Category Archives: Social fairness

Calderdale 38 Degrees “concerned and disappointed” at Clinical Commissioning Group’s refusal of “protect our NHS” request

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Earlier this year Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees asked Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group(CCG) to change its Constitution, in order to protect Calderdale NHS from back-door privatisation.

Reviewing its constitutution and procurement policy in response to 38 Degrees’ request, Calderdale CCG decided there was no need to change the constitution – despite acknowledging a public perception that commissioning healthcare services from private healthcare companies “is a fundamental threat to the sustainability of NHS providers”, and also endangers the provision of health care that is free at the point of need.
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Strong links between deprivation, violence and A&E attendance in Calderdale

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Recent data on A&E attendance show that deprivation and mental ill health are both strongly linked to high levels of A&E attendance.

So-called “austerity” economic policies have cut jobs and wages and introduced welfare reforms with adverse effects that have given rise to “grave concerns” among many South West Yorkshire Partnership Trust Foundation service users, carers and staff.

Data in Focus on Accident & Emergency, 3rd Dec 2013, by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (hscic) show that in each of the last 5 years, A&E attendance by people living in the most deprived 10% of areas is double the rate of those living in the least deprived 10%
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Calderdale GPs wait for Foundation Trust to tell them of A&E plans

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  • Pressures on Calderdale A&E and the  likely merger of Halifax and Huddersfield A&Es into one department in Huddersfield are the result of systemic problems caused by the removal of the NHS from democratic control and its current backdoor transformation into a privatised health care market.
  • This is the view of groups who are calling for the NHS to remain a public service, in the face of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 reforms to the NHS.
  • Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees are anxious that Calderdale residents’ lives and health will be put in danger if Calderdale A&E is closed or downgraded.

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Costs of Calderdale Hospital’s Private Finance Initiative – aka Perfect Financial Incompetence

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Calderdale Royal Hospital is notorious for being one of the most costly, least accountable Private Finance Initiatives in the NHS.

Repaying the ever-growing PFI debt currently takes about 10% of Calderdale CCG’s annual budget, and this is set to rise.

At the April 2013 meeting of the Calderdale CCG Governing Body,  it was noted that Private Finance Initiative payments for Calderdale hospital will be £24 m this year (they increase each year) – almost 10% of the 2013 annual budget of £256m.
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Restore the Secretary of State for Health’s duty to provide a comprehensive health service

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The 2012 Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) has opened the NHS back door to privatisation. The effect on senior managers of NHS hospitals is that, whether they like it or not:

“they are being forced to act more and more on the logic of private hospitals and commercial businesses. The first line of attack in this crusade has been to look for ways to duck out of providing services – such as A&E – which do not offer guaranteed returns.” (NHS SOS, p30)

Monitor, the national health market regulator, advises hospitals which are seeking Foundation Trust status, as required to by the HSCA, to cut back or close services that do not “contribute positively to the financial balance sheet”, such as A&E. (NHS SOS, p 30). Continue reading →

Make NHS Foundation Trust Hospitals democratically accountable

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The creation of NHS Foundation Trusts put hospitals beyond the effective scrutiny of local MPs.  This means that the last people to hear about and be involved in changes to their hospitals are the people who use them – and pay for them.

The case of Halifax and Huddersfield A & E is an example of this. Calderdale CCG’s Chief Officer Matt Walsh said at the CCG Governing Body meeting on November 14th that CCCG had asked Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT) to commission the National Clinical Advisory Team to review urgent care and to report on recommendations for  the CHFT to consider. This review took place over the summer and autumn, within the CHFT.

CCCG expects CHFT’s recommendations to come through to its Strategy Review committee some time in December.
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Act now to keep our rights to public consultation on hospital closures & to campaign for NHS

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Please consider taking action now to stop the Coalition government from pushing through new laws that would further damage the NHS and restrict democratic freedoms. In a few minutes, you can:

  • sign the petition to stop a new law that will make it possible to close hospitals and hospital departments without any public consultation
  • write to your MP asking them to vote against this when the Care Bill comes to the House of Commons on 16th December
  • sign a petition against the Gagging Bill that will make it impossible for groups and Trade Unions to campaign effectively in the run up to elections
  • ask your MP to sign Early Day Motion 793, which calls for an immediate freeze on talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement, in order to allow for a full public debate and Parliamentary scrutiny from both Houses of Parliament
Please read on for more info on each of these issues, and for the Halifax and Calder Valley MPs’ contact details.

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How to save the NHS? A key issue in the 2015 General Election run up

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The future of the NHS is shaping up to be a key battleground for all three major parties in the run up to the 2015 General Election.

Already the Halifax Tories, Calderdale Labour Party and Calderdale LibDems are staking out their positions on the proposed merger of Calderdale and Huddersfield A&E departments on a single site in Huddersfield.
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Calderdale A&E – the party political debate hots up.

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The likely imminent merger of Calderdale and Huddersfield A&E on a site in Huddersfield is a bone that the three main parties are all now worrying, but so far none of them has spit out any clear proposals about how to extract Calderdale NHS from the sorry mess it is in, as a result of:

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“Serious risk” identified in Calderdale NHS commissioning groups’s relationship with regional Support Unit

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First posted on 21 November, this article is now updated to include a reply from Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s Chief Finance Officer and a small amount of information from West and South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Commissioning Support Unit.

“Serious risk” is the highest category of risk in the NHS Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s risk register.

This is the level of risk that the Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCCG) has identified in its relationship with the organisation that’s meant to be supporting it – the West and South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Commissioning Support Unit (WSYBCSU).
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