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

BMA and royal colleges join forces to oppose Health Bill | GPonline.com

BMA leaders will meet this week with the Royal College of Nursing and other medical royal colleges to build a united front in opposition to the Health Bill.

GPC deputy chairman Dr Richard Vautrey said the intention was to ‘provide a united position against the Health Bill but in support of appropriate changes to the NHS’.

The meeting, planned for Thursday 26 January, follows a wave of attacks on health secretary Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms.

A House of Commons health select committee report this week warned that NHS services were being ‘salami-sliced’ in a bid to hit the £20bn savings target set by NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson.

A recent poll of RCGP members found that 98% would back a call for the Health Bill to be withdrawn if this was made in tandem with other royal colleges.

The Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives last week declared a policy shift on the Health Bill, declaring their opposition to the Bill ‘in its entirety’.

The BMA has also called for the Health Bill to be withdrawn. Dr Vautrey hit out at Mr Lansley’s response to criticisms of his health reform programme.

‘I don’t think stonewalling in that way is the way to increase engagement with health professionals and patients.

‘I think he at the moment appears to be not fully taking on board the seriousness of the increasing opposition.’

Dr Vautrey added that Mr Lansley had ‘repeatedly outlined his desire for greater clinical engagement and a greater voice for patients’. ‘No one disagrees with that,’ he said. ‘We think he’s going about it in the wrong way.’
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It’s not too late to save the NHS from the barbarians | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian

To the Tories, health is a huge untapped business opportunity – but the backlash could still derail their privatisation bill

Unless decisive action is taken in the next few weeks, the National Health Service is heading for disaster. The battle over the coalition’s plans to turn England’s NHS inside out has been going on so long, the details are so arcane and claims of concessions so regular, it would be easy to imagine that the worst had been averted and common sense prevailed.

But that could not be further from the case. As the health secretary Andrew Lansley boasted last autumn – after the Conservatives had accepted a “pause” in the progress of their health market and privatisation bill while Liberal Democrats were pacified with cosmetic concessions – its “fundamental principles remain”.

It was a rare moment of candour. As a group of lawyers and health academics spell out in the Lancet medical journal this week, if the health and social care bill is passed in its amended form it will abolish England’s model of “tax-financed, universal healthcare”, pave the way for a “US-style health system” based on “mixed funding” and fatally undermine “entitlement to equality of healthcare provision”.

Meanwhile, the preparations for this lurch towards market-driven private provision – at a cost of £3bn – are already causing havoc with the government’s parallel attempt to drive through the deepest cuts in the history of the NHS.

So the hapless Lansley was on the back foot again yesterday, dismissing as “Westminster nonsense” the onslaught from the Commons health committee, which accused ministers of “salami slicing” NHS services and blamed the reorganisation for creating “disruption and distraction” from the task of effective reform and saving money.
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Related: Truth is the casualty in Andrew Lansley’s brave new world – mirror.co.uk

Tories to plunge thousands of children into poverty…|28Jan12|Socialist Worker

The Tories suffered another setback to their brutal Welfare Reform Bill this Monday.

The House of Lords voted to exclude child benefits from the cap, following fears that over 100,000 children would be plunged into poverty.

The bill would impose a cap on benefits of £500 a week for a household.

It is one of a number of attacks on welfare that it hopes would save between £6 billion and £7 billion pounds a year.

But work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith pledges to overturn the Lords’ amendment when the bill returns to the House of Commons.

He says the bill would be “pointless” without the cap on child benefit.

Large sections of the media are cheering him on.

Since the new cap would apply to the whole household rather than individual children, it amounts to a harsh tax on large families.

Economist Tim Leunig calculates that “after rent, council tax and utilities, a family with four children would have 62p per person per day to live on. That is physically impossible.”
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NHS workers ordered to leave their homes|28Jan12|Socialist Worker

Hundreds of low paid NHS workers at Guy’s and St Thomas’s trust in London have been told to leave their subsidised accommodation with just three months’ notice.

The trust accommodation office sent a letter to residents earlier this month informing them of its plans to sell off the housing.

The accommodation currently has 800 places for NHS workers, but this number is expected to be cut by around half.

The trust is also imposing a two-year limit on how long people can live in the accommodation. Those remaining will be charged rent at market rates.

