Health and Social Care Bill

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

NHS reform bill must be resisted, leading doctors tell royal colleges | Society | The Guardian

Letter urges professional bodies to stop co-operating with reforms it says most grassroots doctors do not support

by Randeep Ramesh

More than 150 scientists, surgeons and doctors have written to NHS professional bodies calling on the medical establishment to demand that the government withdraws its controversial health bill.

Co-ordinated by the NHS Consultants’ Association, the medics have written to presidents of the royal medical colleges urging them to stop co-operating with the government’s proposed NHS reforms.

The move comes as the British Medical Association begins to mobilise a public campaign against the bill, and coincides with the suggestion of Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, that family doctors hire lawyers to cope with the conflicts of interest they would face over the commissioning reforms.

The letter says the health bill, devised by the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, is not supported by the majority of the medical profession and is not in the best long-term interests of either patients, doctors or the royal colleges.

The plan would, the doctors argue, lead to “marketisation and privatisation” of the English NHS, as well as promote competition with a new regulator, and remove the health secretary’s duty to provide a comprehensive health service. The letter highlights a poll of more than 1000 doctors from the British Medical Journal, showing 93% want Lansley’s bill withdrawn, and suggests there is a lack of democratic legitimacy. The government needs to “reform its reforms”, following the public and professional backlash this year, and the changes have been expensive, the writers say: savings from the changes would bring in £4.5bn over the next four years, £700m less than the government first envisaged.

The doctors are also concerned at the emollient tone of some royal colleges. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges told MPs there were too “many disadvantages” in delay, while Norman Williams, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said his body largely backed “the aims of the reforms to modernise the health care system”. The letter claims “colleges are out of touch with the views … of the majority of grassroots doctors”, and accuses them of failing to safeguard their own principles, a key role being to “promote the underlying principles of medical professionalism and leadership”.

The bill, the letter says, cannot pass without the medical profession’s support.

“The colleges have a rare opportunity to make a stand for the NHS, medical profession, and patients. We therefore call upon the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to act in the public interest by publicly calling for the withdrawal of the health and social care bill.”

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‘Timebomb’ fear as ‘rationing by stealth’ of operations hits NHS – Telegraph

“Rationing by stealth” is hitting the NHS, the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) has claimed, after official figures were released showing a steep fall in the number of people referred to hospital by GPs. by Stephen Adams

Department of Health statistics show the number of referrals made by GPs in the year up to July was 4.7 per cent lower than for the same period in 2010.

These referrals had shown a 3.5 per cent increase at the same stage last year, according to the department.

The number of patients attending for outpatient appointments has also fallen, by 2.7 per cent.

Professor Norman Williams, president of the RCS, described the figures as “extremely disturbing”.

He said: “These data provide further evidence that rationing by stealth is occurring across the NHS.

“Such a steep reduction in the number of referrals by GPs suggests that patients are being given limited access to specialist clinical advice and could be missing out on treatments.”

He went on: “If correct this is extremely concerning for surgeons across the NHS.

“Stopping referrals is only storing up problems for the future – a timebomb which will end up costing the NHS and taxpayer more in the long-term.

“The rise in waiting times for orthopaedic surgery is an indicator that demand for surgery is not reducing and that the issue of rationing needs to be addressed. It will not go away.”

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The third and final reading of the Destroy the NHS / Health and Social Care Bill is taking place now. I think that the vote is yet to be taken.

Many doctors and other health professionals have spoken out against the bill.

During Prime Ministers Questions David Cameron falsely claimed that the Royal College of GPs and the Royal College of Nursing backed the government’s NHS plans.

Tory minister Lord Howe caused a row by describing the huge opportunities for private companies by the proposed ‘reforms’.

I regret and apologise for my recent comments.

Conservative election poster 2010

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

Black mood in Westminster as NHS vote looms

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John Healey spent the afternoon as Labour’s attack dog, challenging the facts of the prime minister and publicising slip-ups by ministers while online activists frantically lobbied their MPs to oppose the bill.

