Moving care from hospitals to the community – an NHS privatisation wolf in sheep’s patient-centric clothing

There is a public outcry in Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield about cost-cutting proposals to close and curtail acute and emergency hospital services and replace them with cheaper, integrated health and social care in the community (whatever that might turn out to be, because it isn’t at all clear).

People worry  that, having downgraded the massively expensive Private Finance Initiative-funded Calderdale Royal Hospital to a small, planned care clinic with a minor injuries unit, the hospitals Trust would use the remaining three quarters of the hospital for private patients. Continue reading

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS shake up is a top-down change, drawn up by pro-privatisation think tanks and management consultants

Government  (trying to wash its hands of unpopular hospital closures) likes to say it’s all about local decisions now, but funnily enough Calderdale’s local decisions look a lot like local decisions everywhere else.

Across England, NHS Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups are “reconfiguring” and “transforming” NHS and social care in very similar ways. Continue reading

Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group Governing Body Meeting 10 April

Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group Governing Body meeting, which is open to the public and press, is at 2-5pm, Thursday 10th April, in Shibden Meeting Room, F Mill, Dean Clough, Halifax.

Agenda and meeting documents are online here.

Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker has emailed these questions for the Governing Body to answer at the meeting: Continue reading

Hospitals Trust staff question Chief Exec’s email

Some staff at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust have questioned an email from the Chief Executive, Owen Williams, where he appears to justify the Strategic Outline Case for “reconfiguring” the NHS and social care on the grounds that a recent survey has shown things need to improve at the Trust.

4 out of 10 staff who completed the survey towards the end of 2013 reported suffering from work-related stress over the last 12 months, and on a scale of one to five, the average staff score for whether they’d recommend the Trust as a place to work or receive treatment was 3.74.

Owen WIlliams’ email to CHFT staff says these survey results told him that things need to improve at the Trust. Continue reading

Coop Community Grant presentation to UCV Plain Speaker, 4pm Thursday 10th April

Many thanks to the Coop Community Fund for awarding Upper Plain Speaker a grant to pay for upgrading the website to a proper magazine format.

The manager of Hebden Bridge Coop will be presenting the cheque to us at Hebden Bridge Coop, 4pm on Thursday 10th April.

If anyone wants to come along that would be fun! Continue reading

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham backs fight to save Calderdale and Huddersfield A&Es

Today Halifax MP Linda Riordan welcomed Andy Burnham, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, to a meeting of around 50 Save Calderdale and Huddersfield A&E campaigners.

This was an opportunity for campaigners to hear his views of the proposal to close Calderdale A&E, ask questions about how best to develop the campaign and find out about current Labour health policies.
Continue reading

Calder ward forum unpicked Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS spin

Growing disbelief and irritation were evident as around fifty people at yesterday’s Calder ward forum listened to a Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) presentation on the Right Care Right Time Right Place (RCRTRP) proposals for the future of the NHS and social care in Calderdale and Huddersfield. Continue reading

Halifax public meeting fights for our NHS

Hundreds of people turned up at a public meeting in Halifax today to discuss the possible closure of Calderdale A&E, and it was agreed to fight on to keep it open. Continue reading

Future of Calderdale A&E on agenda for 1st April Calder Ward Forum

The future of Calderdale A&E is on the agenda for the 1st April Calder Ward Forum.

Lorna Denton, Project Support for Calderdale Commissioning Group is due to attend – although Jae Campbell, Upper Valley Neighbourhood Co-ordinator at Calderdale Council’s Neighbourhoods & Community Engagement team, says that may change on the night. Continue reading

Politicians should have a “duty of candour” about the NHS too

This article is republished from the Open Democracy website under their Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 licence.

Jenny Shepherd 28 March 2014

Jeremy Hunt insists the NHS should be more open when things go wrong. Laudable – but why does the same openness not apply to decisions to close A&Es and outsource ambulances, being made in the shadows? Continue reading