Monthly Archives: February 2016

Travel analysis for Huddersfield A&E closure shows extra 10k hours ambulance journey time/year

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The Clinical Commissioning Groups have finally published their travel analysis of the effects of closing Huddersfield A&E, which also includes modelling based on the closure of Dewsbury A&E.

We are still no closer to knowing whether the already overstretched and struggling Yorkshire Ambulance Service is going to be able to cope with the extra 10,071.86 hours journey time/year that would result from the closure of Huddersfield and Dewsbury A&Es, because the travel analysis doesn’t say anything about this, apart from the no-brainer that

“It is recommended that… YAS examine the findings of this report…”

Continue reading →

Calderdale community mental health service for the chop

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Right when proposals are afoot to cut hospital services on the grounds that it’s better for patients to have “Care Closer to Home”, users of an NHS community-based Art Psychotherapy service in Calderdale are fighting to save it from closure after the therapists were given compulsory redundancy notices over the Christmas period.

If the redundancies go ahead then vulnerable people with complex mental health problems will have their therapy terminated prematurely on the 31st March with no suitable alternative in place for them. Continue reading →

More privatisation and cuts for Calderdale mental health services

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In her deputation statement to the Calderdale & Kirklees Joint Health Scrutiny Committee yesterday, the Chair of Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS Campaign warned of the risk that the plan to move many services out of the hospitals into the “community” would repeat the the disastrous Care in the Community scheme of the 1980s/90s, that resulted from the closure of mental health hospitals.

Jane Rendle told Councillors:

“Once the hospitals had closed, funding for mental health Care in the Community was whittled away, leading to inadequate care and no hospital back up. Today we have the disastrous situation that sometimes there is not a single available mental health bed in the country.”

Now, history is repeating itself.  Clinical Commissioning Groups are pushing the un-evidenced “Care Closer to Home scheme” – while effective and cost-efficient community mental health services are for the chop. Users of an NHS community-based Art Psychotherapy service in Calderdale are fighting to save it from closure after the therapists were given compulsory redundancy notices over the Christmas period.

And increasingly, mental health services are being privatised. Continue reading →

NHS Commissioners still sitting on travel impact analysis of proposed A&E closure

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At the shambolic Calderdale and Kirklees Joint Health Scrutiny Committee (JHSC) meeting on 29th January, the Chair Cllr Elizabeth Smaje said that p255 of the Pre Consultation Business Case refers to a journey time assessment study and the JHSC will have a meeting about that and would like that study to be made available asap to JHSC.

This study is the Clinical Commissioning Groups’ travel impact analysis of their proposal to close one of our A&Es.

Since 4th February, I have repeatedly asked Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group for this document – so far to no avail. Update 26.2.16 – the CCGs have now made public their travel impact analysis. Continue reading →

A single “Emergency Care Centre” for both Calderdale and Kirklees – Not Safe, Not Fair

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This is the 7th Plain Speaker report on the hospital cuts plans that are scheduled for public consultation, starting at the end of February.

It looks at proposals for expanding Calderdale Royal Hospital into a 615 bed acute and emergency hospital – the only one in Calderdale and Kirklees.

The “Right Care Right Time Right Place” Pre Consultation Business Case could well be called “Less Care, Whenever and Wherever You Can Find It”

The basic plan is to

  • Knock down HRI, and sell off the site for development.
  • Build a 119 bed planned care clinic plus outpatients and and urgent care centre on Acre Mill – leaving Kirklees without an A&E.
  • Take services out of the hospital and put them in the community (so-called Care Closer to Home).
  • Expand CRH from 400-ish beds to 615 and make it the unplanned (acute) care hospital and “emergency care centre” for both Kirklees and Calderdale, plus an urgent care centre
  • Cut 755 staff and around 77 hospital beds,
  • Set up an urgent care centre  in Todmorden. (The urgent care centres would befor minor ailments and accidents. The independent clinical senate review worries that the urgent care centre staffing proposals are inadequate: they don’t guarantee a doctor would be present and they would rely on skyping colleagues in the Emergency Care Centre for advice) Update 5 March: The Clinical Commissioning Group has abandoned the proposal for a Tod urgent care centre.
  • Take extra A&E patients to CRH, as a result of the closure of Dewsbury A&E and its replacement with an urgent care centre

Continue reading →

Mysterious disappearing Consultation Document to appear on 12th Feb

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Terry Hallworth reports on the Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Governing Body meeting on 10th February

Update to Terry’s report

On 11th February Richard Dunne, Kirklees Scrutiny Officer, emailed that the draft Consultation Document and Questionaire will be publicly available on the Kirklees Council’s Joint Health Scrutiny Committee Webpage on 12th February (not the 15th as Greater Huddersfield CCG reported), along with the Agenda.

If you want to address the JHSC, tell Richard Dunne and he will put your name of the list of deputations. Further info from Richard Dunne is that the consultation will not proceed until this meeting has taken place.

Consultation Document to be released 12th Feb, with Scrutiny on 22nd

The CCGs will be releasing the final draft of the Consultation Document on 12th February.

The CCGs and Joint Health Scrutiny Committee will have a public Scrutiny meeting on the 22 Feb, in the Council Chamber at Halifax Town Hall at 3.45pm

The Governing BodyChair, Dr Ollerton, and Carol McKenna, the CCG’s Chief Officer, will then sign off the document. That seems to presume no alterations will be necessary.

Consultation will then start on 27th Feb and will be for 14 weeks Continue reading →

Care Closer to Home – too bad there’s little or no evidence it would work

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People are rightly very exercised about the proposed hospital cuts and A&E closure – but the proposals to move hospital services into the “community” are equally devastating.

This bit of the “Right Care Right Place Right Time” shake up – which should really be called “Less Care, Fragmented Hither and Yon” – has the potential to wreak destruction on the bit of the NHS that most of us use more than anything else – our GP/primary care services.

This is Part 2 of Plain Speaker’s attempt to begin to answer some key questions about so-called Care Closer to Home. (You can find Part 1 here) Continue reading →

Care Closer to Home – “Patients Will Suffer”

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Kirklees and Calderdale people are very upset about the proposed hospital cuts and changes and A&E closure – but related  proposals to move hospital services into the “community” are equally devastating. Continue reading →

Jeremy Hunt’s puppets’ useless response to hospital cuts financial case for change questions

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fish for jenny(2)_namedToday Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group – last summer accused by the Chair of Calderdale Council Adults Health & Social Care Scrutiny Panel of swimming around in their own little goldfish bowl instead of openly discussing issues with the public – sent me a singularly useless and uninformative response to questions I sent in for their 20th Jan 2016  meeting, held to rubber stamp their decision to “consult” the public on their hospital cuts plans. Continue reading →