Comments by dizzy dissident: Of special note is

1. Yesterday’s vote by the BMA to call on Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to withdraw the abolition of the NHS bill.
2. Andrew Lansley’s response needs to be fact-checked e.g. that the BMA previously supported parts of the bill.
3. The Labour Party has belatedly joined the campaign to oppose the abolition of the NHS. Belatedly because they appear to have joined the campaign once it was assured widespread support – after both the Liberal Democrats and the BMA have declared that they oppose the decimation of the NHS.
4. The Labour Party response – a petition – is pathetically inadequate.
5. It is interesting that Liberal Democrat MPs are mandated to vote with Labour MPs to oppose the bill.

 

 

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.

Labour to challenge ‘full blown market’ in NHS reforms | GP online

At a committee stage meeting on the reforms on Tuesday, the shadow health team was set to demand the removal of the whole middle third of the Bill, which opens up commissioning to ‘any willing provider’.

This section will grant the regulator Monitor powers to fine commissioning groups up to 10% of their turnover for anti-competitive practice, Labour claims. The powers would be in line with those currently exercised by the Office of Fair Trading.

Speaking at a press briefing before the committee meeting, Shadow health minister John Healey said the Health and Social Care Bill will expose the NHS to full force of competition law.

BMA rejects NHS reforms | Society | guardian.co.uk

Doctors have voted to call on the government to scrap its plans for overhauling the NHS.

The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, is coming under increasing pressure over his reforms, which involve the abolition of more than 150 organisations and moving 80% of the NHS budget into the hands of GPs.

Some doctors support the content of the health and social care bill, currently going through parliament, but many have been voicing opposition to parts of it, including increasing the role of private companies in delivering healthcare.

Today the British Medical Association (BMA) held an emergency meeting attended by almost 400 doctors to debate the plans.

Doctors voted in favour of calling on Lansley to withdraw the bill entirely and for a “halt to the proposed top-down reorganisation of the NHS”.

Pressure growing over NHS reforms – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

The Government is coming under increasing pressure over its NHS reforms after doctors voted for the plans to be dropped.

Delegates at an emergency meeting said Health Secretary Andrew Lansley should withdraw the Health and Social Care Bill, and “halt the proposed top-down reorganisation of the NHS”.

Some doctors support the Bill, currently going through parliament, which would see more than 150 organisations abolished and 80% of the NHS budget pass into the hands of GPs.

But many have been voicing their opposition, including to increasing the role of private companies in delivering healthcare.

The emergency meeting of the British Medical Association (BMA) comes as Labour tabled amendments to the Bill, saying there was a need to protect the NHS against the introduction of a full-blown competitive market.

220,000 jobs threatened, says union (From Your Local Guardian)

More than 220,000 jobs are under threat in councils, the NHS, education and other parts of the public sector because of the Government’s spending cuts, according to a new study.

The GMB union, which has been tracking job loss announcements in councils for months, said that when other parts of the public sector were included, the toll of job cuts was “shocking”.

Over 170,000 posts were under threat at 318 local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland, but when planned cuts in the NHS, universities and Government departments were included, the total was 226,000, said the union.

Doctor No: BMA rejects NHS plot / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Doctors overwhelmingly followed disaffected Liberal Democrats on Wednesday in condemning government plans to break apart the NHS.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is forging enemies left, right and centre over his flagship “reform” plan, as the British Medical Association became the latest to vote against it at an emergency meeting attended by almost 400 doctors.

The deeply unpopular Health and Social Care Bill, currently at the committee stage in Parliament, was also voted against by Lib Dems at their party’s spring conference in Sheffield on the weekend.

Government’s NHS reforms Q&A » Health » 24dash.com

The Government’s reforms of the NHS are coming under attack from health campaigners and unions.

Q: What will the shake-up do?

A: Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has unveiled plans to change the way the NHS works in England, saying they will improve patient care.

Under proposals in the Health and Social Care Bill, GPs will take control of 80% of the NHS budget – some £80 billion a year – and hospitals will be given more freedom from central Government.

The aim is for groups of GPs to be ready to commission services from April 2013.

It is unclear exactly how many of these GP consortia plan to do the work themselves and how many will buy-in outside expertise.

An NHS Commissioning Board will oversee the way services are bought, and primary care trusts and strategic health authorities, which currently hold the purse strings, will be scrapped.