This spells disaster for many of the low paid residents living in the homes. Some have been there for up to 20 years.
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Conservative election poster 2010

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

Royal Colleges and the BMA (British Medical Association) restate their opposition to evil Con-Dem coalition government attempts to abolish the NHS. Lying scumbag and Health Secretary Andrew Lansley responds by claiming that they actually support his plans despite their repeatedly stated opposition and by accusing them of acting politically.

Huge increases in waiting times.

BMA rejects changes to pension schemes.

NHS cuts, etc

Unions use NHS reforms to ‘have a go at Government’, says Lansley – Health News – Health & Families – The Independent

Relations between the Government and health professionals sank to a new low after Andrew Lansley accused them of opposing his NHS reforms because they were upset about cuts to their pay and pensions.

Union leaders reacted furiously to the Health Secretary’s claim that they wanted “to have a go” at the Government and his suggestion that they were not addressing his NHS shake-up on its merits. Mr Lansley is under fresh pressure after the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Royal College of Midwives (RCM) joined the British Medical Association in calling on the Coalition to drop its NHS and Social Care Bill.

Mr Lansley told the BBC the legislation was essential in order to give nurses and doctors clinical leadership. He said: “[The RCN] used to be a professional association that was working with us on professional issues and will carry on doing that, but now the trade union aspect of the Royal College of Nursing has come to the fore, they want to have a go at the Government… about things like pay and pensions.” He added: “It’s a purely political operation.”

Mr Lansley claimed the RCN and RCM supported the principles of the Bill. “What they are actually unhappy about is pay, pensions and jobs. I complete understand that. But if there were no Bill the same issues would have to be addressed. We inherited a deficit, we are having to manage the NHS within limited increases, but actually next year the NHS budget is going to go up by 2.8 per cent.”

Mr Lansley denied suggestions that his decision to allow hospitals to raise 49 per cent of their income from private patients was an issue, as hospitals had no limit at the moment. “You have to see the political nature of this. The RCN does not like private activity,” he said. But Dr Peter Carter, general-secretary of the RCN, rejected Mr Lansley’s claims, saying: “We are disappointed that the Secretary of State would suggest that nurses and healthcare assistants would put self interest before that of patients.”
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Related: Health staff tell minister: drop the NHS Bill / Britain / Home – Morning Star

‘Scrap the reforms’ says RCM – Royal College of Midwives

Nurses’ union backs calls to scrap Health Bill | GPonline.com

Physios urge Government to look again at plans for the future of the NHS | The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy

Video: Shadow health secretary: too dangerous to go ahead with NHS reforms – Telegraph

43pc rise in patients waiting too long for NHS treatment since election – Telegraph

The number of hospital patients forced to wait more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment has risen by almost half since the Coalition came to power, new figures show.

In May 2010, 20,662 patients referred for treatment in hospital had to wait longer than the recommended time, according to Department of Health data.

But by last November that figure had grown to 29,508 – an increase of 8,846, or 42.8 per cent.

A third of hospital trusts across England (47) are now failing to meet the goal of 90 per cent of their inpatients being seen within 18 weeks of being referred by a GP – almost four times as many as in the middle of 2010.
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The NHS no longer lets GPs like me offer routine operations | Ann Robinson | Comment is free | The Guardian

Healthcare rationing is now everywhere – and don’t think being slim and a non-smoker makes you immune

If you’re overweight or you smoke, you won’t be able to have your hip replaced or your gallbladder removed. Before being put on a waiting list, you’ll have to make efforts to mend your wicked ways. That is what one consortium of GPs in Hertfordshire has decided. And with the government determined to save £60bn from the NHS, it’s unlikely to be the last to agree to this kind of rationing of resources.

Fair enough, you may say. The risks of operations are reduced if you are slim and don’t smoke. Obesity contributes to osteoarthritis of the hip and gallstones, as well as diabetes and high blood pressure. Every smoker in the land must know that they are running an increased risk of lung cancer, and lung and heart disease. Clearly, the risks of anaesthetic complications are higher if you’re a heavy smoker or very fat. And why should slim, non-smoking taxpayers bear the cost of the lumpen puffers?

But this cannot be a defensible position. The Hertfordshire GPs are surely going to have to rethink. Their ruling will potentially affect nearly one quarter of all adults in their area (in 2009 22% of men and 24% of women in England were obese – with a body mass index over 30), and a third of women and nearly half of men if they include overweight people (with a BMI of 25-30). It is completely unrealistic to assume that telling people they can’t go on the waiting list for a much-needed operation until they lose weight will yield any result except despair. Fat is a class issue nowadays. The richer you are, the less likely you are to be fat. Healthy food’s expensive. The factors are complex, and responsibility lies with individuals, schools, health professionals, government and the food and advertising industries – not with a bunch of GPs flexing their commissioning muscle.
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BBC News – Cuts hit Welsh NHS patient safety, says Royal College of Nursing

Patient safety in Welsh hospitals is being compromised by a drive to save money, says a nursing union.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says the Welsh government has warned NHS managers to hit financial year-end targets despite a £50m shortfall.

