Monday, March 26, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
#NHS #CULL - Nurses To Go - MARCH 17th 2012 Nurses Had Machine Guns Pointed At Them - Cameron Ordered A Media Blackout !
The NHS faces a decade-long savings drive, managers believe.
It comes despite promises by ministers that the frontline would be protected during the efficiency drive.
The NHS has been told to find £20bn savings by 2015, but the confederation said another £20bn would have to be found in the five years after that too.
David Stout, NHS Confederation deputy chief executive, said: "The working assumption is that the NHS will be required to continue to produce significant savings beyond 2015. The initial £20bn is not the end game."
He added it would all depend what the funding settlement was post-2015, but with most chief executives expecting something similar to the last one it was fair to assume "another £20bn" would have to be found to cope with rising costs from the ageing population and cost of new technologies.
"These figures show the scale of the challenge the NHS faces. We need to be honest about the impact this will have and relay to the public the changes that will be required to NHS services in order to maintain the best care for patients."
'Just the start'
Professor Chris Ham, the chief executive of the King's Fund think-tank, said: "It promises to be an even more challenging period for the NHS than expected."
The BBC understands the extra savings have even been discussed in recent meetings between senior Department of Health figures and NHS finance chiefs.
But a government source said "this is at the upper end of our expectations, it depends on a range of different scenarios depending on funding assumptions and cost pressures".
Meanwhile, the figures released by the NHS Information Centre have raised questions about how the current productivity push is being carried out.
The aim was to look at new ways of working to save money, but unions said the data suggested patients were suffering.
“Start Quote
Put bluntly, the idea that cutting hundreds of jobs from a hospital will not affect the care of patients is ludicrous”
End Quote Peter Carter Royal College of Nursing
The figures showed the number of nurses employed fell by 3,500 in 2011 - 1% of the total.
Overall staff numbers fell by nearly 20,000 - 1.4% - to 1,350,000, but clinical professions such as GPs and consultants saw a rise in headcount.The biggest falls were seen in support and managerial posts - something that was expected because the overhaul of the NHS has led to thousands of staff leaving primary care trusts, the management bodies which are being abolished.
Nonetheless, there are still a fifth more people working in the health service than in 2001.
But unions believe the drop in nurse numbers is just the start.
Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said the figures were "incredibly worrying" and the situation was only going to get worse.
He added: "Despite the rhetoric, we know that frontline jobs are not being protected and NHS trusts must stop making cuts in a quick fix attempt to save money.
"Put bluntly, the idea that cutting hundreds of jobs from a hospital will not affect the care of patients is ludicrous."
http://bbc.in/GHlr0U
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
#Littlehampton Hospital : #NHS casualty of NHS privatisation. Littlehampton Hospital, which was knocked down in 2005 for rebuild, has now been cancelled.
BBCNews have led a campaign to discredit not only the NHS but nurses in particular throughout the #nhsbill #despicable
Not one Lib Dem had the courage to rebel in emergency NHS vote. 15 Lib Dems abstained
More to follow...
Not one Lib Dem had the courage to rebel in emergency NHS vote. 15 Lib Dems abstained
More to follow...
Sunday, March 18, 2012
#DropTheBill: A group of doctors plan to field candidates against high-profile coalition MPs at the next general election in protest at controversial health reforms.
The doctors have accused the coalition of putting its interests ahead of professional opinion
5:55am UK, Sunday March 18, 2012
A group of doctors plan to field candidates against high-profile coalition MPs at the next general election in protest at controversial health reforms.
In a letter to the Independent on Sunday, a group of 240 doctors, including 30 professors, said the shake-up "fundamentally undermines the founding principles" of the NHS.
"It is our view that coalition MPs and peers have placed the political survival of the coalition Government above professional opinion, patient safety and the will of the citizens of this country," they wrote."We are shocked by the failure of the democratic process and the facilitating role played by the Liberal Democrats in the passage of this Bill.
"We have therefore decided to form a coalition of healthcare professionals to take on coalition MPs at the next general election, on the non-party, independent ticket of defending the NHS."
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is accosted by an angry health worker
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, the architect of the changes, are expected to be among the politicians targeted by the initiative at the election, due in 2015.
The Health and Social Care Bill faces another hurdle on Monday when peers are likely to vote on whether to delay it pending possible publication of a confidential risk assessment drawn up by civil servants.
A Department of Health appeal against an order by the Information Commissioner to publish the "transition risk register" was thrown out by a tribunal last week.
Ministers have said they will not decide whether to launch a further appeal until they have seen the full judgment by the Information Rights Tribunal.
