Does Calderdale Health & Wellbeing Board know what it’s doing with NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans?

On 25 August, Calderdale Health and Wellbeing Board meeting discussed 3 documents about Sustainability and Transformation Plans, in order to decide whether to accept the following recommendations that the Health and Wellbeing Board had previously made at a private, un-minuted meeting with Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group on 11th August – that the Health and Wellbeing should:

  • “own” Calderdale’s contribution to the West Yorkshire Sustainability and Transformation Plan
  • agree a Calderdale Plan at a future meeting
  • establish a Calderdale Transformation Board to oversee the work on the development of a Calderdale Plan and report to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Six weeks after the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting – and only two weeks before the 21st October deadline for submitting the final version of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan to NHS England – Cllr Tim Swift sent answers to 15 of the 38 questions about these three documents, that I had emailed to the Health and Wellbeing Board just before its meeting. Continue reading

Hospital cuts consultation drop in sessions in July with Joint Health Scrutiny Committee

Calderdale and Kirklees Councils’ Joint Health Scrutiny Committee is examining the Clinical Commissioning Groups’ proposals to cut hospital services (including the whole of Huddersfield Royal Infirmary acute and emergency services) and replace them with “Care Closer to Home”.

They want to hear from the public and have arranged two “drop-in” sessions so that people can discuss the proposals and share their views with Councillors, one to one. Continue reading

15,539 people petition to keep both Huddersfield and Halifax A&Es open

On Monday 20th June 2016, Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS Campaign Group and Huddersfield Keep Our NHS Public handed in  petitions signed by 15,339 people to Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Groups, calling on the CCGs to keep both Huddersfield and Halifax A&Es open, 24/7.

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Save our hospitals and stop the cuts – can you deliver survey advice leaflets?

Calderdale and Kirklees 999 Call for the NHS has advice leaflets about filling in the Have Your Say consultation survey about the future of our NHS in Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield.

Please help deliver advice leaflets on responding to the Have Your Say survey

If you can deliver these to your street, or to any community group/s you are part of, please let us know. Continue reading

The rose-tinted privatisation of maternity services is under way

This is a question I’ve been meaning to ask the Clinical Commissioning Groups at the hospital cuts consultation drop ins:

  • Where are the community midwives coming from to provide the increased home births proposed in the Right Care Right Time Right Place Have Your Say Consultation Doc (p30)?
  • And are the CCGs relying on the recommendations of the National Maternity Review, that women employ private midwives through the £3k voucher scheme? And what happens to such women if things go wrong in labour and they need specialist obstetric help which will cost far more than £3k?

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Hospital cuts consultation drop in, Hebden Bridge Town Hall, 2-8pm Tuesday 5th April

There is a hospital cuts consultation drop in at Hebden Bridge Town Hall from 2pm-8pm on Tuesday 5th April.

Save our A&Es campaigners from Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS campaign and Calderdale and Kirklees 999 Call for the NHS are recommending that members of the public wait until the “Have Your Say” hospital cuts Consultation Document is fit for purpose, before responding to hospital cuts consultation survey

They say the Clinical Commissioning Groups behind the proposals need to fix the errors and omissions in their “Have Your Say” Consultation Document. Continue reading

Calderdale Royal Hospital Services that would be lost to Huddersfield if hospital cuts go ahead

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:

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Travel analysis for Huddersfield A&E closure shows extra 10k hours ambulance journey time/year

The Clinical Commissioning Groups have finally published their travel analysis of the effects of closing Huddersfield A&E, which also includes modelling based on the closure of Dewsbury A&E.

We are still no closer to knowing whether the already overstretched and struggling Yorkshire Ambulance Service is going to be able to cope with the extra 10,071.86 hours journey time/year that would result from the closure of Huddersfield and Dewsbury A&Es, because the travel analysis doesn’t say anything about this, apart from the no-brainer that

“It is recommended that… YAS examine the findings of this report…”

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Calderdale community mental health service for the chop

Right when proposals are afoot to cut hospital services on the grounds that it’s better for patients to have “Care Closer to Home”, users of an NHS community-based Art Psychotherapy service in Calderdale are fighting to save it from closure after the therapists were given compulsory redundancy notices over the Christmas period.

If the redundancies go ahead then vulnerable people with complex mental health problems will have their therapy terminated prematurely on the 31st March with no suitable alternative in place for them. Continue reading