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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.

Cuts put pregnant women’s lives at risk / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Health campaigners warned today that thousands of job cuts at NHS trusts could lead to more women dying of infections contracted during pregnancy.

A record number of pregnant women are contracting group A streptococcal disease (GAS), according to research by experts at the Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE).

GAS develops into the so-called “flesh-eating bug” where bacteria penetrates deep into the skin or bloodstream. It is commonly found on the skin and inside the throat and in less serious cases causes minor skin infections.

But pregnant women and those who have just delivered are particularly at risk from a more serious type that is potentially fatal.

The centre issued a warning to health workers to be alert to signs of GAS after a steady increase in the number of pregnant women dying from it.

Plea to save heart unit – Local – Wakefield Express

A MUM whose little girl suffers from congenital heart disease fears she may be forced to travel hundreds of miles for treatment because of NHS cuts.

Susan Bastow’s nine-year-old daughter Ebony Fisher goes for check-ups to the children’s heart Surgery unit at Leeds General Infirmary every six months.

But the unit is at risk of closure due to the NHS Safe and Sustainable review.

Unions to launch joint NHS campaign – Frontline magazine – News and analysis – Members – The CSP

The CSP is linking up with other health unions to lobby over the Health and Social Care Bill as it makes its passage through parliament.

‘The CSP has grave concerns about the scope and speed of the structural changes proposed in the bill,’ says Lesley Mercer, director of Employment Relations and Union Services.

The society believes they present a major risk to the quality of patient care and the future of the NHS, resulting in increased costs, fragmented care and an unacceptable postcode lottery of services across the country.

There is no evidence base to back the proposed changes, which will be costly to implement and will divert attention away from finding the unprecedented £20 billion of efficiency savings that the NHS has to deliver by 2015, the society believes.

Tories try to sell off blood service|5Mar11|Socialist Worker

BBC News – Meeting over Oxford children’s heart surgery plan

Pulse – GPs have ‘no confidence’ in Andrew Lansley

Consultant tells of Stafford Hospital A&E understaffing « Express & Star

Two top doctors who organised treatment for the UK’s sickest swine flu patients this winter are fighting for the survival of their own heart centre.

Pulse – Private firms and GP consortia team up in profit-sharing schemes

Government ‘paving way for London casualty units to shut’ | News

Private company in talks with GPs to profit from patient spending savings | Public Leaders Network | guardian.co.uk

Pulse – GPs ‘not in the driving seat’ for NHS reforms, GPC warns

NHS reform could see GP surgeries on stock market | Society | The Guardian

Leaked document shows how doctors can profit from NHS reform – Channel 4 News

Fears for future of hospice £1m funding (From The Bolton News)

MOTHERS are pleading with NHS bosses to save the children’s heart unit which helped keep their sons and daughters alive.

NHS continues to pay for PFI | Healthcare Network | Guardian Professional

YourLeekPaper | News | MP hits back following NHS job loss shock

NHS Reforms May Endanger Patient Confidentiality, BMA Warns – Hospital Management

Pulse – List-cleansing drive ‘to wipe off 40% of patients’

SINCE 2001, the number of births in England has risen by 100,000 to over 706,000, the highest in 25 years.

NHS surgeon: the reality of ‘choice’ could hit healthcare – Channel 4 News

Pulse – Private firms and GP consortia team up in profit-sharing schemes

Unions hit out at NHS proposals (From Your Local Guardian)

UNISON Press | Press Releases Front Page

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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.

Redcar illness rates some of the worst in NHS – Local News – News – Gazette Live

REDCAR’S health trust, ambulance staff and mental health workers covering Teesside have some of the worst sickness rates in the country.

In July, August and September, NHS sickness rates across the North-east were 4.31%, 4.16% and 4.37% respectively, well above England’s average of 3.99%, 3.82% and 4.11%.

However, Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health services, had sickness rates of 5.37%, 5.38% and 5.61%.

A spokeswoman for the trust said: “A range of measures to help improve staff wellbeing and reduce sickness absence rates have recently been put in place and more are planned. The early signs are promising.”

Cambridgeshire and Peterbourough NHS Foundation Trust criticised by health watchdog – News – Cambridge First

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) says Cambridgeshire and Peterbourough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) is failing to meet five essential standards required of it and “won’t hesitate to use enforcement powers if improvements are not made swiftly”.