But former doctor and SDP leader Lord Owen has put down a motion which would delay the third reading of the Bill until after the Government has responded to the full judgment or until "the last practical opportunity" for agreeing the measures before the end of the parliamentary session in early May.
The letter to the Independent on Sunday was organised by Dr Clive Peedell, a cancer specialist and co-chair of the NHS Consultants' Association, who told the newspaper he had originally hoped to get just 50 names.
His group would field "as many candidates as possible" at the election, he said, with other supporters involved in fundraising and organisational roles.
Source : Sky News
Saturday, March 17, 2012
#Bupa put profit first at filthy and understaffed care home, says judge
Aimee Wheeler, left to right, her mother Alexandra Wheeler, grandmother Pauline Slaughter and great grandmother Joyce Farrow
Joyce Farrow, 90, was left unsupervised so she could tumble out of bed and then crawl naked along the floors of the Dalton unit of Stonedale Lodge, Croxteth, Liverpool.
Staff failed to keep her clean and she was often left hungry and thirsty. The pensioner endured two months of torment before being admitted to a city hospital where she later died.
Judge Mark Brown rounded on BUPA out after a jury at Liverpool Crown Court convicted the home’s manager, Karen Southern, of wilful neglect.
He said: "BUPA hold themselves out as being the leading UK providers of dementia care, and as the home manger you were responsible for the care and well being of residents.
"It is clear from the evidence presented during the trial that the nursing home was run very badly and that there was a great deal of under-funding and cost cutting. ...read more
http://tgr.ph/FP8a2D
Friday, March 16, 2012
#SERCO And #VIRGIN Fight For The Dying Children Price War!
Convicted tax evader Richard Branson, exposed by Private Eye as "underpaying his staff & feathering his own nest", is buying bits of the NHS
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
#DropTheBill #RiskRegister:NHS reforms: government to defy order to publish risk register
Department of Health had lost latest stage of fight to keep secret an assessment of risks involved in the health service shakeup
John Healey MP, who first called for the NHS reform risk register to be published. Photograph: Lorne Campbell/Guzelian
The government will not release its own assessment of the risks posed by its NHS shakeup, despite a second legal ruling that it must stop keeping the document secret.
The information rights tribunal rejected the DH's bid to overturn the commissioner's ruling after a two-day hearing earlier this week at which witnesses for the DH argued, unsuccessfully, for it to be kept private lest it set a precedent that would undermine government departments' ability to assess the risks of pursuing particular policies.
The DH's brief initial statement in response to the setback on Friday gave no indication that it intended to comply with the tribunal's ruling that it "dismisses the Department of Health's appeal against the information commissioner's decision that the 10 November 2010 Transition Risk Register should be disclosed, except in relation to the name of a junior official which should be redacted". The tribunal is expected to release the reasons for its ruling soon.
The DH said: "We are still awaiting the detailed reasoning behind this decision. Once we have been able to examine the judgment we will work with colleagues across government and decide next steps."
It now has 28 days from the ruling's publication in which to launch a further appeal, this time to the upper tier tribunal, but it must first prove it has legal grounds for doing so, by finding a legal fault with Friday's decision.
The government's other option, if it were to appeal and lose again, would be to deploy the rare tactic of a cabinet veto to prevent publication, in effect overriding the rulings of the bodies that have so far considered it. That veto was used most notably when Tony Blair was in power, to deny campaigners sight of the legal advice the government received about the legality of military action in Iraq in the runup to the start of the conflict in 2003.
Whatever the DH decides, it is highly unlikely that its analysis of the risks inherent in its radical restructuring of the NHS in England will become publicly available before the bill gains its final parliamentary approval, which is likely to come from the House of Lords on 19 March and the House of Commons the day after.
The ruling is a second significant victory for the Labour MP John Healey, who began seeking publication of the register in 2010 when he was shadow health secretary. "The judgment backs the public's right to know about the risks the government is taking with its NHS plans," Healey said. He renewed his call for the document to be published immediately, to help peers with the final stages of their deliberations on the bill, which is due to undergo the final day of its report stage next Tuesday, 13 March, and then have its third reading in the Lords on 19 March.
"It's near the end of the 11th hour for the NHS bill and parliament rightly expects this information before it takes the final irrevocable step to pass the legislation," Healey said. "The government could appeal, and prolong this legal row. But I call on the prime minister to accept today's court verdict and order the Department of Health to publish the risk register immediately."
He added: "This is the second legal direction to the government to release the risk register. The judgment backs the public's right to know about the risks the government is taking with its NHS plans. It gives strong legal support to a full and open debate about the NHS reorganisation.
