Ed Miliband highlights the huge increase in quangos and costs associated with the ConDems’ destruction of the NHS – quangos are to increase from 163 to 521. The RNIB reports that operations are not being performed because of cuts. Tower Hamlets GPs support striking public sector workers.

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.

NHS redundancies to cost public £852m – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

Taxpayers face an £852m bill for redundancies as a result of the Government’s shake-up of the National Health Service.

The Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who challenged David Cameron over the figure at Prime Minister’s Questions, warned that many of the staff being sacked by strategic health authorities and primary care trusts (PCTs) would be re-employed by the GP commissioning consortiums replacing PCTs.

Mr Miliband said the U-turn over the original reforms would increase the number of statutory organisations in the NHS from 163 to 521, instead of cutting bureaucracy as the Government suggested. “Is this what you meant by a bonfire of the quangos?” Mr Miliband asked.

The Prime Minister insisted the shake-up would save £5bn by cutting bureaucracy. He told Mr Miliband: “What we inherited was a situation where the number of managers was going up four times as fast as the number of nurses. What’s happened since we took over? The number of doctors has gone up, the number of bureaucrats has gone down.”

Patients denied sight-saving ops as NHS tries to save cash, RNIB warns – mirror.co.uk

PATIENTS are being denied sight-saving operations in an effort to save money, a charity claimed yesterday.

More than half of primary care trusts have introduced arbitrary tests for those who want cataracts removed, research by the RNIB found.

It said: “Patients are being forced to live with unnecessary sight loss. It is pretty clear this is cost-cutting.”

The RNIB found 70 of 133 PCTs that responded applied their own rules and ignored surgery guidelines. It said hip, teeth and knee operations are also under threat.

Pulse – GPs take to the streets to support public sector pension strikes

Dozens of GPs and practice staff in east London are to publicly protest in support of teachers, civil servants and other public sector colleagues striking over pension cuts.

Around 600,000 public sector workers are expected to walk out tomorrow over the Government’s proposed changes to pensions. It comes as the BMA’s annual representative meeting in Cardiff prepares to debate a motion calling for a ballot on ‘all forms of industrial action’ if consultants’ final-salary pensions are replaced by a career average scheme.

GPs and staff from practices across Tower Hamlets are planning two protests in high-visibility spots in the borough: one outside the council offices on Roman Road, the other on a traffic island in the middle of the A13.

Dr Anna Livingstone, a GP in Tower Hamlets and member of City and East London LMC, told Pulse: ‘We in Tower Hamlets feel very strongly against the [health] bill and in support of public service workers.’

‘GPs normally work through their lunch break, but tomorrow we won’t be doing so. Tomorrow we’ll use the time to make a statement in solidarity with those on strike.’

She added that the stark inequalities between rich and poor communities in the borough, which ranked in the top ten areas listed in the 2010 Indices of Deprivation, compelled herself and her colleagues to act.
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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.

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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 call for end to NHS postcode ‘injustice’ – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Doctors call for end to NHS postcode ‘injustice’

By Terri Judd

The injustice of a postcode lottery for medical treatment must end, doctors said yesterday as they began their annual conference.

In a series of heated debates they decried the financial constraints that were affecting patient care. To a standing ovation, British Medical Association (BMA) chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum said the NHS was facing the most difficult financial situation of its 63 year history and urged health chiefs not to “slash and burn” to save money.

London GP Chaand Nagpaul said he found it “shameful” that some seriously ill patients had to consider moving home to get treatment unavailable in their area, adding there were were huge variations “entirely dictated by where they live”.

His own Primary Care Trust, he explained, had a list of 85 low priority treatments. He could only refer hernia patients for operations if they were in significant pain, people with cataracts if their vision was impaired enough or those needing hip or knee replacements according to how much their mobility was affected.

“No patient should ever have to endure the injustice of having their treatment denied simply based on their post code,” he said. “The criteria for these are often subjective, adding to the lottery effect.” Doctors in his surgery, were trying to “find a way around” the restrictions so they could continue to refer patients strictly on clinical judgment, he explained.

