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Critic of Health Bill claims Lansley ‘smear’

 

An NHS chief who spoke out against the Government’s controversial Health Bill last night claimed he had been the target of political “smears” by Andrew Lansley’s department.

Professor John Ashton, the head of public health in Cumbria, who was awarded a CBE for services to the NHS, claimed that someone on behalf of the Health Secretary called his local BBC radio station to allege that he could not speak objectively because he was a member of the Labour Party.

The 64-year-old said he had been a member since he was 17, but it was an “outrageous smear” to suggest this clouded his independence as a doctor.

<original post snipped>

NHS bill opposition
Opposition to Health and Social Care Bill in context. http://www.nhscampaign.org/

 

http://www.nhscampaign.org/NHS-reforms/the-reality-behind-the-hype.html

Mis-sold, ill-conceived, unsupported

We have all heard about how the government’s health bill will make the NHS a better service: more clinician-led and more patient-centred. We have also been warned by the Prime Minister and his Health Secretary that their reforms are the only way to address the unprecedented financial and demographic pressures facing the NHS over the next few years. But how much of this salespitch is actually based on facts?

Below are some of the more common claims from the government – claims that simply don’t stand up to proper scrutiny. Click on any of the claims to reveal just a selection of the evidence that undermines them.

“Doing nothing is not an option.”

“We’re giving more power to GPs.”

“We’re going to cut bureaucracy.”

“We’re going to make the NHS better for patients.”

“We will never privatise the NHS.”

“We have listened and we have the support of NHS staff.”

 

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Conservative election poster 2010

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

There’s a warning that the illegitimate ConDem coalition government intends to lie in the coming week in an attempt to bolster support for the Health and Social Care / Destroy the NHS Bill.

Despicable ConDem scum intend to employ the lie that medical unions are using opposition to the bill to fight their seperate battle on pay and pensions.

ConDem scum also intend to push the lie that the bill will decrease health service bureaucracy.

The Standard has obtained a copy of a five-page briefing note for MPs, prepared by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley and No 10, on how to sell the shake-up which is being fiercely opposed by many doctors, nurses and health professionals.

In the briefing document, ministers accused unions of using the health reforms to fight their battle against pay and pension changes.

MPs were told to stress that the reforms, which will hand GPs more control over the £60 billion budget to commission health services, scrap primary care trusts and allow the private sector to play a greater role in the NHS, would mean:

More power to doctors and patients.

Competition to get better treatment.

Slashing bureaucracy to transfer money to the front line.

The three remaining royal colleges that do not currently oppose the bill will be voting in the next fortnight over whether to oppose the bill.

Tomorrow, grassroots members of the 26,000-strong Royal ­College of ­Physicians will attend their ­extraordinary general meeting where they will urge leaders to “kill the Bill”.

On March 8 the 25,000-­member Royal ­College of Surgeons will hold its EGM. Members will ­decide ­whether to come out in opposition to the plans. On March 9 the 15,000-strong Royal College of ­Obstetricians and ­Gynaecologists will gather to ­consider whether they should do the same.

If all three vote to oppose the Bill it will mean that all the hugely ­respected royal colleges are lined up against Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans. ­Privately officials from each group say that among their rank-and-file, opposition to the ­reforms are ­growing. They say they have listened to the Government’s ­arguments but it has failed to win them over. ­Opposition to the shake-up is growing as key ­parliamentary votes on the issue loom.

Labour Leader Ed Milliband calls for support from the Libe Dems

This week the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords must join with Labour to hole David Cameron’s health plans below the water line.

The House of Lords has the chance to puncture the arrogance of an out-of-touch Prime Minister who thinks he knows better than patients, nurses and doctors and persuade him to drop this Bill.

If they do not the betrayal by the Lib Dems in allowing this Bill through will be bigger than the row over ­university tuition fees.

They will betray not only the people who rely on today’s NHS, but also generations to come.

It will strike at the heart of Britain’s proudest institution.

Liberal Democrat president Tim Farron says that the bill should have been dropped.

 

…
Mr Farron said the legislation to implement Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s reforms should have been scrapped or “massively changed” at an earlier stage before it progressed this far and it would be “stupid” to ignore medics’ concerns over the proposals.