RCN Wales director Tina Donnelly said members in several health boards reported concerns on patient safety.

The Welsh NHS Confederation denied safety was being undermined and said it remained a priority.

Ms Donnelly said nurses had reported having to work shifts with reduced staff numbers, as well as experiencing shortages of basics such as bed linen.

“They really are finding it very, very difficult in the last three months of this financial year,” she said.

“Staffing levels are a lot lower and also their grading is being reduced, which reduces the level of supervision which they are able to have in clinical practice.”
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BMA rejects proposed changes to NHS Pension Scheme – HR News, Talent Management News, HR Jobs, Senior HR Jobs | askGrapevine HR

The British Medical Association (BMA) is urging the government to reconsider their pension plans as thousands of doctors may take industrial action.

A meeting of BMA Council, the association’s governing body, resulted in the decision to reject the government’s recent pension propositions – in support of the views of tens of thousands of doctors and medical students.

A national survey of 46,000 found that 84% wanted to reject the latest proposals, while 63% would be willing to take industrial action to pursue changes. Over a third of doctors aged 50 and over said they will retire early if the current changes go ahead.

The government’s current proposals include a rise in members’ contributions, those that currently pay 8.5% will pay 14.5%, an increase in the Normal Pension Age resulting in new doctors having to work until they are 68 and a change in pension accrual methods, to a career average revalued earnings (CARE) scheme for all doctors.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman, BMA Council says: “Doctors are at the forefront of attempts to save the NHS £20 billion, while trying to protect patient care, are in the midst of huge system reform in England, which is causing chaos in many areas, and are about to enter a fourth successive year of a pay freeze.

“Now on top of this, they are facing wholesale changes to their pension scheme, which was radically overhauled less than four years ago and is actually delivering a positive cashflow to the Treasury.

“Industrial action remains a last resort and the Government must urgently reconsider its damaging plans. The action we are considering is unprecedented in recent decades. This demonstrates the current level of discontent among NHS staff.”
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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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Conservative election poster 2010

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

NHS news is dominated by the substandard breast implants made by the French company PIP.

A story by the Guardian from about a week ago David Cameron’s pledge to protect NHS clouded by emerging reality of cuts | Society | The Guardian.

Day by day, the hope that frontline NHS services would somehow remain magically untouched by the coalition’s austerity drive is revealed as a fantasy. The problem for David Cameron and his health secretary, Andrew Lansley, though, is their repeated promises – in opposition and in government – that the NHS was different, its budget would be ringfenced and that care would be maintained. That was encapsulated in the prime minister’s clear pledge that “We’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS”. But what was politically useful then is becoming politically perilous now.

A survey of its members carried out by Doctors.net.uk reveals that four out of five GPs and hospital doctors have seen cuts to staff or services in their own part of the NHS in the last year. It was a small sample, just 664 respondents; and it was self-selecting, which tends to skew any poll towards the malcontented, and thus exaggerate the negative. But key organisations working at or near the frontline agree that the findings give a broadly accurate picture of the emerging reality in the NHS.

In Surrey and Hampshire dozens of children with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome are preparing to lose the support of a consultant and a nurse specialising in that condition, as both the Frimley-based health professionals are not being replaced. In Lewisham, south London, almost £500,000 has been chopped in this financial year from the budget for children’s mental health services. In Camden, north London, doubt surrounds the future of the InterAct Reading Services charity, which gets actors to read stories to hospital patients to help their rehabilitation, because local primary care trusts (PCTs) – which are being abolished in April 2013 as part of the coalition’s NHS shake-up – have reduced or withdrawn funding ahead of their disappearance.

NHS-funded public health observatories in London, the north-west and the north-east – which are not scheduled to close – are nevertheless also at risk, says the Commons health select committee.

