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
Several members of Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS attended the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting at Halifax Town Hall on Thursday 2nd July.
This Board is a statutory body set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012, with the intention that the local authority should plan strategically to integrate health and social care services. It has little statutory power.
Rosemary Hedges, Secretary of Calderdale 38 Degrees, reports on Councillors’ challenges to the NHS bosses’ cost-cutting plans for Calderdale hospital and community health care services.
But do these challenges have much substance, given the Board’s lack of statutory powers? These lie with the Adults Health and Social Care Scrutiny Panel. Continue reading
The “Save our A&Es” Float for Halifax Gala tomorrow (14th June) is all sorted. Beds, blood, bandages, kids, doctors, nurses are all ready and raring to go.
But there’s still time to let organiser Gary Scott know if you’d like to come and help out (you don’t need to be on the float), and/or if your kids would like to join the others on the float. Continue reading
Two members of the public – Anna Best and Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS member Dr Chris Day – report here on the 9th June Hanson Lane drop in session about the future of Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS.
Anna said that the representatives at the Hanson Lane drop-in event gave out leaflets and information, listened to her concerns and wrote down a number of her questions and suggestions. She thought they may have better prepared than those at previous drop ins, judging on previous reports. Continue reading
This report on the Mytholmroyd public drop-in session about the future of Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS is by Rosemary Hedges, Secretary of Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS. (For readers who don’t know about the proposed NHS “right care” shake up, there is some background info about the drop in here.) Continue reading
This report on the 2nd June Mytholmroyd drop in session on the proposed Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS shake-up comes from Dr Chris Day of Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS and Green Party member Gary Scott, who is organising the Save Our A&Es float at Halifax Gala on 14th June. A report by Rosemary Hedges, Secretary of Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS, will be posted shortly. Continue reading
Thanks to Ryburn 3 Step’s benefit gig at Sowerby Bridge Working Men’s Club on Friday 9th May, Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS put the fun into fundraising to support their campaign to Save Calderdale and Huddersfield A&Es. Continue reading
After attending the 14th March Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) meeting on behalf of Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS group, Dr Chris Day said,
“There were about 10 of us at the CCG meeting. We were treated better than last time and were initially allowed to interrupt with questions, which we did. This seemed to get the doctors talking more freely.
People who want to keep tabs on what the Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is up to can attend its next meeting, which is open to the public.
The 14th March Calderdale CCG meeting starts at 2pm, in the NHS Calderdale premises, 4th Floor, F Mill, Dean Clough, Halifax, HX3 5AX (near the Travel Lodge hotel in Dean Clough).
There is every reason for the public to be vigilant about CCGs – a British Medical Journal study has just found that one in three GPs who are members of CCGs have financial links with a private healthcare provider; and that this represents a clear conflict of interest for CCGs when they come to commission health care services. For example, the Guardian report on the study says,
“six of the eight GPs on the board of Blackpool CCG have an interest in Fylde Coast Medical Services, the local out-of-hours provider, and five have an interest in Virgin Care, which is part of Richard Branson’s business empire.”