"Ministers must now respect the law, release the risk register in full and let people make up their own minds on the NHS changes. Today's legal judgment must put an end to the government's efforts to keep this information secret. They have dragged out this process for 15 months, while parliament has been legislating for their NHS plans."
He was backed by the ex-SDP leader Lord Owen, now a crossbench peer, who has been a key critic of the bill in the Lords. Owen said it would be "a constitutional outrage" if the bill won approval from the upper house without peers having had the chance to study the risk register.
Owen, a former doctor and Labour health minister in the 1970s, said he believed the document should be released now and peers given time to analyse it before any further consideration of the legislation.
He added: "The attempt to railroad this legislation through both Houses of Parliament has raised very serious questions about the legitimacy of this coalition government.
"Now at the last moment parliament has a chance to assert its democratic rights and the many Liberal Democrat peers, who know in their heart of hearts that this legislative procedure is fundamentally wrong, have the opportunity to stand by their principles."
In an appeal to former party colleagues, Owen added: "Surely now Liberal Democrat peers, with a long and proud history of supporting freedom of information, will not go along with any attempt by the coalition government to continue with the third reading of this bill in the light of today's information rights tribunal on the NHS transition risk register."
The decision comes as the bill enters the final stages of its protracted journey through parliament. The legislation underwent an extraordinary "pause" last year after fierce criticism from Liberal Democrats, and was then rewritten, including advice from the advisory NHS Future Forum.
The DH did win one victory on Friday. The tribunal upheld its appeal against the commissioner's decision that a separate document, the strategic risk register, should be published. While the transition risk register focuses on risks specifically associated with the reorganisation, the strategic document tackles broader risks to the delivery of the DH's objectives. Its publication had been sought by the London Evening Standard newspaper, but it will now remain secret, unless the information commissioner decides to mount an appeal.
Friday, March 9, 2012
#RiskRegister : John Healey MP Challenge To Cameron
Cameron cannot hide the risks of his NHS reforms
The PM should now respect the law, accept the court verdict and order the immediate release of the NHS transition risk register
An NHS sign at St Thomas's hospital, London, with Big Ben in the background. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
John Healey
guardian.co.uk, Fri 9 Mar 2012 18.06 GMT
The courts have just dismissed the government's efforts to keep secret an assessment of risks involved in its NHS reforms. This judgment backs the public's right to know about the risks the government is taking and gives strong legal support to an open debate about the NHS reorganisation. It also backs up cross-party demands that parliament should not be asked to pass the health bill without the benefit of this vital information.
Despite the apocalyptic arguments made in court in defence of the government, this is not a decision that will bring the civil service system of risk management to a full stop, nor will this lead to the routine disclosure of government risk registers. The tribunal's judgment, and the information commissioner's earlier decision, is based on my argument that the transition risk register for the NHS reorganisation is a case apart. The scale and speed of such a huge NHS upheaval is unprecedented, and the public interest in understanding the risks is exceptional.
Risk has been at the heart of the concerns surrounding the NHS reforms from the outset. Lack of evidence and confidence about how well the government was prepared to manage the risks of the biggest reorganisation in NHS history during the tightest financial squeeze on health funding since the 1950s was a major cause of growing professional, public and parliamentary alarm at the plans in November 2010, when I first made my FoI request.
The failure of ministers to provide a fuller explanation and reassurance has fuelled the chorus of criticism and opposition ever since. They simply can't see what the NHS means to people, how much it matters. We all need the NHS; we trust it when we are most fearful. We utterly depend on it when we are most vulnerable. This is why the public interest in such massive NHS changes is so strong.
The government has dragged out its refusal to release this information for 15 months, while parliament has been legislating for the NHS changes and pressed ahead with implementation at the same time. It's now near the end of the 11th hour for the NHS bill, with the legislation set to pass in the next fortnight. Next Tuesday is the final day for amending the health bill in the House of Lords. They are set to pass the bill on Monday 19 March, with the Commons expected to do the same the following day before the bill is sent to the Queen for royal assent.
This legal judgment must put an end to the government's efforts to keep secret the risks to the NHS and the action it is taking to manage or minimise them. Parliament rightly expects this information before it takes the final irrevocable steps to pass the health bill. Ministers' first reaction to the tribunal's judgment is to stonewall, delaying any decision to accept or appeal against the verdict until after the end of the bill. This is wrong. The government has now lost twice in law. This is a legal and constitutional argument, not a political argument. It isn't a matter of whether you are for or against the reforms.
It's about people's right to know the government's own assessment of the nature and scale of the risks it is running with the quality, safety and efficiency of our NHS.
