NHS in crisis. The “huge amount of money washing around in the NHS” is not going on patient care, says Leader of EDA , Cathy Gardner, in live panel debate on Radio Devon.
Listen to the figures she quotes, and other arguments here:
Category Archives: NHS (local)
NHS: Claire Wright in live debate on BBC Spotlight tonight 6.30 pm
Claire Wright, DCC Independent Councillor who has fought the local health service cuts for many years, will be taking part in a live debate on BBC Spotlight this evening between 6.30 and 7pm, following the meeting today at DCC which discussed the CCG’s plans to make massive cuts to services all over the county.
Independent councillors take the lead in opposing NHS cuts
EDA Leader & District Councillor Cathy Gardner is due to take part in a live panel discussion this Thursday (19 Jan) on BBC Radio Devon, 1-2pm.
Also on the panel:
Dr Sarah Wollaston MP
Dr Tim Burke – Chair of NEW Devon CCG
and two clinicians (poss another GP? And a surgeon (retired?)
County Councillor Claire Wright (Independent) may also be on Spotlight the same evening.
No other councillors from East Devon seem to be concerned enough about the crisis to do anything meaningful.
Who guards the guards who guard the guarded guards?
From Save Our Hospital Services Facebook page:
“Question: The Case for Change document on which both the so-called ‘Success Regime’ and the STP are based was produced by a private-owned health service consultancy, Carnall Farrar which received £335,000 in consultancy fees
Is this the same company of which Dame Ruth Carnall is a founding partner and who is now the ‘independent Chair of the so-called ‘Success Regime’?”
Radio 4 wants to hear about government cuts to rural services
You & Yours, Radio4 are asking people to email them today for tomorrow’s show about ‘services in rural areas’. Discussing reports that services in the countryside are patchy.
Contact them here:
Referall centres can delay GP referrals to hospitals
“Doctors are warning that NHS patients face “dangerous” treatment delays due to a 10-fold increase in referral management centres.
The centres act as a filter between GPs and hospitals.
About a third of health commissioning groups in England use the centres, but the number of patients being rejected has increased steadily in the last two years, often for administrative reasons such as information missing in a referral letter.
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, described it as a barrier that takes decisions about patients away from GPs. The NHS said such centres helped ensure people got the right advice, care or treatment.”
Source: BBC Devon Live website
Important DCC health scrutiny committee meeting next week
“Devon County Council’s health and wellbeing scrutiny committee will debate community hospital bed cuts, the sustainability and transformation plan and NHS Property Services, next Thursday (19 January) from 10am.
The sustainability and transformation plan (STP) will be debated from 10am, with the rest of the meeting’s business taking place from 2pm.
The STP sets out huge cuts for the NHS in Devon, with the worst impact being in North Devon. The leaked version of the document is very much more revealing than the officially published version….
Links to the agenda papers are here – http://democracy.devon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=2292&x=1
and the STP can be found here – http://democracy.devon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=1980&x=1
Anyone wishing to address the committee should register asap with Gerry Rufolo – gerry.rufolo@devon.gov.uk
The meeting will be webcast and can be watched live here – https://devoncc.public-i.tv/core/portal/home
Some lessons in democracy
Some comments about the health service crisis which equally apply to every parish, town, district and county council, and every public servant, including MPs:
“The Whitehall machine works best when civil servants defer to elected politicians and their mandate from the public, while ministers defer in turn to officials’ specific expertise. It seizes up when the servants worry that their masters aren’t acting in the public interest.”
If the government is NOT acting in the public interest, just whose interest are they acting in?
“Nobody serious denies now that the NHS is being squeezed remorselessly by three separate forces: an ageing population, medical advances putting doctors under constant pressure to do more, and a threadbare social care system that stops existing patients leaving hospital and raises the risk of vulnerable people needing to come in.”
Nobody denies this – except of course the two most important people i.e. the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health who seem determined to keep their fingers in their ears and their heads buried in the sand and deny that the problem exists even when people are dying because of the crisis.
