Trust..... no Not NHS Trust .... Trust in decison makers

I tweeted on my account @notselfserving that I would be posting this on Tuesday......

I didn't as circumstances didn't all....

I have blogged and written in the local papers over the past 6 years about Hinchingbrooke Hospital and like many who expressed an interest through the "Sustainable Hospital" NHS Cambridgeshire consultation.

Subsequently.... and what I see as pay back for our protests to keep Hinchingbrooke open, that we were and have been faced with a Franchise arrangement for Hinchingbrooke's management
I was angry, yes angry, that Labour under Andy Burnham's control and criteria called Hinchingbrooke a "failing" NHS Trust.
It was I guess to be fair under the measure that was being used at the time, but it was never considered in any real context, as to how the Historic debt was acrrued in the first place.
The debt issue goes way back to the head per capita funding in the 1980's when this area was considered to be healthy and requiring less funding by the very short-sighted Thatcher government, or should I say a typical Tory government, the current one is no better.
I did write to Andy Burnham several times but all I got was rebuff after rebuff from one of his menials, if only twitter was a medium at that time.
Personally, at the time, Mr Burnham was looking at an NHS provider to manage Hinchingbrooke, but the October 4th 2006 Save Hinchingbrooke March was hijacked by SHA staff who were finding out what people think and how they feel, one in fact chatted to my mother who was on the march. I can identify him too but I won't reveal that here,save to say he was involved with the franchise.
Sadly of course, Mr Burnham's romantic notion that an NHS Trust would manage Hinchingbrooke was thwarted by McPhearson & Dunn of the SHA.
The Franchise arrangements included a Stakeholder Panel of 40 individuals.....all selectively chosen to follow the herd and the few who would prove difficult like Trade Unions would be voted against.
The main bulk of members were Tory Councillors and local MP's, many who could only be relied upon to attend should voting be required and the other 6 members were staff & trade unions.
In essence, no one was there to be the voice of the public, if you think a Tory councillor or MP will be your voice.....forget it....unless there is a few thousand votes to be grabbed
The Franchise was always considered to be a "Consultation", however it was merely a Process.
There were some Public meetings, albeit set in rural locations across Cambridgeshire and during the working day to further reduce the numbers of potential public members able to attend and voice their opinions.
Quite early in the process it was feared that this was going to be a sham deal and a set up
Addenbrookes were the sole NHS Trust interested and there was also a shared deal with Peterborough City Hospital and Serco too.
The process went quiet for around 12 months, in fact some thought it would be shelved, mergers may happen etc.
Quite soon after the Tory led Coalition got in & Stakeholder panel member, Andrew Lansley became Secretary of State for Health, the process began to move forward again at quite a pace, to begin with.
It soon became apparent that Addenbrookes had been warned off from proceeding with their bid and that all was left would be Private Sector interest.
Needless to say, I was not surprised and expressed that too, I also feel that this was the end game and punishment for keeping the hospital from closing.
4 companies came and did their presentations and PR stuff....it soon became clear from the first instance and introductions that Circle were going to be gifted the franchise. They had obviously to play along with the bid submissions and other procedures but the SHA spokespeople and staff involved in the process were pushing Circle more than Ramsay/Peterboro-Serco et al.
I came as no surprise that Circle soon became the "preferred" bidder or in real speak..... the Franchise was theirs.
It soon became apparent that the Stakeholder panel was merely concealing and anterior to the process. It was merely keeping the media and public away from what was really going on. It is a shame that this has recently come to light as I know...... Unions and some councillors would never have agreed to cut staff by 340 posts, handed Circle bail outs and allow them easy get out of the contract.
With this in mind it does appear that this was a set up,sham,stinky,messy process.... I am not suggesting that incentives were used by the private sector to gain favour but they did have the potential to do so of course, you make your own mind up and form your own opinions.

