NHS privatisation

Conservative election poster 2010

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.

BBC News – Lansley faces confidence vote by nurses

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is facing a confidence vote from nurses in reaction to his planned changes for the NHS in England.

After a “listening exercise” at Downing Street with the PM and voluntary sector representatives, Mr Lansley will go to the Royal College of Nursing Congress.

He will meet a group of 50 nurses – not the whole conference – which has prompted some to question his nerve.

Nurses accuse Lansley of ducking out of facing them – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Nurses’ leaders will today debate a motion of no-confidence in the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley – just hours before he arrives at their annual congress to take part in a “listening exercise”.

In a sign that ministerial attempts to reassure nurses about their plans for NHS reform are failing, members of the Royal College of Nursing voted overwhelmingly to debate the emergency motion shortly after being addressed by the Health minister Anne Milton. If passed it will be the first such no-confidence motion in 30 years.

Tomorrow they will vote on plans for industrial action if the Government pushes ahead with proposals to allow trusts to implement incremental pay freezes for some staff. Members are particularly incensed that Mr Lansley will only be speaking to a selection of around 60 members, split up into tables of eight, for 45 minutes, and accused him of not having the “guts” to address the conference as a whole.

The NHS braces itself for privatisation | Society | The Guardian

Andrew Lansley‘s recent announcement that the government is embarking on a two-month “period of listening” about its NHS reform plans has been seen by some as a U-turn over a deeply flawed policy.

There are, however, some areas where the government is not prepared to listen: the commitment to abolish primary care trusts, to transfer major powers to commission services to GPs, and the ambition to vastly increase the participation of the private and, in theory, voluntary sectors in providing health services. In future, the NHS will continue to be funded from taxation and (for the time being) will be free at the point of delivery, but the government will step back from running the service.

Private sector involvement in the NHS is not new. Dentistry, worth £2.1bn, opticians and pharmacies are already in the private sector. GPs themselves are effectively private contractors, accounting for £8bn, or almost 10% of the entire NHS budget. Under Labour, private involvement was extended via independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs), handling mainly non-emergency elective treatments, as a way to bring down waiting lists.

But the current proposals are much more bold. Plans are under way to further outsource central services, such as workforce development (total budget £5bn) and procurement management. Even NHS Direct (worth £146m) is in the firing line.

The shift to create more than 200 GP consortiums in England will generate further opportunities for private firms. Notably, this will be in the management of commissioning, worth £1bn. Firms such as Tribal, Humana, United Health and Aetna already offer referral management services that promise to help consortiums slash their costs by as much as 15% and turn savings into profits.

London Ambulance Service axing 890 jobs in bid to cut budget by £53m | Metro.co.uk

Some 560 ‘frontline’ paramedic and technician posts will go in the capital as the service looks to slash its budget by £53million over five years.

A further 330 posts are to be removed from management and support services.

The cuts represent almost a fifth of the service’s 5,000 staff but the government insisted any savings made would be reinvested in patient care.

Pulse – GPs face bans on high-cost drugs

Exclusive: GPs are being banned from prescribing high-cost drugs approved by NICE as NHS managers seek drastic savings on prescribing budgets.

More than half of primary care organisations have brought in new blacklists within the past year, a Pulse investigation reveals.

PCOs are redrawing formularies in changes they estimate will slice £250m from this year’s drug budget. Responses from 134 PCOs under the Freedom of Information Act show that more than half have blacklists of drugs – in some trusts of more than 100 – that GPs are banned from prescribing.

Some 73 PCOs said they had added drugs to blacklists or placed additional restrictions on prescribing in primary care in the past year, as they strive to make average estimated savings in 2011/12 of £1.9m each.

Four-hour A&E waits rise by 65% (From Your Local Guardian)

The number of people waiting more than four hours in A&E has jumped 65% since the Government scrapped a target, NHS figures show.

Department of Health data on four-hour waits shows thousands more people waiting in A&E, walk-in centres and minor injury units in 2010 than in 2009.

Last June, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley relaxed a four-hour A&E target which has since been scrapped and replaced with a new set of quality indicators.

The data shows that, in the six months from July to December 2009, 176,522 people waited more than four hours, but this rose to 292,052 people from July to December 2010, a 65% increase.

