosses are desperate to avoid getting bogged down in similar public-relations trench-warfare on a second front, in Kent and Medway. So this time they are going for Blitzkrieg tactics -- rushing Fit for the Future through in just a few weeks, including Xmas.
A leaked internal NHS document about their plans spells out exactly why they want to hold 'deliberative' meetings (with a few invited members of the public) in a huge hurry:
"It is urgent to complete these [meetings] before the engagement process leads to heavy media coverage or any active campaigning so that it is relevantly [sic] easy to recruit a representative sample of the population who have not been affected by any previous public discourse. Therefore it is intended to hold these events in mid-November."
In other words NHS bosses want the meetings over and done with before the cat is out of the bag that this is really about taking an axe to local services, and local communities begin protesting.
Since that document was written, in October, it has been decided to hold just one 'deliberative' meeting for the whole of Kent and Medway, to be held sometime in November although, to date, details of this meeting still have yet to be revealed.
The plan is apparently then to hold 'co-design' meetings for 'stakeholders' (invited audiences of clinicians, politicians and others) in December. NHS bosses will then, over Xmas and the New Year, cook up firm plans for actual changes to services. If they decide that there needs to be public consultation on these plans incredibly, it seems they are actually contemplating the possibility of not consulting! this is currently scheduled to begin in late January.
Primary Care Trusts are struggling to cope
The official NHS line is that Fit for the Future is being driven from below by local NHS Primary Care Trusts. But the truth is clearly that the impetus is coming from the very top of the Department of Health, through the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority. The PCTs are actually struggling desperately to keep up with the impossible timetable to which these drastic reforms are expected to run.
The three PCTs in Kent and Medway only came into existence on 1 October, replacing the nine PCTs that previously covered the county -- and they are not yet properly up and running. They are struggling to rationalise nine organisations into three -- which includes identifying job losses in their own offices, in order to realise the massive savings the government is demanding from these mergers. On top of this, they are having to address difficult financial problems, and the destabilising impact of government privatisation and marketisation policies. The current rush to push through Fit for the Future has come as the final straw for long-suffering PCT staff.
Demonstration
Health campaigners from across Kent, Surrey and Sussex will be demonstrating against Fit for the Future next week at a health summit organised by the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority. Campaigners believe the meeting will be an orgy of spin, designed to portray cuts, closures and drastic reconfigurations of health services as ?modernisation?.
The meeting takes place on Wednesday 29 November at the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel and demonstrators will be assembling outside from Midday to 2pm.
Geoff Martin, Head of Campaaigns at Health Emergency, said
"This isn't anything to do with making the NHS fit for the future - it's an old fashioned fit-up based on cash-led cuts and a phoney consultation. Key services will be lost and the door will be opened to more private operators like Casualty Plus."
New victory in fight against SWLEOC privatisationMonday 5th December 2005 23:39
"Campaigners fighting the privatisation of the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre at Epsom Hospital have chalked up another victory after the campaign slammed the brakes on the privatisation scheme back in October.
The Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, which manages SWLEOC, has said they would bring back detailed plans to their December meeting, plans that would address the points raised by campaigners.
However, come the December meeting and the Trust Chief Exec was forced to concede that the plans weren't yet available and all of the options, including the option of remaining in the NHS, would be brought forward at some point in the new year.
This is a major victory. The original report in October would have confirmed the privatisation. We stopped that and we also jacked up the campaign to keep the pressure on through street stalls, public meetings and press coverage with the support of UNISON's GPF.
That campaign is winning but we're not complacent and we know that there's much more to do. However, we've shown that campaigning is the only show in town and that can hold back the tide of privatisation. We'll be fighting on in 2006."
Norfolk & Norwich PFI "a cash machine" for private sector - say MPsWednesday 23rd November 2005 19:37
The Norfolk & Norwich Hospital PFI deal has been branded as "the unacceptable face of capitalism" by the Tory chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The PAC began a meeting by looking into the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital PFI deal, but wound up with calls for compensation to be paid to the Norfolk health economy.
During the heated debate officials from the Department of Health and the Trust itself were questioned by the seven man committee and several aspects of the scheme were severely criticised.
The refinancing in 2003 came in for particular criticism. The deal saw the Trust take a 30% share of the refinancing cost spread over the duration of the project, whilst Octagon, the PFI operator took its share in a one-off cash payment.
The report by the PAC, to be published in the new year, is expected to be scathing in its conclusion with the scheme being described as a 'cash machine' and a 'financial debacle' during the two hour meeting.
The Norfolk & Norwich Trust's Chief Executive Paul Forden claimed that whilst the financial returns to Octagon had exceeded what might have originally been expected, the operator had also delivered a service that he described as 'very good'.
The meeting culminated in a statement by the PAC chairman, Edward Leigh that he never again wanted to see officials defending the 'unacceptable face of capitalism'.
