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.

BBC News – Judicial review threat to NHS Gloucestershire

Legal action is to be taken against NHS Gloucestershire over its decision to change the way health services are run.

Michael Lloyd, from Stroud, wrote to NHS bosses threatening a judicial review if the decision was not withdrawn before 22 September.

From October a new social enterprise is due to take over management of county hospitals and various health services.

Hundreds of campaigners gathered in Stroud on Saturday to march in protest at the changes.

Caroline Molloy, of Stroud Against Cuts, said the group wanted t[o] give staff and service users some hope that the decision could be stopped.

“We have been advised that NHS Gloucestershire is acting unlawfully. It cannot just hand over all its NHS Primary Care Trust services to an unaccountable ‘Social Enterprise’ or ‘Community Interest Company’,” she said.

An interim injunction will also be sought to stop the proposed transfer of services taking place on 1 October as planned.

But Jan Stubbings, chief executive of NHS Gloucestershire, said all applicable policy and guidance had been followed in making this decision.

“We now have a clear direction with the majority of our community health services becoming part of a social enterprise – working in the community interest and for the social good,” she said.

“It is important to stress that NHS patients will continue to access NHS-funded community services, close to home, run by an organisation responsible for delivering the NHS values.”

Related: Hundreds march to protect NHS in Gloucestershire | This is Gloucestershire

Care warning as nursing staff hit ‘breaking point’ – Herald Scotland | News | Health

SCOTLAND’S nurses are at breaking point because of unmanageable workloads, fears over job security and concerns about falling standards, the NHS has been warned.

A new study reveals morale among the country’s NHS nurses has plummeted against a backdrop of continuing job cuts and a prolonged pay freeze.

The stark figures collated by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) show fewer than one-third of NHS nurses in Scotland (30%) now feel secure in their jobs. Only two years ago, 82% felt they had a long-term future in their posts.

Patient had to wait 2 years for hernia op – mirror.co.uk

A PATIENT had to wait ­nearly two years for a hernia ­operation because of a lack of beds at a hospital.

The unnamed patient’s 95-week wait for the op at East Surrey Hospital in ­Redhill was more than five times NHS ­guidelines for non-­emergency surgery.

A Freedom of Information request also revealed waiting times of 65 weeks for knee-joint ­replacements, 61 weeks for a spine op and 59 weeks for a haemorrhoids op.

Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust chief Paul Simpson said: “We are doing all we can.”

Claims that NHS pay is too expensive. There is already anger amoung NHS staff and unions about changes to public sector pensions needing higher contributions for lower pensions.

Groups of commissioning GPs are concerned that they are required to be large groups and that they may inherit legacy debt.

Lib Dem health minister confirmed amendments to the Destroy the NHS / Health and Social Care Bill will be taken in the Lords.

Private firms offer GPs poor contracts.

Patients waiting weeks for GP appointments.

Private medical companies are trying to profit from the ConDem’s attack on the NHS.

There are also a few articles on Lib-Dem peer Baroness Williams demanding further changes. I find it rather hypocritical that Baroness Williams is demanding changes to a bill that was produced and supported by her own Tory party.

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 leaders say salary bill is unsustainable | Society | The Guardian

Leaders of 1.5 million NHS staff are poised for confrontation with health service employers and ministers over proposed pay and pensions changes that unions claim would seriously damage their incomes.

The NHS already faces the prospect of more than 500,000 staff taking industrial action on 30 November as part of the national day of action against government plans to overhaul public sector pensions. A series of ballots in coming weeks is expected to see paramedics, radiographers, physiotherapists, chiropodists and a host of non-clinical staff such as cooks and cleaners participating in as yet unspecified action.

NHS staff, most of whom are experiencing a two-year freeze on their pay, are furious that ministers are seeking to compel them to work longer and contribute more for ultimately smaller pensions. Unions such as Unison, Unite and the GMB have pledged to ballot their members, although the British Medical Association, Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Midwives are reluctant to do so.

But the organisation NHS Employers has increased the prospect of another money wrangle by declaring that the NHS salary bill is unsustainable and that local pay deals are needed to bring down costs. It claims that, despite the pay freeze for all NHS staff earning over £21,000, the cost to its members “ such as hospital and mental health trusts “ of employing staff is rising by 2.4% a year.
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BBC News – Commissioning groups ‘concerned’ about size and budgets

A survey of the groups due to take over commissioning NHS care is highlighting fears about their size and budgets.

The questions were answered by 131 leaders, out of 253 new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).

A third said they felt under pressure to become larger, and two-thirds expressed fears that they might inherit debt.

The Department of Health said it expected parts of the NHS to work together to resolve any deficits.

The survey was organised by NHS Alliance and the National Association of Primary Care, which have joined forces to represent CCGs, who will take over buying and organising NHS services.

36% of GPs and other leaders who responded to the survey said they were under pressure from NHS managers to become bigger, so they could pass a viability test next month.

And 67% suspect they will have to deal with some legacy debt from former primary care trusts (PCTs) when the new system begins in England in April 2013.
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Health bill changes in Lords will be accepted, says Lib Dem minister | Politics | guardian.co.uk

The government is to accept further changes to its health plans after Lady Williams, the veteran Liberal Democrat, warned that peers are prepared to hold up the health and social care bill in the House of Lords.

As a leading Lib Dem rebel in the Commons condemned the bill as a “huge strategic mistake”, the health minister Paul Burstow admitted that peers would improve the bill next month.

Peers are to consider the bill after more than 1,000 amendments were rushed through the House of Commons earlier this month in the wake of the government’s “listening exercise”.

Burstow, the Lib Dem health minister, said the government was still open to change. “We didn’t stop listening when the listening exercise ended,” he told the Lib Dem conference in a question and answer session on health.
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Private firm offers GPs just two weeks’ sick pay – newsarticle-content – Pulse

Exclusive The company behind the UK’s largest network of privately run GP practices is offering its doctors less than half the paid sick leave they would receive under the BMA’s model contract.
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Wait weeks to see a GP: Some patients face delays of more than a fortnight for appointment with family doctor | Mail Online

Many patients are having to wait up to three weeks or more to see their GP, a survey has revealed.

A poll of more than 2,000 patients has found that well over two-thirds are not able to see their family doctor within two days.

More than a quarter cannot get an appointment within a week, including some who are made to wait longer than a fortnight or even three weeks.
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Aggressive marketing blitz by private firms seeking to gain from NHS cuts – mirror.co.uk

PRIVATE firms have launched an aggressive marketing blitz as they aim to profit from the cuts made to the NHS.

They are trying to lure patients away by highlighting rising waiting lists and the chaotic reorganisation.

One, BMI Healthcare, has placed adverts in local papers and put a waiting times map on its website to encourage NHS patients to go private.

Shadow Health Secretary John Healey said: “Firms are clearly lining up to cash in on damaging policies. It’s the same old Tory choice, wait longer or pay to go private.”