“For knee and hip replacements, these are people who have significantly impaired mobility. They are elderly and it could make a difference between going to the shops or being housebound. It is hard to argue that anyone who has a clinical need for a hip replacement should be restricted,” said Dr Napaul.

Surgeon, Ian McNab added that there were too many examples of patients being deemed low priority because of incorrectly interpreted evidence and a danger some could suffer permanent damage if they were not referred swiftly enough. “We must ensure that PCTs and their successors understand the consequences of their decisions and take responsibility,” said Mr McNab.
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£600m cuts hit to elderly care / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Spending on social care for the elderly has been cut by more than £600 million this year, potentially putting lives at risk, charity Age UK said today.

Research by Age UK suggested older people’s care budgets had been slashed by a “devastating” 8.4 per cent as the government’s spending cuts bite.

This is despite a government pledge that more money would be invested in social care.

The figures were based on data obtained from councils under the Freedom of Information Act.

After 139 authorities responded, Age UK calculated that net expenditure on older people’s social care was falling by £610m in 2011/12 compared with 2010/11.

The charity also found that at least 61 councils were raising charges for services like home help and day care centres.

Age UK charity director Michelle Mitchell said: “Funding for social care is already inadequate and the system today is failing many older people at the time when they really need help.

“The consequences of cutting expenditure further to 8.4 per cent, indicated by our research, could be devastating.

“We are fearful that even more vulnerable older people will be left to struggle alone and in some cases lives will be put at risk.”
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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
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b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

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There has been a noticable reduction in NHS articles in the corporate media since the acceptance of the Future Forum’s recommendations following it’s ‘Listening Exercise’. The corporate press and indeed many stupid MPs have accepted that the Con-Dems’ evil plans to destroy and abolish the NHS have been defeated. Nothing could be further than the truth. If your intention is to abolish and destroy the NHS then that is achievable through creating an unwieldly, unworkable system.

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.

New Statesman – The hidden cost of NHS reform

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Whatever the sophistry of its proponents, a scheme in which of the provision of clinical care is outsourced to “any willing provider’ can, in reality, mean only one thing: that the potential provider of that care will primarily be judged not on how good that care will be but on how cheaply it will be given. Even leaving aside the additional pressures on costs which apply uniquely to private healthcare organisations (the generation of profit and the payment of dividends to its shareholders), the need to undercut its competitors in the NHS will inevitably impact on their primary item of expenditure: their staff. Fewer doctors and fewer nurses will have to work longer shifts: in other words, the very environment in which mistakes are most likely to happen. Good news for the lawyers: less so for the patients and for the taxpayer who has to foot the bill when a claim is made.

If it were necessary to test that theory against experience, one would need to look no further than the provision of out of hours GP care. Until April 2004, this service was provided in-house by Primary Care Trusts and/or GP practices. Since then, it has been possible for this to be out-sourced to independent commercial providers (a concept which should sound familiar to those examining the current NHS proposals).

In the event, such concern was generated by the succession of adverse events which followed that change that in June 2009 — and prompted by the tragic death of a patient in February 2008 after he was administered a gross overdose of diamorphine by a locum doctor from Germany — the Care Quality Commission began an investigation into the provision of out-of-hours primary care services. Its interim statement on this investigation, in turn, prompted the Department of Health to commission its own inquiry. That report, published in June 2010, should have made uncomfortable reading for the evangelical proponents of the Coalition’s plans. There is no indication, however, that anyone, from Mr. Lansley down, has ever read it — or, indeed, seen any of the countless stories in the media about the failures of out of hours care in the years since 2004.
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NHS services in Merseyside to be outsourced to the private sector – Southport Visiter

SOME hospital services in Merseyside are set to be run a private firm in a seven-year £27m contract.

Payroll, recruitment and human resources functions for 12 healthcare organisations could be carried out by international company Crapita Symonds.

