Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition hypocrisy is seen in recent NHS news with Andrew Lansley saying “The government’s commitment to our NHS is strong and enduring. Labour would cut our NHS in spite of the increasing demands on the service. The damage this would be doing from [1 April] would be immense. They would leave ***our*** NHS in crisis.”



A few recent news articles concerning the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

‘Kids will die’ warning on Leeds heart unit closure – Latest News – Yorkshire Evening Post

CHILDREN will die if Leeds loses its heart surgery service, top doctors have warned.

Half the city’s intensive care beds for the sickest youngsters would also close.

And operations on adults with congenital heart problems would no longer be able to be carried out in Leeds.

The unit at Leeds General Infirmary is under threat because of a national review of children’s heart surgery which is suggesting that several of the 11 centres should close.

NHS reforms could worsen postcode lottery, managers warn – Telegraph

In some of its harshest criticisms to date, the NHS Confederation says there are “significant risks” in the Government’s plans as well as an “absence of detail” regarding how they will be implemented.

The umbrella group says the drive to improve local decisions will mean more “variability of access to services”, while competition based on price is “likely” despite ministers’ assurances.

It comes as a new survey of GPs finds that three-quarters want limits place on the involvement of the private sector in healthcare and more than half have no confidence in the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley.

‘Don’t fool about with NHS,’ say protest unions (From The Bolton News)

NHS staff will stage protests tomorrow outside the Royal Bolton Hospital and Lever Chambers Centre for Health in the town centre against Government cuts.

Nurses, midwives, porters and administration staff will be among those holding the demonstrations, which are a local follow-up to the huge national march in London.

Health staff were among more than 400 people from Bolton who joined an estimated 400,000 protesters fighting government cuts in the capital on Saturday.

Labour ”would have made £2.6bn NHS cut” – Public Service

Labour would have been making cuts to the NHS if it had remained in power, the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has said.

With David Cameron insisting at Prime Minister’s Questions that spending in real terms on the NHS will continue to rise under the coalition government – it will increase by more than the rate of inflation – Lansley wrote to Labour leader Ed Miliband to say that Labour would have cut England’s NHS budget by around £2.6bn in 2011.

Lansley said: “The government’s commitment to our NHS is strong and enduring. Labour would cut our NHS in spite of the increasing demands on the service. The damage this would be doing from [1 April] would be immense. They would leave our NHS in crisis.”

Andrew Lansley is promoting the role of ‘mutuals’ in providing services in his proposed NHS ‘reforms’. I understand ‘mutuals’ to mean different structures such as co-operative societies ‘co-ops’ or charities which are not profit making organisations. There are few details as yet but the proposal is not warmly received and may suggest desperation. See the linked Guardian article for more details.

Unions have called an ‘All Together for the NHS day’ on Friday.

A few recent news articles concerning the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

Cuts to mental health service ‘will put young people at risk’ | News

Hundreds of vulnerable children and teenagers could be hit by £500,000 of cuts to a London health service.

The move follows a squeeze on funding and desperate attempts by the local NHS trust and council to make government-imposed savings. The Unite union today said the proposed cutbacks at Lewisham Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services will be a “real blow” to the families who rely on it.

The savings are a result of funding cuts from a variety of sources including Lewisham Primary Care Trust and Lewisham council.

NHS cuts will lead to further neglect | Society | The Guardian

NHS reform dominates the news. Crowding in behind it are stories about cuts to health services. And, in third place, there are dark descriptions of patient neglect, as reported recently, for example, by the health service ombudsman. Yet it is the second and third of these news items that are the more important.

They affect patient care viscerally, while the reforms constitute a merely ideological and bureaucratic distraction. We read of a single NHS trust shedding hundreds of nurses and beds, but there are many trusts doing the same. Of course, if we believe what we are told, these are simply efficiency savings and patient care will not suffer.

But we know better. We have been here before. From 2005 onward, NHS trusts were cutting with gusto even though, in 2000, the government had stated that 7,000 more beds were required. Instead, by 2010, some 30,000 had gone, on the basis of wishfully thinking that older people, their main occupiers, did not need them.

NHS reforms: Mutuals will give staff ‘right to provide’ | Society | The Guardian

Health secretary Andrew Lansley will invite doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff to take what will be seen as another step towards privatisation, by forming “mutuals” which will contract with the NHS to provide care for patients.

Lansley will announce a “right to provide” for staff right across the NHS. Healthcare professionals in specialised areas, such as eating disorders, alcohol and drug detox, mental health and sexual health, could set up their own organisations with mutual ownership.

These would exist outside the NHS but be contracted to provide care. They will run their own budget, lease NHS equipment and the premises where they provide treatment and decide how to organise care without reference to trust managers.

Health reforms are ‘too far, too fast’ claims doc | Macclesfield Express – menmedia.co.uk

A top doctor has joined a chorus of disapproval over government reforms to the NHS. The proposed changes, which are still going through parliament, will see Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities abolished and responsibility for commissioning services passed on to new ‘GP consortia’.

The Express reported earlier this month that the Eastern Cheshire consortium has been named as a ‘pathfinder’, meaning they hope to begin operation well before the April 2013 deadline.

But Adrian Heald, a consultant physician at Macclesfield Hospital and Leighton hospital in Crewe, told a public meeting called to discuss the reforms that he feared it could be too far, too fast.

Milburn adds his voice to growing disquiet on NHS reforms | InPharm

Former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn has come out against the government’s health reforms, adding to the chorus of voices against the reorganisation of the NHS.