A stormy PMQs session saw David Cameron insist that the Royal College of GPs and the Royal College of Nursing backed the government’s NHS proposals, a fact the shadow health secretary challenged immediately afterwards.

“When experts criticise Cameron’s health bill, he doesn’t just ignore them – he pretends they support him,” he said.

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RCGP rejects David Cameron’s claim that it supports NHS reforms | GPonline.com

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RCGP chairwoman Dr Clare Gerada said while the college supports putting clinicians at the centre of health service planning, it continues to have a ‘number of concerns’ about the government’s reforms.

‘As a college we are extremely worried that these reforms, if implemented in their current format, will lead to an increase in damaging competition, an increase in health inequalities, and to massively increased costs in implementing this new system. These concerns have been outlined and reiterated pre- and post-pause.’
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BBC News – Private sector have huge NHS opportunity – minister

The overhaul of the NHS in England presents “huge opportunities” to the private sector, a health minister says.
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He said that the changes being made presented “huge opportunities” to private groups who could provide high quality care.

And he added: “In the coming months and years, the NHS is going to evolve and grow into a very different animal.”

However, after the speech he released a statement once again reiterating that the government would never privatise the NHS.
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City doctors back call for rethink on NHS reforms | This is Bristol

SEVEN Bristol doctors have signed a letter calling on the government to completely scrap its health reforms.

GPs and specialists were among the 400 medics who said the changes would cause “irreparable harm” to the NHS.

Their intervention came at a critical time for the controversial legislation as it was last night debated on the floor of the House of Commons.
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Doctors in revolt over NHS shake-up (From The Northern Echo)

A NORTH-EAST doctor at the forefront of a campaign against the Government’s controversial plan to overhaul the NHS last night insisted: “We will continue to fight it.”

As MPs prepared to vote on the Health and Social Care Bill, nearly 30 health professionals from across the North- East and North Yorkshire signed a letter saying the reworked Bill would “cause irreparable harm to the health service”.

The protest also accused David Cameron of “misleading the public by repeatedly stating that there will be no privatisation of the NHS”.

Last night, Dr Clive Peedell, a cancer consultant at The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, said: “The overwhelming feeling is that doctors want the Bill withdrawn.”

Dr Peedell represents the North-East on the national council of the British Medical Association and proposed the motion calling for a public campaign against the Bill.

He said the Bill was a “clear drive towards increasing privatisation that goes completely against what the coalition Government is saying”.
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News & Star | News | Government changes could harm NHS, claim Cumbrian doctors

Three Cumbrian doctors are demanding the Government scrap its health proposals amid fears that it will destabilise the NHS.

Dr Gavin Young, of Temple Sowerby Medical Practice, Dr Kate Keohane, of Caldbeck Surgery and retired west Cumbrian GP Dr Mary Henman, are among more than 400 doctors across the country worried the reforms will not improve patient care.
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Southampton doctors join NHS reforms protest (From Daily Echo)

FIVE Southampton doctors have signed a letter calling on the Government to scrap its health reforms.

GPs and specialists were among the 400 medics who said the changes would cause “irreparable harm” to the NHS.

Their intervention came at a critical time for the controversial legislation as it was last night debated for one of the last times on the floor of the House of Commons.
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Health reforms ‘threaten future of NHS’, claims leading Manchester doctor | Manchester Evening News – menmedia.co.uk

A top Manchester doctor has hit out at plans to reform the NHS – saying it could lead to chaos.

Raymond Tallis, emeritus professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Manchester, has spoken out to warn the government’s planned shake-up could ruin decades of progress.

Prof Tallis, 64, from Bramhall in Stockport, fears the Health and Social Care Bill could open the way to privatisation of care and an American-style health service.

He has written to the British Medical Association and senior politicians to voice his concerns and urge health secretary Andrew Lansley to reconsider the proposals.
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The Destroy the NHS / Health and Social Care Bill is due it’s third (final) reading in Parliament today and tomorrow. Unless abandoned in its entirety, it will then pass to the House of Lords.