The deal, due to be signed off by each individual trust board at hospitals including Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen, will involve the transfer of up to 150 staff and the setting up of a shared service centre in Merseyside.

Trade union Unison today opposed the “privatisation” bid, voicing concerns Crapita would look to make redundancies.

Regional organiser Paul Summers said he anticipated the loss of around 30 posts and had yet to assured job losses would be averted.

He said: “Crapita is not going to run this service out of any goodwill to the NHS – it will run it to make money. We fear the way it will do that is by cutting staff levels.

“Why would you employ 13 payroll managers to run one service? It stands to reason there will be potential compulsory redundancies.
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Con-Dems accused of ‘railroading’ NHS proposals / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Labour shadow health secretary John Healey accused panicky Con-Dem ministers of railroading their revamped attack on the NHS through Parliament at “breakneck speed” today.

Mr Healey had led an unsuccessful attempt on Tuesday night to secure more time for MPs to consider 160 amendments to the government’s Health Bill, which will be tabled by ministers following PM David Cameron’s latest zig-zag.

The shadow minister said the government’s hasty scheme to rush the Bill through the Commons by July 14 would “deny this elected House its proper role in scrutinising the legislation.”

He warned that the revamped Bill would retain “the essential elements of the Tories’ long-term plan to see the NHS broken up as a national service and set-up as a full-scale market.”

Derisive laughter broke out during a debate on the Bill’s new timetable when Health Minister Simon Burns proclaimed: “Although the pause may have ended, we will never stop listening.”

Leading health campaigner and Labour MP Grahame Morris protested that crafty Tory ministers were “cherry-picking” which aspects of the Bill they would allow to be debated at the committee stage.

Surgeon who interrupted PM’s hospital visit takes indefinite leave | Politics | The Guardian

A bow-tied surgeon who interrupted a hospital visit by David Cameron and Nick Clegg last week has gone on leave, according to an NHS trust which issued instructions to staff to say nothing to the media.

David Nunn, who burst in as the prime minister and his deputy were talking to a patient at Guy’s Hospital in London, has gone on indefinite leave.

Cameron and Clegg looked briefly startled as the surgeon marched into the ward on 14 June and said: “Sorry. Just a minute. Excuse me, I’m the senior orthopaedic surgeon in this department. Why is it that we’re all told to walk around like this and these people …”

His words were then drowned out as an official from the NHS trust ushered him away. Nunn was objecting to the presence of a television crew and Downing Street officials who had not followed the example of Cameron and Clegg, who had taken off their jackets and ties and had cleaned their hands with sterilising gel.

As he walked out Nunn said: “I still mean it. I’m not having it. Now out.”

Ushering out the TV crew Cameron said: “Why don’t you disappear. Out. We have all taken our ties off.”

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust said Nunn had requested the period of leave. It is not yet known when he will return to work.

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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
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Wendy Savage writes at OpenDemocracy.

Dr. Evan Harris warns of continuing NHS issues to Liberal Democrat activists at the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) conference “Liberalism, Equality and the State”.

Andrew Lansley writes in the Independent suggesting that the NHS is not successful and needs reform. How on Earth do the proposed ‘reforms’ put “patients are at the centre of every decision”? It’s bollocks.

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.

Saving the NHS: the fight goes on | openDemocracy

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I believed the listening exercise was a PR response to the growing chorus of dissent and outrage about the Bill -over 400,000 signatures collected by 38 degrees, the BMA’s and the RCN’s opposition, the TUC march with thousands demonstrating their anger about the cuts in a peaceful and good natured way with NHS banners prominent, and local marches, demonstrations and pickets cannot be ignored and have impinged on Cameron. Clegg, after signing of the White Paper and the Bill (apparently, according to Lib Dem health spokesman John Pugh, without having read them), was forced to respond to the demands of his own party led by Baroness Shirley Williams and Dr Evan Harris in March. The result of the May elections made him really try to get some changes but the LibDems are no match for the wily Tory politicians.