The reforms aim at putting GPs in charge of the NHS budget whilst abolishing the current management structure, but Milburn said this is shortsighted given the challenges of finding £20 billion in efficiency savings by 2015.

“There’s a chasm between the cost of making change and the cash available for it,” he said in an article for The Guardian.

All together for the NHS – PCS Comment – PCS

This Friday will see thousands of people unite in support for ‘All Together for the NHS day’ to raise awareness about what is happening to the NHS and to oppose the government’s controversial plans to shake up the system.

These plans – set out in the Health and Social Care Bill currently going through Parliament have already been criticised by NHS staff, economists, charities, and patients for being ill thought through, undemocratic, and likely to leave patients vulnerable and at risk.

Friday will see campaigners raising awareness of these changes by visiting MPs in constituencies, workplace meetings, open public meetings and other local activities.

UNISON Press | Press Releases Front Page

UNISON members are piling the pressure on local MPs over the disastrous consequences for the NHS, if the Government ploughs ahead with its Health and Social Care Bill.

On April 1, right across the country, members will be lobbying their local constituency offices and holding workplace demos/lunchtime meetings and rallies to make their opposition heard.

The Bill has attracted widespread resistance from doctors, nurses, health professionals and NHS staff. Patients, charities and unions are lining up against it and poll after poll shows that the public clearly thinks it is bad news for the health service. The Bill is also causing concern among Lib Dem MPs and even some Tories are starting to openly express doubts about it.

NHS news is dominated by the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) ‘March for an Alternative’ march and rally event on Saturday. It is estimated that some 500,000 people attended making it the biggest march since the anti-war protest of March 2003.

A few recent news articles concerning the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

Health workers voice fear for future of NHS / Britain / Home – Morning Star

A huge contingent of NHS workers joined the weekend’s march to highlight the serious threat to our health service posed by the government’s cuts and sell-off plans.

Midwives carried baby-shaped balloons, GPs came in their doctors’ garb while thousands of nurses and health workers snaked from London’s Embankment to Hyde Park in a sea of green and purple – the colours of their union Unison.

The demonstrators issued a stark warning to the Tory-led coalition to keep its “hands off our NHS.”

RCN marches against cuts – RCN

Over 1,000 Royal College of Nursing members marched through the streets of London last weekend to campaign against cuts threatening jobs and patient care across the NHS. The march, organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), took protestors through Parliament Square and past Downing Street, to a rally in Hyde Park. The march was arranged to show the combined strength of feeling against cuts to public services.

RCN Chief Executive Dr Peter Carter joined trade union leaders at the head of the march before returning to walk alongside members. He said: “The fact that so many nurses marched together for the first time since the days of Margaret Thatcher is testament to the depth of their anger about these cuts. Nurses are facing a two year pay freeze and widespread cuts to jobs and services. On the ground, nursing staff are stretched to breaking point and we know that slashing huge numbers of frontline jobs is jeopardising patient care.”

Although the RCN is not affiliated to the TUC, it participated in the march to help expel the myth that NHS funding is protected, while nursing jobs are being cut and £20 billion in savings are sought in England alone. The RCN’s Frontline First campaign has already identified that 27,000 NHS posts are earmarked to be lost across the UK.

UNISON News | The public service union | Michael Moore backs NHS

American film-maker Michael Moore has produced a message of support for UNISON and our NHS.

With characteristic flair, Mr Moore tells viewers that:

* the NHS is “so precious” and something “that you really invented and gave to the world”
* “For anyone to take that away now and put it in the hands of profit-hungry corporations would be the absolute worst thing to happen”
* In the US “the whole system is set up to motivate them [US health companies] to every day say ‘how can we make more money off the sick?’ “
* “you will rue the day that you allowed this to happen” to the NHS
* On Cameron – “you’re stuck with a guy now who’s got nice hair and rides a bike but, you know, he’s up to no good”
* Signing off: “hang in there, I’m with you”

Unite coffin protest marks ‘death’ of NHS | News | Nursing Times

A coffin will be paraded outside parliament today to symbolise the “death” of the NHS as part of a union protest against the government’s health reforms.

Unite has collected thousands of signatures against the Health and Social Welfare Bill which the union said will lead to the privatisation of large parts of the NHS.

The union will present a letter to the commons health select committee, which is scrutinising the Bill.

National officer Rachael Maskell said in the letter: “We are writing to urge you to protect the NHS from the savage and unnecessary reforms put forward in the Bill.

Coffin symbolises coalition addiction to NHS privatisation

A coffin to symbolise the death of the NHS due to a surfeit of privatisation will be paraded outside parliament tomorrow (Tuesday 29 March 2011).

Unite, the largest union in the country, has collected 13,000 signatures to a letter to the committee of MPs scrutinising the impact of the Health and Social Care bill, currently going through parliament.

The coffin marked with NHS in white letters will be held by health campaigners mourning the death of the NHS at 12.30pm Palace Yard (next to College Green), Westminster SW1.

Greater Manchester hospitals ‘could miss target to save £1bn’ | Manchester Evening News – menmedia.co.uk

Health bosses fear Greater Manchester’s NHS will not achieve the government target to save £1bn by 2015.

In 2009, the M.E.N. revealed the region had to cut costs by £950m but Department of Health officials have now rated its savings plan and progress so far as ‘red’ or high-risk.

They also say it is crucial the health service in Greater Manchester and London hit their targets in order for the NHS as a whole to make £20bn savings in the next four years.