David Cameron and Nick Clegg have both made a strong commitment to open government. They should now respect the law, accept this court verdict and order the immediate release of the NHS transition risk register.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/sr-Mw3PO2Jbf5iLRAfqL-dQ/view.m?id=15&gid=commentisfree/2012/mar/09/cameron-risk-register-nhs-reforms&cat=commentisfree
Media #Blackout On #Lansley Refusing Court Order
You may have missed this morning's news (here) that Andrew Lansley has failed in his court appeal to the Information Tribunal to prevent the publication of the NHS Risk Register. The Tribunal upheld the November decision by the Information Commissioner which called on the government to release the full Risk Register in the public interest. The Department of Health have vowed not to act until they receive the full ruling from the Tribunal, but that could take weeks, and the bill will already be law by the 20 March. Labour MP, and former Shadow Health Secretary John Healey responded by saying that the government 'should respect the law' but instead are stonewalling until the bill passes parliament.
The Risk Register contains harrowing warnings about the cost and safety of patients under the new NHS reforms by the Tories which proposes to hand 49% of our NHS bed & theatre time over to private profiteers. ...read more
http://eoin-clarke.blogspot.com/2012/03/lansley-refuses-court-order-to-publish.html
NHS Privatisation :The “lawmakers” who stand to make a fortune....by Craig Murray
An excellent posting here on the “lawmakers” who stand to make money out of turning over the NHS to private profit.
Is it fair to call this privatisation? The NHS will continue to be funded by taxpayers, but the primary motivation of those supplying the medical services will no longer be care or public service but private shareholder or partner profit, and the percentage of the taxpayers’ money paid for the NHS which ends up as shareholder or partner profit will exponentially increase. NHS hospitals will be allowed to give 49% of their beds over to private patients. I think it is fair to call this privatisation....read more
http://bit.ly/xhrXnE
Is it fair to call this privatisation? The NHS will continue to be funded by taxpayers, but the primary motivation of those supplying the medical services will no longer be care or public service but private shareholder or partner profit, and the percentage of the taxpayers’ money paid for the NHS which ends up as shareholder or partner profit will exponentially increase. NHS hospitals will be allowed to give 49% of their beds over to private patients. I think it is fair to call this privatisation....read more
http://bit.ly/xhrXnE
Friday, March 2, 2012
#TheGreenBenches :NHS - Nazi Regime -Cameron privately courted anti-NHS campaigner who likened NHS to Nazi regime.
Dr Helen Evans is an experienced and intelligent English nurse with more than 20 years experience, she obviously cares very passionately about healthcare as she has established a Nurses for Reform Group that campaigned vigorously to halt Obama's health reforms in the USA & who have also lobbied for the total privatisation of the NHS in the UK.
Also, from what I can gather, Dr Evans had her own personal experience with the UK health system that gave her heartfelt reasons that she perceives to be justified in her opposing our NHS.
I ask you to respect this and bear it in mind as you read the piece.
Dr Evans has evidently exceptionally strongly held views about the NHS which she puts very forcefully, but that is in a democracy her full and absolute right.
So, under no circumstances whatsoever are readers to take this article as in any way a personal attack on Dr Evans, or indeed a carte blanche to go and give her a hard time for her views.
If you are a democrat you will respect the right of her to have an opinion, or if you are unable to I would prefer it if you did not read my blog...read more
http://eoin-clarke.blogspot.com/2012/03/cameron-privately-courted-anti-nhs.html
#TheGreenBenches :EXPOSE Cameron's near secret meeting with billionaire private health boss on the eve of the General Election
The video (please see link ) is an interview of billionaire private healthcare boss Mike Parsons who has met, and is an admirer of, David Cameron. In this video, Parsons attacks the inflexibility of the NHS & backs Cameron's Big Society.
http://eoin-clarke.blogspot.com/2012/03/exposed-david-camerons-near-secret.html
Thursday, March 1, 2012
#Tory #Ashcroft Won NHS Cleaning Contract After Lobbying For Thatcher's Privatisation !
Contracting out and front groups
- MICHAEL Ashcroft, the beleaguered Tory party treasurer, bankrolled an "independent" publicity campaign that allowed his multi-million-pound contract cleaning empire to prosper and led to a change in the law. The campaign was run from the London office of the former Conservative Scottish secretary, Michael Forsyth. A spokesman for Mr Ashcroft confirmed last night that he had contributed to the Public and Local Service Efficiency Campaign (PULSE), which was set up in 1985 to persuade the public sector to contract out services such as cleaning and catering. The campaign had been disbanded by the end of the 1980s after the Conservative government passed the 1988 Local Government Act . ...read more
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)