Yesterday (1 July 2015), Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP told the Local Government
Association conference that prescription medicines will be labelled by price and marked
“funded by taxpayers” from next year.
Here’s a (rather long) summary of everything I’ve been able to find about Calderdale Council’s ongoing privatisation of Calderdale public health services.
Many members of the public want to know which public health and social care services Calderdale Council is privatising, and why. There seems to be little or no publicly available set of information about this. (Update: Although the Calderdale Council contracts register from 2016 onwards is available on Yortender)
The 2012 Health and Social Care Act transferred responsibility for some specific public health services from NHS Primary Care Trusts to Local Authorities, which also became responsible for health improvement and health protection.
The Secretary of Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees campaign group has slammed a statement by Calderdale and Huddersfield hospitals trust’s Chief Executive and other hospital bosses across England, that they’ll accept the government’s proposed £22bn efficiency cuts in exchange for the Prime Minister’s backing for rapid hospital cuts and closures, and funding for “new models of care”.
Among these new models of care are Calderdale’s “Care Closer to Home” scheme, which aims to cut acute and emergency hospital services by taking services for frail elderly and chronically ill patients out of Calderdale Royal Hospital and putting them into the “community”.
Owen Williams, Chief Exec of Calderdale & Huddersfield hospitals Trust, recently co-signed an NHS Confederation letter to the Prime Minister where NHS bosses accepted the government’s £22bn “efficiency” cuts programme for the NHS, while calling on the new Conservative government to honour its manifesto promise of an £8bn extra funding/year to carry out the big changes identified in NHS England’s 5 Year Forward View, plus funding for “transformation” and social care. Continue reading
Here’s an analysis by ‘Our NHS’ editor Caroline Molloy.
Her conclusion? The stealth NHS privatisation that the Health and Social Care Act 2012 has sped up means that cheap and easy elective procedures from hip operations to removing skin tags are now privatised, leaving the costly and difficult acute and emergency services with the NHS – but without the cross-subsidy from elective operations to pay for them. NHS hospitals are now forced to provide the costly services that private health care companies don’t want, on unsustainably low tariffs (or rates of payment) from NHS England.
Here’s Caroline Molloy’s article: What’s really causing the NHS crisis.
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
The first NHS debate between Calder Valley parliamentary hopefuls and the current MP Craig Whitaker ran along familiar lines. The politicians repeated what they have already said several times in other situations.
There were only two unexpected comments.
Last week Calderdale CCG governing body approved the award of a new contract for wheelchair services to another organisation than CHFT, which currently provides these services.They have not yet named the successful bidder. [Update: Opcare is the company that has won the contract.] From September 2014, CHFT will no longer provide wheelchair services to the 3 Clinical Commissioning Groups – North Kirklees, Greater Huddersfield and Calderdale.
Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) has now provided information about their loss of the wheelchair services contract, but said,
“It is important to note that as at the time of this response, the Trust has not formally been notified of the CCG’s decision regarding the award of the tender therefore our response is subject to that formal notification. We have not yet been formally notified that we have not won the contract or who has been the successful bidder”
Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group Governing Body was in self congratulatory mode on 10th July as they approved the award of a £4m, 3 year Wheelchair Services contract to an as-yet unnamed bidder.
The bidder’s name will be revealed at the end of the 10 day “standstill” that follows the Governing Body’s decision.- Update 30/7/2014 – The contract has gone to a company called Opcare Ltd.
The hospitals Trust, which currently provides wheelchair services to patients in Calderdale, Greater Huddersfield and North Kirklees, will lose the contract in September. The Trust already faces a £20m funding shortfall this financial year and the loss of this contract will further reduce its income. Continue reading
Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has coughed up £1m out of its non-recurrent budget in order to fund an as-yet ill defined project to end loneliness in Calderdale.
This £1m NHS money complements the Council’s existing neighbourhood schemes, which cost £0.25m a year. 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
