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Nurses appreciate the severity of Con-Dem government attacks on the NHS and there is a weak hint of possible strike action. Nurses are in a particularly awkward position being committed to provide care for patients under the NHS system while that system is getting destroyed around them. To strike runs the risk of appearing insensitive to the needs of patients while perhaps even the act of balloting could hugely raise awareness of the Con-Dems brutal attacks. We need a strong, unified defence and doctors and nurses deserve widespread support.

Norman Lamb doesn’t really disagree with Nick Clegg after all. What a surprise (Not!).

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.

BBC News – Nick Clegg: ‘Building blocks’ of NHS reform to remain

Deputy PM Nick Clegg says the “basic building blocks” of controversial NHS plans will remain, but changes could be made on how they work “in practice”.

His aide Norman Lamb threatened to quit over the “very risky” pace of change.

But Mr Clegg said Mr Lamb agreed with him and did not want to “reopen the Pandora’s Box” of the basic plan to give GPs more financial powers.

The plans would give GPs in England control of 60% of the NHS budget and let more private firms provide care.

What the cutbacks will mean on the NHS frontline | Society | guardian.co.uk

Don’t expect patients or hospital bosses to be happy as the cost of the NHS shake-up becomes clear, writes Denis Campbell

Andrew Lansley’s future prompts much speculation. Is the health secretary the Cabinet’s dead man walking or simply a well-intentioned NHS reformist who needs some presentational polish? Similarly, is the government’s hastily-conceived new “pause, listen and engage” approach to the planned NHS shake-up a prelude to a major overhaul or just a cynical exercise to keep the Lib Dems on board with warm words but minor changes? The answers, still unknowable, will help decide the fate of the health and social care bill – and perhaps the coalition itself.

But what keeps hospital bosses awake at night is not key elements of the bill such as GP-led commissioning, “any willing provider” or the exact remit of NHS economic regulator Monitor. Other, more pressing, matters do, almost all involving a pound sign. Like the “Nicholson challenge”, NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson’s demand that the service in England saves £20bn by 2015 in “efficiency gains”, requiring 4% annual productivity gains every year – which all the evidence suggests is hopelessly unrealistic. Like the reality of the next four years bringing flat or slightly reduced budgets after Labour’s decade-long cash splurge. It also applies to the 150 or so NHS primary care trusts, which currently commission treatment, and indeed to every healthcare organisation in England. Both have to be contended with at a time when demand for healthcare is growing.

Then there are, as King’s Fund chief economist Professor John Appleby points out, other key financial challenges to be met. January’s VAT increase will cost the NHS £250m, pay increments another £1bn and demographic change a further £1bn a year. Another £200m is going into the populist Cancer Drugs Fund. The transition costs of Lansley’s radical restructuring will be £500m this year alone. Hospitals’ income via the “tariff” payments system is reducing slightly. “All this means that local health budgets are under severe pressure”, says Appleby.

The Nuffield Trust, another health think-tank, adds several other factors for good measure. Medical inflation – the cost of drugs and clinical supplies – is rising faster than general inflation. Many hospitals’ operating costs are running ahead of budget. Demand on them – more people are using A&E, for example – is growing too. You get the picture — which, for the NHS, is grim.

Andrew Lansley’s future prompts much speculation. Is the health secretary the Cabinet’s dead man walking or simply a well-intentioned NHS reformist who needs some presentational polish? Similarly, is the government’s hastily-conceived new “pause, listen and engage” approach to the planned NHS shake-up a prelude to a major overhaul or just a cynical exercise to keep the Lib Dems on board with warm words but minor changes? The answers, still unknowable, will help decide the fate of the health and social care bill – and perhaps the coalition itself.

But what keeps hospital bosses awake at night is not key elements of the bill such as GP-led commissioning, “any willing provider” or the exact remit of NHS economic regulator Monitor. Other, more pressing, matters do, almost all involving a pound sign. Like the “Nicholson challenge”, NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson’s demand that the service in England saves £20bn by 2015 in “efficiency gains”, requiring 4% annual productivity gains every year – which all the evidence suggests is hopelessly unrealistic. Like the reality of the next four years bringing flat or slightly reduced budgets after Labour’s decade-long cash splurge. It also applies to the 150 or so NHS primary care trusts, which currently commission treatment, and indeed to every healthcare organisation in England. Both have to be contended with at a time when demand for healthcare is growing.

Then there are, as King’s Fund chief economist Professor John Appleby points out, other key financial challenges to be met. January’s VAT increase will cost the NHS £250m, pay increments another £1bn and demographic change a further £1bn a year. Another £200m is going into the populist Cancer Drugs Fund. The transition costs of Lansley’s radical restructuring will be £500m this year alone. Hospitals’ income via the “tariff” payments system is reducing slightly. “All this means that local health budgets are under severe pressure”, says Appleby.

The Nuffield Trust, another health think-tank, adds several other factors for good measure. Medical inflation – the cost of drugs and clinical supplies – is rising faster than general inflation. Many hospitals’ operating costs are running ahead of budget. Demand on them – more people are using A&E, for example – is growing too. You get the picture — which, for the NHS, is grim.

NHS shakeup could be biggest disaster in history of public services, says RCN | Society | The Guardian

The coalition government’s shakeup of the NHS could easily become “the biggest disaster in the history of our public services”, the leader of Britain’s 400,000 nurses has warned.

Dr Peter Carter, head of the Royal College of Nursing, made the claim in his address to the union’s annual congress on Monday as he set out a powerful critique of the planned radical restructuring in England.

While endorsing the health and social care bill’s key aims, Carter said “the reforms still have a huge number of areas that concern us”, despite recent government concessions on price competition between healthcare providers and its decision to invite a nurse to sit on the new NHS National Commissioning Board.

“Despite the honourable principles behind the bill, it could well turn out to be the biggest disaster in the history of our public services, if organisations like the RCN are not listened to now,” Carter told about 2,000 nurses’ representatives gathered in Liverpool.

NHS crisis looms say experts / Britain / Home – Morning Star

The Royal College of Nurses (RCN) warned today that the coalition’s NHS reforms could be the “biggest disaster in the history of our public services.”

RCN chief executive Peter Carter told delegates at the union’s annual conference in Liverpool that the reforms could be devastating if unions were not listened to.

“The Health and Social Care Bill is going through Parliament now and, from a government that promised no more top-down reorganisations, it certainly looks like one to me,” he said.

Mr Carter said that nurses were struggling due to the government’s two-year pay freeze, rising costs and increasing workloads.

He said “never before” had so many nurses talked to him about industrial action.

Speaking to journalists afterwards, Mr Carter said: “We are a long, long way away” from industrial action, and a process would need to be gone through, including balloting members.

He said nurses “would not damage patient care” by simply walking out of hospital wards.

NHS cuts push nursing union to the brink of industrial action – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Britain’s nurses yesterday raised the prospect of taking the first industrial action in their union’s history because of anger at government cuts to NHS services.

Nurses would refuse to work more than their contracted hours, take all their allotted meal breaks and decline to fill in paperwork outside their normal job description, under plans being discussed at the annual conference of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Liverpool.

The RCN’s general secretary, Peter Carter, said the union did not have a no-strike agreement, although he played down the threat of a full-scale walkout among its 400,000 members.