He demanded that all elements of new competition in the NHS should be stripped from the bill in order for Lib Dems to support it.

Lib Dem peers have tabled a number of amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill, which resumes its difficult passage through Parliament next week in the Lords.

Speaking on ITV Granada’s Party People Mr Farron, said: “Lots of us are guilty for allowing it to get as far as it has done now.

“Basically this should have been dealt with far earlier in the cycle.”

Asked whether that meant it should have been dropped, he said: “Dropped, massively changed.”
…

British Medical Association to ballot doctors on strike action over pensions

Ballot on strike over NHS pension changes will be first time doctors have voted on industrial action since 1975

The British Medical Association has decided to ballot doctors for industrial action over the government’s reform of the NHS pension scheme.

The ballot will be the first time that doctors have voted on such action since 1975.

The decision followed an overwhelming rejection by doctors and medical students of the “final” offer on pensions.

The BMA said the changes would see younger doctors paying more than £200,000 extra over their lifetime in pension contributions and working eight years longer, to 68. The highest earning doctors’ contributions would rise to 14.5%.

Officials have urged the government to reopen talks with the health unions, but said neither the Treasury nor the Department of Health had signalled any change to their position.

The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has said the NHS pension scheme is “amongst the best available anywhere”.

But a survey of 130,000 BMA members in January found almost two-thirds of the 46,000 who responded said they would be prepared to take some form of industrial action if the government did not change its offer.

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

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Conservative election poster 2010

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

Cumbria health boss John Ashton defends NHS reform letter

Cumbria’s director of public health has defended his right to speak out on the government’s planned health reforms.

Prof John Ashton co-signed a letter in a newspaper earlier this month. It defended the Royal College of GPs’ chair, who opposes reform.

NHS Cumbria said in a letter to Prof Ashton that it was “inappropriate” for him to express his personal views and summoned him to a meeting on Friday.

According to Prof Ashton, this meeting has now been postponed.

“Trying to gag me at this stage in my career won’t have an effect,” said Prof Ashton.

…

NHS reforms bill should be scrapped, say paediatricians

Royal college calls for withdrawal just days after NHS summit, saying most members are concerned it puts children at risk

 

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has called for the health bill to be withdrawn just three days after meeting the prime minister to discuss the controversial reforms.

Its president, Professor Terence Stephenson, said the college never supported the bill but it was now clear a substantial majority of voting members believed it “carries risk for children and young people“.

He said there was also deep concern among the wider health profession and public over the impact of the bill on patient care.

The government’s determination to push the bill through was “creating disaffection amongst the very people – the clinicians – who will be delivering these changes on the ground”, he said.

A survey of 1,492 college members published on Thursday found 79% wanted the Health and Social Care Bill to be scrapped. They voted for the college to call for the “outright withdrawal” of the bill rather than continue to push for amendments.

…

 

Lib Dem peers table package of amendments to health bill

Proposals addressing competition and regulation designed to defuse party anger over controversial legislation

The Liberal Democrat health front bench in the Lords has tabled a series of amendments to the health bill, designed to constrain competition and maintain regulation over foundation trusts. They are likely to be critical in deciding whether the Lib Dem leadership can fend off a party rebellion that could lead to the bill’s collapse and a rupture in the coalition.

…The leading Lib Dem health activist Martin Tod told the BBC that the Lib Dem peers’ amendments were helpful but would not be enough to satisfy those calling for the bill to be dropped.

“The bill is impossibly complicated, hugely disruptive at a time when the NHS needs to concentrate on efficiency savings and has little or no confidence from the people that are expected to implement it,” he said. “We want it withdrawn. You get to a point when something is so flawed that you try and fix it and you try and fix it, but the outcome is still not good enough.”

Tod expressed frustration with the party leadership, saying: “I don’t think they have engaged enough. There are some conversations going on with the leadership, but frankly it has been very hard to get their attention on this and make them realise the degree of concern there is.”

 

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

Andrew Lansley wins battle to keep NHS risk assessment under wraps

Labour motion demanding publication of document defeated despite growing disquiet among Tory and Lib Dem MPs

Health secretary Andrew Lansley looks more determined than ever not to reveal the findings of a risk assessment done on the government’s NHS shakeup.