Some PCTs have reduced the amount of Viagra they will supply to men with erectile dysfunction. In Lambeth, south London, the PCT has cut the number of patients eligible to receive free incontinence pads, reports Dr Clare Gerada, a local GP and chair of the Royal College of GPs. Access to IVF, cataract removal or a new hip or knee has been tightened by dozens of PCTs. In addition, hospitals appear to be reducing the number of follow-up appointments they give patients suffering with rheumatic, skin or urology problems, as they too, like PCTs, seek to save money and contribute to the ‘Nicholson challenge”, which wants the NHS in England to make £20bn of efficiency savings by 2015.

In Ashford, Middlesex, Dr Peter Kandela, a local GP, tells his patients in his regular surgery bulletin of three different money-saving measures. Some patients have been switched from their usual medication to other branded drugs because the latter “are far cheaper and save the NHS money”. GPs have also been told by the local PCT to stop issuing long-term repeat prescriptions and to hand out scripts for just two months supply of drugs instead, except for the pill. And lastly, “we have received notifications from the skin department at Ashford & St Peter’s hospital that they would no longer accept referrals for benign moles, cysts, skin tags and other non-cancerous conditions. Workload is blamed for these decisions. Sadly, we shall no longer be able to make referrals for these conditions,” Kandela explains.

These are not life-saving services, and indeed removal of unsightly but benign skin tags is arguably not what the NHS is there for anyway. But these services do aid patients’ quality of life, boost their chance of recovering or enhance their mental health. Yet they are increasingly being deemed no longer affordable by NHS bosses.

Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s hospital consultants committee, says: “Things like orthopaedic surgery, eye surgery and IVF are not even debatable in the way that tattoo removal might be. There’s an ethical debate to be had about [cutting] some things, but not about things like knee pain and back pain, which can be offered to patients but we are choosing not to.”

No wonder private health providers are starting to see an increase in the number of people prepared to pay for rapid treatment of conditions that their local NHS deemed unnecessary or not an urgent priority.
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In other news, housing benefit is getting cut imminently causing a housing shortage and driving the working poor as well as the unemployed and disabled into ghettoes.

Housing benefit cuts will put 800,000 homes out of reach, according to study | Society | The Guardian

A further 800,000 homes will be put out of reach of people on housing benefit because of government welfare cuts – leaving low income families the choice of cutting spending on food to pay the rent or moving out, according to a study by housing experts.

The Chartered Institute of Housing has found there will be thousands more claimants than properties that are affordable on benefits alone, raising the possibility that the poor will migrate to “benefit ghettoes” in seaside towns or the north of England.

From this month, the government has capped housing benefit payments to, for example, a maximum £250 a week on a two-bedroom home. The cut is compounded by the allowances being scaled back by pegging them to the bottom third of rents in any borough.

The result is that in many towns and cities there will not be enough affordable homes to rent for those claiming local housing allowance, the benefit paid to tenants of private landlords. The problem is most acute in central London, where in two of the country’s richest boroughs – Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea – more than 35,000 homes will at a stroke be put out of reach of people on housing benefit.

It is unlikely that the poor will be able migrate to cheaper parts of the capital: in Newham, east London, there will be twice as many claimants as there are low-cost homes. In Croydon, 17,000 people will be chasing 10,000 properties.

The effect will be felt not just in south-east England. Before today, Birmingham had more than 37,000 homes with rents affordable on welfare. Now 34,500 housing benefit claimants will be chasing 23,000 low-cost houses, according to the analysis, carried out for the Guardian. On the Mersey, 21,000 people collecting local housing allowance will only be able to afford 12,000 homes in Liverpool.
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The changes will also see people forced to move from where jobs are to where there are far fewer, the institute warns. “The analysis shows that big cities where we expect to find most of the jobs and the most varied employment are the worst hit by the government changes. If this (is supposed) to help people in terms of getting them into work then it looks as if it will not succeed.”

Charities said the analysis vindicated their warnings that the government’s plan will cause homelessness. Leslie Morphy of the charity Crisis said: “The figures make clear that there will just not be enough properties anywhere that are affordable on these reduced benefit levels. With unemployment rising and more people relying on housing benefit, yet soaring demand for properties, the government’s plans just don’t add up – we urge them to stop and reconsider.”
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Conservative election poster 2010

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

Docs: NHS care hit by Tory cuts / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Doctors slammed the Con-Dems’ NHS cuts today, warning that patients were being hit hard by longer waiting times and worse care.

Four in five GPs and hospital doctors have said that the cutbacks had already started to bite – resulting in fewer hospital beds, pressure to prescribe cheaper drugs and cuts to occupational and community health services.

The poll, conducted by the Guardian, makes a mockery of the coalition’s claims that it would protect the NHS from cuts.