The concerns raised by the CQC included care plans failing to be “person centred”, a seclusion suite not meeting environmental or Mental Health Act requirements, less than robust incident reporting and auditing systems when it comes to safeguarding vulnerable people from abuse and a poor standard of decor in one ward which “does not promote the dignity and wellbeing of people using services”.

Staffing levels were also picked out as a problem area with “not always sufficient numbers of staff with the right competencies, knowledge, qualifications, skills and experience available to meet the needs of patients”.

GP raises confidentiality concerns over patients files plans (From York Press)

A YORK family doctor says he fears for patient confidentiality under the Government’s plans for the future of the NHS.

Acomb GP Brian McGregor, vice chairman of the North Yorkshire branch of the Local Medical Committee, said private medical records may have to be shared with local authorities as they take on more public health responsibilities.

Under the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill, local councils would be given control of areas such as commissioning carers or running health awareness campaigns.

Dr McGregor said: “They will not only have access to your medical records but be able to disclose it for any number of undisclosed reasons.”

Leeds General Infirmary children’s heart surgery: Petition passes 11,000 | Leeds | guardian.co.uk

A petition to save the children’s heart surgery unit from closure at Leeds General Infirmary has smashed through the 11,000 signature mark.

More than 8,000 people have signed the petition in the past fortnight after an NHS review of children’s heart surgery provision across the country put the LGI unit at risk.

The Save Our Heart Surgery Unit campaign is now aiming to collect 20,000 signatures – you can sign the petition here. The campaign has also set up a Facebook group which has more than 1,500 supporters and is encouraging people to lobby their MP.

Cheltenham MP speaks out about Government plans for NHS|Gloucestershire news

LIERBAL Democrat MP Martin Horwood has voiced concerns over the coalition Government’s plans to reform the NHS.

The Cheltenham MP fears the proposed overhaul of health care in the country runs the risk of quite serious destabilisation in the NHS.

The Health and Social Care Bill, which is going through Parliament, would hand the purse strings to family doctors.

Hugh Bayley: IS the National Health Service in danger? – Columnists – Yorkshire Post

There has been plenty of comment about the Government’s plans to order another NHS reorganisation, introduce competition and pass chunks of the NHS budget to private hospitals, but this misses the £20bn question. Will the NHS have enough money to keep pace with relentlessly rising demand for health care?

The Government has set the NHS three tough financial challenges. First, their spending review cut the annual increase in funding to 0.1 per cent a year for four years – and rising inflation has already turned this into a 0.1 per cent cut. Under Labour, the NHS budget grew by 5.7 per cent a year to keep pace with demand.

Second, the spending review has switched £1bnn a year from health to social care – which is good for frail elderly and disabled people but bad for those needing hospital treatment.

Third, the Government has ordered “efficiency” savings of £20bn by 2014 – a squeeze of four per cent a year. Political parties talk about efficiency savings when in opposition, but it is brave in government.

Where will these savings come from? Over the next two years, Ministers say almost half will come from their freeze on pay. I was a health service trade union negotiator when Jim Callaghan’s Labour government imposed pay restraint in the 1970s. The current Government may make their pay freeze stick for two years, but it will be followed by a pay bounce.

NHS record on cancer survival rates criticised by MPs | World news | The Guardian

Cancer care in the NHS still falls short of comparable European countries despite 10 years of investment and government initiatives, according to an influential House of Commons committee.

A report from the public accounts committee says too many people are dying of cancer in England within a year of diagnosis, usually because they do not seek help when they have symptoms or their GP does not recognise the disease. It is estimated that 10,000 more lives could be saved every year if survival rates were as good as the best in Europe.

The committee gives credit to the Department of Health and the cancer tsar appointed by the last government, Professor Sir Mike Richards, for the progress in the last decade, but says it is not enough.

New Statesman – The BMA should oppose the health reforms

Since the announcement of changes to the NHS in July 2010, the BMA has practised a cautious approach of critically engaging with the coalition’s proposals. Concerns which have been highlighted have largely been ignored by the government. The independent trade union and professional association represents over 140,000 members and could be a strong voice. At the Special Representatives Meeting (SRM) of the BMA convened for 15 March 2011 the views of all doctors across the country have the chance to be heard for the first time.