Immediately after the meeting, Mr Richard Bacon MP (South Norfolk) called for compensation to be paid in light of the fact that the schemes 'pathfinder' status had led to more problems than subsequent schemes that had benefited from the lessons learned.
He added that the blame for the deal should focused on the poor guidance from the DoH, not at a private sector organisation seeking to maximise profit. North Norfolk MP, Norman Lamb, who campaigned against the terms of the PFI deal, called for a 'one-off payment' to be made to the Norfolk health economy.
PCT announces brutal cuts in beds across North CumbriaTuesday 22nd November 2005 23:30
Staff in North Cumbria were told last Friday of all 108 beds closing in 6 community hospitals.
The local health economy is £17m in debt, with all to be paid back in the next 2 years.
Carlisle's (PFI-funded) Cumberland Infirmary is acknowledged to be too small to cope without the community hospital beds.
Source: http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=303878
Cambridge UNISON calls December 17th Demonstration
(n.b. changed from 10th Dec)Monday 21st November 2005 08:38
Around 50 people attended a Keep Our NHS Public meeting sponsored by Cambridge Health Unison on Friday Nov 18, centred on huge cuts in local Mental Health services.
The meeting was addressed by Steve Sweeney, Unison Cambridge Health, Stephen Lintott, staff side convenor Cambs and P'bro MH Trust, Christina Rowland Jones, Friends of Fulbourn Hospital and David Howarth Cambridge City MP
The cuts are being proposed to claw back £4million in efficiency savings and a £3million funding deficit from the PCT. Many services are under threat and recent emergency proposals include the closure of S4 Adult Acute admissions unit in February 2006. This constitutes over 20% of inpatient beds in Cambridge. The Psychiatric Rehabilitation service has already seen the closure of two wards with more to follow including a specialist community team.
Questions were asked about why the cuts are being made and where all the money the government claims to be spending on the NHS is going. The buck falls at the door of New Labour who are pursuing reforms in the NHS through opening up the market to the private sector who are siphoning record amounts of money, despite all the evidence pointing to the fact that the most efficient and effective providers of services prove to be a publicly-owned NHS.
A Consultant Psychiatrist from the Young Peoples Service, also faced with closure called for legal action to be taken against the Trust. He stated that the cuts are an infringement of the human rights and civil liberties of service users.
Cambridge Health Unison are calling on the Unison National Office to organise a national demonstration in protest at Blair's reforms and have called an Eastern Region demonstration in Cambridge on December 17th. Also petitions will be taken directly to Tony Blair to give him an unwanted Christmas Card
The importance of a united campaign was stressed, and that people can take action in many ways such as writing to your MP, writing letters to the newspaper, calling workplace/organisation meetings, leafleting and becoming active within the trade union and joining Keep our NHS Public.
It was suggested that people oppose these cuts by any means necessary and if industrial action is needed to save jobs and the NHS then we need to be ready for the fight.
Oxfordshire privatisation must go to consultation - MinisterMonday 21st November 2005 08:33
From Hansard - this seems to mean that any proposals to privatise commissioning will now have to be put out to consultation (if so it's a major breakthrough).
Primary Care Trusts (Oxfordshire)
Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions there were between her Department and the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority on putting primary care trust commissioning in Oxfordshire out to tender prior to its announcement. [26270]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 9 November 2005]: No discussions were held with Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority (SHA) regarding their proposals prior to their submissions. We wanted SHAs, in partnership with local stakeholders, to identify various options for the reconfiguration of PCTs locally, which would then be assessed by the external panel against the criteria in "Commissioning a Patient-led NHS". If the proposals are adjudged to meet these, they will be subject to full public consultation.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/ cm051114/text/51114w30.htm
DEMONSTRATION OXFORD Sat 19th Nov
"What do we want?" - "£34 million."
"When do we want it?" - "Now!"Monday 21st November 2005 08:31
Hundreds of demonstrators in Oxford shouted this demand today in a march against NHS cuts and privatisation. (pictures http://www.keepournhspublic.org.uk)
At the start rally Evan Harris MP highlighted the threat of current policies towards Community Hospitals and community nursing and Andrew Smith MP sent a message of support hailing the initial success of the campaign in blocking proposals to outsource control of NHS spending but also warning that the issue has not gone away.
John Lister from the national KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC Campaign reported that "around the country groups are springing up to defend NHS services against the predatory interests of the private sector".
GP Ken Williamson called for "a lobby of the County Council Health Scrutiny Committee to ensure proper local representation on the board of the proposed all-Oxfordshire PCT".
After the march campaigners from health unions and user groups, (such as the post workers, retired car workers and university staff and from pensioner groups) all met at the Radcliffe Infirmary.