 

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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It was reported recently that Health Secretary Andrew Lansley would break with convention and refuse to address the Royal College of Nurses Congress. It is now reported that he will meet a group of nurses in private at the congress – clearly with a view to avoid bad publicity for his intended destruction of the NHS.

The Royal College of Nurses have identified 40.000 job losses with 54% being in frontline staff.

I seem to have some strange bedfellows recently, linking to Blairite scum. I linked to this important document at a blog presented by Blue Ken and today I’m linking to John Rentokill and Parrot Tonee. Rentokill’s argument looks strangely familiar as if the traditional press has to keep up with bloggers keeping people informed. Notice for example recognition of the role of Bliar’s administration in privatising the NHS and the refutation of “doing nothing is not an option”.

There are suggestions that one of Clegg’s closest advisors Norman Lamb intends to resign if NHS reforms are not to his satisfaction. Spin.

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.

‘Listening’ Lansley to meet nurses after all – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, yesterday reversed his decision to stay away from the annual conference of Britain’s 400,000 nurses.

Mr Lansley had previously turned down an invitation to attend the Royal College of Nursing’s Congress – prompting accusations that his promise to “listen” to health professional over NHS reforms was a “sham”.

But yesterday, after his planned absence was reported by The Independent, the Department of Health announced that he would go after all – as part of a “listening seminar”.

It is understood that Mr Lansley will meet a group of nurses, selected by the RCN, who will be able to put their concerns to the Health Secretary. However, he will still not take part, or address nurses, in the main conference hall. Instead the keynote government address will be given by Anne Milton, the most junior minister of the Health Department.

BBC News – Poor morale and job cuts threaten NHS reform, says RCN

Nurse leaders will warn this week that poor morale and job cuts threaten to derail the government’s reform programme of the NHS in England.

The issues will be key themes of the Royal College of Nursing’s annual conference in Liverpool.

RCN leader Peter Carter has said nurses were being pushed to the limit, working extra hard to keep services going.

John Rentoul: It’s hard to diagnose confusion – John Rentoul, Commentators – The Independent

As George Orwell said, “the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts”. If only David Cameron had remembered that when Andrew Lansley persuaded him that he knew what he was doing to improve the NHS.

It is possible that the Secretary of State for Health has Jedi powers when speaking in private. That might explain why Cameron left him to it in opposition and guaranteed him his job in the Cabinet. It might explain why the senior Liberal Democrat delegation that went to “have it out” with him last month came away saying how impressed they were with his grasp of the situation.

BBC News – Union claims overworked nurses are ‘propping up’ NHS

Nurses are “propping up” the NHS by repeatedly working more hours than contracted and providing last-minute shift cover, a union has claimed.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland said a survey of its members found just one in 10 felt there was enough staff where they worked.

The “snapshot” survey of 200 Scottish nurses was part of a UK-wide poll.

Royal College of Nursing Scotland released the figures on the eve of its annual congress.

Almost all nurses (96%) reported working in excess of their contracted hours, with more than a quarter (27%) saying they did this every shift.

Just 11% of respondents said that staffing levels at their place of work were quite good or very good, while more than a quarter said they provided last-minute cover for absentee staff at least fortnightly.

20,000 doctors and nurses to be cut as NHS feels the pain – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Controversial plans to reform the NHS suffered a double blow yesterday after a member of the Government threatened to resign over the proposals and new figures suggested up to 20,000 medical and nursing jobs could be lost as a result of cutbacks.

Norman Lamb, the chief political adviser to Nick Clegg and a government whip, said patient care could suffer because of the speed at which the changes were being introduced. “I’ve said that if it’s impossible for me to carry on in my position I will step down,” he said. “I don’t want to cause embarrassment but I feel very strongly about this issue… It would be a crying shame if we rush the reform process and got it wrong.”

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which is holding its annual congress this week in Liverpool, released new figures yesterday suggesting that more than 50 per cent of the planned jobs losses in the NHS will be clinical. So far the RCN has identified more than 40,000 NHS posts due to be lost over the next three years.

But in a survey of 21 NHS trusts, which between them are planning to cut nearly 10,000 jobs, the RCN discovered that 54 per cent were filled by clinical staff. The union said some roles were being downgraded. The Liverpool Women’s Hospital Trust is planning to cut 65 specialist nurse posts while introducing 48 staff nurse posts within its neonatal specialty. In Coventry and Warwickshire, managers are planning to reduce the number of registered nurses within learning disability services and increase the number of healthcare assistants.

More than half of NHS job cuts are on clinical frontline – RCN

The Royal College of Nursing has exposed the myth that NHS frontline care and services are protected, and says cuts will lead to ‘fewer services, fewer nurses and a worse NHS’.

As members from gather in Liverpool for the RCN’s annual Congress, the College warned cutting frontline posts could have ‘catastrophic consequences on patient safety and care’.

Evidence from 21 NHS trusts in England showed 54 per cent of nearly 10,000 posts due to be cut are frontline clinical posts. The RCN also found that nursing posts account for 46 per cent of identified workforce cuts.

The findings will put pressure on the Government to say how patient services will be protected, as trusts in England alone aim to save £20 billion by 2015.

Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, said clinical staff were the ‘lifeblood of the NHS’ but were haemorrhaging at an alarming rate.

He said: “Many trusts are not being transparent by admitting to the proportion of clinical jobs being lost. From our research we now know the truth – the majority of job losses are frontline clinical jobs, the jobs that matter to patients.

Nick Clegg adviser threatens to resign over rush to reform NHS | Politics | The Guardian

David Cameron has been warned that he will have to endorse sweeping changes to the government’s planned NHS reforms when a senior adviser to Nick Clegg threatened to resign unless a series of demands are met.

Norman Lamb, a government whip who is the Liberal Democrat leader’s senior parliamentary adviser, said his party’s MPs and peers would be unable to support the health and social care bill if their concerns are ignored.

Lamb’s warning came as the British Medical Association claimed the tight NHS settlement, which will raise its budget in line with inflation, is leading to an “accelerating withdrawal of services”. Growing numbers of patients are being denied treatment for conditions such as infertility.

David Cameron’s well-oiled winning machine is now a car crash | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian

A year ago running up to the election, everything they did looked clever, well oiled and pitch perfect. David Cameron’s electoral Rolls-Royce purred up to the winning post, his party’s reputation for wrecking the public realm left far behind. Likeable, reasonable and focus group-tuned to what the British wanted, he understood Labour’s legacy was a basic instinct for fairness. He knew the no-go zones – or so it seemed.

So why has he broken all his own rules in such a short time? Where did this appetite for random acts of revolutionary chaos come from? But above all, friend or foe, no one foresaw incompetence on such a scale. The saga of the NHS car crash is incomprehensible: his party seems at a loss, as ideology trumps political common sense. Cameron’s campaign – “I’ll cut the deficit not the NHS” – understood what was electorally totemic and radioactive for Tories.

No cuts? Former Tory health secretary Stephen Dorrell, powerful head of the commons health committee, warns yet again that no country ever attempted a 4% health cut in one year, let alone four years running. So what possessed Cameron to risk such cuts and lie about it, let alone to encourage Lansley’s simultaneous “revolution”? To advertise the NHS for sale to “any willing provider”, making Monitor open it to EU competition law, confirms every worst suspicion voters already held against his party.

