Monitor has just told Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS Trusts to “turbo charge” NHS reconfiguration programmes, such as the Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield Strategic Review.
Monitor is the NHS financial regulator responsible for making sure that Clinical Commissioning Groups and other organisations follow Health and Social Care Act 2012 competition regulations – ie put NHS services out to private tender. Continue reading
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
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
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
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
Despite Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s public statements that it has not yet made any decision about the closure of either Calderdale or Huddersfield A&E department, and won’t do so until after a public consultation in the summer of 2014, this claim appears downright shaky. Think about these facts:
On 13th March, Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group Governing Body gave the nod to proceed to the next stage of Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust’s Strategic Outline Case (SOC). This is about Transforming Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield’s NHS and social care services.
The SOC describes in outline what the future of the NHS and social care might look like in Calderdale and Huddersfield. It’s based on the Strategic Review’s proposals that came out towards the end of February.
The next stage for the Strategic Outline Case is public and staff “engagement.” Continue reading
I’ve just come across the interesting fact that while Calderdale A&E admissions are higher than they were in 2008/9, admissions to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary A&E haven’t gone up over the same period.
So Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust’s “preferred option” of closing Halifax A&E means closing the A&E where there are growing numbers of people who need emergency treatment. Where’s the logic in that? Continue reading
A stall with information about the rapid privatisation of Calderdale NHS surprised many members of the public in Hebden Bridge on Saturday morning.
The stall, under the Christmas tree in St George’s Square, was run by members of Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees, a group which campaigns to keep the NHS public and stop backdoor privatisation of the NHS.
Janet Bertola, a member of Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees group, said,
“NHS privatisation’s going on before our eyes, but we just don’t see it.”
Eileen Wright, a Hebden Bridge resident, admitted:
“I don’t know anything about this.”
Earlier this year Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees asked Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group(CCG) to change its Constitution, in order to protect Calderdale NHS from back-door privatisation.
Reviewing its constitutution and procurement policy in response to 38 Degrees’ request, Calderdale CCG decided there was no need to change the constitution – despite acknowledging a public perception that commissioning healthcare services from private healthcare companies “is a fundamental threat to the sustainability of NHS providers”, and also endangers the provision of health care that is free at the point of need.
Continue reading