#NHS Detectives are on the case, collecting evidence to thwart the crime of privatisation.
Here is our report on the privatisation of some mental health services in Calderdale – some mental health hospital services, and community mental health services for Children and Adolescents, and for Adult Drug and Alcohol Recovery. Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago, Calderdale and Kirklees Councillors chided the press for alarmism in reporting news that our hospital Trust had developed plans for emergency overnight closure of Halifax A&E.
But at the time, the Trust wasn’t letting anyone – Councillors or press – see the plan.
Now, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the plan has been made public.
It says “it is increasingly likely” that circumstances will force the emergency closure of Halifax A&E. Continue reading
A Save our A&Es petition gained over four hundred signatures in a couple of hours last Saturday, October 21st, in Halifax.
The petition organisers, Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS campaign group, have now put it online so more people can sign it – here. Continue reading
Today Calderdale Council Neighbourhood Officer Andrew Pitts assured Friends of the Little Park, local councillors and others from the council, that:
This is consistent with what Andrew Pitts told Plain Speaker yesterday and it is good to have it confirmed at the site meeting at the Little Park playground on Victoria Road. Continue reading
Friends of Little Park on Valley Road Hebden Bridge are collecting signatures for a petition to Calderdale Council, protesting against interference with the playground by developers of the building site that sits right next to the playground.
News emerged recently on HebWeb that:
“from February 2016 a significant part of the Little Park playground is going to be fenced off for approximately 10 months during weekdays 8am-5pm…”
At the Little Park, Steph Jones, mother of a small child, said,
“Parents and children use the Park all the time, it’s the only one in Hebden for little kids now the play cafe on Central Street’s closed down. It needs to stay open all the time.”
The government have published their plans for reducing air pollution and they’re out for public consultation until this Friday, 6th November.
It’s high time the government got its act together and reduced air pollution, but its plans aren’t up to doing the job and the public consultation is a chance to tell them that they have to come up with a plan that will WORK.
If you haven’t already, please respond to the consultation and tell the government they need to come up with better plans, because they’re simply not going to work.
You can use this online form prepared by the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT). If you agree with the points the CBT is making on their form, you can just add your name and email address, and click ‘submit’. Continue reading
Skipton and Keighley 38 Degrees group are holding a public workshop in Shipley on the afternoon of 7th November, to relaunch the Yorkshire campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill.
In July 2015, twelve MPs – including Caroline Lucas of the Green Party and Jeremy Corbyn, now Labour leader – presented the NHS Reinstatement Bill in the House of Commons, as a private members bill. It is due for its second reading on 11 March 2016. The Bill is supported by MPs from five parties.
Can the relaunched campaign make that six, by getting some Tory MPs on side? After all, 77% of Tory voters and supporters want a publicly owned, publicly run NHS.
Barrister Peter Roderick, the Bill’s co-author with Public Health Professor Allyson Pollock, will attend the 7 November workshop to explain the Bill and answer questions about it.
People who would like to attend the Workshop are asked to sign up in advance. Continue reading
Deborah Harrington, National Health Action Party campaign organiser, guest blogs here on the need for politicians to wise up to the fact that public spending is not a drain on the economy – but a boost to the economy.
Deborah’s blog post reinforces the point that Naveen Judah made, back in March 2014 at the first public meeting in Halifax to save our A&Es, that NHS spending has a “multiplier effect” – so that for every £1 of NHS funding, £1.80 recirculates in the economy. The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills – a study by Dr David Stuckler and Dr Sanjay Basu – found a bigger multiplier effect for health spending: investments in health saw multiplier greater than 3 – so each £1 generated up to a £3 return. This is why cutting NHS spending will shrink the economy. We need to keep on demolishing the myth that the NHS is financially unsustainable and that it needs to make £22bn of “efficiency cuts” between now and 2020. Deborah takes a timely swipe at this myth here.
When is Labour going to start talking about the real economy, instead of just tagging along behind George Osborne and his balanced budgets? With the Autumn Statement looming I reckon now would be a good time. Continue reading
People applying for Calderdale Council Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction will soon have to use an online system to claim these benefits. The system will use e-forms and an online verification system.
The Council is planning to have this system up and running in the the next few months, and will provide more information closer to the time.
The current system of applying for Housing Benefit and Council Tax reduction through hard copy claim forms will be eliminated, and replaced by online forms for all new claims for these two benefits. Continue reading
At the 21 October Joint Health Scrutiny Committee meeting, Councillors tried to find out what the NHS competition enforcer, Monitor, actually meant by stating that the hospitals Trust needs to:
“maximise the value of the Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH) PFI contract”.
As a result of the government trying to force hospitals into making massive “efficiency” cuts, that were impossible to carry out because this would have endangered patient safety, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) is one of scores of Trusts across the country that are now in deficit and under Monitor’s special measures.
Calderdale Councillor Martin Burton asked how the Trust could maximise the value of the CRH PFI contract. It was like trying to get blood from a stone. Continue reading