As well as suffering an overcrowded Emergency Centre ( the replacement A&E) because of the closure of Huddersfield A&E, if the proposed hospital cuts go ahead Calderdale people will have to travel to a new planned care clinic in Huddersfield for many services that we currently have at Calderdale Royal Hospital.
If the proposed hospital cuts go ahead, these Calderdale Royal Hospital services will be moved to the new planned care clinic in Huddersfield:
This is the 7th Plain Speaker report on the hospital cuts plans that are scheduled for public consultation, starting at the end of February.
It looks at proposals for expanding Calderdale Royal Hospital into a 615 bed acute and emergency hospital – the only one in Calderdale and Kirklees.
The “Right Care Right Time Right Place” Pre Consultation Business Case could well be called “Less Care, Whenever and Wherever You Can Find It”
The basic plan is to
Today Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group – last summer accused by the Chair of Calderdale Council Adults Health & Social Care Scrutiny Panel of swimming around in their own little goldfish bowl instead of openly discussing issues with the public – sent me a singularly useless and uninformative response to questions I sent in for their 20th Jan 2016 meeting, held to rubber stamp their decision to “consult” the public on their hospital cuts plans. Continue reading
At the 20th January Greater Huddersfield and Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Groups meeting, the governing bodies’ unanimous decision to go ahead with a public consultation on plans to cut hospital and close hospital services was immediately denounced by a member of the public, who said:
“This is like North Korea”.
Amid general outcry, someone called out, to a round of applause.
“Shame on all of you”,
While another calmly said,
“You’re a cabal preparing for privatisation. That new hospital will be wrapped up in a pink ribbon and sold off.”
My question is about whether the decision to make Calderdale Royal Hospital the acute/ A&E hospital is down to the need for the hospitals Trust to maximise the value of the CRH PFI contract. Continue reading
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
The clinical model for the proposed Right Care Right Place Right Time scheme, that NHS commissioners and the Calderdale and Huddersfield hospitals have finally agreed after arguing about for two years, could be thrown up in the air yet again by a cost-cutting 5 year hospitals financial plan that is being drawn up by Ernst and Young (EY), at a cost of £0.5m to the deficit-ridden hospitals Trust.
Our hospitals may be broke, but the global management consultancy company EY had a global income of $US28.7bn in the financial year ending 30 June 2015. This is its fastest growth since 2008, an 11.6% increase over 2014. Obviously clearing up the mess from the 2008 bankers crash of the world economy is good business for EY and its ilk. Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago, Calderdale and Kirklees Councillors chided the press for alarmism in reporting news that our hospital Trust had developed plans for emergency overnight closure of Halifax A&E.
But at the time, the Trust wasn’t letting anyone – Councillors or press – see the plan.
Now, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the plan has been made public.
It says “it is increasingly likely” that circumstances will force the emergency closure of Halifax A&E. Continue reading
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
In 2014-15, the total cost of Calderdale Royal Hospital Private Finance Initiative (PFI) was £23.570m.
This “unitary charge” was made up of:
Interest on the debt……… £10.929m
Repayment of the debt…..£ 1.497m
Service charge…………….£11.144m
The value of the hospital building is £80.451m.
The total cost (capital and interest) of the PFI debt over its 30 year life is £289,908,000. This leaves out the high service charges, which cover services like portering, domestics, security, catering, maintenance etc Continue reading