NHS funding pressures hitting frontline, says A&E chief | Society | The Guardian

Hospital casualty departments are struggling to cope with growing demand for emergency care because they have too few staff and not enough beds, Britain’s top accident and emergency doctor has warned.

As new figures pointed to a steep rise in A&E waiting times and 890 ambulance jobs were lost, John Heyworth, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, joined a growing chorus of doctors warning that the NHS funding pressures are already hitting frontline services.

“The emergency care system is struggling to cope at the moment,” he said. “Many departments spend their time firefighting because of the number of patients coming in, the limited number of emergency department staff and limited availability of beds.”

David Cameron and the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, have insisted that the NHS will not be affected by the deep cuts to public spending elsewhere and that frontline services will be protected during their shakeup of the health service.

But medical organisations, health charities and patients’ groups are increasingly sceptical that the pledge can be kept as health spending fails to keep pace with the rising cost of treating Britain’s ageing population.

 

27/11/13 Having received a takedown notice from the Independent newspaper for a different posting, I have reviewed this article which links to an article at the Independent’s website in order to attempt to ensure conformance with copyright laws.

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
a. Only a small portion of the original article has been quoted satisfying the fair use criteria, and / or
b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

Please be assured that this blog is a non-commercial blog (weblog) which does not feature advertising and has not ever produced any income.

dizzy

Nurses appreciate the severity of Con-Dem government attacks on the NHS and there is a weak hint of possible strike action. Nurses are in a particularly awkward position being committed to provide care for patients under the NHS system while that system is getting destroyed around them. To strike runs the risk of appearing insensitive to the needs of patients while perhaps even the act of balloting could hugely raise awareness of the Con-Dems brutal attacks. We need a strong, unified defence and doctors and nurses deserve widespread support.

Norman Lamb doesn’t really disagree with Nick Clegg after all. What a surprise (Not!).

Conservative election poster 2010

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.

BBC News – Nick Clegg: ‘Building blocks’ of NHS reform to remain

Deputy PM Nick Clegg says the “basic building blocks” of controversial NHS plans will remain, but changes could be made on how they work “in practice”.

His aide Norman Lamb threatened to quit over the “very risky” pace of change.

But Mr Clegg said Mr Lamb agreed with him and did not want to “reopen the Pandora’s Box” of the basic plan to give GPs more financial powers.

The plans would give GPs in England control of 60% of the NHS budget and let more private firms provide care.

What the cutbacks will mean on the NHS frontline | Society | guardian.co.uk

Don’t expect patients or hospital bosses to be happy as the cost of the NHS shake-up becomes clear, writes Denis Campbell

Andrew Lansley’s future prompts much speculation. Is the health secretary the Cabinet’s dead man walking or simply a well-intentioned NHS reformist who needs some presentational polish? Similarly, is the government’s hastily-conceived new “pause, listen and engage” approach to the planned NHS shake-up a prelude to a major overhaul or just a cynical exercise to keep the Lib Dems on board with warm words but minor changes? The answers, still unknowable, will help decide the fate of the health and social care bill – and perhaps the coalition itself.

But what keeps hospital bosses awake at night is not key elements of the bill such as GP-led commissioning, “any willing provider” or the exact remit of NHS economic regulator Monitor. Other, more pressing, matters do, almost all involving a pound sign. Like the “Nicholson challenge”, NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson’s demand that the service in England saves £20bn by 2015 in “efficiency gains”, requiring 4% annual productivity gains every year – which all the evidence suggests is hopelessly unrealistic. Like the reality of the next four years bringing flat or slightly reduced budgets after Labour’s decade-long cash splurge. It also applies to the 150 or so NHS primary care trusts, which currently commission treatment, and indeed to every healthcare organisation in England. Both have to be contended with at a time when demand for healthcare is growing.

Then there are, as King’s Fund chief economist Professor John Appleby points out, other key financial challenges to be met. January’s VAT increase will cost the NHS £250m, pay increments another £1bn and demographic change a further £1bn a year. Another £200m is going into the populist Cancer Drugs Fund. The transition costs of Lansley’s radical restructuring will be £500m this year alone. Hospitals’ income via the “tariff” payments system is reducing slightly. “All this means that local health budgets are under severe pressure”, says Appleby.

