Category Archives: Social fairness

Calderdale Council plans further massive cuts to Adult Social Care

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Calderdale Council’s Budget Proposals 2015/16 – 2017/18 include swingeing cuts to local services, in order to “balance the budget” in the face of massive and unprecedented cuts by central government to the local government support grant.

Labour has put forward an alternative budget that includes the use of prudential borrowing and Council reserves to invest in income-generating public services, like affordable housing and business support – but it still proposes making major cuts as laid out in the Tory/LibDem Budget.

Both the Labour and the Tory/LibDem budgets include big cuts to Adults Health and Social Care (AHSC) services.

£2.5m is the target for cuts in 2017/18 to be achieved through cutting Council social workers loose from the Council and setting them up as a “mutual” business. Both the LibDem/Tory budget and the Labour budget include this measure. Continue reading →

If you’re coming on a Valentines date with Calderdale Royal Hospital – here’s the plan

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Ok Valentines Day Calderdale Royal Hospital lovebombers – these are the plans for our date to show the love for all staff working in Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH), from 10am-midday Saturday 14 Feb.

This is the space and the fence for the lovebomb – safely on the fenced grassy patch next to the bus stop in front of CRH on the main Halifax-Huddersfield road. So we are safely separate from all the traffic. Continue reading →

All you need is love – come on a Valentine’s date with Calderdale Royal Hospital

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As part of a nationwide Call 999 for the NHS Day of Action, Halifax mum Katherine Horner is inviting everyone to a Valentine’s Day NHS love in outside Calderdale Royal Hospital on the main Halifax to Huddersfield road from 10am to midday.

Please bring paper lovehearts and messages of support for Calderdale Royal Hospital NHS staff, who are struggling to keep patient care from suffering from the cuts and sell offs that have so badly destabilised our hospitals Trust. Continue reading →

People’s Commission Report is whitewash – not what the public wanted, protesters tell Councillors

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Before this evening’s Calderdale Council meeting on the People’s Commission Report,  two oddly assorted demonstrations took place on the Halifax Town Hall steps.

Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS campaigners huddled together with a placard proclaiming the People’s Commission as whitewash – not what the public wanted.

Continue reading →

Red herring award for People’s Commission Report

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The so-called People’s Commission was meant to identify and present the views of the people of Calderdale about the kind of future NHS and social care in the area that will be best for us.

It has now published its Report, which Calderdale Council will discuss on 9th February at 6pm in Halifax Town Hall.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating – so what does the Report propose?

The Report gets the Plain Speaker red herring award for misleading the public. Continue reading →

What’s really causing the A&E crisis

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Here’s an analysis by ‘Our NHS’ editor Caroline Molloy.

Her conclusion? The stealth NHS privatisation that the Health and Social Care Act 2012 has sped up means that cheap and easy elective procedures from hip operations to removing skin tags are now privatised, leaving the costly and difficult acute and emergency services with the NHS – but without the cross-subsidy from elective operations to pay for them. NHS hospitals are now forced to provide the costly services that private health care companies don’t want, on unsustainably low tariffs (or rates of payment) from NHS England.

Here’s Caroline Molloy’s article: What’s really causing the NHS crisis.

 

Calderdale NHS bosses’ new plan for August decision on community health services sell off – Campaigners demand public consultation now

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Yesterday a number of Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaigners attended Calderdale Council’s Adults Health and Social Care Scrutiny Panel, to find out what Calderdale NHS commissioners are planning for Phase 1 of the Right Care Right Place Right Time NHS shake up (which they’ve re-branded as Care Closer to Home.)

After the meeting, those of us who attended were clear that the Scrutiny Panel must use its powers now to stop the the implementation of Phase 1 Care Closer to Home and tell the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to formally consult the public on the Care Closer to Home proposals.

This is what happened Continue reading →

Save Calderdale Hospital Campaigners welcome Cllr Baines’ denunciation of NHS privatisation

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Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaigners are glad to find from Cllr Stephen Baine’s Talking Politics column in the 22nd Jan Halifax Courier, that he opposes NHS privatisation.

Cllr Baines criticises Labour’s Andy Burnham for his 2009 decision to offer Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon for sale both to NHS organisations and to the private sector.

This was the first time that private companies had been invited to bid to take over and run a large NHS hospital. Continue reading →

Its our Councillors’ job to Save Calderdale & Kirklees NHS – please email them now

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Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaign is calling on Calderdale and Kirklees Councillors to do their job of protecting our local NHS from damage.

If you want your Councillors to do their job of protecting our local NHS, please consider getting in touch with them to tell them about this. On this webpage you’ll find template emails to send to Councillors as well as live links to Councillors’ email addresses.

Councillors have the power – and the duty to use that power – to:

  • tell the Clinical Commissioning Groups to formally consult the public NOW on the significant changes to Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS that they are carrying out
  • ask the Secretary of State to stop proposed changes that will damage our local NHS

Continue reading →

Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaign: The threat to our A&E hasn’t gone away, whatever Craig Whittaker MP and Phillip Allott say

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Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaign is clear that Mr Allott’s and Mr Whittaker’s recent claims about the Calderdale NHS shake-up are misleading and ill-informed.

Katherine Horner, a Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaigner, said:

“Its quite simple, we carry on with the Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaign because the threat to our A&E hasn’t gone away.”

Continue reading →