This meeting:
1.) backed the call to lobby the council health scrutiny committee [Thurs 24th Nov 10am at County Hall];
2.) agreed to strengthen communication and co-ordination with the campaign to defend community hospitals and the Horton General Hospital;
3.) will look to organise a campaign across workplaces (hospitals, schools, colleges, post depots, the BMW car factory, the power station, council depots, offices and libraries ... ) for a "people's ballot" on cuts and privatisation.
The next meeting of the KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC CAMPAIGN will be on 29th November 7.30pm at Oxford Town Hall.
...............................
Hewitt in retreat over PCT reorganisation and privatisation: but plans are postponed, not scrappedTuesday 15th November 2005 13:50
Under heavy pressure from local Labour MPs across the country -- including former Health Secretary Alan Milburn -- Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt made a public apology last Friday over the way her reforms had been handled.
She used a speech to the NHS Alliance to express regret at the upset caused by the July 28 circular from NHS boss Sir Nigel Crisp calling for a wholesale reorganisation of Primary Care Trusts and for them to cease direct delivery of services by 2008.
PCTs employ 250,000 nurses, therapists and support staff across the country. The circular gave no clear idea who should take over the role of delivering these services, but stressed that PCTs should by 2008 be restricted to a purely "commissioning" role.
In Oxfordshire, to widespred and almost unanimous opposition, the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority proposed to go even further, and privatise the commissioning function of a new Oxfordshire PCT to be formed through the merger of five PCTs in the county, handing over a budget of at least £575m a year.
"I am very sorry that many staff have been caused anxiety," Hewitt told the NHS Alliance. "Clearly we were too prescriptive."
But the plans to merge the PCTs, hatched up at SHA level with little or no consultation, will proceed, although Hewitt has introduced a3-month period of consultation before the proposals are implemented next June.
The new PCTs will also clearly be encouraged to press ahead with outsourcing and hiving off their direct provision of services: this, too, Hewitt has now said, should be after "consultation".
And Thames Valley SHA has been told to drop its plans to privatise Oxfordshire commissioning, after ministers, under fire from local MPs, and recognising the scale of all-party opposition throughout the county, disavowed the proposal.
There had been strong rumours that Hewitt was about to ditch the whole processd of restructuring PCTs: instead we have a postponement -- a stay of execution, while cuts in services are being forced through to balance the books .
Oxfordshire campaigners have responded by pressing ahead with their protest demonstration through Oxford on November 19, opposing cuts totalling over £30 million in local NHS budgets.
See John Carvel's article on the Hewitt apology at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5331802-103690,00.html
Privatising Thames Valley SHA chief snubs ParliamentMonday 7th November 2005 09:05
As Oxfordshire campaigners step up the campaign for a major demonstration through Oxford on November 19, there is fresh evidence of the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority's high-handed disregard for local views and even the most elementary democracy.
Last week's meeting of the Commons Health Committee invited TVSHA Chief Executive Nick Relph to give evidence on the controversial plans to privatise the Commissioning function of Oxfordshire's merged Primary Care Trust from next April.
The plans have incurred near unananimous all-party opposition on Oxfordshire County Council.
Relph refused to attend, maintaining TVSHA's total consistency of refusing to consult anyone or give any information on their proposed changes.
In deciding on outsourcing NHS commissioning across Oxfordshire TVSHA has not consulted the public, their elected representatives, the staff or their reps - and has also refused to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests to indicate areas of discussion it has been having with private sector commissioners - citing commercial confidentiality.
See more on the Oxfordshire Keep or NHS Public website, which also has links to the Hansard record of the Committee meeting
http://www.keepournhspublic.org.uk/parliament.htm.
UNISON LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN AGAINST NOTTINGHAM HOSPITAL MERGER PLANSSunday 6th November 2005 23:52
Paddy Tipping, MP for Sherwood, will join UNISON activists on November 7 to launch a campaign calling for the merger between Nottingham City Hospital and Queens Medical Centre to be stopped.
UNISON believes the plans will result in massive job losses and fewer beds for local patient care. The union also believes there is no public support for the merger plans.
UNISON will commence a high profile campaign after the launch, using leaflets, petitions and posters to call for the plans to be stopped. The leaflets feature the image of a nurse holding a red card, and will ask the public to get involved in the consultation process which ends on 1st December 2005. ENDS.
Contacts
Andy Freeman - UNISON Regional Organiser:
0115 847 5400 (office)
07904 326 824 (mobile)
The people of Walsall say "No to the Merger - and No to the closure of Goscote Hospital" following confirmation that the proposal to merge Walsall and Wolverhampton Hospital Trusts has been withdrawn.Friday 4th November 2005 08:42
Press Release on behalf of the Campaign:
This news is indeed welcomed by theCampaign. It does seem that one of the two demands of the People of Walsall's Campaign has now been met. Without a doubt people power has made a difference.
It seems that the system has listened to the voice of the local people who have lined up in their thousands to sign petitions and write letters of protest to their MPs. against this merger proposal.