“It’s disappointing that Labour has rejected a cross-party coalition to produce lasting answers. But it’s more worrying that Downing Street can’t even admit to the existence of a question.”
Penzance shows how to deal with an NHS sham consultation!
“Unlike at Bude the previous day, where a smaller – and significantly more elderly – crowd had divided obediently into small workshops to consider the relative merits of differing aspects of the health and social care system, the Penzance meeting was an altogether more rowdy affair. People had come to the meeting not to hear what they already knew, but to say what they thought about it.”
NHS “Cynical Commissioning Groups” – the REAL story!
UK a third-world country for health care – “humanitarian crisis” says Red Cross
“There is a “humanitarian crisis” in NHS hospitals in England, the British Red Cross has said.
The charity said volunteers and staff had been helping patients get home from hospital and called for more government money to stabilise the situation.
It comes as a third of hospital trusts in England warned they needed action to cope with patient numbers last month.
NHS England said plans were in place to deal with winter pressure and beds were not as full as this time last year.
Figures show that 42 A&E departments ordered ambulances to divert to other hospitals last week – double the number during the same period in 2015.
Diversions can only happen when a department is under significant pressure, such as lacking the physical capacity to take more patients or having queues of ambulances outside for significantly prolonged periods, and when all existing plans to deal with a surge in patients have been unsuccessful.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said on Friday that it was investigating two deaths at Worcestershire Royal Hospital’s A&E department in the last week.
The trust said patient confidentiality prevented it from discussing the deaths, but added it had “robust plans” to maintain patient safety and emergency care. A patients’ watchdog has called for an investigation.
John Freeman said his wife Pauline, who is recovering from a stroke, spent 38 hours on a trolley at the same hospital because of overcrowding.
“My wife was stuck on a trolley right next to the fire doors in a corridor and she couldn’t get any sleep because of all the trolleys banging into the fire door going in and out,” he told BBC News.
“There was probably in excess of 20 trolleys all stacked up. This is going back to the dark ages almost.”
Trusts around the country are taking to social media to urge patients to stay away from A&E, unless it is an emergency or a life threatening illness.
British Red Cross provided support to staff at the East Midlands Ambulance Service across Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, Kettering and Northampton on 1 January.
It also boosted existing services offering support at home to help alleviate pressure on hospitals.
Chief executive Mike Adamson said: “The British Red Cross is on the front line, responding to the humanitarian crisis in our hospital and ambulance services across the country.
“We have been called in to support the NHS and help get people home from hospital and free up much needed beds.”
“We’ve seen people sent home without clothes, some suffer falls and are not found for days, while others are not washed because there is no carer there to help them.”
The Red Cross said its volunteers are “on the front line” across the country
He said that if people do not get the care they need, “they will simply end up returning to A&E, and the cycle begins again”.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “The Red Cross being called in to help in our hospitals is just the latest staggering example of how the NHS is now being pushed to breaking point.
“For the Red Cross to brand the situation a ‘humanitarian crisis’ should be a badge of shame for government ministers.” He called for “urgent help” from the government.
Black alert
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said staff were under intense pressure, while the Society for Acute Medicine warned this month could be the worst January the NHS has ever faced.
Dr Taj Hassan, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said every hospital in Essex has been on black alert and emergency departments are “working at and beyond their capabilities”.
He added: “The emergency care system is on its knees, despite the huge efforts of staff who are struggling to cope with the intense demands being put upon them. This cannot be allowed to continue.
“The scale of the crisis affecting emergency care systems has reached new heights, as we predicted, mainly due to a lack of investment in both social and acute health care beds, as well as emergency department staffing.”
Dr Mark Holland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, told BBC Breakfast that the term “humanitarian crisis” was strong, but “not a million miles away from the truth”.
He added: “We have been predicting that we would face a winter from hell. I think that time has arrived.”