It is widely accepted and recognised that the purpose of this bill is to kill the NHS as a quality public service free at the point of need.

Health professionals continue to warn of the dangers of the bill.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) warns of the dangers of the bill.

Helston and West Cornwall MP Andrew George reaffirms that he will vote against the bill and warns of the dangers of the bill.

Conservative election poster 2010

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

The NHS reforms still amount to privatisation | Society | guardian.co.uk

This bad bill will force hospitals to choose private over public care to make ends meet, write Kailash Chand and JS Bamrah

• Dr Kailash Chand has been a GP for 30 years and chairs Tameside and Glossop NHS

• Dr JS Bamrah is a consultant psychiatrist and honorary senior lecturer at North Manchester general hospital

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Cameron’s reassurance that the NHS is safe in Tory hands now seems hollow. To date, Andrew Lansley has failed to explain to the British public the need for this monumental change. Remember, a recent study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine showed that the NHS is the most efficient service in the world, in lives saved per pound spent. How has David Cameron allowed this to happen?

The public should have no illusions: beneath the veneer of the listening exercise, the core substance that constitutes the bill remains contentious. The NHS reforms remain driven by pure market ideology, without a shred of evidence that they will benefit the English population. On the contrary, the evidence shows that if you create an American-style healthcare system the result will be denial of care and huge costs for the taxpayer. If the bill is passed, coming generations will not forgive us for taking the “National” out of the NHS.

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Trades Union Congress – NHS Bill is ‘toxic cocktail of competition, markets and cuts’

The Health and Social Care Bill, due to start its final Commons stages today (Tuesday), has been ‘barely improved’ by the government’s pause and Future Forum consultation, says the TUC in a briefing for MPs produced on behalf of all its member health unions.

The main concern of health staff that the Bill undermines the founding principles of the NHS has not been met, says the TUC. Instead the NHS will be made more complex and bureaucratic with new structures absorbing funds that will be taken from patient care at a time when services are already being cut.

NHS staff’s top concerns with the Bill are:

 

  • The reforms are still based on extending competition and markets within the health service even though international evidence already shows the NHS is one of the most efficient health systems in the world.
  • NHS hospitals will be allowed to maximise their income from private patients, which will mean NHS patients are pushed to the back of growing waiting lists.
  • The government is still pushing ahead with the Any Qualified Provider concept which will hinder NHS provision, and open up swathes of the health service to the private sector.
  • The Secretary of State for Health will no longer have a full duty to ensure the provision of NHS services, increasing the risk of postcode lotteries in the care available, and meaning a lack of accountability.
  • The changes are being forced through at a time when the NHS is already being asked to find £20 billion of efficiency savings (4 per cent a year) and Monitor* has advised foundation trusts to find an extra 2.5 per cent a year. The cost of the re-organisation is estimated at £3 billion a year and is rising by £1 million a day.

MP urges colleagues to vote against health bill (From This is The West Country)

Helston and West Cornwall MP Andrew George has said he will vote against the government’s controversial Health Bill this week as concerns rise that it will see the privatisation of the NHS.

There has been widespread concern among doctors and campaigners that, as it stands, the bill will allow much of the £85bn NHS budget to flow into the pockets of private companies and their shareholders.

GP leaders and unions have also stepped up calls on MPs to reject the bill this week after e-mails obtained under the FoI act showed Department of Health officials have discussed plans for private firms to run between ten and 20 NHS hospitals in a deal worth up to £500m.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr George said; “The bill breaks the Coalition Agreement, is based upon a false claim that the NHS performs poorly in comparison with health systems across Europe, and represents the biggest upheaval of the NHS in its history at precisely the time it needs stability and certainty.

“The bill runs the high risk of producing a NHS which is driven more by private profit than by concern about patient care; risks undermining emergency services through the fragmentation of health systems; is a major missed opportunity to produce a health service that is more accountable to the patients and communities it serves; and fails to do what really needs to be done, i.e. streamline the pathways between health and social care.”