The move is a major overhaul and will lead to more than 150 organisations being abolished and thousands of job losses.

Labour calls on Cameron to keep his NHS promises

Since the General Election, the British public has seen David Cameron break promise after promise on the NHS despite promising that it was a top priority.

Labour’s petition to protect frontline services, launched today, calls on David Cameron to keep his promises to:

* Protect frontline NHS services;
* Stop precious NHS money being wasted on a big top-down reorganisation, which is putting the NHS at risk;
* Provide the real increase he promised in NHS funding.

NHS reforms: will family doctors become accountants? | Society | The Guardian

Among the 50 GPs feted by the prime minister in January at a champagne reception in Downing Street were the leading lights of the National Association of Primary Care, a group of family doctors who many see as the brains behind health secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans.

The physicians sipping bubbly at No 10 were part of the first wave of GP shadow consortiums – doctors tasked with reshaping hospital services in the runup to finally being handed the NHS purse strings. Treading the corridors of power that chilly winter evening was Charles Alessi, an executive member of the NAPC, who two weeks earlier had penned a tabloid comment piece backing the radical pro-market plans of the government.

While the association is careful to say it is not aligned to any party, it did come up with the central plank of the health secretary’s policy: dissolve England’s primary care trusts, which currently commission hospital care on behalf of patients, and instead allow GP practices, essentially private businesses run by doctors, to form consortiums to buy treatments using £80bn of Treasury money. The loss of the primary care trusts will see 24,000 jobs go.

For the first time all England’s 38,000 general practitioners will, under the government’s plans, be directly responsible for access to expensive hospital treatments through referrals. Those family doctors who manage to stay within budget – and perhaps even save the taxpayer money – will get cash bonuses.

NHS bill will have only minor changes, insists Andrew Lansley | Society | The Guardian

No 10 responded to the British Medical Association vote on NHS reforms by describing the general meeting as unrepresentative of the BMA membership, adding it was disappointed it had decided to oppose reforms it had previously supported.

Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, has insisted he will only be making minor changes to the language of the health and social care bill in response to the Liberal Democrat decision to oppose it. A discussion is now under way inside the coalition on how to respond, with some influential cabinet figures arguing Lansley has to recast a bill that is losing support daily.

Labour is to stage a debate on health on Wednesday with a motion broadly designed to mirror the Liberal Democrats’ objections to the bill, which were passed in a weekend motion at its conference in Sheffield. Liberal Democrat MPs met on Tuesday to decide how to vote in the Commons debate, but are not expected to vote with Labour.

NHS reforms mean GPs could double their income to £300,000 a year | Society | The Guardian

GPs could more than double their income to £300,000 a year under health secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans for the NHS, according to an analysis for the Guardian – sparking calls from top doctors for the government to reverse controversial policies that would appear to reward physicians who ration care.

The revelation comes after the British Medical Association voted to scrap the “dangerous” health bill and demanded that Lansley rethink his radical pro-market changes to the NHS.

GPs are central to the government’s programme, and by 2013 will have to band together into consortiums before being handed £80bn of NHS funds to commission care for their patients.

At the heart of many doctors’ concerns lies the possibility that, under the reforms, GPs’ pay will be linked to rationing patient care; in essence, being rewarded for saving the taxpayer money. Doctors’ leaders warned that the public would view as “unethical” any move towards a GP’s assessment of a person’s medical need being coloured by a profit motive.

Leading article: NHS reform: ideology, rather than pragmatism – Leading Articles, Opinion – The Independent

It is a serious matter that the British Medical Association has called an emergency meeting – the first of its kind for nearly 20 years – to warn the Government to think again about the pace and scale of its reforms to the National Health Service. The aims of those reforms might be laudable. The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, says he wants to set the NHS free from political interference and make it more responsive to patients. And he is right to say that with an ageing population making increasing demands on services, and the cost of drugs and new treatments rising, change is needed.

But he has set in train the biggest reorganisation in the 62-year history of the NHS – at a time when it is being asked to save £20bn from its £100bn budget. And he has done so despite a Tory pledge before the election that there would be no major overhaul of the health service. Doctors’ leaders have rightly complained that the detail on the massive changes were not available at all until the Bill was published two months ago. Mr Lansley’s reforms have been premised on ideological conviction rather than pragmatism; pilot projects should have been trialled first rather than in parallel with the passage of a Bill which is already well on its way through Parliament. No wonder Liberal Democrat delegates rejected the plans at the party’s spring conference last weekend.