The Campaign wishes to thank everyone who has played a part in this decision for their important contribution however small.
However, there has been no mention in the announcement, about the future of Goscote hospital. The suggested closure of the 103 bed hospital has equally outraged the people of Walsall and the Campaign has always been a joint one against the merger and against the closure.
Unless we get quick confirmation that the CLOSURE OF GOSCOTE HOSPITAL IS ALSO OFF, the Campaign goes on.
The offer by the tPCT of a dementia centre ( no bed numbers disclosed or whether it will be private or public) and the offer of a hospice (only 6 to 12 beds rumoured and its success dependent in future on charitable donations) is no fair compensation for the loss of a 103 bed NHS hospital and one of the best stroke units in the country.
We call on the Members of Parliament who will no doubt wish to be associated with the news that the merger is off to clarify whether they are supporting the People of Walsall's other demand of saying NO to the closure of Goscote Hospital. In the meantime the Campaign goes on.
We will still be at the Sister Dora Statue on the Bridge with our petitions, letters of objection and loud hailer on Saturday morning (5th Nov) at 10.30am, where, after raising a glass to the peoples' part in killing off the Merger, we will continue in earnest to fight for Goscote hospital.
Furthermore the Public Meeting of Nov 8th at 7pm at The Crossing, St Paul's Church, Walsall goes ahead too.
One battle is won but the war is not yet over!
Pete Smith
spokesperson for the Campaign.
01922 491925
079 194 88845
NHS bosses rush through privatisation of PCT Commissioning as Oxfordshire County Council sees all parties unite against planThursday 3rd November 2005 07:55
Campaigners fighting plans to hand over control of the purse strings to Oxfordshire's £575m budget for health services to a private company have denounced moves by the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority (TVSHA) to rush through their privatisation to pre-empt local public anger.
The controversial plans - to invite bids from private companies, voluntary sector organisations and NHS bodies to take over the "commissioning" role of a new body formed through the merger of Oxfordshire's five primary care Trusts - were unveiled by TVSHA and forced through at its October meeting, with no notice, no debate, and not even the pretence of consultation with local people.
It was expected that the invitation to tender would be advertised in the official journal of the European Union at the end of November: but it now seems that TVSHA is rushing the process through two weeks earlier, advertising the tendering process from mid-November, as the scale of the opposition from local people becomes more apparent.
Local health workers, GPs, councillors, pensioners groups, patients' organisations, campaigners and concerned citizens have rallied against the plans. On Tuesday the level of all-party opposition to the scheme throughout the county was underlined by an almost unprecedented nem-con vote by the County Council to condemn the privatisation of the PCT's commissioning role. And that night (Tues Nov 2) a packed meeting of the newly-formed Oxfordshire Keep Our NHS Public campaign stepped up the preparations for a major demonstration through Oxford on Saturday November 19.
Campaign spokesperson JOHN LISTER said:
"Thames Valley SHA, an unelected body, is behaving with arrogant contempt for the views and wishes of the people of Oxfordshire: they know that nobody in the county who is not paid to do so supports their plan to put the private sector in charge of commissioning our health services.
"Giving the private sector control of a budget this big is like putting Dracula in charge of a blood bank. The County Council vote confirms the breadth and depth of popular anger.
"We will be fighting these changes, and any privatisation of health services in the county, with every means at our disposal. We call on all concerned local people in the county to join us on the march on November 19: don't let TVSHA stick up two fingers to Oxfordshire. Let's Keep Our NHS Public!"
THE RESOLUTION
The County Council resolution, as amended by the Conservative group, reads: "This Council opposes the proposal of the Thames Valley Health Authority to contract out the management of Health Services in Oxfordshire at this time. The Council accepts the need to establish a single effective Countywide Primary Care Trust and thus stop the fragmentation and inefficiencies which have occurred with five such bodies. It therefore resolves, in the first instance, to write to the Department of Health and Oxfordshire MPs to put this position."
Hospitals 'face big job cuts as £85m diverted'
Yorkshire PostWednesday 26th October 2005 07:43
Simon McGee
Political Editor
NHS HOSPITALS across South Yorkshire face financial chaos as £85m in funding is diverted to pay private companies to treat patients.
It is claimed the "privatisation" will lead to huge job losses at the area's five hospitals and health bosses say their ability to provide emergency services will be hampered by the instruction from the Department of Health.
It is understood the same order has been given to West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority, which was told to ensure its primary care trusts find more work for the private sector.
Health chiefs at Barnsley Hospital, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals, Rotherham Hospital and Sheffield's Children's and teaching hospitals have warned Ministers that redirecting £17m from their annual budgets over five years will jeopardise their performance as elite foundation trusts.
South Yorkshire MPs have also hit out at the Government's order, which will see seven private treatment centres built and run with the money earmarked for NHS hospitals.
