Look back in anger: Monitor and EY put Hospital PFI investors above people of Calderdale and Kirklees

Just a reminder, in case one is needed, about how the government, its quango Monitor (now renamed NHS Improvement) and the management consultancy company EY have worked hand in glove to put PFI investors’ interests above the healthcare needs of the people of Calderdale and Huddersfield.

Here’s how the story has unfolded over the last 4 years.

In 2014, Calderdale and Huddersfield hospitals Trust’s finances fell into “deficit”, as a result of impossible underfunding combined with a £20m+ transfer over 2 years of Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust funding to Calderdale Council to prop up its cash-starved adult social care services, via the Better Care Fund.

This fund was introduced in 2014 to allow local authorities and NHS clinical commissioning groups to pool budgets and jointly commission social care services that would take pressure off hospitals. But it did not bring any new money. Instead it required Clinical Commissioning Groups to redeploy money from supposedly ringfenced NHS funding. NHS England 2013 Guidance said this meant:
 
‘hospital emergency activity will have to reduce by 15%’

This is what happened next.

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Who’s holding the smoking gun? Questions about A&E and hospital cuts for 20th Jan public meeting

The public can ask questions at the Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Groups Governing Bodies meeting at 1.30pm, Wednesday 20th January at Briar Court Hotel, Halifax Road, Huddersfield HD3.

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

Sweep out NHS privatisers, Save our A&Es protest is first – but not last – at Monitor office

Friday 15 Jan was the day that Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS market bureaucrats finally published their pre-consultation business plan for the hospital cuts that have been hanging over us all in Calderdale and Huddersfield for 2 years now.

It was also the day that members of Calderdale and Kirklees 999 Call for the NHS handed in 49 letters of protest to Monitor, the NHS market competition enforcer. (Kind of like Ofgem for the NHS.) Continue reading

Halifax people tell Monitor, sweep profiteering Ernst and Young out of our hospitals

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

Sweep Ernst and Young out of our hospitals on Saturday 28th November

On Saturday 28th November, Calderdale and Kirklees 999 Call for the NHS are taking to the street in Halifax, to protest against global management consultancy company EY (aka Ernst and Young) calling the shots over the future of Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

999 Call for the NHS activists and supporters are going to sweep EY out of our hospitals between 11am-1pm, on Southgate, Halifax outside Wilkinsons. Or in the arcade side entrance to borough market if it’s raining.

Members of the public will be able to find out to help stop the hijack of the NHS by global management consultancy companies and their health insurance corporate cronies, and to support the NHS Reinstatement Bill. This cross-party Bill has its 2nd reading in the House of Commons in March 2016. Continue reading

Profiteering consultancy company Ernst and Young in charge of deciding the future of Calderdale and Huddersfield Hospitals Trust

In order to work out if the hospitals Trust is sustainable, given its deficit, the Trust has commissioned Ernst and Young (EY) to come up with a 5 Year Strategic Plan by the end of December 2015. The cost is expected to be £1m, according to a forecast in the Trust’s financial report to the October 29th Board meeting.  £1m for 3 months work seems like a good definition of exorbitant.

At the 21st October Calderdale and Kirklees Joint Health Scrutiny Committee, Councillors didn’t question why a profiteering, global management consultancy/accountancy company should decide the future of our hospitals, and the community health services that the hospitals Trust also provides. Continue reading