Tag Archives: Calderdale A&E

Covering #Calderdale Royal Hospital PFI contract costs could force shrinkage of #Huddersfield Royal Infirmary

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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 →

Calderdale Council’s futile motion on hospital consultation

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Calderdale Council has unanimously agreed a motion that calls on their NHS commissioning partner, Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group, to delay the public consultation on proposals that are more than likely to cut Calderdale Royal Hospital acute and emergency services, until there is evidence that taking community services out of the hospital and transferring them to GP hubs reduces acute and emergency hospital admissions.

The Council’s motion sidesteps the fact that the Care Closer to Home scheme (transferring community services from the hospital to GP hubs) is a big change to Calderdale NHS and we need to be consulted on this too – not just on the hospital cuts.

What kind of patient care and NHS staff working conditions will come with Care Closer to Home? We know the community hubs will employ less qualified staff like physician associates and there will be big reliance on voluntary carers, family and friends. Continue reading →

Hot topics at NHS chiefs’ 11th June public meeting: ongoing NHS shake-up saga, A&E woes & risks to Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service

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Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group Governing Body is meeting tomorrow, June 11 at 2pm, Function Room 2, Shay Stadium, Shaw Hill, Halifax. It’s open to the public, so if you’re free why not come along.

They put the agenda and papers online late, so this report is also late.

Key issues for this Governing Body meeting include:

The ongoing Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS shake-up saga

  • What is to happen to Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary?
  • What is happening to the new care in the community scheme, aka Care Closer to Home?
  • What is happening with the new “Vanguard” scheme?

Continue reading →

Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaign: The threat to our A&E hasn’t gone away, whatever Craig Whittaker MP and Phillip Allott say

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Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaign is clear that Mr Allott’s and Mr Whittaker’s recent claims about the Calderdale NHS shake-up are misleading and ill-informed.

Katherine Horner, a Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaigner, said:

“Its quite simple, we carry on with the Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaign because the threat to our A&E hasn’t gone away.”

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 →

Halifax public meeting fights for our NHS

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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

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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

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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 →

Save Lewisham Hospital campaign supports Save Calderdale and Huddersfield A&E

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Yesterday I posted Save Lewisham Hospital’s campaigning tips on the Save Calderdale Royal Infirmary Facebook group, giving rise to a comment from a Huddersfield Keep our NHS Public campaigner:

“This is very useful and a real practical framework for us to follow”

So here’s a bit more info. Continue reading →

In which the myth that Calderdale NHS is unsustainable is demolished

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An NHS funding shortfall is driving proposals to close Calderdale A&E and “transform” Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS and social care system.

At the March 2014 Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group Governing Body Meeting, it was clear that “austerity” politics is driving the proposed closure of Calderdale A&E, and related moves to totally change the whole NHS and social care system. Continue reading →