One furious backbencher said last night that it was evidence of the "blatant privatisation of the health service".
Use of the private sector to help cut waiting lists and take the pressure off NHS hospitals has accelerated in recent years, and now Ministers are keen to boost the provision of independent treatment centres so patients have more "choice" between healthcare providers.
Private treatment centres in South Yorkshire already undertake £3.2m-worth of NHS-funded operations a year, but the new order means this will now go up to £20m for each of the five years from 2008.
Senior managers at the affected hospitals have stressed: "It is not new money, but substitutes activity already undertaken in the NHS."
The five hospital trust chiefs have written to Health Minister Lord Warner setting out their concerns.
Barnsley, which is already struggling to cope with a £1.5m budget deficit, will lose £3m a year of funding, Doncaster will lose £4m, Rotherham will lose £3m and Sheffield's two hospitals will lose £10m between them.
A briefing note drawn up by Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals chief executive Nigel Clifton outlines its case against the Government's decision.
It argues South Yorkshire already has four private treatment centres, with two more nearby in north Derbyshire, as well as five NHS hospitals, and suggests patients already have "access to considerable choice from a plurality of innovative and attractive providers".
The paper also states that even some Whitehall officials have agreed with this assessment.
"The Department of Health commercial directorate has acknowledged informally that South Yorkshire does not need additional capacity," it declares, and criticises a lack of consultation and evaluation.
The report also warns accident and emergency services could be hit hard because the hospitals might no longer be able to afford to continue providing a full complement of specialisms.
Mr Clifton told the Yorkshire Post: "Patients want choice, but the NHS must also ensure continuity of district general hospital services.
"Redirecting planned surgery to the independent sector could undermine the emergency services that only NHS hospitals and our skilled and dedicated staff can provide."
Kevin Barron, MP for Rother Valley and chairman of the powerful Commons health select committee, and Eric Ilsley, MP for Barnsley Central, will lead a delegation to see Lord Warner about the move later this month.
Mr Ilsley branded the move "creeping privatisation".
"How can you look at it any other way?," he said. "If you're transferring money from the state sector to the private sector, cutting money from NHS hospitals, it is effectively privatising the health service.
"And massive cutbacks can only mean one thing: massive job losses."
Rotherham MP Denis MacShane, a former Minister, added: "I'm all in favour of independent treatment but existing hospital budgets should not be cut to pay for them."
The Department of Health insisted its decision was based on sound evidence and was designed to shake up existing provision.
"Our aim is to develop services that better suit the needs of today's patients rather than services which have developed in the past around particular institutions," it said.
"We believe this independent sector procurement will provide patients with access to high-quality and innovative services that will challenge the status quo and provide the stimulus for NHS services to be more patient-focused. Where this challenges poor local services, this will be a consequence of choice putting patients in control, not the extended use of the independent sector."
South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority backed the Government's order.
17 October 2005
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1223341
East Yorkshire campaigners step up fight to defend Community Hospitals
(from Yorkshire Post)Wednesday 26th October 2005 07:41
13 October 2005
Meetings are to be held across the region over the next three months as part of consultation over reducing beds at Hornsea Cottage Hospital, from 22 to 12, and the axeing of the minor injuries unit.
Under the same proposals Withernsea Hospital's minor injuries unit will also not reopen at night.
The trust involved, Yorkshire Wolds and Coast Primary Care Trust (PCT), faces a projected £12m deficit by the end of the financial year.
Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, added:
"The public must keep up the pressure throughout the consultation period by continuing to campaign and fight for their community hospital services.
"Despite the challenging financial situation, the primary care trust also has a great responsibility to the public. They must assure that existing and future views of the community are heard and acted upon, and consultation must be a vital part of the process.
"By joining other local communities whose hospitals are at risk, groups from across the country can create a united front..."
More on
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1084&ArticleID=1220198
Hospital services and jobs under threat in Coventry and WarwickshireSunday 23rd October 2005 18:44
Amicus Press release 20 October 2005
Hundreds of health service jobs in Warwickshire and Coventry are under threat as Health Care Trusts merge to try and make good millions of pounds of debt warns Amicus.
The public sector union says that at least 100 jobs are going to be cut and fears a further 200 jobs are likely to result from the mergers of Primary Care and Community Trusts. The union has warned the mergers and job cuts will have an impact on patient services.
Amicus says that four trusts: North Warwickshire, South Warwickshire and Coventry and Coventry and South Warwickshire's Mental Health Trusts, are under pressure to merge to make savings because of serious budget deficits.
Warwick Hospital has a debt in excess of £14m, the George Elliott hospital in Nuneaton is £5m in debt and the Walsgrave Hospital is almost £10m in debt, largely as the result of overspend of the new Walsgrave PFI hospital.