 

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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Opendemocracy has a particularly enlightening article on the progression of privatisation of the NHS from the era of Tony Blair’s New Labour. This lecture, given at Goldsmiths College, is based on the book The Plot Against the NHS, by Colin Leys and Stewart Player, published on April 14th.

This very condensed account omits several major issues that are covered in the book Stewart Player and I have been working on. Among other things it omits the way the shift to a market has already been anticipated by the Department of Health, in dozens of initiatives and ‘pilots’. It omits the development of the private health industry, which is now on the verge of a dramatic expansion at the expense of the NHS budget. It omits fraud, which is so much part of the history of many of the companies involved, and which seems bound to become as endemic here as it is in the US and other healthcare markets.

But one question can’t be entirely omitted from even this brief account: how could the NHS be abolished as a public service without a debate and without the public knowing? The answer is really the story of what has become of democracy in the neoliberal age, condensed into a single case.  Spin, of course, has played a big part – secrecy, misrepresentation, manipulation of statistics, lies and the suppression of criticism. But even more important has been a radical change in the nature of government: in effect, the state itself has been privatised.

First, in terms of personnel, the boundary between the Department of Health and the health industry has become so permeable as to be almost non-existent. By 2006 only one career higher civil servant was left in the Department’s senior management team. The rest came chiefly from backgrounds in NHS management or the private sector. In addition, senior positions in the department were filled with personnel recruited directly from the private sector, while former department personnel (including two Secretaries of State) moved out to firms in the private sector. The revolving door has revolved faster in the Department of Health than in any other part of government except perhaps the Department of Defence. Conflict of interest has become so routine as to be almost unremarked. The idea of a boundary between the public and private sectors, which civil servants and ministers police in the public interest, has gone out of fashion.

Second, policy-making has been outsourced. This is an oversimplification, but not much. A so-called health policy community developed, structured especially around two main think tanks, the Kings Fund and the Nuffield Trust. The current Chief Executive of the Kings Fund was formerly director of strategy at the Department of Health, and so was the current vice chair of the board. Their governing bodies also have strong private sector representation and their seminars and conferences are where the market plans have been developed and disseminated. And this has been done partly at public expense, as these and many other think tanks, some of them militantly neoliberal, are charities, and so tax-funded.

Third, and particularly important in the run-up to the 2010 election, is the health industry lobby. Tamasin Cave and David Miller at Spinwatch have made a remarkable short film on the health lobby, called ‘The Health Industry Lobbying Tour’ which you can watch online at Spinwatch.org. When you have seen it you understand a lot more about Andrew Lansley and where his ideas are coming from.

 

The Health Industry Lobbying Tour from Mancha Productions on Vimeo.

I’ll leave it there. But just in case you are not convinced of the design behind this, and don’t think it is fair to call it a plot, let me add just one more item. In January there was a discussion on Radio 4 between Matthew Taylor, who was once Blair’s chief of staff, and Eamonn Butler, the Director of the Adam Smith Institute, where Tim Evans also works – same Tim Evans who negotiated the concordat with Milburn and looked forward to the NHS becoming just a kitemark. They were asked if they thought the NHS was really going to become ‘a mere franchise’. Butler replied, quite casually, ‘It’s been 20 years in the planning. I think they’ll do it.’

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.

The NHS mess: A very big headache | The Economist

The farrago over NHS reforms risks making the government look impetuous and incompetent rather than bold

A POLITICAL scientist, John Kingdon, once listed three elements needed for bold policy-making. The right political leaders must be in place; they must have the right plan; and—vitally—they must agree on a problem that needs fixing. The confusion surrounding the government’s ambitious bid to reshape the National Health Service (NHS) offers ample evidence for the Kingdon thesis.

The Conservative-led government is in a bind over its proposals, which have run into opposition from health professionals and some Liberal Democrats (the Tories’ coalition partners). On April 6th a grave-faced David Cameron, flanked by his Lib Dem deputy Nick Clegg and the Tory health secretary Andrew Lansley, announced a two-month “listening exercise”, in which the government would seek suggestions for improving the plans.

The policy itself has proved predictably divisive since it was unveiled last summer. Though the individual changes are evolutionary, building on market-based reforms stretching back more than two decades, their cumulative impact and complexity stunned medical leaders. Sir David Nicholson, the health service’s chief executive, joked that the package was so ambitious “you could probably see it from space”. Yet the Conservatives fought the 2010 general election on a pledge to oppose further top-down reorganisations of the NHS, after years of disruptive management changes.

Mr Lansley’s plan would abolish a whole tier of NHS management, known as Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), transferring control over 60% of the NHS budget to consortiums of GPs (family doctors). One underlying political goal is to hand hard decisions about the rationing of care to GPs, the most trusted part of the health service.

A second big plank of the Lansley reforms would extend the scope of competition within the NHS’s internal market, launched in 1990 and expanded since to let private providers bid for work alongside state-run hospitals. Responding to complaints from the health sector and voters’ anxiety about “privatisation by the back door”, the government has pledged changes to stop private companies “cherry-picking” the easiest or most profitable cases, leaving NHS hospitals the expensive conditions and the cost of training doctors. Further concessions could tweak the membership of the spending bodies to be run by GPs, to include other clinicians and perhaps elected representatives.

On the NHS, Cameron, Clegg and Lansley listen – but will they act? | Sarah Boseley | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

David Cameron and Nick Clegg, together with Andrew Lansley, started listening at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey on Wednesday. At least – in their colour-coordinated dark suits with ties in shades of violet at three matching white lecterns – that’s what they said they were doing. They had come to a highly successful foundation trust hospital (close to London) at less than 24 hours’ notice to talk about the health and social care bill that nobody loves. During a “natural pause” in the progress of the bill through parliament, they want to listen, reflect and improve on the bill, they said.

Do they really? At Frimley Park, they did listen to the questions put to them mostly by consultants, all of which revealed genuine anxieties about the government plans. But the answers they gave suggested no hint of movement. This was a defence of the proposals – not a discussion of what might be wrong with them, let alone undertakings to change them substantially.

From my position in the audience, it looked as though Cameron and Clegg had decided that Lansley just needed help in explaining and selling the package. Every question was fielded first by Cameron and then Clegg, who both answered with reassuring generalities, before letting Lansley loose on the details – which he does in such a technical fashion that nobody can follow him. It was Clegg who homed in on the issue that most upset the Liberal Democrats ahead of their vote at the spring conference – privatisation. “There will be no privatisation of the NHS. The fact is that the private sector, charities, social enterprises, have always had a role in the health service … ever since it was founded,” he said. It was no, he added, “to allowing private companies to cherry-pick services”. It was no, too, to “a US-style health system where they check your credit card before they check your pulse”.

Health Secretary snubs ‘hostile’ nurse congress – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Andrew Lansley’s promise to “listen” to health professionals over his plans to reform the NHS was last night branded a sham after it emerged that he had turned down an invitation to attend the nurses’ annual conference.

Mr Lansley is expected to become the first Secretary of State or Prime Minister in eight years not to address the Royal College of Nurses Congress when it takes place next week in Liverpool.

Instead the Government plans to send the most junior minister of the Health Department – Anne Milton – to represent it.

 

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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NHS news is still about listening but possibly not doing anything beyond listening. There is a suggestion that the campaign group 38 degrees is having an effect after compiling a huge petition.