A snapshot survey of doctors throughout the country found an increasing opinion that at the SRM the body must move to all-out opposition to the Health and Social Care Bill. All respondents to the survey recognised absolutely a need for change in the NHS. None felt the proposed reforms represented the correct solution.

Pulse – GPs told to delay referrals until April

Exclusive: Thousands of GPs are being told to delay referrals until the next financial year, sparking fears that consortia will be passed crippling ‘legacy debts’ in the form of back-logged hospital activity.

The Government bowed to pressure following Pulse’s A Clean Slate campaign and spared consortia debt built up by PCTs in this financial year – but anything accumulating from April will be GPs’ responsibility.

A Pulse survey of 450 GPs has found as many as one GP in eight has been asked to delay referrals for the final quarter of the year until April, as trusts desperately seek short-term fixes for deficits.

EXETER will see the highest number of public sector job losses in the region, according to economists.

EXETER will see the highest number of public sector job losses in the region, according to economists.

Experts say this is largely due to the city being a key administrative centre serving a wider area.

It is home to both the city and county councils, while “substantial losses” are also expected in Exeter’s health and emergency services, points out the report by the South West Observatory – a research body for regional decision-makers.

BBC News – Government health reform plans ‘unethical’ warns BMA

A key element of the government’s NHS reform programme has been branded “disgracefully unethical” by the British Medical Association (BMA).

Dr Laurence Buckman says a system of incentive payments for GPs could be seen as rewarding them for withdrawing treatment.

The “Quality Premium” will be paid as part of health service reform plans.

Tories lying about our NHS – Letters – The Star

Another day another lie from the Tory-Lib Dem con merchants.

This time ‘Posh’ Dave Cameron told us all the NHS was safe in the Tory ‘nasty party’s’ hand yet we are now told by activist group ‘False Economy’ that at least 50,000 NHS jobs will go.

This is another blatant lie told by ‘Posh’ Dave while looking we public straight in the eye with his lies.

Lib-Dems threaten revolt over reforms that ‘put NHS at risk’ | News

Senior Lib-Dems are threatening to oppose Health Secretary Andrew Lansley‘s flagship reshaping of the NHS giving GPs control over the bulk of its budget. MPs and peers accused Mr Lansley of putting the NHS at risk by pushing through “monumental reorganisation” while seeking £20 billion of efficiency savings.

Andrew George, who sits on the Commons health committee, warned: “The Government has already gone through three red signals and is heading for an avoidable high-speed train crash.

“Although the easy pickings from the wreckage will be gleefully picked up by the private sector, most informed observers are warning that the rest of the NHS may be fatally wounded.”

NHS cuts mean closure of Brierfield nursery – News – Burnley Express

A BRIERFIELD nursery is set to close in April as it is no longer financially viable.

The Tree House Nursery, based in the Family Tree Centre in Tunstill Square, opened its doors four and a half years ago offering a service for children aged between six months and five years.

Despite growing numbers of children at the nursery, NHS East Lancashire has decided to close it as it has relied on additional funding from the Family Tree Centre that is no longer available.

NHS threatened by ‘disruptive’ reforms, says Shirley Williams | Politics | guardian.co.uk

Shirley Williams, a Liberal Democrat peer, has challenged Andrew Lansley’s plan to reform the NHS, saying it will “dismember” the service through an “untried and disruptive” reorganisation.

Williams said in a column in the Times that she remains “unconvinced” by the health secretary’s policy to reshape the National Health Service by scrapping health authorities and handing over funding control to GPs.

The health and social care bill outlines plans to hand 80% of the NHS budget to family doctors who are forming consortiums to work on commissioning services.

Why are the Lib Dems betraying the NHS? » Hospital Dr

Traditionally, the Liberal Democrats have always stood on a political platform promoting a more just and progressive society, based on a mixed economy, supporting public institutions to ensure equal opportunities for all.

They have a proud heritage in assuming responsibility for the social security and health of the nation’s citizens, which includes David Lloyd George’s introduction of a welfare system between 1908-14. This was followed by the Beveridge report in 1942, which led to the creation of the Welfare state and set the foundations for the formation of the NHS by the Labour Party.


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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.