Gail Cartmail, Amicus' National Secretary for the Health Sector, said: "Apart from the terrible waste involved in dismissing experienced and qualified NHS staff, services will suffer. We seriously question the most senior manager's competence - record investment in the NHS results in hundreds of jobs being cut. It doesn't add up."
Amicus' Regional Officer, Bob Storry, said: "We know of at least 100 posts that are going to be cut from Walsgrave hospital and we fear hundreds more are at risk from Walsgrave and other hospitals in Coventry and Warwickshire as a result of the mergers.
"These will have serious repercussions for the provision of acute services further exacerbated by reduction in staffing of frontline medical staff which are obviously things we will fight."
Amicus is meeting with Walsgrave Hospital tomorrow (Friday 21 October) to discuss the job cuts after the hospital notified the company of a provisional 99 job losses to be made.
- Ends –
For further information please contact Catherine Bithell in the Amicus press office on 020 7 420 8909 or 07958 473 224
Hewitt concedes a consultation period in the carve up of PCTsSunday 23rd October 2005 18:41
According to optimistic accounts in the Guardian, Independent and Financial Times, Patricia Hewitt has been bending under pressure from Labour MPs to rethink some of the far-reaching proposals to restructure Primary Care Trusts through a series of mergers, and split off their directly provided services, with the prospect that some or all of them might be privatised.
Reports suggest strong lobbying by MPs enraged at the local impact of these changes, which had been outlined in a circular from Sir Nigel Crisp on July 28 and subject to the most minimal publicity or public debate. According to the Health Service Journal, among those opposing the forced mergers of PCTs has been the surprising figure of arch-marketeer Alan Milburn: other long-standing Blair loyalists have been among those pressing Hewitt to think again.
However the statement and press release which resulted from this pressure falls far short of reversing the policy, and makes no commitment to halt the process towards privatisation of PCT directly-provided services. Even the plans to hand over the commissioning role of a newly-merged Oxfordshire PCT, with custody of a budget of almost £600m a year to the private sector have not been explicitly disavowed -- and the process is cvontinuing.
However a hand-picked panel to be chaired by business consultant Michael O'Higgins will review the proposals submitted by Strategic Health Authorities. And then all proposals for changes in PCTs will go to a 3-month public consultation.
Although this consultation is a new development, this is not a significant delay in the break-neck timetable outlined for the changes. Nor does the composition of the panel give any grounds to expect any serious criticism of the proposals submitted. MNHS "consultations" have become a byword for cynicism, and SHAs and PCTs have so far shown little if any inclination to consult or take note of public views on their unpopular proposals.
Nevertheless the process opens up fresh possibilities for campaigners to step up the fight, bringing maximum pressure to bear on Labour councils, councillors and Labour MPs to halt the dash towards the fragmentation and privatisation of primary and community health services.
The full text of Patricia Hewitt's statement is appended below, along with links to the Guardian, Independent and FT coverage.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article320599.ece
http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,7890,1597386,00.html
http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/ emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=234775023
Press release on Commissioning a Patient-led NHS [Scanned]
2005/0354 Tuesday 18th October 2005
CHANGES TO PRIMARY CARE TRUSTS AND STRATEGIC HEALTH AUTHORITIES
The Secretary of State for Health today made a written statement to the
House on changes to primary care trusts and strategic health authorities.
Patricia Hewitt said:
"National Health Service spending is rising from £33 billion in 1997-98 to
over £90 billion in 2007-08. This increased investment, together with
reform and dedicated work by NHS staff, is transforming our hospitals, with
reduced waiting times and lists, improved accident and emergency services
and more up-to-date buildings and equipment.
"90 per cent of people's contact with the NHS is in primary care and the
challenge now is to improve primary and community services. It is better
for patients and taxpayers if long-term conditions like diabetes and heart
disease and care for our ageing population the big challenges facing the
NHS in the 21st century are dealt with in the local community, rather
than in hospitals.
"The focus of services needs to shift more towards prevention, moving more
services like diagnostics, minor operations and other treatments out of
hospital wherever it is safe and effective to do so, and ensuring all
communities get the services they need. We need to continue to reduce
administrative costs, releasing further resources for frontline care.
"This needs stronger primary care trusts to design, plan and develop better
services for patients, to work more closely with local government, and more
effectively to hold hospitals and general practitioners (GPs) to account.
GPs should also play a more effective role in developing better services
for patients and be more accountable to their local communities for
spending taxpayers' money. That is why the Government is rolling out
'practice-based commissioning', which will ensure that GPs help deliver
better local services for patients. It will also deliver better value for
money as GPs help patients avoid going into hospital unnecessarily, and
spend the money they save on improving community services, including
preventative measures.
"To take this agenda forward in a planned way, with manageable timescales,
"Commissioning a Patient-led NHS" was published on 28 July.