I was mistaken when I wrote this yesterday: “There are claims that drastic changes are necessary to the NHS because of UK’s ageing population. I suspect that this justification has surfaced over the past few days and that previously alleged necessary change was presumed to be self-evidently true and no justification beyond “Doing nothing is not an option” was necessary.” Cameron presented proposed changes to the NHS on 17 January 2011. It’s reported that he “said the health service would start to collapse in two years without an overhaul to cope with the new pressures of obesity, an ageing population and costly new drugs.” That’s as well as saying that “doing nothing is not an option” and that critics should “grow up”.

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.

Experts talk shop as Tory changes start to kick in / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Health experts and union leaders took part in a panel debate on their vision for the NHS on the last day of Unison’s health conference today.

In a bid to pick apart Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s Health and Social Care Bill, NHS journalist Roy Lilley, Unison assistant general secretary Karen Jennings and British Medical Association GP committee chairman Laurence Buckman spoke out about where the health service would find itself in years to come.

Mr Buckman said the “main thing I want to see scrapped from these reforms” was Monitor, the body that regulates foundation trusts.

“It should not enforce competition between people who should be healing the sick.”

He also warned that the Health and Social Care Bill would see the NHS turned into a purchaser of healthcare rather than a practitioner.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg pledge to listen – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

David Cameron and Nick Clegg pledged today to listen to concerns about NHS reforms but warned “no change is not an option”.

Launching the Government’s listening exercise on the Health and Social Care Bill, the Prime Minister stressed the NHS was the nation’s most precious asset.

But he admitted the Government had been “charging ahead” with the reforms and must now pause to address worries coming from many quarters, including patient groups, Royal Colleges and unions.

The Deputy Prime Minister accepted it was an “unusual” move to launch a listening exercise when the Bill had already passed its Commons committee stage but said it was “extraordinarily important” the Government got it right.

The pair were joined by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley in addressing about 100 doctors and nurses at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey.

Commitment To Listen Welcome, But BMA Says Real Change Needed On NHS Reforms, UK

Commenting on the launch of a listening exercise and the creation of a ‘Future Forum’ to advise the government on changes to its reforms of the NHS in England, Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of Council at the BMA, said:

“We see it as positive that the government is committed to listening. How serious it is about making real changes remains to be seen, but we welcome the acknowledgement that NHS staff and many others in the healthcare world have genuine concerns. The BMA will co-operate to get across the views of doctors, and to work to ensure we get the best outcome for patients.

“While we share the objectives of improving services for patients and empowering staff, we believe the Bill as it is currently written is taking the NHS in England in the wrong direction. We have particular concerns about the emphasis on a statutory duty to promote competition in the NHS – with the accompanying risk of fragmentation of care, the proposed new model for the delivery of education and training, and the detail of how commissioning will work.”

NHS ‘listening exercise’ thrown into doubt | Society | The Guardian

A two-month “listening exercise” in which medical professionals will be asked to contribute to a review of changes to the NHS has been thrown into doubt by a confidential memo highlighting a series of government red lines that must be maintained.

As David Cameron and Nick Clegg joined the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, on Wednesday to launch the exercise at a hospital in Surrey, the memo by NHS chief executive David Nicholson indicated there may be little room for manoeuvre in reworking the health and social care bill.

The memo drew a red line beneath the fundamental planks of the bill that are not for changing: GP consortiums, an independent commissioning board to oversee them, every hospital to become a foundation trust, and Healthwatch and primary care trusts to be abolished by 2013.

The memo said there would be delays in setting up Monitor, a regulatory body for bringing competition in the NHS, to which many object, which will slip to July 2012, and the abolition of strategic health authorities will also be delayed to the same date.

The memo is likely to be seized on by Labour which says that the “listening exercise” is more of a PR exercise.

Why Tory MPs Have NHS Jitters | Boulton & Co. | Sky News Blogs

A Tory grandee in the Commons has explained to me why Conservative MPs – and particularly the 2010 intake – have got the jitters over the Government’s NHS reforms.

I can reveal that the Tory wobble is the result of a lobbying campaign by a pressure group called 38 DEGREES, which has launched an internet petition which already has more than 252,000 signatures.

Never heard of them?

No, nor had I, until my grandee friend told me it’s the same pressure group that was largely responsible for frightening Tory MPs into demanding a Government U-turn on the forest sell-off fiasco.

The group’s website tells me it was launched in 2009 and its members voted this month on its next big campaign priority: “Work together to protect the NHS.”

Minister: tell us your fears about NHS reforms – but we might not listen – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

A Cabinet show of unity over the Government’s controversial health reforms was undermined when the Department of Health declined to confirm that a “listening exercise” would change the plans.

David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley joined forces in an attempt to woo health professionals into supporting Mr Lansley’s plans to transfer 60 per cent of the NHS budget to GPs. But cracks emerged only an hour after their carefully-choreographed appearance at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, where they promised to “pause, listen and reflect” but insisted the status quo is not an option.

Downing Street sources endorsed Mr Clegg’s pledge that the rethink would be followed by “substantive changes”. Mr Cameron is expected to order Mr Lansley to give councillors a role on the GP-led consortia that will commission services instead of primary care trusts (PCTs)—a key Liberal Democrat demand. More health professionals such as hospital doctors and nurses will be added to the commissioning bodies and limits imposed on competition to allay fears about “back door privatisation.”

 

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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NHS news is dominated by claims that Cameron, Clegg and Lansley are “listening” to concerns about the bill to destroy the NHS. Labour have condemned the initiative as an “expensive PR stunt” and I agree.

There are claims that drastic changes are necessary to the NHS because of UK’s ageing population. I suspect that this justification has surfaced over the past few days and that previously alleged necessary change was presumed to be self-evidently true and no justification beyond “Doing nothing is not an option” was necessary.

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.

UNISON Press | Press Releases Front Page

“Good morning Conference. It’s great to be here with you in Liverpool. A great city and a great conference. Our Health Conference – the biggest gathering of Health workers in the United Kingdom. Our big society coming together from all parts of the land. Our people who work in the NHS because they believe in it. A coalition who do not believe in our NHS. But a coalition with no democratic mandate.

“A coalition reporting its definition of democracy to the rest of the world but not giving the people of this country a say in the future of our NHS. Yesterday evening I had the privilege of attending the fringe meeting on our NHS. Blood and Transfusion Service. A centre of excellence. Our big society at work. Millions of donors willing to give their blood for the benefit of others. Blood for the benefit of others. No money changing hands.

“Donating organs with no money changing hands. Now we are told that the transport and storage of blood and organs are to be privatised looking at ways in which “commercialisation can be exploited”. Private companies to come in and extract blood money. It’s unethical. It’s immoral.

“And I want to make it clear from this platform to our NHS BT branch representatives in the hall today, that you will receive the full support of our national union and our Conference here today. To anyone who is listening, this union, our union will do everything in its power to stop the privatisation of NHS Blood.

Healey condemns Tories’ NHS chaos / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Shadow health secretary John Healey joined delegates at Unison’s health conference today in calling for an end to Tory cuts and reforms.

Hot on the heels of his attack on Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms in parliament on Monday evening Mr Healey attended the conference in Liverpool to speak out against the government’s reckless, ideological and politically motivated health policy.

The former TUC campaign director hailed some of Labour’s achievements before admitting that the party did make mistakes in securing the best PFI deals.

He went on to lay into the government’s NHS reforms as being steeped in “chaos” and “confusion.