Lansley won the support of MPs, who voted on Wednesday by a majority of 53 against a Labour motion that the Department of Health should make its document public. However, growing disquiet among some Conservative MPs and Liberal Democrats was voiced by Lib Dem MP John Pugh, who told the often bad-tempered debate that the bill was “toxifying the Tories” and “sadly detrimental” to his party.

Lansley suggested to MPs that he might refuse to release the risk register even if instructed to do so by a tribunal due to meet in a fortnight to judge on his dispute with the information commissioner, who has instructed him to publish.

Shameless immoral lying scumbag Lansley twice refused the opportunity to tell MPs he would accept the tribunal’s judgment. Answering deputy Lib Dem leader Simon Hughes, the health secretary instead quoted from an article in the Observer by the information commissioner, in which Christopher Graham said he was “not infallible”.

…

PM accused of NHS ‘deception’

…

Labour’s Easington MP Grahame Morris said Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron “has broken his promise of no top-down reorganisation by deploying WMD, weapons of mass deception, to conceal the true nature of his reforms.”

He added: “We know the danger to the future of the NHS with up to 49 per cent of work carried out in NHS hospitals done by the private sector and every service provided by the NHS put out to competitive tender, making it vulnerable to private sector takeover.”

 

Critic of NHS reforms demands health secretary apology

Speaking to Channel 4 News John Ashton, one of Cumbria’s top doctors, demands a government apology after being summoned to explain himself to local NHS chiefs for criticising planned health reforms.

Professor John Ashton, who is director of public health for Cumbria, told Channel 4 News that attempts to silence him were authoritarian and very scary, and he wants an apology from the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley after he received an official letter warning that he could be in breach of the NHS code of conduct.

According to the letter, the code made it “inappropriate for individuals to raise personal concerns about the proposed Government reforms”, and Profesor Ashton was asked to attend a meeting with the chief executive of NHS Cumbria to explain himself. The professor said he understood it didn’t come from the local Primary Care Trust – but those “higher up the food chain”.

…

Angry GPs fear shake-up poses major threat to future of NHS

Middleton’s GPs have joined a chorus of condemnation against the proposed shake-up of the NHS.

The Rochdale and Bury Local Medical Committee (RBLMC), which represents GPs in the area, fear the controversial Health and Social Care Bill could threaten the future of the NHS.

The bill, which has attracted widespread criticism, proposes giving GPs control of much of the NHS budget and opening up the health service to greater competition from the private and voluntary sector. The government believes the bill will make the NHS more accountable to patients, improve public health and cut bureaucracy slashing NHS management costs by 45 per cent.

But RBLMC secretary Dr Mohammed Jiva, from Peterloo Medical Centre on Manchester Old Road, fears the move will jeopardises the future of the NHS.

He said: “The majority of GPs, including the Royal College of General Practitioners supported by many other clinicians, all concur that the proposed Bill will be detrimental to the future of the NHS.

“Already the NHS locally has stopped funding many services that were historically available but which now needs to be privately paid for by the patient if the public requires the procedure.

“This is likely to get worse as the NHS attempts to make more savings by decommissioning more and more services.

…

 

 

 

 

 

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

NHS reforms: medical leaders demand publication of risk assessment

Doctors’ and nurses’ chiefs call for release of government’s own analysis of dangers ahead of Commons debate

Medical leaders are urging the government to end its “astonishing” refusal to publish its own assessment of the risks its NHS shakeup poses for the service and patients.

The leaders of Britain’s doctors, GPs, nurses and midwives are among an alliance of senior figures in healthcare who are demanding the release of the Department of Health (DH) analysis of the dangers involved in the radical restructuring of the NHS in England.

It should be made available “forthwith” so that parliamentarians scrutinising the health and social care bill can be fully informed about it before they give it final approval, they say. Hamish Meldrum, leader of the British Medical Association (BMA), the chair of the Royal College of GPs, Dr Clare Gerada, and the Royal College of Nursing’s chief executive, Dr Peter Carter, are among nine signatories of an open letter to ministers on the issue.