Its purpose was to streamline strategic health authorities, strengthen primary care trusts
and engage GPs with practice-based commissioning all in the cause of
improving services to patients. Rather than impose change from the centre,
we asked SHAs to submit local proposals for consultation to the Department
by 15 October. We asked them to work with local people and stakeholders,
including honourable and right honourable members. The proposals have now
been received, and are being analysed against the criteria set out by the
NHS Chief Executive (Sir Nigel Crisp) on 28 July:
- securing high-quality, safe services for patients;
- improving health and reducing inequalities;
- improving the engagement of GPs;
- improving public involvement;
- improving co-ordination with social services through greater
'co-terminosity' of PCT and local government boundaries;
- effective use of resources.
"On 26 August, the Department sent a letter to all SHA chief executives
stressing that proposals should consider the context of local health needs,
and that different solutions from different SHAs would be encouraged, as
long as they were justifiable against the above criteria. He also stressed
the need to engage local stakeholders and partner organisations from the
outset.
"An external panel representing key interests has been established to
advise Ministers on whether the proposals meet the criteria. The panel
is chaired by Michael O'Higgins, managing partner and member of the
international board of PA Consulting Group. Members include:
- Jane Barrie, Chair of the SHA Chairs;
- Peter Mount, Chair, NHS Confederation;
- Joan Saddler, Chair, Waltham Forest PCT;
- Harry Cayton, National Director for patients and the public,
Department of Health;
- David Colin-Thome, National Director for primary care, Department of
Health;
- Jennifer Dixon, Director of Policy, King's Fund;
- Liz Fradd, Chief Executive, Nurse Directors' Association;
- Ara Darzi, Imperial College;
- David Henshaw, Chief Executive, Liverpool City Council.
"After this consideration, any proposals for changes to PCT boundaries will
then go out for a three month statutory consultation to all local
stakeholders and staff interests. This consultation will begin in early
December 2005. No decisions on future local configurations will be taken
until after this full statutory local consultation has been completed.
"Changes to SHAs will precede changes to PCTs and any changes to the latter
will not commence before April 2006. Any changes to PCTs' role in providing
services will take place over a longer timescale and will be subject
to consultation in the usual way. Any such changes
will build on the results of the forthcoming White Paper on community
health and social care services, based on the current listening exercise,
"Your Health, Your Care, Your Say". Staff will be fully involved in
deciding new arrangements and identifying which services will be best for
patients. Any staff transferring to a new employer will, of course, be
entitled to appropriate legal protection of their terms and conditions of
employment. The social partnership forum have decided to set up a working
group led by NHS Employers to fully engage all trade unions in all
workforce issues arising from the Commissioning a Patient-led NHS change
programme."
-ends-
Notes to Editors
Any queries from media ONLY on "Commissioning a Patient-Led NHS",
including any bids to speak to ministers or panel members, should be
referred to Lizzy Bell, Department of Health Media Centre, on 020 7210
5896
Any other queries must be directed to the Department of Health's public
enquiry line on 020 7210 4850
[ENDS]
Thames Valley SHA rubber-stamps privatisation of Oxfordshire Primary Care Trusts
New merged body to "procure" commissioning roleWednesday 12th October 2005 22:22
By December 2008 Primary Care Trusts around the country are scheduled to end their role in providing primary care [district nursing, health visiting and community
hospitals] and other services and become commissioning agencies. 250,000 staff across the country will be affected.
Who will provide the services?
No one knows. The government suggests it might be private companies, charities, even a cottage industry of workers' co-ops competing against giant health care multinationals in the new health market.
But on top of this something extra is being planned for the new single PCT that is planned to take over from the country's existing PCTs and cover the whole of Oxfordshire.
On October 12 Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority voted through proposals that would remove the PCTs' senior staff from April 2006 and replace them - most likely by managers from a big corporation. The new, outsourced, PCT commissioners will buy in services from the private sector, Foundation Trusts and the NHS for the people of Oxfordshire at the same time as preparing to shed those services currently provided by the PCT.
The SHA has made no attempt to seek or consider the public's view of the these latest 'reforms'.
The announcement was buried in Board Paper 62-05 on page 9:
"The SHA proposes to procure the provision of management services to the Oxfordshire PCT(s)".
Staff of the existing PCTs heard about this plan just two days before the proposals came into the public arena. Having rubber stamped the "procurement" process, TVSHA has indicated that there will be no further consultation with staff or public on this issue.
And it has been made clear that while the size and configuration of other Thames Valley PCTs is up for consultation, Oxfordshire's privatised PCT isn't.
Its believed that the Primary Care Trust inc (as it has been called by staff) might be put out to tender in the Official Journal of the European Commission (OJEC) in late November, and by April 06 may be up and running with new staff.
The Department of Health, it is said, views Oxfordshire as a pilot site, and if successful would like to put all PCTs out to tender.
And the reaction of staff?
