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
On Monday 28th July, Calderdale Council Adults Health and Social Care (AHSC) Scrutiny Panel is to question the Calderdale and Huddersfield hospitals trust Chief Executive about the Trust’s leaked “Balanced Plan”.
The Balanced Plan shows how the Trust plans to meet its £20m funding shortfall this year. It was a secret known only to the Trust’s Executive Board, until it was leaked to local media a few weeks ago.
An AHSC Scrutiny Panel member has told Plain Speaker there may be an opportunity for members of the public to question the Trust’s Chief Executive, but this depends on the Chairman, Cllr Malcolm James.
Anyone who’d like to put a question to Owen Williams about the Balanced Plan needs to ask the Scrutiny Panel Chair before the meeting, which is at 4.30pm, Monday 28th July, at Halifax Town Hall. The meeting is open to all members of the public, whether or not you’d like to question Owen Williams. Continue reading
You can sign up on the facebook event page here to join the feeder March from Halifax-Huddersfield-Dewsbury-Wakefield. Or if you don’t do facebook, you can email the organiser.
And this is why we’re marching…
Continue reading
The Hospitals Trust has just refused Plain Speaker’s Freedom of Information request to see the Trust’s Outline Business Case for the “Right Care Right Time Right Place” shake up of health and social care services. This is the document that the Clinical Commissioning Groups will consider and then consult the public about, if they decide to accept the Outline Business Case.
If the public can’t see the Outline Business Case, how can we know what we think about it?
I am asking the Trust to review their refusal. 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
The American Kaiser Permanente model of healthcare is the acknowledged template for the controversial NHS and social care changes that are hitting Calderdale and Huddersfield, as well as the rest of England.
In this American model, so-called Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) provide relatively low-cost health services that are based on short hospital stays and cherry-picking patients with health care needs that are not too costly.
In 1971, when the Nixon administration was looking for ways to cut the costs of healthcare, White House domestic affairs adviser John Ehrlichman explained to President Nixon why he should promote the Kaiser Permanente system of healthcare:
“All the incentives are toward less medical care, because the less care they give them, the more money they make.”
This was enough to persuade Nixon that HMOs were the future for American healthcare.
Continue readingYesterday organisers of Walk for the NHS went to Calderdale Royal Hospital to hand out their flyers in public areas of the hospital, but were told by the duty manager Paula Rosbottom that they needed permission from the Communications Office to do so.
Before the duty manager told Walk for the NHS organisers and supporters to leave the hospital site, people were very happy to take the flyers and were keen to talk about how they value the hospital services and wish to make sure that they continue to provide excellent care for patients and their families. This is the aim of Walk for the NHS. Continue reading
Save Our Shops (SOS) Hebden Bridge are calling for people to support their campaign when Calderdale Council Planning Committee consider Sainsburys’ amendments to their planning application for the Old Fire Station site on Valley Road (Ref 13/01542/FUL) in Hebden Bridge.
The date of this Committee Meeting has not yet been set, but the Calderdale Planning Officer, Richard Seaman, has told SOS Hebden Bridge member Hilary Chadwick that it will be either on the 5th August, or on the 26th August – the day after the bank holiday. Planning Committee meetings take place in Halifax Town Hall and ones that are likely to interest the public usually are scheduled for 6pm.
Sainsburys have taken more than 4 months to submit this extra information and now they are pushing for a speedy outcome. Continue reading
An analysis of the latest published data, for May 2014, shows that Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary have both missed their targets for the number of hours worked at their hospitals by registered nurses.
At Calderdale Royal Hospital, 89% of the total nursing day hours were filled & 75% of the night hours filled. At Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, the figures were 89% day, 91% night.
These figures place Calderdale and Huddersfield hospitals Trust among the lowest 30% of Trusts, in terms of meeting their targets for registered nursing hours. Continue reading