Doctors urge the Government to abandon health reform Bill – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Doctors’ leaders yesterday stopped short of a vote of no confidence in Health Secretary Andrew Lansley but demanded that he halt his plans to reform the NHS and condemned his failure to act on their concerns.

In what is turning out to be a torrid week for the Health Secretary, the British Medical Association (BMA) called on him to withdraw the Health and Social Care Bill, now going through Parliament, and warned that it would lead to the “fragmentation” and “privatisation” of the NHS.

However, the BMA failed to back a vote of no confidence and stopped short of condemning its leadership for pursuing a policy of “critical engagement” with the Government rather than outright opposition to the Bill, after an appeal from the chairman, Hamish Meldrum, not to “tie our hands”.

Pulse – Lib Dems on collision course with ‘market-based’ NHS reforms

The Government’s NHS reforms face their biggest challenge yet, after Liberal Democrats at their party’s spring conference voted to oppose key parts of the health bill.

In a motion passed in Sheffield on Saturday, the party committed to demand new safeguards are written into the bill to limit the role of private firms and effectively return to the previous Government’s policy of the NHS as the ‘preferred provider’.

The motion was an embarrassment to Liberal Democrat health minister Paul Burstow, whose original motion overwhelmingly supported the reforms, and leaves health secretary Andrew Lansley now facing having to re-negotiate the terms of the bill, or see Liberal Democrats vote against them.

NHS reforms: what will happen and why | Society | The Guardian

Why is the government planning a big shakeup of the NHS in England?

The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, says that while the NHS is world-class in some respects, and employs leading medical figures, it is still not good enough in some key areas of care. “For example, rates of mortality amenable to healthcare, rates of mortality for some respiratory diseases and some cancers, and some measures of stroke, have been among the worst in the developed world. International evidence also shows the NHS has much further to go on managing care more effectively,” says the Department of Health. Doctors have cast doubt on the evidence underpinning some of Lansley’s claims about the quality of NHS care, and critics argue that his “modernisation” changes will usher in widespread privatisation of NHS services.

What is the government proposing?

Arguably the most radical restructuring of the NHS since it was created in 1948. England’s 150 or so primary care trusts will be wound up in 2013 and their work, commissioning healthcare, will pass to groups of GPs called general practice commissioning consortiums (GPCCs). Each GPCC, perhaps including scores of existing practices, will have its own budget. The consortiums will have £80bn of NHS funds in all, and agree contracts with hospitals and others. Almost 200 GPCCs have already been set up.

Doctors call for a halt on NHS reform bill | Metro.co.uk

The British Medical Association said health secretary Andrew Lansley should dump his bill and adopt an ‘evolution not revolution’ approach.

While agreeing with some central points, such as clinicians having more of a say in decision making and better information for patients, doctors argued the proposals went too far, too fast.

BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum addressed almost 400 doctors at the meeting in central London, saying reforms could have ‘irreversible consequences’.

He said: ‘But, as on so many occasions, it’s the reality not the rhetoric that counts and it’s the reality that is causing all the problems.

‘Because what we have seen is an often contradictory set of proposals, driven by ideology rather than evidence, enshrined in ill-thought-through legislation and implemented in a rush during a major economic downturn.’

Management in Practice – BMA wary of NHS reform proposals

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans to reform the NHS have been heavily criticised by doctors, but they stopped short of rejecting the Health and Social Care Bill outright.

Approximately 400 doctors attended an emergency meeting called by the British Medical Association (BMA) in London to debate and vote on the government’s reforms, with 43% in favour of rejecting the Bill completely, with 54% against, and 3% abstaining.

They called on Mr Lansley to “adopt an approach of evolution not revolution regarding any changes to the NHS in England” and that the government must respond to criticisms regarding the Bill and accept ministers had “no electoral mandate” for the plans.

Labour launches petition to protect NHS | GP online

The Labour Party launched a petition to save the NHS on Tuesday as BMA members discussed the Health Bill at an emergency meeting in London.

 

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

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 affect vital community mental health supporting Epsom and Ewell (From Your Local Guardian)

The workforce providing vital NHS mental health care services in Epsom and Ewell will be slashed by half.