Prentis: Cut service and we’ll walk / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Unison leader Dave Prentis delivered a rousing speech to furious health workers today, vowing to fight tooth and nail to protect their pensions from Tory-driven NHS cuts.

The general secretary pledged to delegates at the Unison conference in Liverpool that he would support industrial action if pension schemes were targeted.

“If there’s money to bail out the banks, if there’s money to protect their bonuses, if there’s money for war, then there’s money available for the NHS,” he said.

“It’s the rich in the city, some paying less tax than one of our cleaners in a hosptial, who should be doing more for less.”

United and fighting / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Hundreds of health workers swept out of Liverpool’s conference hall today for a lunchtime rally amid a fanfare of horns and placards demanding: “Hands off our NHS.”

Speakers at Unison’s annual conference called for solidarity in protecting the NHS and the crowd jeered “tossers” as the Con-Dem’s plans for cuts and reforms were attacked.

North West regional secretary Frank Hont introduced speakers as he praised the NHS as a “shining beacon for health care.”

He reeled off a lengthy list of other NHS workers stating that the service is “not just about GPs.

“If the health service was just about GPs we would be in a sorry state,” said Mr Hont.

“It’s also about patients and their families who depend on it and those who work for it. The NHS may not be perfect but it’s the best thing that the government in this country ever did.”

Workers step up battle to save blood service / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Health workers unanimously backed an emergency motion today to step up the fight against privatising parts of the NHS blood and transplant service.

Delegates at Unison’s health group conference in Liverpool were united in opposing any Department of Health dealings to hive off the running of parts of NHS blood and transplant service to private companies.

The plans have attracted interest from private firms Capita and DHL, which could stand to take over parts of the service including testing, processing and transport of blood products.

Transplant ward worker in Oxfordshire Stephen Parkinson said: “I’m proud to be working for a service that is truly life-changing and life-saving.

“It’s crucial that the service is one that remains for donors a gift of life given freely.

Pulse – Public health plans set to fragment NHS ‘beyond repair’

Government plans to reshape public health services in England are flawed and could ‘damage the NHS beyond repair’, the BMA has warned.

The association said the proposals outlined in the government’s public health White Paper, Healthy Lives, Healthy People, could lead to a ‘further fragmentation of the NHS’ and were causing ‘great anxiety among doctors’.

The warning came as the NHS Confederation said plans to financially reward areas that successfully reduce health inequalities could penalise the areas most in need of extra investment and, in fact, worsen health inequalities.

BBC News – We won’t take risks with NHS – PM

The government will not take risks with the NHS in England, Prime Minister David Cameron says.

But at the launch of a new push to convince critics that the reforms are right, he said sticking with the status quo was not an option. [Why not?]

The prime minister was joined by his deputy Nick Clegg and Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to try to present a united front amid widespread criticism.

Labour has branded the move an “expensive PR stunt”.

Union protests over NHS shake-up plans – Health – The Star

Fool protest at Doncaster Royal Infirmary
Fool protest at Doncaster Royal Infirmary

PROTESTERS at Doncaster Royal Infirmary donned jester costumes to voice their opposition to Government plans to reform the NHS.

Members of the trade union Unison targeted the borough’s biggest hospital to make their position clear to the borough MP Rosie Winterton, who was visiting during their protest.

Ms Winterton is also the Labour Party’s chief whip.

A spokesman for Unison confirmed the protest was held to tie in with Ms Winterton’s visit.

She said: To coincide with her visit, nurses and health care workers from Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospital are protesting against the Health and Social Care Bill outside DRI main entrance.”

The protesters dressed in jesters outfits holding signs saying: “Don’t be a fool Mr Cameron – leave the NHS alone”.

Modernising NHS vital, says David Cameron – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

David Cameron today warned NHS staff that modernisation of the service was “essential” if it was to cope with the demands of a rapidly ageing population.

Launching the Government’s “listening” exercise on its controversial reform programme, the Prime Minister insisted he remained “passionately” committed to a health service free at the point of delivery.

But addressing NHS workers in Frimley, Surrey, with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, he said they could not afford to carry on in the way they were doing.

“The status quo is not an option,” he said.

At the same time he insisted that ministers were committed to taking staff with them as they made the reforms that were needed.

BBC News – Sherwood Forest NHS Trust budget jobs threat

Hundreds of jobs are under threat after a Nottinghamshire NHS trust said it had to make savings of nearly £50m.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the King’s Mill and Newark hospitals, said it needed to save £46m over the next three years.

Two thirds of its budget goes on staff, with the savings needed equivalent to 420 full-time posts.

NHS protests attract massive support – Local – Sunderland Echo

HUNDREDS of thousands of protesters have put their name to a petition opposing NHS changes

The petition, signed by Easington residents, was received by local MP Grahame Morris.

It was organised by the campaign group 38 Degrees which lobbies on a range of issues affecting people in the UK.

Mr Morris accepted the petition at his constituency headquarters at the Glebe Centre in Murton.

Nick Clegg was claiming that the NHS reforms were the Lib Dems’ idea just three months ago | The Spectator

Ahead of this morning’s Cameron, Clegg, Lansley event on the NHS, it is worth reminding ourselves of what Nick Clegg was saying about these reforms back at the start of the year. On January 23rd, he went on the Andrew Marr show and had this exchange:

‘ANDREW MARR:

Huge change to the NHS just coming down the line. Was that in the Liberal Democrat manifesto?

NICK CLEGG:

Actually funnily enough it was. Indeed it was. We were one of the primary critics in opposition of what we felt was a top …

ANDREW MARR:

(over) I don’t remember you saying you were going to get rid of Primary Care Trusts and pass it down to GPs.

NICK CLEGG:

We certainly said we were going to get rid of Primary Care Trusts.’

 

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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The UK Con-Dem – Conservative and Liberal-Democrat – coalition government have paused progress of the controversial health bill intended to abolish the NHS.

Nick Clegg – the discredited leader of the Liberal-Democrats who claims that he can’t remember that he was a Tory at University – has pledged to listen to ‘legitimate’ concerns about the bill. His words are very measured and unconvincing. I object to GPs being given unaccountable power to move money around from one pocket to the other BTW.

Labour Party leader Ed Miliband made an unsubstantive speech. The Labour Party was very slow to show it’s opposition to the bill and it’s worth pondering on whether they actually oppose it.

Looks like you get a different shade of blue whoever you vote for.

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.

New Statesman – NHS reforms: a lesson in how not to do it

“It all seems slightly dramatic to me, but I tend to hope that Lansley knows what he’s doing,” sums up what friends in the Conservative Party have said to me about the NHS reforms over the past few months.

This remains the danger within any government: to assume someone else is getting on with it and knows what they are doing. I remember a friend in the Labour Party once saying to me, as we debated during the lead up to the Iraq War, “The thing is I trust Tony. I assume he knows what he is doing.” Well the rest, as they say, is history.

Within government, within Cabinet, everything should be challenged and nothing assumed.

We must change NHS to protect it, says Ed Miliband | Society | guardian.co.uk

Ed Miliband has set out the three principles a Labour government would bring to reforming the NHS, telling party members the “status quo” is not enough.

The Labour leader said that “to protect the NHS we need to change it”, and offered the coalition support in changing the NHS if they met the principles.

He said he came to the debate as a “reformer”, adding: “A reformer of the state as well as the market”.

