Here is the email I’ve sent to my ward Councillors (below). Please feel free to use it as a template, if you’d like the Adults Health and Social Care Scrutiny Panel to find out why Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group wants to avoid public consultation on the “Right Care” shakeup of our NHS and social care services. Continue reading
The Secretary of Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees Campaign Group reports on the first meeting of Calderdale Commission on health and social care on Tuesday 29th July, where she and two other members of the group handed over a paper copy of the 38 degrees submission. This says that local hospital services are excellent and must stay in place.
There were three members of Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees and about 3 other members of the public at the meeting. It was a terrible turnout. Continue reading
Dear Calderdale Council Commission on health and social care,
In response to your open request for submissions to your Commission, I’d like to explain why I won’t be submitting anything or taking part in Commission events.
This is not because I’m apathetic, but because I have no confidence that your Commission has the remit, powers or disinterested membership to successfully carry out its task of eliciting the public’s views on the important question of what kind of NHS and social care we want in Calderdale. Continue reading
Many people in England are unaware that the NHS in Scotland (and in Wales and Northern Ireland) has always been a separate organisation. The Scottish National Health Service was set up by the NHS Scotland Act in 1947 and today in 2014 is a very different NHS compared to that in England.
The Scottish NHS abolished the internal market in 2004 and brought back area health authorities. Nowadays the NHS in Scotland is again about co-operation, not competition. There are no trusts, no secretive commercial confidentiality considerations, no fragmentation of services, no wasteful and costly commercial transaction costs for tendering services.
Given the cuts and privatisation that are now afflicting the English NHS as a result of the Health and Social Care Act, it’s worth looking at how NHS Scotland works, since this offers a good model for restoring the English NHS.
This would give us something to tell the politicians, who are all now busily gearing up for the 2015 General Election. Continue reading
Calderdale Council Adult Health and Social Care Scrutiny Panel meeting on 28th July failed to effectively question hospitals Trust chiefs about their “Balanced Plan” for meeting a £20m funding shortfall this financial year, and a £19m shortfall in 2015-16.
By failing to provide clear straightforward information, equally the NHS chiefs failed in their duty of candour as public servants.
Chatting after the meeting, a group of Save Our Hospitals campaigners expressed deep scepticism about the conduct of the meeting as well as confusion about what had been said. Continue reading
Plain Speaker is pleased to publish the Submission from the Calderdale 38 degrees NHS Campaign Group to the Calderdale Commission on health and social care.
Over the last 9 months, Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS has held honest discussions with over 1500 Calderdale residents about the proposals for local NHS cuts and service changes.
This submission summarises their considered views. Continue reading
The first meeting of Calderdale Council’s People’s Commission on health and social care is on 29th July, 1.30- 3.30pm at Halifax Town Hall.
Calderdale Council is holding its “People’s Commission” in order to:
“lead an open consultation about future health and social care provision in Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield.”
But it starts out by holding its first meeting at a time when no working people will be able to attend, and without much clarity about what its controversial Chair’s terms of reference are. Continue reading
Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group is among the 87% of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) that have bid for a role in commissioning primary care.
This is despite the fact that in May this year, GPs at the Local Medical Committees’ Conference in York voted against co-commissioning of primary care by CCGs, on the grounds that this would create “unacceptable” conflicts of interest.
CCGs are made up of local GPs, and primary care covers GP practices as well as dental practices, community pharmacies and high street optometrists. Continue reading
At a packed meeting on 1st July, Calderdale Council Adults Health and Scrutiny Panel accepted a petition signed by 118 people, asking the Scrutiny Panel to use its powers to call in the NHS bosses to explain their proposed hospital cuts and service changes.
The Council recently asked the hospitals Trust to withdraw their proposals to shake up health services by cutting acute and emergency hospital services and replacing them with care in the community. But the Trust has gone ahead regardless.
A leaked Trust document, discussed at a 5th June meeting of the Trust’s Executive Board, shows that the Trust is secretly planning to start making the cuts this month, even though the public consultation on the proposals hasn’t yet happened. Continue reading
A secret Hospitals Trust plan shows how the Trust is making government-imposed savings of £20m this year.
In April, the hospitals Trust agreed plans for £13.45m cuts this financial year.
Now it has come up with schemes to generate the extra £6.55m needed to make savings of £20m.
These schemes include raising an unspecified amount of new income from private patients and overseas visitors to the Trust. Continue reading