On Saturday 28th November, hundreds of Halifax shoppers were shocked to discover that global accountancy company Ernst and Young (EY) is calling the shots over the future of Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary – at a budgeted cost to the hospitals Trust of £1m for 3 months work. Continue reading
Save Calderdale Royal Hospital campaigners are glad to find from Cllr Stephen Baine’s Talking Politics column in the 22nd Jan Halifax Courier, that he opposes NHS privatisation.
Cllr Baines criticises Labour’s Andy Burnham for his 2009 decision to offer Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon for sale both to NHS organisations and to the private sector.
This was the first time that private companies had been invited to bid to take over and run a large NHS hospital. Continue reading
The dismemberment of our NHS proceeds apace.
On 7th January, the private community health care company Locala announced that Calderdale Council has awarded them two new NHS contracts in Calderdale.
The Council has taken away these contracts from our hospitals Trust, which is in the middle of serious financial problems. Continue reading
As Plain Speaker reported in early October, Monitor is to investigate the reasons why our Hospitals Trust is facing a deficit at the end of this financial year.
Monitor is the quango set up under the 2012 Health & Social Care Act, in order to open up the NHS to EU competition law as a way of speeding up the pace of NHS privatisation.
Moves by Paul Chandler, Regional Director at Monitor, to blame the Trust’s management for the deficit does not distract from the self-evident fact that the looming deficit is the result of central government tightening the funding screws on the NHS. Continue reading
Andrew Simpson, Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) Trust’s Head of A&E Operations for Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees, told a Calderdale Council “People’s Commission” meeting yesterday that Calderdale Royal Hospital is the destination of 95% of ambulance trips in Calderdale.
But in response to a question from a member of Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS campaign, he could not say if information had been collected about the extra number of ambulances and staff that would be needed if Halifax A&E closed – creating longer traveling times – and how much that would cost.
NHS Commissioners’ plans to make changes to community health and social care without public consultation have put both the Ambulance and the Hospitals Trusts on the back foot. 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
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
Calderdale Trades Council, Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS Campaign Group and members of the public are calling on Calderdale Council’s Adult Health and Scrutiny Panel to hold a formal inquiry into the hospital trust’s Strategic Outline Case proposals for shaking up NHS and social care.
They will be lobbying the Scrutiny Panel members at 5.30pm, before their 6.00pm meeting at Halifax Town Hall on Tuesday 1st July. Everyone is welcome to take part. Expect/bring ukeleles!
Please consider signing this petition to Scrutiny Panel members, which will be presented to the Scrutiny Panel on 1st July. Continue reading
Janet Bertola attended the public “engagement” drop in session about the future of Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS and social care at New Beginnings, North Halifax on 10th June. This is Janet’s report:
I got there at about 2.30pm and by the open door there was a large 2 metre free-standing poster advertising the event. The hall was laid out in areas with posters and staff from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the Hospitals Trust and Locala available to talk. It would have been better if the staff wore name tags so you could see who you were talking to and what organisation they represented, although the Locala staff member was clearly identifiable since she wore a uniform. Continue reading
“RIGHT CARE, RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE”
REPORT ON SLAITHWAITE CONSULTATION 30.5.2014
Martin Jones, a Slaithwaite resident, reports on his experience of the Slaithwaite public drop in session yesterday (30th May) about the future of Calderdale and Huddersfield hospitals and community healthcare. He notes that the information on display at the drop in didn’t mention proposals for closing/downgrading one or both A&Es – proposals that have met with widespread public opposition. Continue reading