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. Continue reading