And doctors’ representatives warned that there would be worse to come.

“The government is asking the NHS to save £20 billion in an extremely short space of time. It is inevitable that this will lead to the NHS contracting and offering the patient less as a service,” said Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s consultants committee.

He warned that the cuts would hit both patient care and investment in hospitals and local health services.

“Doctors and other healthcare professionals are working hard with managers to try and find greater ways of being efficient so that the impacts on patient care is reduced. However, the NHS does face an extremely tough financial future,” he said.

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NHS computer system firm in £1bn climbdown | Business | The Guardian

Computer Sciences Corporation admits it may have to write off entire value of its investment in the delayed Lorenzo system for health service

Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), the American IT group, has admitted that eight years of delays and setbacks on its disastrous NHS contract have left little or no value for shareholders, as the company prepares to write off almost £1bn.

The colossal write off — equivalent to 40% of the CSC’s market value — comes after years of delays and IT glitches, centred on a new software system called Lorenzo. It was supposed to be ready in 60% of English hospitals more than four years ago, but was installed in its first acute hospital in June last year.

CSC’s failing contract has been one of the biggest challenges for Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who has been reviewing large government contracts.

In September a heavily edited internal Cabinet Office report revealed the CSC contract remained a “major problem”, noting existing plans for Lorenzo were “not deliverable”. It described the software as “a long way short of the full functionality of the contracted solution” and “not proved to be wholly fit for purpose”.

Maude and the Department of Health have been deliberating on whether to continue with CSC or risk the US firm joining fellow failed NHS IT contractor Fujitsu in costly and protracted legal disputes.
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The ConDem scum government quietly announces huge increases in the number of private patients to be treated at NHS hospitals. Clearly this is privatisation of the NHS on a huge scale. If you’ve got the money, you’ll cheat the waiting list and get treated. Otherwise, you suffer or die thanks to the Conservatives and Liberal-Democrat Conservatives.

NHS trusts face mounting financial difficulties in 2012.

Increased waiting times in York and North Yorkshire.

Conservative election poster 2010

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

NHS private income cap to be lifted | News

Health service reforms will pave the way for NHS hospitals to earn up to half of their income from private work, it has been reported.

The current cap on income generated from private patients is typically limited to just a few percent but is set to rise to 49% in a move slipped out by the Government last week, according to The Times.

It is expected to cause more friction within the coalition with a senior Liberal Democrat warning that it was part of an ideological drive that many in the party would oppose, the newspaper said.

Labour claimed the plans showed Prime Minister David Cameron was determined to mirror health care provision operated in the US.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham told the newspaper: “This surprise move, sneaked out just before Christmas, is the clearest sign yet of David Cameron’s determination to turn our precious NHS into a US-style commercial system, where hospitals are more interested in profits than people.

“With NHS hospitals able to devote half their beds to private patients, people will begin to see how our hospitals will never be the same again if Cameron’s health Bill gets through Parliament.”
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Health chiefs warn of financial crisis and growing waiting times as Government cuts bite – mirror.co.uk

THE number of NHS trusts facing financial problems has nearly doubled as the Government’s funding squeeze bites.

Care chiefs in 21 areas fear they will be strapped for cash at some point this year, up from just 13 in 2010.

The findings by trust regulator Monitor come as ministers insist on “efficiency savings” of £20billion.

Of 137 trusts surveyed, 16 expect to miss waiting times targets, 14 fear losing the ability to treat A&E patients within four hours and 16 warn they will miss targets on controlling cases of the killer C.diff superbug.

Laurence Buckman, from the British Medical Association, said: “We could see more rationing stories than we are seeing now, particularly with secondary care procedures being cut.

“GPs (within clinical commissioning groups) will have to show great ingenuity in doing their best to introduce cuts in a humane way and I suspect that they will find that difficult.”
… [mistakenly refers to John Healey as Shadow Health Secretary]

NHS waiting times ‘up’ in York and North Yorkshire (From York Press)

THE number of people waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment in York and North Yorkshire has risen by 26 per cent since the last General Election, according to new figures.

A report by the Socialist Health Association also claimed Government plans to restructure the health service will cost the local primary care trust £46.63 million.

The data was compiled from the NHS’ annual Operating Framework document published at the end of November. It also showed 18-week waits for treatment in East Yorkshire had fallen by 23 per cent since May 2010. Just over £18.8 million has been set aside for NHS reorganisation within the area.
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