The Nuffield Trust, another health think-tank, adds several other factors for good measure. Medical inflation – the cost of drugs and clinical supplies – is rising faster than general inflation. Many hospitals’ operating costs are running ahead of budget. Demand on them – more people are using A&E, for example – is growing too. You get the picture — which, for the NHS, is grim.

Andrew Lansley’s future prompts much speculation. Is the health secretary the Cabinet’s dead man walking or simply a well-intentioned NHS reformist who needs some presentational polish? Similarly, is the government’s hastily-conceived new “pause, listen and engage” approach to the planned NHS shake-up a prelude to a major overhaul or just a cynical exercise to keep the Lib Dems on board with warm words but minor changes? The answers, still unknowable, will help decide the fate of the health and social care bill – and perhaps the coalition itself.

But what keeps hospital bosses awake at night is not key elements of the bill such as GP-led commissioning, “any willing provider” or the exact remit of NHS economic regulator Monitor. Other, more pressing, matters do, almost all involving a pound sign. Like the “Nicholson challenge”, NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson’s demand that the service in England saves £20bn by 2015 in “efficiency gains”, requiring 4% annual productivity gains every year – which all the evidence suggests is hopelessly unrealistic. Like the reality of the next four years bringing flat or slightly reduced budgets after Labour’s decade-long cash splurge. It also applies to the 150 or so NHS primary care trusts, which currently commission treatment, and indeed to every healthcare organisation in England. Both have to be contended with at a time when demand for healthcare is growing.

Then there are, as King’s Fund chief economist Professor John Appleby points out, other key financial challenges to be met. January’s VAT increase will cost the NHS £250m, pay increments another £1bn and demographic change a further £1bn a year. Another £200m is going into the populist Cancer Drugs Fund. The transition costs of Lansley’s radical restructuring will be £500m this year alone. Hospitals’ income via the “tariff” payments system is reducing slightly. “All this means that local health budgets are under severe pressure”, says Appleby.

The Nuffield Trust, another health think-tank, adds several other factors for good measure. Medical inflation – the cost of drugs and clinical supplies – is rising faster than general inflation. Many hospitals’ operating costs are running ahead of budget. Demand on them – more people are using A&E, for example – is growing too. You get the picture — which, for the NHS, is grim.

NHS shakeup could be biggest disaster in history of public services, says RCN | Society | The Guardian

The coalition government’s shakeup of the NHS could easily become “the biggest disaster in the history of our public services”, the leader of Britain’s 400,000 nurses has warned.

Dr Peter Carter, head of the Royal College of Nursing, made the claim in his address to the union’s annual congress on Monday as he set out a powerful critique of the planned radical restructuring in England.

While endorsing the health and social care bill’s key aims, Carter said “the reforms still have a huge number of areas that concern us”, despite recent government concessions on price competition between healthcare providers and its decision to invite a nurse to sit on the new NHS National Commissioning Board.

…

“Despite the honourable principles behind the bill, it could well turn out to be the biggest disaster in the history of our public services, if organisations like the RCN are not listened to now,” Carter told about 2,000 nurses’ representatives gathered in Liverpool.

NHS crisis looms say experts / Britain / Home – Morning Star

The Royal College of Nurses (RCN) warned today that the coalition’s NHS reforms could be the “biggest disaster in the history of our public services.”

RCN chief executive Peter Carter told delegates at the union’s annual conference in Liverpool that the reforms could be devastating if unions were not listened to.

“The Health and Social Care Bill is going through Parliament now and, from a government that promised no more top-down reorganisations, it certainly looks like one to me,” he said.

Mr Carter said that nurses were struggling due to the government’s two-year pay freeze, rising costs and increasing workloads.

He said “never before” had so many nurses talked to him about industrial action.

Speaking to journalists afterwards, Mr Carter said: “We are a long, long way away” from industrial action, and a process would need to be gone through, including balloting members.

He said nurses “would not damage patient care” by simply walking out of hospital wards.

NHS cuts push nursing union to the brink of industrial action – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Britain’s nurses yesterday raised the prospect of taking the first industrial action in their union’s history because of anger at government cuts to NHS services.