Fifteen out of 30 community support roles in Epsom and Ewell will go as part of a radical shake-up, which will see Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS trust target services for those with the most severe or complex illnesses.

This is in addition to 30 posts already vacant across Surrey. It is part of a wider plan to save the trust £1.5m.

CROWDS of doctors, nurses and trade unionists marched through Canterbury city centre on Saturday to protest about proposed cuts to the NHS.

CROWDS of doctors, nurses and trade unionists marched through Canterbury city centre on Saturday to protest about proposed cuts to the NHS.

Almost 100 people with banners and megaphones, including members campaign group Stop The Cuts, mingled among shoppers and chanted: “No ifs, no buts, no NHS cuts.”

Chris Weller, chairman of Stop The Cuts, warned “Local services are going to be devastated. In Kent, nine old peoples’ homes are shutting and 1,500 jobs are to be lost at the county council.

NHS chiefs struggle with cuts / Britain / Home – Morning Star

 

Government cuts are forcing NHS managers to worry more about balancing the books than improving patient care, the NHS Confederation warned today.

With the government forcing cuts of between £15 and £20 billion each year in the NHS, a poll by the NHS Confederation found 63 per cent of healthcare managers put balancing finances as one of the top three issues facing them this year. Thirty-one per cent said it was the most important issue.

Meanwhile 46 per cent put trying to maintain, protect and improve the quality of services in their three most important issues with 19 per cent putting it as the top priority.

NHS shakeup risks return to 1930s, warns leading doctor | Politics | The Guardian

The government’s deliberate dismantling of parts of the NHS risks returning healthcare provision back to the grim and unfair days of the 1930s and 40s, one of Britain’s leading doctors has warned.

The sweeping reforms are in danger of turning the service into “an increasingly tattered safety net” for those with complex illnesses such as diabetes and obesity because private healthcare firms will “cherry-pick” patients who are easy to treat, said Dr Mark Porter, the chairman of the British Medical Association’s hospital consultants committee.

Its ability to provide a comprehensive and universal service could be lost because of health secretary Andrew Lansley’s plan to force hospitals to compete with independent, profit-driven providers for patients, Porter told the Guardian.

Health bill means service will be forced to compete with private firms | Society | The Guardian

“There are things that people in Britain want provided by the state, and health is one of them. Every opinion poll of the British public shows that. We don’t want competing police forces or competing magistrates courts, so why is it planned to compel hospitals to compete with each other?” says Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s consultants committee.

He reflects the deep anxiety, not just in the BMA but across much of the wider medical establishment, about health secretary Andrew Lansley’s imposition of free-market methods in the NHS in England. If the health and social care bill, currently before the Commons, goes through without substantial amendment, then the NHS will be thrust into a new era in which “any willing provider” – NHS organisations, private healthcare firms or charities – can bid for contracts to treat patients. In addition, hospitals will be obliged to compete for patients and all hospitals will have to become foundation trusts, largely and deliberately outside the health secretary’s control, by 2014.

Porter is adamant that a healthcare system run on a deliberately competitive basis cannot deliver care of a universally high standard, as the NHS seeks to do. Winners and losers are inevitable. He draws a comparison between healthcare and food supply to illustrate what he sees as the folly of the government’s radical restructuring of the NHS.

Cuts put future of more than 50 hospitals at risk – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

The future of at least 50 hospitals is under threat from the unprecedented squeeze on NHS finances, evidence shows.

Alarm about cuts to services outweighs all other concerns for senior managers of NHS trusts as they struggle to balance their books, the NHS Confederation says. Worries about finances far outstrip concerns about implementing the Government’s reforms, which some dismiss as a sideshow.

About 70 hospital trusts in England have failed to achieve the financial performance and quality of care necessary to become foundation trusts and “a significant number” have “large recurrent deficits”, according to the King’s Fund. In a report titled Reconfiguring Hospital Services the charity warned of “a downward spiral of falling income, growing deficit and declining quality [which] will cause hospitals to fail.”

Medical care: The non-national health service | Editorial | Society | The Guardian

The promise of the NHS was a simple guarantee: no matter who you were or where you lived in the country, it would be seen to that you got the best available care. Whenever standards fell short – whenever, in Aneurin Bevan’s phrase, a bedpan was dropped – the echoes would reverberate through Whitehall. Inevitably, there was always an element of myth here, as well as doubts about the centralism involved, but it was precisely by putting the national into the service that the Clement Attlee government removed the financial dimension from medical anxieties.