A spokesman for NHS England said plans remained in place to deal with additional demands during the winter period and asked the public to “play their part” by using local pharmacies and NHS 111 for medical advice.
BBC reporter Dan Johnson said one press officer from the organisation called the claims by the Red Cross “ridiculous”.
He added: “The Department of Health also said it is putting in billions more to try and make the system work.”
Our NHS – being crushed to speed up privatisation
The deadline for comments on proposals to halve the remainder of community hospital beds in Eastern Devon is
TODAY
Please respond.
The email address is: d-ccg.YourFutureCare@nhs.net
Where to start?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38526285
Nuffield Trust reported on Today programme – their spokesman reported on Today there had been a 25% cut in social care funding. Also that there had been significant pressure in some parts of the country, including the West of England.
Bed pressures:
http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/blog/winter-insight-beds-pressures
Now blocked beds in mental health care:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38517648
Urges to stop this being a party political punchbag:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38521473
And yet it still is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38315259
And, to add insult to injury, see where the money goes in social care when you have privatised providers in this article (“Capital letters” – bottom of page) from Private Eye:
NHS consultation ends on 6 January 2017 – have your say
“You can “have your say” here on-line:
http://www.newdevonccg.nhs.uk/about-us/your-future-care/102019
This is a simple on-line survey form which must be returned by Friday 6 January.
INFORMATION PRIOR TO FILLING IN THE SURVEY
As a member quoted yesterday, she had replied “none of the above” to the
questionaire, but it is then a question as to say why. So key points
are as follows:
This particular new health and care model is complex, particularly in a
rural area like East Devon with an elderly population well above
average. Hence it is vital to carry out a detailed risk assessment
before committing to the new model. There is a lack of information
about the quality questions that will be addressed to ensure that
community services can be delivered safely to the new model before
closing community beds.
The current situation appears to be based on the supposed fact that it
has been working in North Devon so there will be no problems, when in
fact it has NOT worked well in North Devon.
Community services are already overstretched with an acute lack of
appropriate carers for people in their own homes. There are significant
difficulties with recruitment.
This new model of care for East Devon is rejeccted by our local
politicians at all levels, including MPs. It is not at all clear how
much money could be saved using this new model, if any at all. There is
a need to cover for an expected annual 4% shortfall in the local NHS
budget; it is interesting to note that 4% equals the annual underfunding
nationally of the NHS since 2010.
There is a strong suspicion that because of the high value of NHS estate
land, hospitals without beds would eventually be sold off for house
building land. So this would be a strong motivator to cutting hospital
beds.”
http://www.newdevonccg.nhs.uk/about-us/your-future-care/102019
Good coverage of North Devon’s well-organised NHS protest
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b085fd4b/spotlight-late-news-04012017
And for MUCH more information on protests throughout Devon see the Facebook group “Save Our Hospital Services Devon“.
“Brexit negotiations will fire the starting gun on the decade – so understanding these changes key for negotiations”
New IPPR report shows an accelerating wave of economic, social and technological change will reshape 2020s Britain
In a landmark report, leading think tank the IPPR has analysed factors shaping the UK up to 2030. It sets out the choices that must be made now if these changes are to lead to a fairer and more equal society.
The report highlights key facts that will change the way we live in the 2020s:
As the population grows, the UK is set to age sharply and become increasingly diverse. The 65+ age group will grow by 33% by 2030.
The global economy and the institutions that govern it will come under intense pressure as the Global South rises in economic and political importance.
Half of all large companies will be based in emerging markets;
Due to demographic trends, a structural deficit is likely to re-emerge by the mid-2020s, with adult social care funding gap is expected to hit £13 billion – 62% of the expected budget – in 2030/31;
Up to two-thirds of current jobs – 15 million – are at risk of automation.
These changes in technology have the potential to create an era of widespread abundance, or a second machine age that radically concentrates economic power;
The income of high-income households is forecast to rise 11 times faster than for low income households in the 2020s;
Climate change, biodiversity degradation, and resource depletion mean we will increasingly run up against the limits of the physical capacity of the Earth’s natural systems;
The UK has the richest region in Northern Europe but also 9 of the 10 poorest regions.