We find now we have been landed with Circle Holdings, and their subsidury Circle Hinchingbrooke Ltd, managing Hinchingbrooke NHS Trust.
We also know that so far they have sacked 46 Nurses and their Cleaning Contractor Mitie, on Circle's instruction (by cutting the contract terms) has sacked half of the cleaning staff and put the remaining on reduced hours, some by one day a week & the majority by 2 days per week. I know what is next, infections will rise and we will be back to 1995 again, short sighted and stupid.
We also know from the recently leaked documents that they are to sack in total 340 staff as I previously mentioned, currently there are "Reviews" going on for all staff or in other words..... time & motion studies to see who can be sacked.
Circle have brought in an interim HR  Hit man, now they have sacked the Hinchingbrooke HR dept staff, a Mr De Gamma who has been rolled out to make comments in the Hunts Post on some issues and obviously denied the truth.
Circle have also declared that their parent company requires further share sales next year to raise further funding for that part of the business, so as it stands we have a start up company with huge Hedge funds bank rolling it and who will want their cash back. It also has run up a further debt at Hinchingbrooke even though they enjoy 10% MORE funding than the previous NHS board.

You have to ask, what if the previous NHS management had been afforded the same funding which Circle are enjoying and £8 million LESS bailout which Peterborough City Hospital have been gifted how Hinchingbrooke would be sitting now. I would argue that they would be sitting nicely.
You also have to see that with the extra funding it equates to the £38 million debt paid off PLUS £62 million in the bank so to speak. Measure that over 10 years and with the average small surplus  which Hinchingbrooke consistently made..... and you would have just needed to cruise along for 10 years easy peasy...... BUT Circle have made some impossible and bold claims.... and they will be held to book over this and it will end in tears.

Currently the local opinion is that Circle Hinchingbrooke Ltd will cease in 2014 and I have no doubt at this time that this will be the case......sadly Hinchingbrooke Hospital will have been run down, under staffed and in a poor way when these parasites slope away...
 

National Audit Office Report

You probably all know or have seen references on the BBC news about the report on the Franchise of Hinchingbrooke Hospital. If you have seen the BBC's News then chances are you have also seen Slick tongue work from Mr Circle himself.... Ali Parsa.

Once again he has put on the con trick PR stunt that Circle are doing fine ...blah.. blah  BUT the BBC sadly did not have anyone from the community or one of the Trade Unions to comment further on this at all, they let Mr Parsa have the soap box to push the same old tired mantra.

However..... they are NOT doing as well as they claim to be.... as we have seen, over budget... had a £4 million bail out from the NHS and have yet to sack a further 274 staff members from the Trust.

I find it unbelievable too,that the Trade Unions are sitting back and saying nothing.... weak or are they waiting for the deal to fail, which it will..... and say...Told You So... if they are, then they had better be really motivated to pick up the pieces..



 The NAO report shows that there was a lack of scrutiny of the risks and projections of the deal by independent or outside sources.It is shown that other than the Project Team and Project Board little was shared and so the risks of the deal were kept from the Public.

I really would like to know....


What level of discussions local councillors and Trade Unions were allowed be at to during the project....


 Were the Stakeholder Panel, who were part of this project.... considered to be the Project Team?...


 Were they there merely to divert away from the important matter which were really going on behind the scenes?


Were they in fact totally complicit in this rotten and shoddy deal?...


 Unless the Stakeholder members(whatever their role or capacity) come clean.... and tell us of meetings they missed or were not invited to...any of the 40 Stakeholders will not be trusted and their integrity will be reconsidered accordingly

I am happy for ANY of the 40 stakeholders to tweet me @notselfserving to let me know of their position on this franchise deal..... What they were told and what they knew....


Considering the architects of this scheme even got an award by Health Investor for it's production and setting up, you have to ask, following the NAO report ,questions regarding award presenter, Health Investor's integrity too.
It also calls into question the role of Wragge & Co's Healthcare Team in advising the SHA on the legal aspects of this projects

When you look at the "deal".... it clearly shows that Circle should be financially sound but they lost money & their Parent company is in worse dire straits than Peterborough City Hospital, they also cannot sell off land at the site without the permission of the NHS shadow board..... my message to Circle is ... get out while the going is good...


 The NAO document can be downloaded Here Please get a cup of tea and a biscuit or 3 and read it....and weep....


Consider how the Project Board at the SHA came to allow this travesty to happen and remember which Political Party began the franchise option...but more importantly....remember the Political Party who were in power and who signed off this bastard of a "deal"..... With it being so foolhardy, you then start to think if some other not so regular factor or factors forced the hand of the Project team and board members?...



 It will end in tears....

But through all this unnecessary mayhem..... the staff carry on as they have done for the past 20 years or more, through thick and thin, good times and bad.....  I cannot thank them enough for what they do for me and my family.... 

