Author Archives: jenny

New-build mental hospital for York – the murky workings of a post-democratic, privatising NHS

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The sudden closure of Bootham Park Hospital in York at the end of September 2015 with just five days warning –  followed sixteen months later by the proposal for a replacement new build mental health hospital in York, provides a case study in the murky workings of a fast-privatising NHS that lacks democratic accountability

Revolving doors between the NHS and private companies mean that conflicts of interest are rife – but barely examined.

Bootham Park’s closure, on the order of the Care Quality Commission following an unannounced inspection, forced the immediate discharge or relocation of 30 inpatients  and affected 400 outpatients.

It was met by public outrage and opposition as the mental health hospital – the only one in York and the surrounding area – had been vital to the wellbeing and survival of many patients. Continue reading →

Preston New Road Rolling Roadside Protest – Keep Lancashire Frack Free

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Today, 19th January, is the 12th day of the daily rolling roadside protest at the Preston New Road fracking site,  organised by the local residents’ Preston New Road Action Group .

Preston New Road

Preston New Road is not  like other fracking sites which can be closed completely during deliveries. It is in a residential area on the busy A583 which is part of Lancashire’s strategic road network that is used by the North West Ambulance Service in reaching “blue light” emergencies.

The Ambulances are targeted to attend 75 per cent of Category A Red 1 calls (the most time-critical, where patients are not breathing or don’t have a pulse) within 8 minutes. Even a 15-minute closure of this major local trunk road could make the difference between life and death. Continue reading →

Secretive Sustainability and Transformation Plans are likely to have cost NHS over £16 million in management consultancy fees

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Underfunded NHS clinical commissioning groups could be spending over £16 million between them, for advice from management consultants on the secretive shake-up of health and social care in England.

Unite, with 100,000 members in the NHS, said that health secretary Jeremy Hunt needs to come clean on the spending on management consultants in relation to the 44 Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) for England.

Unite calculated that £15 million is the likely cost, after the media revealed that NHS chiefs in Coventry and Warwickshire had forked out £343,000 to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for advice on saving money in their local STP plan.

However this may well be a significant underestimate. The British Medical Association has just reported that health leaders drawing up the North Central London STP have paid £2.3m to eight different companies – including accountants Deloitte and management consultants McKinsey – for services stretching from ‘administrative support’ and ‘financial modelling’ to ‘communications support’.

Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker reported in October last year that the 11 West Yorkshire and Harrogate Clinical Commissioning Groups had between them paid £378K to management consultancy company Attain  to set up and run the West Yorkshire Sustainability and Transformation Plan Programme Management Office. Continue reading →

Upper Calder Valley helps Rochdale send warm clothes, food and medicine to people of Aleppo

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The first of two 40 foot containers was sent off from Rochdale to Aleppo in Syria on 22nd December. It contained warm winter clothes, food, medicine, medical equipment, nappies, etc – all donated by hundreds of people and businesses from the region. The second container will be going to Aleppo in early January.

Upper Calder Valley, which received so much kindness and help from total strangers this time last year in the aftermath of the Boxing Day flood, donated many clothes. Continue reading →

Hebden Bridge Welcome Festival a huge success

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Nearly 400 people attended the Welcome Festival on Saturday 29th October at the
Birchcliffe Centre in support of asylum seekers and refugees. Most of the performers on the day were refugees. There was a famous Syrian singer and his daughter coming from Bournemouth, the Songo Drummers Project, the Harmony Choir from Leeds and Dave Nelson and Charlie Carr from Hebden Bridge. For the children there was also face painting, arts & craft activities and making figures out of balloons. Continue reading →

NHS Commissioners hand £378K to commercial consultants Attain for work on Slash and Trash Plan that threatens statutory services

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From April – October 2016, the West Yorkshire Sustainability and Transformation Plan Programme Management Office has been run by a private sector consultancy company called Attain, at a cost to the NHS of £377,976 for work. 12% of this will be Attain’s profit, according to its website. Attain’s Chief Executive, Martin Wilson, is a former partner in KPMG.

attain-logo-doing-the-privatisers-workThe STP will be completed on October 21st – the deadline for handing it over to NHS England.

It has been drawn up in considerable secrecy, and will only be published after NHS England has made it fit for public consumption. This is a change of plan.  Until last week, when NHS England issued the instruction to Clinical Commissioning Groups not to publish their STPs until NHS England has seen them and commented on them, the plan was for the West Yorkshire STP to be published on October 23rd or 24th. Continue reading →

We want an NHS which is comprehensive. That means it doesn’t target people’s lifestyles and blame them for their illnesses.

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This is Deborah Harrington’s speech to the Fighting for Hartlepool Hospital rally on Saturday 15th October, as read by Steven Carne from 999 Call for the NHS

First of all I would like to say how sorry I am not to be here today.

I wanted to start by telling you about something I witnessed at a major London hospital recently after a physiotherapy appointment. I was at the bus stop, waiting for my bus home, when two security guards came out of A&E pushing a wheelchair. In it was a man who looked semi-comatose. At the bus stop one security guard tipped the wheelchair, while the other helped the man out. He couldn’t stand. They laid him down on the ground and left him there. It was a cold, wet day. His shirt and jacket were twisted up and I could see his back. It was covered in what looked like fresh burns. I called out to the security guards. They replied that he didn’t need emergency treatment so had no business being there. He was ‘just a drunk’. Continue reading →