 

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The Destroy the NHS / Health and Social Care Bill is due it’s third (final) reading in Parliament tomorrow and Wednesday. It will then pass to the House of Lords.

Spinwatch has revealed that the Department of Health has been negotiating the running of hospitals by foreign companies. The Guardian identified the German company Helios. This clearly discredits government assurances that there is no intention to privatise the NHS.

There are proposals to sell St Mary’s, Paddington teaching hospital to property developers.

The Royal College of Nursing, the union Unite, and the umbrella group for health service managers, the NHS Confederation, warn about the complex tangle of management and quangos proposed by the ‘reforms’.

I suggest that Liberal-Democat members seriously consider dumping their Tory leader Clegg. Clegg has supported privatisation of the NHS from the very outset, engaged in the sham of the listening exercise, not followed direction from the Summer conference and even now still supports the shambolic Destroy the NHS Bill. Liberal-Democrats should be the stronger coalition partner since their support is essential.

Conservative election poster 2010

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

DoH email exchange stokes NHS reform fears – Channel 4 News

Fears that the Government’s health reforms will mean the privatisation of the NHS are reinforced by an email exchange in which health officials consider private firms running up to 20 hospitals.

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Concerns about the privatisation of the NHS were reinforced today when it emerged that emails between the Department of Health and an international consulting firm discussed the possibility of private companies taking on the running of up to 20 NHS hospitals.
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German company involved in talks to take over NHS hospitals | Society | The Guardian

Helios involved in discussions about ‘potential opportunities in London’ with officials from the health department

A German company has been in talks to take over NHS hospitals, the first tangible evidence that foreign multinationals will be able to run state-owned acute services, a market worth £8bn, the Guardian can reveal.

On the eve of the last Commons vote on the government’s bill before it heads to the Lords this week, freedom of information requests reveal a series of meetings focused on “potential opportunities in London” between officials from the Department of Health, the NHS, the management consultant McKinsey and one of the largest German private hospital chains, Helios.
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Top hospital to be closed as cash crisis engulfs NHS – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

A leading teaching hospital faces closure as a result of the financial crisis gripping the NHS. Managers at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs three major hospitals in London and two smaller units, is considering a proposal to shut St Mary’s, Paddington, and sell off the site to property developers.
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New NHS could be more complex and costly, warns nursing chief – Telegraph

Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said the introduction of new levels of management and quangos could “tangle” the health service in “more red tape and bureaucracy”.

His concerns are echoed by the leading public sector trade union, Unite, and the umbrella group for health service managers, the NHS Confederation, which has raised concerns over “confusion and duplication” among newly created quangos.

Their comments come in another wave of opposition to the Government’s biggest upheaval in the 63-year history of England’s National Health Service, which aims to hand control of buying treatment to GPs while giving private companies and voluntary groups more opportunity to run services.

The leading doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, is still calling for the entire Bill to be withdrawn despite the concessions made earlier this year and it faces opposition from peers when it reaches the House of Lords as well as Labour MPs who fear it spells the backdoor privatisation of a key public service.
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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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The third (final) reading of the Health and Social Care / Destroy the NHS Bill is due in the coming week with a vote on Wednesday.

There are protests this weekend expressing opposition to the privatisation of the NHS.

Many professional medical associations – including the British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practicioners, the Royal College of Nursing and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists – have restated their opposition to the plans.

These organisations are clearly knowledgable and authoritative on the issues and should be trusted in preference to dodgy, lying politicians that claim to love the NHS, that the NHS is safe in their hands and that there will be no more top-down reorganisations.

Conservative election poster 2010

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

UK must not follow US model of healthcare, RCGP warns | GPonline.com By Susie Sell

The UK must not follow the US model of healthcare as it would risk widening health inequalities, increasing costs and fragmenting care, the RCGP chairwoman has warned

RCGP chairwoman Dr Clare Gerada said her recent study trip to the USA to look at how the ‘biggest market in the world affects the deliver of healthcare’ has made her ‘nervous’ about the direction of the NHS reforms to increase competition in the NHS.