Mathew Lawrence, IPPR research fellow and report author said:
“By 2030, the effects of Brexit combined with a wave of economic, social and technological change will reshape the UK, in often quite radical ways.
“In the face of this, a politics of nostalgia, institutional conservatism and a rear guard defence of the institutions of 20th century social democracy will be inadequate.
For progressives, such a strategy will not be robust enough to mitigate against growing insecurity, ambitious enough to reform Britain’s economic model, nor sufficiently innovative to deliver deeper social and political transformation. They would be left defending sand castles against the tide of history.
“Britain’s progressives should be ambitious, seeking to shape the direction of technological and social change. We must build a ‘high energy’ democracy that accelerates meaningful democratic experimentation at a national, city and local level, and also in the marketplace by increasing everyone’s say over corporate governance, ownership and power.”
The full report is here:
“NHS groups ‘paying millions to private firms that block GP referrals’ “
“NHS organisations are paying millions of pounds to private firms that stop patients being referred to hospital by their GPs, an investigation has found.
Controversial referral management centres are used by some clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to scrutinise patient referrals to hospitals by family doctors.
Supporters say they can reduce inappropriate referrals, saving the NHS money, but critics argue that adding an extra layer of scrutiny risks delaying diagnosis. There is also doubt over the effectiveness of such schemes.
GP practices ‘offered rewards’ for not referring patients to hospitals
In an investigation, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) sent freedom of information requests to all 211 CCGs in England. Of the 184 that responded, 72 (39%) said they commissioned some form of referral management scheme.
Almost a third (32%) of the schemes are provided by private companies, while a further 29% are provided in-house and 11% by local NHS trusts. Some 69% of the CCGs with schemes gave details of operating costs. These CCGs combined have spent at least £57m on schemes since April 2013.
Most CCGs were unable to provide evidence showing the scheme saved money. Only 14% could show that the scheme had saved more cash than it had cost to operate, while 12% showed that their schemes had not saved money overall.
Meanwhile, 74% of CCGs (53 groups) failed to supply figures to show whether any money had been saved, the BMJ reported.
Some CCGs did not collect data on savings, some said their referral scheme was designed not to save money but to improve the quality of referrals, and others declined to disclose details of savings on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.
Overall, there were 93 referral management schemes in operation across 72 CCGs, with some CCGs having more than one.
Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s GPs committee, told the BMJ: “[CCGs] are leaping at these schemes without any clear evidence of benefit. They are just hopeful that it might reduce their costs.
“It is a very short-term approach to healthcare management. We need to see much more evaluation … and not just keep making the same mistakes year after year. As public bodies, there should be an expectation on every CCG to account for what it is doing.”
Vautrey said some schemes were helpful because they gave GPs rapid access to advice from local specialists.
Graham Jackson, co-chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners, the membership organisation representing CCGs, said referral management was only one way of managing demand for services.”
Owl bets that, if NEW Devon CCG hasn’t yet done this, it will be champing at the bit to commission a scoping study for a feasibility study for a consultants report for a pilot study at a health hub near you!
“In many cases they provide a useful and effective role which is more than a redirection service,” he said. “CCGs will balance the cost of commissioning with the benefit they provide to GPs and patients in terms of peer review, education, caseload management and choice.”
In October, Roberta Blackman-Woods, Labour MP for City of Durham, criticised a local scheme to screen referrals for conditions including cardiology, gynaecology and gastroenterology.
The North Durham CCG has awarded a contract to the private firm About Health to manage referrals.”
Could this sort of protest persuade our Tory MPs to back the NHS?
Conspiracy theorists and fake news enthusiasts are already saying that this was organised to make Trump look good – hhhm! And can we see parallels here – nationally and locally?
