Calderdale and Huddersfield Hospitals Trust expects Wheelchair Services staff will transfer to the new contract holder

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Last week Calderdale CCG governing body approved the award of a new contract for wheelchair services to another organisation than CHFT, which currently provides these services.They have not yet named the successful bidder. [Update: Opcare is the company that has won the contract.] 

From September 2014, CHFT will no longer provide wheelchair services to the 3 Clinical Commissioning Groups – North Kirklees, Greater Huddersfield and Calderdale.

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) has now provided information about their loss of the wheelchair services contract, but said,

“It is important to note that as at the time of this response, the Trust has not formally been notified of the CCG’s decision regarding the award of the tender therefore our response is subject to that formal notification. We have not yet been formally notified that we have not won the contract or who has been the successful bidder”

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Calderdale NHS commissioners end wheelchair services contract with hospitals Trust: “we have no loyalty to existing providers”

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Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group Governing Body was in self congratulatory mode on 10th July as they approved the award of a £4m, 3 year Wheelchair Services contract to an as-yet unnamed bidder.

The bidder’s name will be revealed at the end of the 10 day “standstill” that follows the Governing Body’s decision.- Update 30/7/2014 – The contract has gone to a company called Opcare Ltd.

The hospitals Trust, which currently provides wheelchair services to patients in Calderdale, Greater Huddersfield and North Kirklees, will lose the contract in September. The Trust already faces a £20m funding shortfall this financial year and the loss of this contract will further reduce its income. Continue reading →

10 minutes to rubber stamp £4m contract at Calderdale NHS commissioners’ meeting on 10th July

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Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group Governing Body is meeting in public on Thursday 10th July, at 3pm in the Shay Stadium Function Room 2. The main agenda item, which has been allocated 10 minutes, is for the CCG Contracts and Procurement officer Martin Pursey to present information for the CCG Governing Body to rubber stamp the decision by a Tender Responses Evaluation Panel to award a £4m contract for wheelchair services, starting in September 2014 and running for 3 years.

This contract raised important questions about the future of NHS and social care services in Calderdale, because the commissioners originally advertised it in January 2014 as a “part B health and social care service.” But following a successful challenge by an “outside party”, the commissioners re-advertised it as an open tender in March 2014. Continue reading →

George Monbiot in the pulpit – rewilding is a source of hope and a challenge to the 1%

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Joking that he felt like an old-time hell-fire preacher speaking from the pulpit of Hope Baptist Church, George Monbiot instead brought a vision of hope to the packed audience yesterday at Hebden Bridge Arts Festival.

Launching a national rewilding group – [ now launched, one year on] – he extolled the delights of an environment where biodiverse plants, insects and animals flourish thanks to the reintroduction of keystone species at the top of the food chain – such as beavers, pine martins and wolves.

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Calderdale Council Scrutiny Panel to investigate hospitals cuts and shakeup proposals

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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 →

Privatisation Prof to chair Calderdale People’s Commission on NHS and social care

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Calderdale Council’s Chief Executive, Merran McRae, has selected Professor Andrew Kerslake as the Independent Chair of a Calderdale People’s Commission.

Professor Kerslake is an Associate Director of the Institute of Public Care (IPC) at Oxford Brookes University.

In 2011 Professor Kerslake was in Yorkshire to tell local authorities how to privatise social care services. Professor Kerslake gave formal presentations on facilitating the social care market to two Market Facilitation Seminars, which were attended by both local authorities and social care providers.

Calderdale People’s Commission is a new Council committee set up in partnership with Calderdale Healthwatch and Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group. It has no formal powers, but aims to collect evidence about local health services and then make recommendations to the Council about the future of health and social care in the area. Continue reading →

Have hospitals Trust’s secret £20m spending cuts jumped the public consultation gun?

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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 →

Public to be denied sight of commercially confidential plans for Calderdale and Huddersfield hospitals

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Thanks to Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS Campaign Group asking a question at Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s Governing Body meeting on 12 June 2014, we now know that the public will be kept in the dark about next stage of planning the NHS and social care shake up in Calderdale and Huddersfield.

Planning document “will be held securely” Continue reading →

Get hands-on with a startling array of fungi at Blackshawhead Chapel on 14th July!

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Medical herbalist Jesper Launder’s Mushroom meeting at 7.30pm on 14th July will delight ‘shroom heads, foodies and everyone who’s curious about the wonders of nature.

The public meeting, organised by Blackshawhead Environmental Action Team, will provide opportunities to get close up with a variety of fascinating fungi. Continue reading →