Members of the public protested outside the August 13th meeting of Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s Governing Body, as the NHS bosses met to consider “evidence” of their “engagement” with the public about plans to cut acute and emergency hospital services and replace them with care the community, aka Care Closer to Home. Continue reading
Calderdale attracted national attention earlier this year as one of the worst places in the country for delays in hospital discharges of patients who are medically fit to leave, but still need nursing or social care afterwards.
Helen Barker, the hospital Trust’s new Interim Associate Director of Community Service and Operations, said that she is confident that the situation will be better in six months time, although she conceded,
“I’m a bit disappointed at this month’s performance”.
Together with Pippa Corner from Calderdale Council’s Adults Health and Social Care (AHSC) Directorate, Ms Barker attended the Council’s AHSC Scrutiny Panel on 11 August 2015 to explain the delays in discharging patients who need ongoing care once they leave hospital. Continue reading
The not-so-hidden agenda of the government and its NHS privatisation quango (the NHS Commissioning Board, aka NHS England) is to de-fund, run down and privatise the NHS by the end of this Parliament.
Here is how this is playing out in Calderdale.
De-fund
Cutting £20m/year from Calderdale’s NHS budget until 2019
The Care Closer to Home scheme, which NHS England is imposing in Calderdale and across the country, is dressed up as an improvement to NHS and social care services, but it’s really about making £22bn worth of NHS cuts by 2020.
According to Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group, Calderdale’s share of these cuts amounts to £80m in the four years between 2014/15 and 2018/19, and its Care Closer to Home scheme is key to making these cuts. (Source: Calderdale Care Closer to Home Service Specification, 20 Jan 2015 Version, Draft 13.1, p19) Continue reading
Word is, there is a Pop up protest on Thursday 13 Aug, 1pm outside Shay Stadium, Halifax. Appropriate placard: Is this what NO PUBLIC OPPOSITION LOOKS LIKE?
West Yorkshire Primary Care Support Service centres in Huddersfield, York (2 of them) and Doncaster are due to be closed next year when they’re privatised. This information has only become public through a document leaked to the press.
In a contract worth around £400m for up to ten years, the privatisation quango NHS England is handing corporate giant Capita the Primary Care Support Service (PCSS), that is based in 29 centres across England.
As it takes over the PCSS, Capita plans to close all but 3 PCSS centres and fire nearly 90% of PCSS staff.
The PCSS at Blue Beck House in York is due to close by end March 2016, and the PCSS at Broad Lea House in Huddersfield and the 2 PCSS centres in York and Doncaster are due to close by the end of May 2016. Continue reading
The contract for Calderdale Royal Hospital services, which should have started on 1 April 2015, is still not signed and on 24th July both parties entered arbitration with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDAR) as mediator. The outcome is not yet public knowledge – but contract negotiations were still continuing on 4th August.
Problems with the contract from the Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG’s) point of view were discussed at the June 11th Calderdale CCG Governing Body Meeting, while the hospital Trust’s 28th July Board meeting papers show some of their side of the conflict.
The Trust are holding out for a Payments by Results contract, which Dr Matt Walsh told the CCG Governing Body “is not the CCG’s preference”. Until now, the contract between the CCG and Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) has been a block activity contract, where the CCG pays for a set amount of clinical activity.
The barcoded patient Continue reading
Calderdale Council has unanimously agreed a motion that calls on their NHS commissioning partner, Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group, to delay the public consultation on proposals that are more than likely to cut Calderdale Royal Hospital acute and emergency services, until there is evidence that taking community services out of the hospital and transferring them to GP hubs reduces acute and emergency hospital admissions.
The Council’s motion sidesteps the fact that the Care Closer to Home scheme (transferring community services from the hospital to GP hubs) is a big change to Calderdale NHS and we need to be consulted on this too – not just on the hospital cuts.
What kind of patient care and NHS staff working conditions will come with Care Closer to Home? We know the community hubs will employ less qualified staff like physician associates and there will be big reliance on voluntary carers, family and friends. Continue reading
The future of Calderdale Royal Hospital is a “moveable feast” since Monitor has put it into special measures as a result of its deficit, Craig Whittaker MP said at his open surgery in Mytholmroyd on Saturday 18th July.
Monitor is the organisation charged with enforcing market competition in the NHS. Its boss David Bennett (previously a Senior Partner at McKinsey, the management consultancy company that’s made a killing out of the corporate capture of the NHS under both the New Labour and Coalition governments) recently warned that if NHS Foundation Trusts don’t bring down their deficits, they will lose their freedom to decide their own strategy and the way they run their services. Continue reading
Just as it becomes public knowledge that Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group wants to do away with both Halifax and Huddersfield A&Es as we know them, Greater Manchester Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) has slammed Greater Manchester NHS bean counters’ decision to strip emergency surgery from Wythenshawe, Tameside, Wigan, Bolton, Bury Fairfield and North Manchester hospitals.
“Healthier Together” is Greater Manchester’s version of the Right Care Right Time Right Place hospital cuts and closures scheme that Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield NHS bean counters have been trying hard for over a year to foist off on us. Continue reading
A couple of documents Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has sent me in response to a Freedom of Information indicate that Calderdale and Huddersfield will not have an A&E service as we know it.
Instead, one of the documents shows that Calderdale CCG and Greater Huddersfield CCG intend to replace Calderdale and Huddersfield A&Es with 3 Urgent Care Centres (also known as Minor Injuries Units) plus a unified Emergency Care Centre on one of the hospital sites. An Emergency Care Centre is not a full, blue light A&E like we currently have at both Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
