Category Archives: Social fairness

Stop the NHS Sell Off makes successful legal challenge to Commissioning Group’s secrecy

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“It’s not possible to run the NHS like Tesco’s supply chain where everything is kept commercially confidential.”

This is the view of  David Lock, the barrister instructed by Cambridge Stop the NHS Sell Off.

Social Investigations reports that a law firm acting for campaign group Stop the NHS Sell Off in Cambridgeshire has accused Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) of acting unlawfully by failing to allow opportunities for meaningful public engagement in the tender of an £800m contract for older people’s services.

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NHS England plans to sell your personal confidential data – here’s how you can stop them from grabbing it

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Patients only have until the end of February to opt out from having their personal confidential medical data extracted from GPs’ computers on a monthly basis, without their consent, and sent to a new national database called care.data.

Starting from March 2014, the Health & Social Care Act 2012 requires GPs to send each patient’s Personal Confidential Data (PCD) data to the care.data system without any prior consent – unless patients specifically opt out. It’s simple to opt out, as outlined below.

The care.data system is run by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), using software and services procured from ATOS, a private company.
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Craig #Whittaker MP supports hospital closure clause in #Care Bill

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The law courts twice ruled that the Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt was acting unlawfully in trying to force closures at South Lewisham Hospital, in order to redirect its funding to a nearby NHS Trust that had been bankrupted by Private Finance Initiative re-payments and taken into the control of Trust Special Administrators. So now the ConDem government is changing the law to give precisely this power to Trust Special Administrators who have been brought in to deal with failing NHS Trusts. And  Calder Valley MP Craig Whittaker has voted for this new legislation.
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#Calderdale #NHS 38 Degrees stall 18th Jan and meeting 13th Feb

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Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees campaign group will be holding a public information stall in Sowerby Bridge market on Saturday 18th January from about 11am to about 1pm ish, if anyone wishes to come down and find out more about what is quietly going on behind our backs in the NHS reorganisation.

The date of the group’s next meeting is Thursday 13th February 6-8pm at the Ring o’Bells pub in Halifax, – 3 Upper Kirkgate HX1 1QS.  New members are always welcome. The group campaigns to keep the NHS public and stop backdoor privatisation of the NHS.
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Chairman of #Calderdale #Healthwatch Board resigns over lack of accountability and transparency

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Dr Chris Day has resigned as the Chair of Calderdale Healthwatch Programme Board. His resignation took place at the Board’s meeting on 13th January, after the Board voted in favour of a motion to exclude the public from the meeting.

Dr Day said,

“I opposed this motion and took a vote, but the motion was carried and I stood down as chair of the Board. I explained that I believed transparency and openness were being rejected in this motion and that I believed them to be such fundamental operating principles that I could not continue in this role. The public were removed from the meeting.”

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Public meeting of #Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group Governing Body 16th Jan

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The next public meeting of Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Governing Body is at 2-4pm, 16th January in Shibden Meeting Room, F Mill, Dean Clough. (This is near the Travelodge Hotel.)

All the papers for the meeting are downloadable from the Calderdale CCG website.

If you want to ask any questions, the CCG prefers you to email them by noon the day before the meeting, but you can also fill in a form on the day, before the meeting, and then hand it in. The person to email questions to is Jane Brownlie – her email address is:  jane.brownlie@calderdaleccg.nhs.uk
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#Calderdale NHS privatisation – not what you expect under the Christmas tree

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A stall with information about the rapid privatisation of Calderdale NHS surprised many members of the public in Hebden Bridge on Saturday morning.

The stall, under the Christmas tree in St George’s Square, was run by members of Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees, a group which campaigns to keep the NHS public and stop backdoor privatisation of the NHS.

Janet Bertola, a member of Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees group, said,

“NHS privatisation’s going on before our eyes, but we just don’t see it.”

Eileen Wright, a Hebden Bridge resident, admitted:

“I don’t know anything about this.”

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Campaign against Hospital Closure powers continues – find out more at 38 Degrees stall in Hebden, 21st Dec

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Although the House of Commons has passed the second reading of the Care Bill, including clause 118 that allows closure of hospitals and hospital departments without proper public consultation, the campaign against the Hospital closure clause is set to  gather momentum in the New Year.

Calderdale 38 Degrees is holding a stall in St George’s Square, Hebden Bridge between 10am and 12 noon on Saturday 21st December and you can find out more there. The theme of the stall is opposition to NHS privatisation and to A&E service reductions and closures.
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Craig Whittaker MP votes for draconian NHS closure powers

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Craig Whittaker MP has voted in favour of the House of Commons second reading of the Care Bill – including Clause 118 that makes it possible to close hospitals, A&E departments and other other departments, without proper public consultation. This is at odds with the Tory manifesto commitment to “stop the forced closure of A&E and maternity wards”
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Open letter to Craig Whittaker MP – Vote to keep public right to consultation over hospital closures

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Dear Craig Whittaker,

The Coalition Government is taking a Care Bill through Parliament that will make it possible to close hospitals and A&E and other departments  without proper public consultation.

As you will know, the House Of Lords recently voted to accept  Earl Howe’s last-minute amendment to the  Care Bill. Amendment 168 essentially makes it possible for hospitals and A&E and other departments to be closed without public consultation – however successful, useful and popular they are.

The hospital closure clause 118, along with the rest of the Care Bill, will be debated and voted on in the Commons on 16th December. Clause 118 would allow any hospital to be closed down, or lose its A&E, maternity or other services, with hardly any local consultation.

I believe you have a responsibility to the public to make sure that this terrible Clause does not become law.
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