The Future Forum, billed as independent experts, were selected by whom? The listening events were aimed at the voluntary sector and ordinary people could not get to them except when the Guardian had one where Steve Field was 75 minutes late having been held up in his taxi after talking to David Cameron in Ealing. I managed to get to the London one in Islington and the whole room was skeptical about the Bill and these changes will not reassure the public. The poll commissioned by ITN showed that 49% of people do not think they can trust the Conservatives on health and half of the rest did not know what to think.

Lansley said after 99% of nurses at their conference passed a vote of no confidence in him ‘I am sorry if what I am setting out to do has not communicated itself” as if he had not been speaking all over the country to Radio and TV programmes and newspapers backed by a team of numerous press officers. But I think the absence of confidence is because he has not told us the truth about what his plans aim to achieve which is turn the NHS into a commercial market. We the English people do not want this and we must badger our MPs of all parties until they get the message.

NHS reforms hide ‘new threats’, warns leading Lib Dem | Society | The Guardian

A leading Liberal Democrat has warned there are “new threats” hidden within the reworked NHS plans that have been drawn up for the coalition.

The former MP Dr Evan Harris, who led the first Lib Dem rebellion which forced the government to “pause” its reforms and think again, has told the Guardian he can’t rule out another Lib Dem rebellion if the coalition doesn’t move to ameliorate three new problems in its proposals.

Harris has concerns regarding competition, commissioning of private firms, and the level of responsibility for the NHS held by the health secretary.
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Andrew Lansley: It’s been difficult, but the NHS will be better for it – Commentators, Opinion – The Independent

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I am determined to see these plans through to secure a sustainable health service for generations to come. This process has at times been difficult – modernising an organisation as large as the NHS always is – but this is what I am in politics to achieve.

Now it is time to move forward. I think, in years to come, people will see this as a key moment – when, with the guidance of medical experts, we put the NHS on the road to success.

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
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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

NHS news is concerned with various responses to changes signalled by the government’s acceptance of Future Forum recommendations.

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.

York GP hits out over NHS changes (From York Press)

THE York GP leading a campaign against sweeping Government health reforms says the recent listening exercise on the controversial changes was “a shambles”.

Earlier this week, David Cameron announced a Government U-turn on several of its key NHS reforms, following recommendations by a panel of experts.

Dr James Chan, who works at York Hospital, and heads the Save Our NHS York campaign and website, said: “Although we welcome many of the outcomes, it stops short of looking at the hard scientific evidence out there which says that competition doesn’t drive up quality.

“The largest costs to the NHS are not looked at. Medicines and equipment which are run by the private sector are costing us more and more for little benefit for patients.

“This drains away our tax money to big companies who make sickening profits, at the detriment to the rest of the health service.

“This is what private involvement means – greater cost, less benefit, more profits for shareholders while patient services get cut.”
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Unison vows to kill Tory Franken-Bill / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Health union Unison urged total destruction of the government’s “Frankenstein Bill” for privatisation of the NHS today.

Tricky Prime Minister David Cameron relaunched his pet project with some new parts, but unions and health campaigners issued grave warnings of the havoc which he still intends to unleash.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “The government is creating a monster and the NHS is the victim.

“The Bill will pave the way for private companies to grab any part of the NHS where they think they can turn a profit.

“Once the NHS is opened up to competition, it becomes subject to European Competition laws and there is no turning back.”

Mr Prentis warned: “The government is creating a Frankenstein Bill that should be thrown out now.”

Health union Unite predicted that private healthcare companies would now use EU law to transform their toehold in the NHS into a headlock.
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The verdict on the NHS bill shakeup: Experts react to the changes | Society | The Guardian

GPs

Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, is pleased ministers have performed what she calls “a monumental U-turn” and says “the prime minister is heading in the right direction”. But she wants to see the exact wording of the amendments to the health and social care bill to ensure it does follow through on Cameron’s pledges to honour all 16 recommendations of Steve Field’s NHS Future Forum report.