Nurses would refuse to work more than their contracted hours, take all their allotted meal breaks and decline to fill in paperwork outside their normal job description, under plans being discussed at the annual conference of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Liverpool.

The RCN’s general secretary, Peter Carter, said the union did not have a no-strike agreement, although he played down the threat of a full-scale walkout among its 400,000 members.

 

27/11/13 Having received a takedown notice from the Independent newspaper for a different posting, I have reviewed this article which links to an article at the Independent’s website in order to attempt to ensure conformance with copyright laws.

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
a. Only a small portion of the original article has been quoted satisfying the fair use criteria, and / or
b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

Please be assured that this blog is a non-commercial blog (weblog) which does not feature advertising and has not ever produced any income.

dizzy

It was reported recently that Health Secretary Andrew Lansley would break with convention and refuse to address the Royal College of Nurses Congress. It is now reported that he will meet a group of nurses in private at the congress – clearly with a view to avoid bad publicity for his intended destruction of the NHS.

The Royal College of Nurses have identified 40.000 job losses with 54% being in frontline staff.

I seem to have some strange bedfellows recently, linking to Blairite scum. I linked to this important document at a blog presented by Blue Ken and today I’m linking to John Rentokill and Parrot Tonee. Rentokill’s argument looks strangely familiar as if the traditional press has to keep up with bloggers keeping people informed. Notice for example recognition of the role of Bliar’s administration in privatising the NHS and the refutation of “doing nothing is not an option”.

There are suggestions that one of Clegg’s closest advisors Norman Lamb intends to resign if NHS reforms are not to his satisfaction. Spin.

Conservative election poster 2010

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.

‘Listening’ Lansley to meet nurses after all – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, yesterday reversed his decision to stay away from the annual conference of Britain’s 400,000 nurses.

Mr Lansley had previously turned down an invitation to attend the Royal College of Nursing’s Congress – prompting accusations that his promise to “listen” to health professional over NHS reforms was a “sham”.

But yesterday, after his planned absence was reported by The Independent, the Department of Health announced that he would go after all – as part of a “listening seminar”.

It is understood that Mr Lansley will meet a group of nurses, selected by the RCN, who will be able to put their concerns to the Health Secretary. However, he will still not take part, or address nurses, in the main conference hall. Instead the keynote government address will be given by Anne Milton, the most junior minister of the Health Department.

BBC News – Poor morale and job cuts threaten NHS reform, says RCN

Nurse leaders will warn this week that poor morale and job cuts threaten to derail the government’s reform programme of the NHS in England.

The issues will be key themes of the Royal College of Nursing’s annual conference in Liverpool.

RCN leader Peter Carter has said nurses were being pushed to the limit, working extra hard to keep services going.

John Rentoul: It’s hard to diagnose confusion – John Rentoul, Commentators – The Independent

As George Orwell said, “the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts”. If only David Cameron had remembered that when Andrew Lansley persuaded him that he knew what he was doing to improve the NHS.

It is possible that the Secretary of State for Health has Jedi powers when speaking in private. That might explain why Cameron left him to it in opposition and guaranteed him his job in the Cabinet. It might explain why the senior Liberal Democrat delegation that went to “have it out” with him last month came away saying how impressed they were with his grasp of the situation.

BBC News – Union claims overworked nurses are ‘propping up’ NHS

Nurses are “propping up” the NHS by repeatedly working more hours than contracted and providing last-minute shift cover, a union has claimed.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland said a survey of its members found just one in 10 felt there was enough staff where they worked.

The “snapshot” survey of 200 Scottish nurses was part of a UK-wide poll.

Royal College of Nursing Scotland released the figures on the eve of its annual congress.

Almost all nurses (96%) reported working in excess of their contracted hours, with more than a quarter (27%) saying they did this every shift.

Just 11% of respondents said that staffing levels at their place of work were quite good or very good, while more than a quarter said they provided last-minute cover for absentee staff at least fortnightly.

20,000 doctors and nurses to be cut as NHS feels the pain – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Controversial plans to reform the NHS suffered a double blow yesterday after a member of the Government threatened to resign over the proposals and new figures suggested up to 20,000 medical and nursing jobs could be lost as a result of cutbacks.