Mark Porter’s complaint is that the coalition is about to remove the N from the HS. After passing seven years in opposition ingratiating himself with the doctors, Andrew Lansley ought to pay attention to the chair of the BMA consultants’ committee. Damned as “Maoist” by the entrapped Vincent Cable, the big experiment planned will simultaneously attempt a once-and-for-all great leap forward, and a cultural revolution that will smash central authority. The known unknowns are legion. One of the few safe bets is that things will play out differently in different places.

Consider the planned diminution in the powers of Nice, the body established to inject rationality into the drug rationing process. Set aside the overhaul of drug-pricing, and the Lansley plan amounts to leaving GPs to decide whose pricey pills will and will not be funded. Their decisions are not going to be in any way “national”; indeed that is precisely the point. Even without the prospect of outright bidding wars for cheap operations (something Mr Lansley was recently forced to preclude), with the right financial engineering, some doctors may profit from saying no. The greatest hurricane is the proposed regulatory duty to promote competition from “any willing provider”.

Jeremy Laurance: Lansley faces landmark decision over NHS closures – Commentators, Opinion – The Independent

Andrew Lansley is to meet local MPs and the council in Enfield, north London, this week in what is being seen as a test case for hospital closures across the country. The Health Secretary has to decide whether to block plans approved by NHS London to close the A&E unit at Chase Farm Hospital, first proposed 17 years ago, and transfer maternity and children’s services to North Middlesex Hospital, six miles away.

He announced a moratorium on closures following the election, after Tory MPs opposed re-organisations across the country during the election campaign. There is now a pent-up bulge of at least 25 planned “reconfigurations”, and the decision on Chase Farm will signal to the NHS whether it can re-organise services to save cash and improve care.

The proposals for Chase Farm are deemed by NHS London to have met the “four tests” laid down by the Government: they are supported by patients and the public; they take account of patient choice; they are approved by local GPs; and they are based on sound clinical evidence. But there is continuing disquiet over a reduction in patient choice.

Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms ‘will turn health service back to the 1930s’ | Mail Online

Plans to reform the NHS could return healthcare provision to the days of the 1930s and 40s, one of Britain’s leading doctors has warned.

Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s hospital consultants committee, criticised health secretary Andrew Lansley’s plan to make NHS hospitals compete with private companies.

Opening NHS care in England to ‘any willing provider’ could result in the closure of local hospitals and see some patients denied care by private providers because they are expensive to treat, he said.

Management in Practice – Biggest NHS challenge ‘balancing books’

The biggest challenge to NHS managers comes from money-saving measures and balancing the books, a new study has found.

Just under 300 health service chairmen and senior executives said their main concern was keeping their trusts stable in a financial sense.

The NHS has been told to cut between £15bn and £20bn each year from its budget, with unions warning this will mean as many as 50,000 job cuts.

7/3/11 Update.

A special mention for Dr. Grumble. Nice post Dr. Grumble and interesting what the cat found. I wish my local authority would pay attention to what you’re saying about parks and green spaces instead of desperately trying to sell off and cover everything in concrete.

Dr Grumble: One Policy fits all

Dr Grumble has a Japanese doctor working with him. His name is Ren. The other day he asked Dr Grumble why there are so many parks in London. According to Ren, there are no parks in Tokyo. A quick Google search suggests that this might not quite be true and a look at Google maps seems to show a few patches of green in Tokyo. But a comparison with a map of London suggests that we do have much more green space. Ren asked why. Dr Grumble had to think on his feet. He told Ren it was to do with common land. Ren’s face looked blank. Perhaps they don’t have such a concept in Japan. Grumble needed a more understandable explanation. Quickly he made up a story about the king needing somewhere to go hunting. Ren nodded. That was something he could grasp.
Recently Dr Grumble went to his local forest to protest. He didn’t want to risk the sale of the woods near his home to a private company. A forest is not worth much. Not as a forest anyway. But if you could sell it to be used for something else it would be worth quite a bit more. So, if the local wood were to fall into the hands of a private company, the shareholders would want to make money out of it. You can be sure that they would chip away at any regulations preventing them from doing this. They might not succeed tomorrow or in five years or in ten years but the woods need to be preserved forever. The likelihood is that repeated planning applications would eventually be met with approval for the odd plot of land to be sold off for, say, housing. In this way, bit by bit, over many years the woods would disappear. Once gone they would be gone forever.