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NHS managers

The 40,000 managers in the NHS are pleased that Professor Steve Field forcibly urged ministers to stop denigrating them as pen-pushers and bureaucrats, which he said had prompted some managers to quit the service just when their expertise is needed to help it through the coming upheaval.

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Hospital doctors

The abandonment of Andrew Lansley’s original plan for the regulator to promote competition between hospitals pleased the Royal College of Physicians, which represents hospital doctors.

It now wants to help the NHS Commissioning Board and Monitor to develop guidance on how choice and competition can be applied on the ground in hospitals, GPs surgeries and elsewhere.

But Sir Richard Thompson, the college’s president also warned that “without fundamental review the government’s current proposals for reforming medical education and training will put the next generation of doctors’ training at risk and could jeopardise patient safety.”

The mandatory inclusion of a specialist hospital doctor on the board of each clinical commissioning group is a significant success for the college. It is suggesting that, as a reciprocal gesture, a local GPs’ representative could sit on the board of every local hospital.

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Nurses

The Royal College of Nursing, which represents the UK’s 400,000 nurses, scored a victory by ensuring that “at least one registered nurse” will be on the board of each new clinical commissioning group, rather than just local GPs.

“Nurses have an unparalleled range of skills and experience to enable them to improve healthcare at every level [and can] help build a service which can manage long-term conditions, keep people out of hospital and improve the health of the public”, said RCN chief executive Dr Peter Carter.

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Private and not-for-profit healthcare firms

David Cameron’s explicit rejection of further private sector involvement in the NHS has appeased the Bill’s many critics and helped neutralise its most sensitive issue. But it has left both private and not-for-profit providers of healthcare frustrated and warning that the NHS will be poorer if they are squeezed out.

“The independent sector continues to believe that the NHS needs more innovation, diversity and robust, fair competition if it is to meet the challenges it faces, including achieving better integration, which we support and which can be strengthened by a competitive market”, said David Worskett, director of the NHS Partners Network, which represents both sectors.

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Health policy experts

Professor Chris Ham, chief executive of the King’s Fund health think-tank and a member of the Downing Street health ‘kitchen cabinet’, sees the updated reforms as “a more promising approach to meeting the health challenges of the future than the proposals originally set out in the Health and Social Care Bill.”

But he warned that: “The confirmation of the Prime Minister’s pledge to keep waiting times low, and the emphasis placed on the 18-week maximum wait for hospital treatment enshrined in the NHS Constitution, leaves the NHS with a very significant challenge. With the spending squeeze beginning to bite, the number of hospital inpatients waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment is already at its highest level for more than three years and waiting times for A&E and diagnostic services have also risen. As the government has said that it is opposed to targets, it now needs to be clear about how this pledge will be measured and enforced.”

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Mixed reception for NHS climbdown – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Conservative and Liberal Democrats presented a united front yesterday as the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, detailed the Government’s reformed NHS reforms amid jeers and heckles from Labour benches.

The proposals could still face opposition from doctors, represented by the British Medical Association, who warned that the Government had not addressed their concerns about GPs being given financial incentives to save the NHS money. Others expressed concern that safeguards put in place could result in additional layers of the bureaucracy the reforms were designed to address.

Labour accused Mr Lansley of wasting £800m in redundancy payments for health staff, many of whom will be re-employed in their old roles. “This is a political fix, not a proper plan for improving care for patients, or for a better or more efficient NHS which is able to meet the big challenges it must face for the future,” said John Healey, the shadow Health Secretary.
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The National Wealth Service – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

As Coalition retreats on NHS reform, investigation reveals conflicts of interest that could give GPs a licence to print money

By Oliver Wright, Whitehall Editor and Emma Slater

One in seven doctors appointed to the new clinical commissioning boards, which will have responsibility for spending £60bn of NHS money every year, could have a significant financial conflict of interest, an investigation has found.

Research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that, of the first 52 consortiums established under the Coalition’s NHS reforms, 19 could present concerns about the independence of their boards. The study raises the prospect that GPs could benefit directly from private companies working in the NHS.
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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.

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