Norman Lamb, the chief political adviser to Nick Clegg and a government whip, said patient care could suffer because of the speed at which the changes were being introduced. “I’ve said that if it’s impossible for me to carry on in my position I will step down,” he said. “I don’t want to cause embarrassment but I feel very strongly about this issue… It would be a crying shame if we rush the reform process and got it wrong.”

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which is holding its annual congress this week in Liverpool, released new figures yesterday suggesting that more than 50 per cent of the planned jobs losses in the NHS will be clinical. So far the RCN has identified more than 40,000 NHS posts due to be lost over the next three years.

But in a survey of 21 NHS trusts, which between them are planning to cut nearly 10,000 jobs, the RCN discovered that 54 per cent were filled by clinical staff. The union said some roles were being downgraded. The Liverpool Women’s Hospital Trust is planning to cut 65 specialist nurse posts while introducing 48 staff nurse posts within its neonatal specialty. In Coventry and Warwickshire, managers are planning to reduce the number of registered nurses within learning disability services and increase the number of healthcare assistants.

More than half of NHS job cuts are on clinical frontline – RCN

The Royal College of Nursing has exposed the myth that NHS frontline care and services are protected, and says cuts will lead to ‘fewer services, fewer nurses and a worse NHS’.

As members from gather in Liverpool for the RCN’s annual Congress, the College warned cutting frontline posts could have ‘catastrophic consequences on patient safety and care’.

Evidence from 21 NHS trusts in England showed 54 per cent of nearly 10,000 posts due to be cut are frontline clinical posts. The RCN also found that nursing posts account for 46 per cent of identified workforce cuts.

The findings will put pressure on the Government to say how patient services will be protected, as trusts in England alone aim to save £20 billion by 2015.

Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, said clinical staff were the ‘lifeblood of the NHS’ but were haemorrhaging at an alarming rate.

He said: “Many trusts are not being transparent by admitting to the proportion of clinical jobs being lost. From our research we now know the truth – the majority of job losses are frontline clinical jobs, the jobs that matter to patients.

Nick Clegg adviser threatens to resign over rush to reform NHS | Politics | The Guardian

David Cameron has been warned that he will have to endorse sweeping changes to the government’s planned NHS reforms when a senior adviser to Nick Clegg threatened to resign unless a series of demands are met.

Norman Lamb, a government whip who is the Liberal Democrat leader’s senior parliamentary adviser, said his party’s MPs and peers would be unable to support the health and social care bill if their concerns are ignored.

Lamb’s warning came as the British Medical Association claimed the tight NHS settlement, which will raise its budget in line with inflation, is leading to an “accelerating withdrawal of services”. Growing numbers of patients are being denied treatment for conditions such as infertility.

David Cameron’s well-oiled winning machine is now a car crash | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian

A year ago running up to the election, everything they did looked clever, well oiled and pitch perfect. David Cameron’s electoral Rolls-Royce purred up to the winning post, his party’s reputation for wrecking the public realm left far behind. Likeable, reasonable and focus group-tuned to what the British wanted, he understood Labour’s legacy was a basic instinct for fairness. He knew the no-go zones – or so it seemed.

So why has he broken all his own rules in such a short time? Where did this appetite for random acts of revolutionary chaos come from? But above all, friend or foe, no one foresaw incompetence on such a scale. The saga of the NHS car crash is incomprehensible: his party seems at a loss, as ideology trumps political common sense. Cameron’s campaign – “I’ll cut the deficit not the NHS” – understood what was electorally totemic and radioactive for Tories.

No cuts? Former Tory health secretary Stephen Dorrell, powerful head of the commons health committee, warns yet again that no country ever attempted a 4% health cut in one year, let alone four years running. So what possessed Cameron to risk such cuts and lie about it, let alone to encourage Lansley’s simultaneous “revolution”? To advertise the NHS for sale to “any willing provider”, making Monitor open it to EU competition law, confirms every worst suspicion voters already held against his party.

 

27/11/13 Having received a takedown notice from the Independent newspaper for a different posting, I have reviewed this article which links to an article at the Independent’s website in order to attempt to ensure conformance with copyright laws.

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
a. Only a small portion of the original article has been quoted satisfying the fair use criteria, and / or
b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

Please be assured that this blog is a non-commercial blog (weblog) which does not feature advertising and has not ever produced any income.

dizzy