Over the years how many people have fought for the green spaces in London? Dr Grumble has no idea. One thing is certain: if it had been left to the market the green spaces in London would have gone long ago. People out to make money have been been prevented from concreting over our parks and commons. That’s why Grumble did his bit for posterity and protested in the woods.

And who knows? Maybe our London parks have made us money. Maybe that is partly why Japanese tourists like to visit London. Maybe the quality of life our parks and gardens bring even attracts bankers to London. Perhaps even they realise that there is more to life than money. We cannot know. And it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we need these green spaces because we like them and governments have a duty to protect things of value to society especially when, once those things are gone, they are gone forever.

… [continues]

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.

Doctors Think NHS Reforms Bring More Risks Than Benefits, With High Levels Of Concern About Increased Competition, Shows Ipsos MORI Survey For BMA, UK

The vast majority of doctors are not convinced that potential benefits of the government’s plans for the NHS in England outweigh the risks, an online survey for the BMA suggests today (Thursday 3 March 2011). An Ipsos MORI survey of BMA members, carried out in January this year, reveals a range of views, but widespread concern about plans to increase competition, even among the minority of doctors who are generally supportive of the changes.

The statements garnering the highest levels of agreement among the 1,645 respondents are:

* Increased competition in the NHS will lead to a fragmentation of services (89% agree)
* Increased competition in the NHS will reduce the quality of patient care (65% agree)
* The move for all NHS providers to become, or be part of, foundation trusts will damage NHS values (66% agree)
* The proposed system of clinician-led commissioning will increase health inequalities (66% agree)

Doctors fear private sector will damage NHS | Healthcare Network | Guardian Professional

Research involving 1,645 BMA members polled about the government’s health and social care bill has found that 89% think increased competition will lead to fragmentation of services, while 66% believe that the move for all NHS acute providers to reside within foundation trusts will damage NHS values.

The poll, conducted online in January by Ipsos Mori, also shows that nearly 60% of those surveyed think health secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans will have a negative impact on their personal role within the NHS, with 31% saying it will be a major one and 27% saying it will be minor. A specific concern, feared by a majority of those polled, is that the reforms will mean they spend less time with patients – something opposed by almost all those questioned.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of council at the BMA, said that the results show that the government “can no longer claim widespread support among doctors”.

Andreas Whittam Smith: Wholesale privatisation is not what people voted for – Andreas Whittam Smith, Commentators – The Independent

A White Paper with a simple title that disguises a development of huge significance is due any day now. It will be called “Open Public Services”. In reality it is a plan to privatise many government functions. And the question that arises is this: were the political parties that comprise the Coalition Government given a mandate to make such dramatic changes at the general election held only 10 months ago?

The key part of the legislation that the White Paper foreshadows would be the establishment of a presumption that public services should be open to a range of providers competing to offer a better service. In other words, any supplier that could show the Government that it could do a better job than the state would get the business. Only national security and the judiciary would be exempt from the possibility of privatisation.

Would it work like this? “Dear Health Minister. We are a group of brain surgeons that have secured funding for constructing a state-of-the art neurological hospital in outer London. We would like to take over all neurological procedures from the NHS in South-east England. Yours etc.”

Doctors blast David Cameron’s ‘flawed’ NHS reforms – mirror.co.uk

GPs have branded the Tory-led Government’s health reforms as “flawed” and damaging to patients.

Almost 90% believe the changes will fragment the NHS and 65% think it will harm service quality.

Almost nine out of 10 told a British Medical Association poll the reforms will lead to greater competition. Just 21% thought this would benefit patients. A further 61% believe they will have less time for the sick because of increased bureaucracy.

One in four NHS trusts slash out-of-hours care budgets | Mail Online

A quarter of health trusts have slashed spending on GP out-of-hours care, raising fears that patient safety is being put at risk.

Doctors said the cuts almost certainly mean managers are reducing the number of GPs employed to work nights or weekends.

Trusts are also likely to be more inclined to use cheaper, foreign locums rather than experienced GPs from the local area who often demand higher pay.

