The dismemberment of our NHS proceeds apace.
On 7th January, the private community health care company Locala announced that Calderdale Council has awarded them two new NHS contracts in Calderdale.
The Council has taken away these contracts from our hospitals Trust, which is in the middle of serious financial problems. Continue reading
Jenny Shepherd spoke about the Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaign at the Morning Star benefit at Hebden Bridge Trades Club today. Here is her report.
Thanks to Pete Lazenby and John Mooney for asking me to talk about the Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaign at today’s Hebden Bridge Trades Club benefit for the Morning Star.
Phillip Allott, Tory Parliamentary Candidate for Halifax, has sent Halifax voters a letter containing the unfounded claim that Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group has rejected the hospitals Trust proposal to turn one of our hospitals into a small planned care hospital with a Minor Injuries Unit and the other into a specialised acute hospital with an A&E Department.
Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s Governing Body Chair, Dr Alan Brook, told the 30th October 2014 Calderdale Health and Wellbeing Board that the CCG had decided not to consult the public about proposals in the hospital Trust’s Outline Business Case – because “it needs more work”.
But the CCG has at no time said that this means it has rejected the Trust’s proposals. Continue reading
A Calder Valley member of the public who was confused by Craig Whittaker’s recent comments on her facebook page about the proposed NHS shake up in Calderdale and Huddersfield asked Plain Speaker for clarification about the following issues.
Here is the Plain Speaker view. Just to be clear, the reporter Jenny Shepherd is also the Green Parliamentary Candidate for Calder Valley Continue reading
This is the new updated Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaign statement that came out of a recent meeting of people who are still actively working on the campaign:
“SAVE CALDERDALE ROYAL HOSPITAL Continue reading
Calderdale and Huddersfield hospital Trust’s Outline Business Case (OBC) is supposed to incorporate changes suggested by public, patients and stakeholders, during the Trust’s “engagement” process on the Strategic Outline Case.
But the OBC airbrushes the public’s and Calderdale Council’s rejection of their earlier Strategic Outline Case (SOC).
The Trust has been selective about what it includes from “engagement” with the public and patients. Continue reading
The hospitals Trust has finally made public their Outline Business Case (OBC) for the shake up of hospital and community NHS services in Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield.
The OBC comes down on the side of making Calderdale Royal Hospital the small planned care hospital, carrying out planned treatments like hip or knee operations, with only 85 of its current 350 beds in use and no A&E, just a Minor Injuries Unit that would see around 22,500 patients a year.
24/7 acute and emergency care would be at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. This would include trauma, major surgery, crticial care, acute & specialist medicine, inpatient paediatric services and complex maternity services.
In addition to minor injuries units, the OBC says both hospitals would provide outpatient care for children and adults, midwifery-led maternity units and specialist psychiatric liaison services.
The OBC sees a possible future for the “redundant” space in the rest of CRH as a care home and hospice, and says
“There is potential to link up with other Care Home or Hospice providers” (p141)
There was a good turn out at the Calderdale Royal Hospital NHS staff strike picket on the frosty morning of Monday 24th November.
Unlike the first NHS staff strikers’ picket a few weeks ago, NHS staff and supporters only picketed the main hospital entrance on Dryclough Lane this time.
Mick Coughlan, a member of staff at Calderdale Royal Hospital, said,
“As a member of UNISON I’m taking part in industrial action in protest at the decision by the Lib Dem/Conservative government’s decision not to implement the independent pay review body’s recommendation to give NHS staff a 1% pay rise. This must be contrasted with the MP’s pay review body suggestion of 11% for them being accepted. All in it together?”
At Calderdale HWB Board on 30 October 2014, Jen Mulcahy, the Commissioning Support Unit Programme Manager for Right Care Right Place Right Time, gave an update on the Right Care Right Place Right Time NHS shake up in Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield.
She said this was being carried out through taking forward:
On 22nd September 2014, Calderdale and Kirklees Councils’ Joint Health Scrutiny Committee (JHSC) started scrutinising the local NHS commissioners’ proposals for chopping and changing hospital and community based health services. These proposals are known as Right Care Right Place Right Time.
The JHSC has decided that, should the options outlined in the Right Care Right Place Right Time Strategic Outline Case be developed into formal proposals, they would constitute a substantial development and variation to the health service.
The JHSC has a duty to scrutinise such substantial proposals and their impact on the people of Calderdale and Huddersfield, by requiring local NHS bodies to consult with them. Continue reading