'Shock and dismay' said UNISON PCT Convenor Mark Ladbrooke, adding: "but we are going to be the 'guinea pig that roared. This is a huge acceleration in the privatisation of the NHS, with the private sector invited to control the process of buying in health services from the private and public sector."
"Today anti-privatisation petitions were drawn up by staff in our community hospital, and they are circulating different workplaces. Despite the short notice we managed to have a good turn out for the lobby of the Health Authority."
Mark also reported that PCT union stewards are getting messages of support from staff in NHS Trusts across Oxfordshire, because they realise that with privatised commissioning they are likely to face a ferocious round of cuts next year.
Campaigners stall handover of £15m NHS unit to private sectorMonday 10th October 2005 07:17
Campaigners in SW London fighting the transfer of the £15m NHS-funded South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre to private hands as part of the government's £3bn scheme to expand private sector provision of NHS contracts have secured a 2-month delay and a full review of the plans.
They intervened at a meeting of the Epsom-St Helier Trust Board on Friday, challenging the directors to explain the reasons for transferring the state of the art, highly successful and popular NHS unit to a US-based company.
Trust directors were unable to offer satisfactory answers, and eventually conceded that a decision on the transfer, due to be taken at that meeting, would be postponed until December.
During these two months a full review of the plan, including a fresh review of the option of retaining the unit and its services within the NHS, would be undertaken.
Campaigners now plan to intensify their efforts to 'Keep SWELEOC in the NHS': but their example also shows the way for other campaigners faced with the transfer of NHS facilities in the second wave of bidding for Treatment Centre contracts, which are not open to NHS hospitals.
Affected areas include NW London, Birmingham and Lymington in the New Forest.
Oxford Orthopaedics hit by Treatment CentreWednesday 28th September 2005 23:38
Up to half the NHS surgical beds in Oxford's Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre Trust could be axed as a result of a new contract which is diverting NHS patients to the new private sector Manor Hospital a mile away, according to BBC News.
The Nuffield - which has just conducted a major rebuild financed through the Private Finance Initiative - was one of the first to bid for Foundation status, but had its bid rejected by ministers on the grounds of concerns over its financial stability, and the Trust has since been forced to embark on a series of cutbacks.
Stockport's Crumbling FoundationWednesday 28th September 2005 15:45
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, one of the flagship first round of foundation trusts, has joined Bradford and Peterborough in facing financial problems, and unveiled plans to axe up to 80 admin and management jobs as it seeks to tackle a £5m shortfall at Stepping Hill Hospital, according to the local Stockport Express.
Read the article here
Don't forget the 250,000 PCT staff who face threat of privatisationWednesday 28th September 2005 14:40
The media focus on the 15% of operations to be done in the private sector has led to a near silence on far-reaching proposals to privatise the whole of primary and community care - district nurses, health visitors, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and so on.
Dr Ron Singer, GP and president of the Medical Practitioners' Union (part of Amicus) said:
"Primary Care Trusts are to be forbidden to employ these thousands of health workers beyond 2008. NHS Chief Executive Nigel Crisp issued a letter to PCTs and Strategic Health Authorities outlining these proposals on July 28, but did not say where the 250,000 PCT staff will all be employed - the assumption is by the lowest bidder!!"
Ron Singer can be contacted on (Mobile) 07976 141 199
See Ron's article 'Threats and Worries about Primary Care', and Briefing notes on Autumn 2005 Reorganisation on the Keep Our NHS Public Website
Treatment Centre fiasco could sink Hammersmith HospitalsWednesday 28th September 2005 14:30
NHS Trusts and Primary Care Trusts in NW London ended the last financial year £15m deeper in debt than previously forecast, and savings plans scheduled for this financial year are failing to deliver the required targets, according to the NW London Strategic Health Authority (SHA papers Sept 20).
PCTs and Trusts wound up with combined deficits of £77m, while the SHA itself underspent by almost £6m, leaving a £71m gap.
But 2005-6 has got off to an even worse start, with NHS Trusts achieving just over two thirds of their planned savings to date, and PCTs having achieved just 40% of their savings target.
The most alarming performance is that of Hammersmith Hospitals Trust, which by month 4 was already over £30m worse off than planned. One fact or in this massive deficit has been the large and unresolved £12m deficit of the NHS Treatment Centre at Ravenscourt Park Hospital (two thirds of its turnover).
This unit has fallen foul of the government's plans to switch thousands of waiting list operations to the private sector, and the building is being offered to private sector bidders for the next round of treatment centre contracts from the NHS.
With overspending in NW London having already hit the worst-case projections for a full year, and Trusts and PCTs facing increased problems, the SHA concludes that "There is a clear risk that the control total [deficit] of £55m will not be met".
But with the news that the SHA will receive no brokerage from the NHS Bank, deficits this large raise serious doubts over the future solvency of major NHS Trusts.
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