New Statesman – Full Transcript | Ed Miliband | RSA Future of the NHS Speech | 4 April 2011

UNISON News | The public service union | ‘It’s our future and it’s not for sale’

(04/04/11) “Let’s send a message to this government loud and clear: the NHS is our future and it’s not for sale.”

That was the rousing welcome UNISON health delegates received from service group executive chair Lilian Macer when she opened the union’s health conference in Liverpool this morning.

Recalling that the last time conference met, before the general election, “we were concerned, fearful, at the prospect of a Tory government. But few of us thought we’d be fighting on so many fronts, so early, with so much at stake.”

NHS reforms: Lansley agrees to change health bill | Society | guardian.co.uk

Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, has acknowledged that people have “genuine” concerns about his reforms to the NHS as he announced that the government would table amendments to the bill.

Amid fears in Downing Street that Lansley has failed to explain the thinking behind his reforms, the health secretary said he would use a “natural break in the passage of the bill” to offer reassurances that the government’s sole intention is to improve the NHS.

Leading article: Revolution finally gives way to pragmatism – Leading Articles, Opinion – The Independent

The Coalition’s revolutionaries appear to have gone into reverse. In recent months we have had a comprehensive retreat from the Government on its forests policy, embarrassing disarray on tuition fees, and now ministers are signalling a change of course on their NHS reforms. David Cameron and Nick Clegg have promised a “listening exercise” on the Coalition’s health service plans. Action is out and consultation is in. Ideology has given way to pragmatism.

It remains to be seen whether this is a prelude to a watering-down of the Health and Social Care Bill, or merely an attempt to sell the reforms better. The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, insisted in the House of Commons yesterday that the substance of the Bill will still be implemented. But it is clear that the Government is determined to ditch the revolutionary posture – “Maoist”, as Vince Cable memorably put it – adopted in the early months of the Coalition.

This change of approach on health, in particular, has a profound political significance. The NHS was one of the pillars of David Cameron’s modernisation of the Conservative Party. The Government’s ring-fencing of the health budget from the cuts imposed across the rest of the public sector was intended to demonstrate to the public that the Tories could be trusted with the NHS. But now Downing Street has woken up to the fact that the old suspicions about Conservative attitude to the public provision of healthcare are still very much alive. The medical profession has been uniformly critical of the Government’s health Bill and the general public is increasingly alarmed. Mr Cameron is pushing the pause button because he realises the seriousness of the threat to his project of detoxifying the Tory brand.

Anger over plan to close small maternity units – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Small NHS maternity units face closure to improve safety standards and help economies across the health service.

Experts said yesterday that those maternity units lacking access to specialist expertise should be closed to protect the lives of mothers and babies – although such closures will mean some expectant mothers having to travel further to give birth.

Responding to yesterday’s investigation by The Independent into the crisis in maternity care, Nigel Edwards, the acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, representing NHS trusts, said: “There is a broad consensus that there needs to be a substantial change in the provision of maternity services involving the downgrading or closure of smaller units to provide safer services. The changes are necessary in order to have appropriate consultant cover but it is important they are not seen as a cost-saving measure, though they may prevent trusts spending more.”

BBC News – GPs ‘should not get sole control of NHS budget’

MPs have heaped more pressure on the government for its overhaul of the NHS in England by suggesting GPs should not be allowed to take control of the budget all by themselves.

The House of Commons’ health committee said they should be joined by a range of staff including nurses and hospital doctors to decide how funds are spent.

The move would improve accountability and decision-making, the MPs said.

It came as ministers plan a new push to convince people of the need for change.

NHS reform plans to be re-examined

The Government’s controversial NHS reforms are to be re-examined after the Health Secretary admitted some groups had “genuine concerns” about the plans, including the speed of the changes.

In the face of mounting opposition, Andrew Lansley was forced to make a Commons statement on Monday defending aspects of the Health and Social Care Bill, which completed its committee stage last week.

He said the Government would take the opportunity of a “natural break” in the passage of the Bill to “pause, listen and engage” over the concerns and bring forward amendments to “improve the plans further”.

Clegg pledge over NHS shake-up concerns – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has promised to address concerns over the Government’s controversial NHS reforms as MPs called for “significant changes” to the plans.

The cross-party Commons Health Committee urged a rethink of the proposals, with former Tory health secretary and committee chairman Stephen Dorrell saying it is not a case of merely recommending “minor tweaking” of the Health and Social Care Bill.

One of the points the committee stressed is that GPs should not be solely in charge of commissioning services for patients. However, Mr Clegg said he believed it was an “uncontroversial idea” to hand them more responsibility.

Reform of NHS ignites rebellion (From The Northern Echo)

THE flagship NHS shake-up is savaged by a Tory-led committee of MPs today – just hours after the government was forced to slam the brakes on its progress, to calm public fears.

Key aspects of the Health and Social Care Bill are torpedoed by the Commons health select committee, which warns of lax controls over £60bn of taxpayers’ cash and the risk of free-market competition harming care.

The damning report comes after Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced a “natural break” in the Bill’s passage, to allow ministers to “pause, listen and engage”, to counter a rising tide of criticism.

Health Bill – must be no way back for coalition’s destructive NHS plan

Reacting to the publication today (Tuesday) of the report by the influential cross-party health select committee, Unite the union said that the coalition’s chaotic changes to the NHS are now so widely reviled they cannot be saved by the government.

The select committee has warned that the forthcoming changes lack accountability and that the secretary of state cannot abandon his role as the politician responsible for the performance of the health service. It also warns that the new system of GPs taking charge of both purchasing and providing care could result in serious conflicts of interest. The report is the latest in a long line of criticism of the government’s health and social care bill.

Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary said: “The committtee raises profound questions about the government’s competence when it comes to the NHS. It rightly warns that massive £20 billion cuts to health spending at a time of rising care demands is a fundamental challenge to the NHS’s operations. To then pile a chaotic, bureaucratic restructuring of the service on top of massive cuts can only be regarded as irresponsible. Far from improving our NHS this government is setting it on the road to certain ruin – and privatisation.

 

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

Continue ReadingNHS news review

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NHS news is dominated by the claim that progress of the bill to destroy the NHS will be delayed or paused for three months. At least two newspapers claimed this story as an exclusive yesterday. The UK Con-Dem – Conservative and Liberal-Democrat – government certainly have huge problems over this bill and many papers suggest that there is no mandate for such ‘reforms’ and that there has been very poor presentation. There has certainly been poor presentation – there has not even been an explanation of why such dogmatic changes are necessary beyond “doing nothing is not an option”. I’m left wondering whether they were trying to do it quickly and ‘under the radar’.  I should write an article on this issue…

There are also suggestions that the Liberal-Democrats will force amendments to the bill.


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.

Exclusive: Cameron signals retreat on NHS reforms – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

David Cameron will announce this week another humiliating climbdown, putting the brakes on the Government’s health reforms in a desperate attempt to rescue his reputation as a defender of the NHS.

In the latest embarrassing example of the Prime Minister being forced to intervene in the policy of one of his ministers, Mr Cameron will publicly admit to mistakes in the plan by the Secretary of State, Andrew Lansley, to hand £80bn of health spending to family doctors, characterised by critics as privatisation by the back door.