Some Hospitals Would Find It ‘Difficult’ To Survive Under
Lansley’s NHS Reforms…

Hospital trust has debts of £6million

Health Bill ‘breaks promise’ on GPs’ power to commission, says BMA

NHS shake-up ‘overly restrictive’

BMA attacks health bill’s ‘power to GPs’ pledge

Reforms ‘may not give GPs freedom’

BMA Advises Against Plans of Job Cuts by the Pennine Acute Trust

Some Hospitals Would Find It “Difficult” To Survive Under
Lansley’s NHS

NHS trust set to axe one in 10 staff

Pennine Acute Trust job cuts will impact patients – BMA

604 NHS jobs will be axed in north Essex

1,000 hospital jobs to go in Burnley and Blackburn in NHS cuts

Fears over impact of NHS shake-up

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Condems intend to destroy the NHS

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Conservative election poster 2010

The National Health Service (NHS) is regarded fondly by many people in UK. Although not perfect, it is there when people are ill, when they need help and support when they are most vulnerable. The UK Conservative and Liberal-Democrat – ConDem – coalition government intends to abolish the NHS through privatisation while pretending to reform it and give users more control.

The UK has traditionally had a mixed economy – services provided by public and private bodies. The public institutions traditionally provided infrastructure such as health, council housing, transport and postal services.

The role of the public sector has been diminishing in recent decades under successive Conservative governments’ pursuing the evil ideology or dogma of privatisation. The previous openly Conservative government of Thatcher, etc privatised UK’s train service. Tony Blair was a Conservative – acually a Neo-Con or Crypto-Fascist – pretending to be a Labour party politican. He introduced swathes of privatisation into the NHS e.g. he continued the previous administration’s fetish of hugely expensive PFI hospitals, completed the privatisation of the train service and repeatedly tried to privatise the Post Office. The current ConDems government intends to privatise the Post Office and sell publically-owned forests.

Privatised train services in UK are now close to useless. The service is unreliable with extortionate and prohibative prices. Imagine the NHS running to the standards of the UK’s train service if you dare.

There is huge opposition to the ConDems intention to destroy the NHS from health service professionals. Quoted below is a recent article from the Guardian. Please note the links to different groups of health professionals at the end.

Is anyone in favour of Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms?

Cameron and Lansley are pressing on with their shakeup – undeterred by a broad coalition of opposition

It is the biggest shakeup in the history of the country’s best-loved institution, and a high-stakes political gamble even for a government intent on pushing through radical change. The health secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans to transform the NHS in England have united in opposition doctors, health thinktanks (and the right-of-centre thinktank Civitas), unions representing the 1.4m-strong NHS workforce, health academics, MPs on the health select committee, the NHS’s major employers, and patients’ representatives.

Even David Cameron’s brother-in-law, an NHS cardiologist, thinks the government has got it wrong, the prime minister admitted last week.

Cameron and Lansley are pressing on undeterred. The plans will see England’s 152 primary care trusts and 10 strategic health authorities abolished, and consortiums of GPs commissioning £80bn a year of healthcare. They will be able to opt for treatment from “any willing provider” – NHS, private healthcare or charity – fuelling suspicions that the result will be the privatisation of the NHS.

Hospitals will be forced to compete with each other, and other providers, for patients. Ministers say this is necessary to improve the quality of care and help the NHS become more efficient, so it can solve the riddle of tight budgets at a time of rising demand.

But do the proposals spell, to quote the chair of the Royal College of GPs, “the end of the NHS as we know it”? The Lancet medical journal says that, given the impending “catastrophic breakup”, the Tories’ pre-election claim to be the party of the NHS “seems particularly hollow”.

Here key figures set out their concerns:

GPs

Midwives

Nurses

Hospital doctors

Public health experts

NHS managers

[Ideas are free …]

Continue ReadingCondems intend to destroy the NHS

How Cameron and the CONdems intend to privatise the NHS

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Make no mistake David Cameron and the CONdem government intend the wholesale privatisation of the National Health Service. It is privatisation not reform or modernisation.

The plan to give GPs control over the NHS is simply a ruse. GPs don’t have the inclination, time or resources for these extra responsibilities. Should this measure proceed, GPs will simply devolve these responsibilities to private contractors ~ ergo PRIVATISATION. GPs don’t want a privatised NHS and I would urge them to vigorously object to these measures.

It does matter that the NHS is a public authority to the majority of the UK people and it is blatently clear that the CONdems do not have a mandate to dismantle it. Ding, ding. Closing time for the CONdems.

Continue ReadingHow Cameron and the CONdems intend to privatise the NHS