Author Archives: jenny

Costs of Calderdale Hospital’s Private Finance Initiative – aka Perfect Financial Incompetence

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Calderdale Royal Hospital is notorious for being one of the most costly, least accountable Private Finance Initiatives in the NHS.

Repaying the ever-growing PFI debt currently takes about 10% of Calderdale CCG’s annual budget, and this is set to rise.

At the April 2013 meeting of the Calderdale CCG Governing Body,  it was noted that Private Finance Initiative payments for Calderdale hospital will be £24 m this year (they increase each year) – almost 10% of the 2013 annual budget of £256m.
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Restore the Secretary of State for Health’s duty to provide a comprehensive health service

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The 2012 Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) has opened the NHS back door to privatisation. The effect on senior managers of NHS hospitals is that, whether they like it or not:

“they are being forced to act more and more on the logic of private hospitals and commercial businesses. The first line of attack in this crusade has been to look for ways to duck out of providing services – such as A&E – which do not offer guaranteed returns.” (NHS SOS, p30)

Monitor, the national health market regulator, advises hospitals which are seeking Foundation Trust status, as required to by the HSCA, to cut back or close services that do not “contribute positively to the financial balance sheet”, such as A&E. (NHS SOS, p 30). Continue reading →

Make NHS Foundation Trust Hospitals democratically accountable

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The creation of NHS Foundation Trusts put hospitals beyond the effective scrutiny of local MPs.  This means that the last people to hear about and be involved in changes to their hospitals are the people who use them – and pay for them.

The case of Halifax and Huddersfield A & E is an example of this. Calderdale CCG’s Chief Officer Matt Walsh said at the CCG Governing Body meeting on November 14th that CCCG had asked Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT) to commission the National Clinical Advisory Team to review urgent care and to report on recommendations for  the CHFT to consider. This review took place over the summer and autumn, within the CHFT.

CCCG expects CHFT’s recommendations to come through to its Strategy Review committee some time in December.
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Councillor warns of supermarket’s “devastating impact on Hebden Bridge independent shops and Coop”

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After an hour-long discussion, four out of seven Calderdale Planning Committee members voted in favour of the Setbray/Belmont Homes planning application for a supermarket and hotel on the Mytholm Works site.

The Chair, Cllr Daniel Sutherland, who was among those who did not vote to approve the planning application, then declared the planning application was approved.

After the decision, Cllr Young, who objected to the planning application, said:

“This could have a devastating impact on the independent shops in Hebden Bridge and on the Coop.”

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Act now to keep our rights to public consultation on hospital closures & to campaign for NHS

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Please consider taking action now to stop the Coalition government from pushing through new laws that would further damage the NHS and restrict democratic freedoms. In a few minutes, you can:

  • sign the petition to stop a new law that will make it possible to close hospitals and hospital departments without any public consultation
  • write to your MP asking them to vote against this when the Care Bill comes to the House of Commons on 16th December
  • sign a petition against the Gagging Bill that will make it impossible for groups and Trade Unions to campaign effectively in the run up to elections
  • ask your MP to sign Early Day Motion 793, which calls for an immediate freeze on talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement, in order to allow for a full public debate and Parliamentary scrutiny from both Houses of Parliament
Please read on for more info on each of these issues, and for the Halifax and Calder Valley MPs’ contact details.

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How to save the NHS? A key issue in the 2015 General Election run up

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The future of the NHS is shaping up to be a key battleground for all three major parties in the run up to the 2015 General Election.

Already the Halifax Tories, Calderdale Labour Party and Calderdale LibDems are staking out their positions on the proposed merger of Calderdale and Huddersfield A&E departments on a single site in Huddersfield.
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Calderdale A&E – the party political debate hots up.

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The likely imminent merger of Calderdale and Huddersfield A&E on a site in Huddersfield is a bone that the three main parties are all now worrying, but so far none of them has spit out any clear proposals about how to extract Calderdale NHS from the sorry mess it is in, as a result of:

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The Soup Dragon – more than bread and soup

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The Soup Dragon, an initiative of Hebden Bridge Transition Town Health group, is open on  Friday afternoons between 12 and 3 at Holme Street Arts centre (next to Hebden Bridge post office). Everyone is welcome to drop in and enjoy organic soup provided by Fern and Clive from the Nutclough and organic bread donated by Saka Bakery.  There are regular talks and workshops exploring mind, body and spiritual well being.
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302 people call on Calderdale Planning Committee to refuse supermarket & hotel planning application

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Backed up by three hundred people who signed Incredible Edible Mytholm’s petition to Calderdale Planning Committee,  Incredible Edible Mytholm’s chairperson, Margaret Boyle, will speak against the Setbray/Belmont Homes supermarket and hotel planning application when Calderdale Planning Committee meets at 6pm on 3rd December in Halifax Town Hall.
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Thanks to 302 people who signed Incredible Edible Mytholm’s petition – now closed

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Thanks to the 302 people who signed the petition, calling on Calderdale Planning Committee to reject the Setbray/Belmont Homes planning application for a supermarket and hotel on the Mytholm Works/Browns Field site on King Street, Hebden Bridge.

The online petition is now closed.
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