Mr Cameron will announce a “pause” of up to three months in the progress of the Health and Social Care Bill through Parliament, to allow for more time to reassure clinicians, patients and coalition MPs. One option being considered is a series of public meetings at which Mr Lansley would be forced to restate the case for reform in a less confrontational manner.

Leading article: The mystery of NHS reform – Leading Articles, Opinion – The Independent

The kindest way to put it is that we are baffled. The Independent on Sunday was long prepared to extend to David Cameron the benefit of the doubt. In opposition, he made many of the brave and necessary changes to the Conservative Party for it to become electable again – although we were sceptical about, for example, his conversion to the Green cause. One of the most important changes was to neutralise his party’s reputation for hostility to the National Health Service.

Now, less than a year into government, Mr Cameron’s claim to lead the party of the NHS is in doubt. As we report today, the Prime Minister and his deputy are preparing, in conditions of unusual secrecy, to announce this week a delay to the Health and Social Care Bill, which has just completed its committee stage in the House of Commons.

The confusion over the Government’s plans for the NHS is, to put it at its most moderate, surprising. This is a matter not just of ideology but of competence.

The Prime Minister seems to have assumed, despite the evidence over many years, that Andrew Lansley, the Secretary of State for Health, knew what he was doing. When Mr Lansley succeeded in uniting doctors, nurses, public opinion and most Liberal Democrats against his reforms, No 10 seems to have assumed that he needed to communicate the changes better.

It is certainly the case that the communication of the policy has been lamentable. Mr Lansley’s main message has been that GP- commissioning was promised in the Tory and Liberal Democrat manifestos, and in their coalition agreement. That claim lacks a basis in fact, to put it politely. The Tory manifesto spoke of giving GPs the power to commission care, rather than requiring them to do so, and the coalition document was similarly permissive. The Lib Dem manifesto was silent on the issue. The coalition agreement also promises that primary care trusts (PCTs) “will act as a champion for patients and commission those residual services that are best undertaken at a wider level, rather than directly by GPs”. The Bill dispenses with the trusts altogether.

Andrew Lansley: He’s got designs on our health | From the Observer | The Observer

When Labour criticises health secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans for the NHS, David Cameron has a stock riposte. He likes to quote a recent speech delivered by the opposition health spokesman John Healey. “No one in the House of Commons knows more about the NHS than Andrew Lansley… No one has visited more of the NHS. No one has talked to more people who work in the NHS than Andrew Lansley.”

It is one way to take the wind out of the opposition’s sails during prime minister’s questions – but an entirely disingenuous one. Healey was merely noting Lansley’s intellectual thoroughness, and encyclopaedic knowledge, in an address which attacked the plans as a disaster for patients.

Nor does Cameron’s party trick cheer up Tory MPs for long. If there is one domestic issue that worries Conservatives more than any other, it is Lansley’s commitment to force through the most sweeping changes to the NHS since its formation in 1948. The medical profession is uneasy. Inside Downing Street there is profound anxiety. “Why are we taking this on?” officials ask. “Why are we doing this?”

NHS reform fight arrives on Stourbridge MP’s doorstep (From Halesowen News)

CAMPAIGNERS fighting NHS reforms brought their battle to Stourbridge with a 213,000 name petition for the town’s MP.

Representatives from protest group 38 Degrees handed over the petition at the offices of Tory MP Margot James as part of a nationwide campaign opposing government plans to make GPs responsible for most heath service spending.

Ms James is a member of the parliamentary committee which is considering the proposals, 38 Degrees fear the changes will put health care into the hands of the private sector.

BBC News – Cameron and Clegg to push case for NHS changes

PM David Cameron and deputy Nick Clegg are to make a renewed drive to promote planned changes to the NHS in England.

The coalition is also understood to be ready to introduce changes to the legislation when it returns to the House of Lords after May’s elections.

This follows mounting disquiet that ministers have failed to convince voters that change is necessary.

Government ‘planning to water down NHS reforms’ – Channel 4 News

While Downing Street today denied that David Cameron was rowing back on his commitment to the reforms, it is believed that he will agree to some amendments, including the way in which private companies will be able to operate in the new NHS, writes Channel 4 News Social Affairs Correspondent Victoria Macdonald.

He and the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg are also expected to announce that they are about to embark on a “listening exercise” so they can take on board what some of the concerns are.

There were suggestions today, too, that the NHS Health and Social Care Bill would be delayed, but Downing Street has denied this.

Instead, the amendments are likely to include a limit to the ability of private companies to cherry-pick the easiest and more profitable cases; that the regulator, Monitor, will have to promote value for money above competition – at the moment competition is central to its role; and there were will be changes to make GP consortia more publicly accountable.

NHS service backed by 70% / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Public-sector union Unison leader Dave Prentis warned the government today that over 70 per cent of the public oppose plans to pay private contractors to handle blood and organ transplants.

A Unison YouGov poll of over 2,000 people last week found that 72 per cent would oppose private companies running any part of the National Health Service’s Blood and Transplant Service.

The result could prove a stumbling block for Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, who commissioned a review of the service late last year to make it more “commercially effective.”

Mr Lansley then claimed that it would be more cost-effective to contract out some functions of the service “so long as there was no conflict with public health.”

David Cameron set to announce delay to NHS reforms | Politics | The Guardian

David Cameron is preparing to bow to insurmountable political opposition by putting the coalition’s flagship NHS reform bill on hold beyond Easter, and possibly for as long as three months.

The announcement of a delay, agreed at a meeting involving Cameron and Cabinet colleagues last Thursday, is expected to come this week at a joint event involving David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the health secretary Andrew Lansley.

Some sources have told the Guardian that Cameron is no longer listening to Lansley, and is taking his advice from Sir David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive.

In a sign of the political obstacles facing the prime minister, the leaders of a Liberal Democrat revolt against the reforms will release their 23 detailed demands for sweeping changes to the bill.

Cameron poised to water down NHS reforms – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is fighting a desperate rearguard action to save his NHS reforms amid pressure to water them down from David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

Mr Lansley is determined not to abandon his plans to transfer 60 per cent of the health budget to GPs and wants to concede only minor changes during the NHS and Social Care Bill’s passage through Parliament.

Cameron poised to water down NHS reforms – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is fighting a desperate rearguard action to save his NHS reforms amid pressure to water them down from David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

Mr Lansley is determined not to abandon his plans to transfer 60 per cent of the health budget to GPs and wants to concede only minor changes during the NHS and Social Care Bill’s passage through Parliament.

But there are growing signs that he will be forced to go further than that to allay fears that the shake-up could lead to “backdoor privatisation” and wreck Mr Cameron’s drive to win the public’s trust on health.

Demands for a rethink will grow today when Ed Miliband offers all-party talks on health reform – but only if the Government ditches the Bill first. Speaking to the RSA think-tank in London, the Labour leader will attack the “chaos” over the reforms and say the way they have been handled is a “disgrace”. Mr Miliband will say: “This is a direct consequence of a coalition based on power, convenience and ambition rather than values.”

 

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

Continue ReadingNHS news review

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NHS news summary: Yet more confirmation that the Health Bill will destroy the NHS, PM Cameron accused of hiding high satisfaction with the NHS and Unite accuses the Con government of not thinking through NHS reforms.

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.

Health Bill spells the end of the NHS in England, academics warn » Hospital Dr

The Health and Social Care Bill amounts to the abolition of the English NHS as a universal, comprehensive, publicly accountable, tax funded service, free at the point of delivery, academics warn.