She said it also bolstered her view that the NHS is the ‘most remarkable system of healthcare’.

She said: ‘Where as in the past I thought some aspects were quite reasonable, I came away with the view that actually it is not a system at all.

‘It’s a series of providers that aren’t linked to any shape or form, with resources not necessarily going into patient contacts and instead spent on administering this bureaucratic system.’

She warned that moving to a US-style system would lead to a fragmented and more costly system, where accountants, lawyers and actuaries are ‘as common as hospital managers and GPs’.

She said the US system also creates huge health inequalities, where the ‘rich have choice’ but 70 million people have no access to healthcare or are uninsured.

She said: ‘I am convinced the NHS should be improved, but we should always strike to improve what matters cost: continuity of care, co-ordination of services and quality.

‘But if people think that the market will deliver that, I urge them to see what I saw, which is that the market fails.’

NHS plans will mean putting wealthy first, says doctors’ leader | Society | The Guardian Randeep Ramesh

Hospitals will be forced to treat wealthy foreigners to raise cash, rather than treat poor patients, says BMA’s Hamish Meldrum

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Meldrum said David Cameron had been mistaken when in a speech in Cornwall last month the prime minister claimed that his plans to change the NHS beyond recognition had “the whole health profession on board”.

“I don’t know where the prime minister gets his information from to make that statement. I can only imagine he must be taking to a completely unrepresentative group of clinicians,” said Meldrum.

The BMA says it “acknowledges the efforts of government to listen” but that the government’s changes either do not alter the fundamental problems with the bill or they make it worse. Meldrum pointed out that a new NHS bureaucracy was springing up with five different bodies able to buy care for patients. He also argued that the choice and competition agenda of the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, remained intact.

The BMA chairman said he was especially concerned that surgeons’ pay would be related to medical outcomes and that family doctors would be paid on how well they commissioned care for patients. This would penalise GPs and hospitals in poorer areas where residents’ health was related to transport, housing and employment. “Doctors in well-off areas would benefit and those in poor areas would not.”

He also argued that articulate middle-class patients would be able to take advantage of the patient choice policy. “Those who are articulate and shout loudest will tend to get better care. The less well-off patient will not. This will see an increase in health inequality.”

John Healey, the shadow health secretary, said that despite the government’s claims to have listened, Meldrum’s comments showed that “the chorus of concern among health service professionals is as loud as ever”.

Healey said: “With doctors and nurses now hardening their position, it is clear that David Cameron is in denial and out of touch when he claims his NHS plans have widespread support. After a wasted year, during which time we’ve seen patient services starting to go backwards, the prime minister should scrap both the bill and his massive reorganisation plans.”
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Campaign against NHS reforms continues | The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Sally Priestley

The CSP is among the health organisations continuing to campaign against the government’s plans for reform of the NHS as the Health and Social Care Bill continues its passage through parliament.

Ahead of the third reading of the bill in the Commons, which is due to start on 6 September, the British Medical Association (BMA) chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum called for the bill to be withdrawn or significantly amended as it posed an ‘unacceptably high risk to the NHS’.

In a letter sent to all MPs, Dr Meldrum said a key risk was the plan to widen patient choice to ‘Any Qualified Provider’ (AQP) across a larger range of services. It reflects a concern that the CSP’s chief executive, Phil Gray, has been raising for some time.
Member’s briefings

The CSP issued a briefing for MPs on members’ concerns in August, in time for the third reading. It is also working alongside the BMA in its opposition to the bill and has stepped up its campaign against the extension of AQP to include most NHS-funded services by 2013/14.

MSK services for back and neck pain have been highlighted by the Department of Health as a priority for the scheme. The society has published a members’ briefing outlining how physios can get involved in influencing the decisions currently being made locally on AQP.
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