Calderdale Save Our Services and the Calderdale 38 Degrees group lobbied the January 17th meeting of the ‘shadow’ Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and urged them to do their utmost to keep the NHS as a publicly-provided service.

The new Health and Social Care Act requires that on 1st April 2013 Calderdale CCG will take over Calderdale NHS from Calderdale Primary Care Trust, together with Calderdale Council which will take responsibility for public health. The main role of Calderdale CCG is to commission health services – in other words, to decide who will actually provide services to patients and who will get paid for doing this.

There is a widespread public anxiety that these changes will privatise the NHS by the back door.
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