Professor Allyson Pollock and David Price, from the Centre for Health Sciences, Barts and The London School of Medicine, argue that the government’s duty to provide a comprehensive health service in England is set to be abolished.

They say that freedoms created under the new Bill will allow corporate commissioners and investors to contract out all NHS services to a range of private providers and redefine the range of NHS services available. They will also be free to charge for some elements that are currently NHS services and to create surpluses for staff and shareholders by under-spending the patient care budget, the authors say on bmj.com.

Paul Blomfield MP challenges David Cameron at PMQs on NHS reforms

At today’s PMQs Paul Blomfield challenged the Prime Minister about the Department of Health’s decision not to publish research that it is has had since last autumn, and which shows the highest ever public satisfaction with the NHS. David Cameron refused to answer the question.

Paul Blomfield MP asked the Prime Minister:
“It was reported at the weekend that the Department of Health has failed to publish research, that it had commissioned and received last autumn, which showed the highest ever public satisfaction with the NHS. Will the Prime Minister urge the Secretary of State for Health to publish this research without further delay or, by not doing so, will he confirm that the BMA was right last week when it deplored “the government’s use of misleading and inaccurate information to denigrate the NHS, to justify the Health and Social Care Bill reforms”?

Speaking after PMQs Paul Blomfield MP said: “It’s not surprising that David Cameron refused to answer my question. The public is more satisfied with the NHS than ever before, which shows that the Tory plans to reorganise the NHS are completely ideologically-driven and not based on evidence. They are going to let private companies start running NHS services and create a two-tier system. The public do not support this and the Tory/Lib Dem government should think again and scrap their dangerous plans.”

The politics of vagueness haunts NHS ‘privatisation’ bill, says Unite

The politics of vagueness haunts the legislation which will herald the biggest ever shake-up of the NHS, Unite, the largest union in the country, said today (Wednesday 23 March).

Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, is concerned that health secretary Andrew Lansley has not got a grip on the details of the legislation, which will open up the NHS to the widespread privatisation of services.

Unite cites two examples of this lack of grip – Andrew Lansley’s admission to the Commons health select committee that he was ‘still thinking through’ what would happen if one of the new GP consortia went broke; and a further admission that the role of Monitor – the regulatory body which will oversee fair play in the new ‘market’ – had not been finalised.

NHS reforms ‘could prompt closures’ – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Increasing competition in the health service could lead to some hospital units closing, a leading doctor has warned.

Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s consultants committee, said NHS hospitals are likely to lose services to private companies under the Government’s reforms, which could leave them struggling.

As a result, many trusts will be “unable to cover the costs of entire departments”, which could lead to their closure, or cuts being made in other ways such as reducing staff numbers.

 

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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Letter to Nick Clegg

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Image of David 'Pinoccio' Cameron and Nick Clegg. Image is originally from the UK's Mirror newspaper. Looks like Bliar doesn't he? Cameron seems to be apingning/copying Bliar's public image ~ speeches aligning himslf with Bliar ... and of course ... who Bliar aligned with ...Portion of a letter to Nick Clegg from Felicity Arbuthnot

Response to Nick Clegg, UK Deputy Prime Minister | Dissident Voice

A “no-fly zone” is another oxymoron, a total contradiction in terms. It means that Colonel Gaddafi’s “brutal, savage and unacceptable treatment”, has been replaced by our “brutal, savage and unacceptable treatment”, using depleted uranium (i.e., nuclear waste) weapons and blowing Libyan people to bits in their uncounted numbers. (“It is not productive” to count coalition deaths as US Generals, led by General Mark Kimmit, have reiterated.)

The region and peoples will become another Fallujah, with the yet-to-be-conceived, even, born with deformities, often making them unrecognisable as human infants. Headless, limbless, organs on the outside of the body, one cyclops eye, no eyes, no brain — a reality witnessed by the writer over many years.

Libya has the ninth largest oil reserves on earth. As Iraq, and as the desire for the vital resources through Afghanistan, no one with half a brain believes your concern for humanity is the real reason. There were no calls from your Party, or the Conservatives, for “no fly zones” of any hue, or for restraint, in “Operation Cast Lead” (Christmas-New Year 2008-2009) as Israel bombarded the people of Gaza, caught, like “fish in a barrel”, to use a term about wanton slaughter, from another US General. That certainly looked like “brutal, savage and unacceptable” treatment, to most observers.

Last July, when you became acting Prime Minister when David Cameron was away, you said, in an exchange with Jack Straw, the previous Labour Foreign Secretary:

Perhaps one day you could account for your role in the most disastrous decision of all, which is the illegal invasion of Iraq.3

This is written on the eighth anniversary of the beginning of that illegal invasion. The invasion George W. Bush declared a “Crusade.” As you embark on the course of decimating another ancient Islamic land for oil – one with an even smaller population than Iraq – another “Crusade” to install another compliant puppet regime, I can only say shame on you all.

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NHS news review

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The Unions are promoting their anti-cuts March for an Alternative event next weekend. There will be a march topped with a rally at Hyde Park. There are rumours that Labour Party leader Ed Miliband will address the rally. It’s disappointing that the unions are still so subservient to the Labour Party after all these years.

Andrew Lansley and the Department of Health are accused of manipulating the presentation – spinning – of the proposed abolition of the NHS by supressing evidence that there is widespread satisfaction with the NHS.

Conservative MP and practising GP Sarah Wollaston savages the proposals to destroy the NHS.

The BMA have published an open letter after their special meeting called for the Destruction of the NHS bill to be withdrawn.

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.

Union leaders turn heat up on Lib Dems over cuts – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

Union leaders are to target Liberal Democrats in a campaign to slow down the speed and scale of public spending cuts as the TUC prepares for the biggest protest yet against the coalition’s economic programme.

Brendan Barber, the TUC’s general secretary, hopes to exploit unrest in Lib Dem ranks to step up pressure on a party leadership which he believes is increasingly isolated from its activists.

In an interview with The Independent on Sunday before next weekend’s anti-cuts rally in central London, Mr Barber attacked the Lib Dems for abandoning their pre-election pledge to delay cuts until the economy was growing. Stressing that the campaign will be a “long haul”, he vowed to step up the political pressure on ministers and coalition MPs to “realise quite how out of touch they are with the wider public”.

Another week, another crisis: Lansley under fire again – politics.co.uk

Andrew Lansley is preparing himself for another bad week at the Department of Health after two new crises hit his plans for NHS reform.

The health secretary was accused of “burying good news” after reports emerged that his department sat on reports showing unprecedented satisfaction with the health service.

Meanwhile, a Tory MP and doctor laid into the reforms in the Daily Telegraph, saying they could change the NHS “beyond recognition”.

The developments follow a tough week for the health secretary, whose reforms have been criticised by health experts, unions, Labour MPs and some Tory backbenchers.

NHS reforms are doomed to fail, warns Conservative GP | Mail Online

The NHS risks being changed beyond recognition by the Coalition’s health reforms, a Conservative doctor claimed yesterday.

Sarah Wollaston, MP for Totnes and a practising GP, branded the reorganisation a ‘Trojan horse’.

In the most scathing attack yet on the plans of Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, she said that key elements of the shake-up – the biggest in the Health Service’s 60-year history – were ‘doomed to fail’.

 

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

Continue ReadingNHS news review