It was published on Wednesday morning, hours before MPs were due to stage a six-and-a-half-hour-long debate in the House of Commons in the afternoon. The debate was called by Labour to highlight the government’s refusal to release the NHS risk register. The information commissioner ruled last November that it should be published. There was “a very strong public interest in disclosure of the information, given the significant change to the structure of the health service the government’s policies on the modernisation will bring”, the commissioner said.

The DH appealed against that ruling, however. It claims that releasing the document would set an unwelcome precedent that would make ministers and civil servants reluctant to discuss the risks of certain policies in full detail. But its continued secrecy has prompted rising concern among MPs, peers and medical groups that potentially vital information is being wrongly withheld which could influence the bill’s passage through parliament.

…

Labour calls on Lib Dem MPs to support NHS risk register fight in Commons today

…Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, speaking ahead of Labour’s opposition day debate in the House of Commons today, is calling on Liberal Democrat MPs to support his call for the Government’s risk assessment on the Health Bill to be published.

The internal risk register drawn up by the Department of Health shows the impact of the Health and Social Care Bill.

Labour are calling on the Government to respect the ruling by the Information Commissioner and to publish the risk register associated with the Health and Social Care Bill in order to ensure that it informs public and parliamentary debate.

…

 

Why I had to confront Andrew Lansley about the NHS

The NHS doesn’t belong to whichever government is in power – it belongs to the people and we’re being bulldozed from all sides

I have been campaigning to protect the NHS from 1979 when the Conservative government started closing hospitals; in Wandsworth, where I live, they closed five. I campaigned under the Labour government, too. But this is the most frightening situation I have seen.

The NHS is so important to me because I was born outside it, so I know how difficult it is to live without it. I saw my father going to work when he was very ill, because he couldn’t afford to take time off. My mother was ill and he had to pay five shillings for the doctor, our rent was only 12 shillings, so he had to work even though he had emphysema. In those days you couldn’t afford to be ill – and that’s what’s going to happen again.

If this bill goes through it is another step towards privatisation and we will no longer have the same care for everyone. I won’t feel safe. Under the NHS I feel safe, but once it goes private who is accountable? Already it’s difficult to see a chiropodist, optician or dentist.

Lots of people want to tell Andrew Lansley what they think, but he doesn’t want to listen to them. Yesterday, for instance, only the few professional bodies who agreed with the bill were invited to a meeting in Downing Street. The majority, 98%, who oppose the bill, he wouldn’t even listen to.

…

 

Lib Dem activists promise NHS bill trouble

Lib Dem activists are preparing an emergency motion for their spring conference urging the party to work towards defeating the NHS reform bill.

It “applauds the hard work being done by Liberal Democrat peers to remove the worst elements” of the Health and Social Care Bill.

It notes the government has “totally failed to convince either the public or NHS staff” of the need for change.

…

 

Doctor who criticised NHS reforms is threatened with disciplinary action

Andrew Lansley is accused of bullying staff who speak out against NHS reforms after senior doctor is told to attend hearing

 

Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, has been accused of “bullying” NHS staff who speak out against his NHS shakeup after a senior doctor who signed a letter criticising the proposed changes was threatened with disciplinary action.

The doctor has been told to attend a disciplinary hearing later this week by the NHS primary care trust (PCT) that employs him. It claims he breached the NHS code of conduct by airing his concerns.

In the Commons Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, asked Lansley if the trust’s action showed it was now his “policy to threaten NHS staff with disciplinary action if they speak out about his reorganisation”. He challenged the minister to reconcile his “new top-down bullying policy” with his previous strong support for NHS whistleblowers.

Prof John Ashton, county medical officer for Cumbria, received a letter from his PCT last week after he joined 22 other signatories to a letter in a national newspaper criticising Lansley’s health and social care bill. The letter read: “You are bound by the NHS code of conduct and as such it is inappropriate for individuals to raise their personal concerns about the proposed government reforms.” Ashton will have to “explain and account” for his actions at the hearing.

…

[“You have mistaken my professional concerns as personal concerns. I am bound by the requirement to endevour to provide the best possible care for my patients”. Continue by explaining how proposed ‘reforms’ will adversely affect provision of care.]?

I’ve just tried to make an appointment to see my GP. I was offered one in a fortnight’s time. Looks like you need to book them before you get ill.

 

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