UNISON Press | Press Releases Front Page

Commenting on Monitor’s warning to Tameside NHS Trust over its spending, after the regulator found the Trust to be in “significant breach” of its terms, Paul Foley, regional officer for the North West, said:

“Tameside Trust’s debt proves how hard the NHS is being hit by the Government’s financial squeeze. Bankruptcy is a real risk because of the Government’s savage health reforms.

“Tameside is one of the most deprived areas in the UK and has huge health problems. Monitor is only interested in Trusts making financial savings and fails to recognise the difficulties such communities suffer.

Privateers to get hold of GPs’ budget / Britain / Home – Morning Star

The real danger of NHS privatisation was laid bare today after plans emerged to set up a private company that would take control of GPs’ commissioning budget.

Private health firm IHP has outlined proposals for a consortium’s NHS commissioning budget to be handed over to a private company in which GPs would own a 20 per cent stake – leading to practices being partially floated on the stock market.

Under the Health and Social Care Bill, currently at committee stage in Parliament, GP consortiums will control £80 billion of NHS funds to commission to patients from 2013.

Leaked letter shows how GPs could profit from reform » Hospital Dr

A Channel 4 News investigation reveals that under the reforms of the NHS, GPs could end up making decisions based on profit rather than the clinical needs of the patient.

The NHS reforms plan to put up to 80% of the budget into the hands of family doctors. GP practices will form consortia and they will buy – or commission – the care.

It is widely acknowledged that not all GPs will want to run or manage the consortia. This means there is a business opportunity for private companies and already many are lining up to offer their services.

But a document leaked anonymously to Channel 4 News shows how one such company plans to work with GP consortia. What is startling about it is how it quite clearly sets out the way in which both the company, in this case called Integrated Health Partners, and the GPs, might make a profit.

Regulator warns NHS faces price competition | GP online

Speaking exclusively to GP, Monitor chairman David Bennett agreed that the Health Bill paves the way for providers to compete on price.

In a recent letter to NHS staff, the NHS chief executive said there was ‘no question’ of price competition in the NHS.

Mr Bennett, former head of policy for Tony Blair, became chairman of Monitor this week, having served as interim chief executive since March 2010. ‘I understand why people are nervous about price competition,’ he said. ‘But over time there will be areas where it is useful.’

Doctors reject reform of NHS – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

Ministers are facing a growing rebellion from doctors over their plans to reform the NHS.

A major online survey for the British Medical Association found most doctors were not convinced the potential benefits of the plan outweighed the risks. Of the 1,500 doctors questioned by Ipsos MORI, 65 per cent believed increased competition in the NHS would reduce the quality of patient care.

A similar percentage believed the proposed system of clinician-led commissioning would increase health inequalities.

GPs fear NHS funding policy could trigger MPs’ expenses-style scandals | Society | The Guardian

Britain’s most senior family doctor has warned of a potential scandal similar to the row over MPs’ expenses after an investigation revealed GP practices could boost their income by diverting cash meant for patients to pay instead for their surgeries and equipment.

The finding highlights a key concern about the government’s health bill – which nine out of 10 doctors now openly fear will damage the NHS – because £80bn of NHS spending is to be handed to doctors in general practice to buy treatments for patients.

Health Service Journal has examined trials of GP-led commissioning in the last two years. The magazine used a series of freedom of information requests to discover that, rather than using the funds to set up new services for patients, hundreds of practices used the cash to buy basic equipment for their surgeries, including stethoscopes, thermometers and weighing scales.

GPs say reforms will damage doctor-patient relationship, BMA poll finds | GP online

The wide-ranging poll highlights a number of serious concerns among GPs about the reforms, particularly around the impact of GP commissioning on patient care and the drive to increase competition in the NHS.

The BMA said it shows that the government can no longer claim widespread support among doctors for the reforms. It urged the government to act on the concerns raised by doctors.

The survey, which was carried out by Ipsos MORI, showed 72% think GP commissioning will damage the GP-patient relationship.

Doctors reject reform of NHS – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

Ministers are facing a growing rebellion from doctors over their plans to reform the NHS.

A major online survey for the British Medical Association found most doctors were not convinced the potential benefits of the plan outweighed the risks. Of the 1,500 doctors questioned by Ipsos MORI, 65 per cent believed increased competition in the NHS would reduce the quality of patient care.

A similar percentage believed the proposed system of clinician-led commissioning would increase health inequalities.

 

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