“WASHINGTON ―
After a torrent of bad headlines, countless phone calls to member offices, and two tweets from President-elect Donald Trump, House Republicans dropped their plans to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics Tuesday, just minutes before the House was set to gavel in for the 115th Congress and adopt their rules package for the next two years.
The amendment ― authored by Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) ― would have placed the independent congressional ethics office under the oversight of the House Ethics Committee, changed the OCE’s name and barred the office from releasing reports to the public. In effect, it would have neutered Congress’ most aggressive watchdog.
The decision to strip the Goodlatte amendment came just before noon on Tuesday as Republicans planned to begin the 115th Congress. Earlier in the day, responding to numerous news reports about Republicans gutting the OCE, Trump asked in a tweet whether Republicans really had to make the “weakening” of the ethics office their first order of business, though he also didn’t necessarily come out against the idea of eventually overhauling the OCE.
Ethics groups were quick to criticize House Republicans for the effort. A coalition of groups including the Campaign for Accountability, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the League of Women Voters sent a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday calling for the reauthorization of the OCE.
Several other groups, including the conservative Judicial Watch, called the move “shameful.” The nonpartisan group Common Cause even pointed out that exactly 11 years ago, lobbyist Jack Abramoff ― whose crimes helped lead to the creation of the OCE ― pleaded guilty to charges including fraud conspiracy and tax evasion. (Abramoff told Politico Tuesday that Republican’s efforts to gut the ethics watchdog are “exactly the opposite of what Congress should be doing.”)
Members reported that they had started getting a flood of phone calls from constituents concerned that Congress was neutering a key ethics watchdog.
“The calls we’ve gotten in my district office and here in Washington has surprised me, meaning the number of calls,” said Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), who noted before the amendment was stripped that he would vote against the rules package if it remained in the measure. “People are just sick and tired.”
Some Republicans, including South Carolina Reps. Trey Gowdy and Mark Sanford, were reporting Tuesday that they would vote against the typically party-line rules package.
Facing public pressure and an internal mutiny, GOP leadership called a special meeting and told Republicans they needed to strip the OCE amendment.
Leaders told members they would instead work with Democrats to come up with a proposal to reform the OCE before the August recess, though a number of Republicans were unsatisfied by the promise.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said he would now work to completely abolish the Office of Congressional Ethics, citing concerns over anonymous whistleblowers making accusations against members and the OCE leaking information to the press.
Asked to provide an example of the OCE leaking information to the press, King failed to come up with one and got testy.
“Just google it,” he said.
Pelosi issued a statement after the amendment was dropped, noting the “clear contempt for ethics in the People’s House” that she said Republicans showed with their plan.
“Once again, the American people have seen the toxic dysfunction of a Republican House that will do anything to further their special interest agenda, thwart transparency and undermine the public trust,” she added. “Republicans should remember the strength of public outrage they faced in the space of 12 hours as they scheme to do lasting damage to the health and economic security of millions and millions of hard-working families.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/house-republicans-ethics_us_586bdb14e4b0de3a08f99e66?
*unt – the best NHS Minister ever?
East Devon Alliance organising coach to London Save NHS demo
East Devon Alliance (EDA) will be organising a coach bound for London on March 4, 2017, and people from the district are invited to present a united front of opposition.
More details will be released in the new year. Book via coach@eastdevonalliance.org.uk.
Our NHS? Well, no, it is now their private NHS
“One of Britain’s most famous NHS hospitals is on course to get as much, if not more, money from private patients, charities and commercial activities as it does from the NHS.
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London will earn 45% of its income from private patients and other non-NHS sources this financial year and is about to embark on a drive to raise its income from paying patients from £90m to £100m.
Other NHS trusts on the same path include Great Ormond Street, also in London, which received almost a quarter of its income from non-NHS sources last year. It is seeking a “step change in private patient activity”, according to its latest operating plan….”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/nhs-in-dash-for-private-cash-nsnjw569z
East Devon Watch 