Despite the questionable Friends  & Family ratings hogwash ...... The staff are still brilliant, however the same cannot be said of the buildings and the way the social structure is being run down.....

Did the Stakeholder Panel Members Know?.....

The question of the day is Did The Hinchingbrooke Stakeholder Panel Members Know? about the real impact and contents of the Circle franchise deal .

We NOW know that there are 320 jobs to be culled at Hinchingbrooke, with 247 still to be axed.

There was a Bailout clause in the Contract

Addenbrookes were "scared off" of making a deal

The Peterborough City Hospital/Serco deal was better for the Taxpayer

So did the invited stakeholder know this or was it all kept from them.....or were they sworn to silence?

The Stakeholder Panel was made up mainly of MP's and local politicians and a few Union reps....there really was NO ONE who was the voice of the people on the panel and now we know why....

My Message to ANY member of the Hinchingbrooke Franchise Stakeholder Panel....... Come Clean,Own up to what you actually knew...... and if you knew of what I revealed..... Why did you keep Quiet?

7 months on

Circle now have been managing Hinchingbrooke hospital for the past 7 months, we have had a relentless amount of PR stunts by Mr Parsa,Tory ministers and Tory oropaganda "newspapers".
We have learnt just this last week that Circle have made a £4.1 million LOSS and will be getting a bailout from the soon to be defunct NHS Cambridgeshire,
You have to ask.... how and who will the £4 million bailout be paid back to, when on April 1st 2013 NHS Cambridgeshire cease to exist. No one has said that, it will be repaid or not by then or if it hasn't been repaid then the funding will be shared by the CCG's in Cambridgeshire.

We also hear that Circle plan to sell off the land and car park to the front of the hospital to fund a multi storey car park. On the issue of selling land at the site, this has been mentioned before and withdrawn, will it happen again?.... probably

We find here that the Strategic Health Authority, the Tory Health minister and others KNEW that Circle were bad for Hinchingbrooke and that aside of Bailout's for Circle built into the contract (obviously to save face) there are still another 247 staff to be culled from the workforce. We already know that cleaning contractor Mitie have axed staff and cut the remaining staff contracts by 1 or 2 day work per week, after Circle decided to limit the budget for the cleaning contract.
We also know that 46 Nurses have been culled and no doubt more are on the cards

Yet the local media FAIL to publish any suggestion that Circle are indeed...... Failing...
Failing the people of Huntingdon,Failing their Contract and Failing to run OUR hospital properly

It is suggested that Circle are spending £1 million refurbishing the corridors in Hinchingbrooke, so far on my recent visits there, the noticeboards (including Union noticeboards) have been removed for repainting etc. It does say they will be back soon.....  if they happen to remember to rehang them. Cynical me says they wont return to the walls.
Circle also HATE Trade Unions totally..... that includes the Royal Colleges.... sad but true

What is the solution?.......

1st April 2013, the Strategic Health Authority and the PCT are finished, in fact they already have no operational responsibility during the transition to CCG's etc and this began on 1st October 2012.
For me.... NO new projects should be signed off or dealt with by these 2 organisations as like the Circle deal, there is not a body to oversee the contracts. Circle have nobody to keep an eye on them after April 2013 apart from Patients and Activists as, not being a Foundation Trust, don't come under the remit of Monitor....

The only solution for Hinchingbrooke is to hand it back over to an NHS board, with the same funding that Circle have been afforded....this is set at a higher level than the outgoing NHS board were working with, yet they always made a small surplus.The finances need to be returned to January 31st 2012 level and the best investment would be is to give Hinchingbrooke the £38 million to pay off the Historic government induced debt. The naysayers claiming that can't be done, look 24 miles north at Peterborough City Hospital, already bailed out by £46 million and more will follow that.

For me.......    Give HInchingbrooke back to the People of Huntingdon and run it within the NHS.....
Circle have failed miserably already.

Their contract had sufficient funding built in to a) pay off the historic debt, b) have £62 million left to subsidise the hospital with the small surplus and all would be well after the 10 years...... WITHOUT changing anything...

The couldn't fail..... but they already are failing.....

6 months on

Well it seems that all the warnings I gave are coming to fruition We find that after 6 months..... Circle ..... Sacking 56 Hinchingbrooke staff Sacking 40 Hinchingbrooke Nurses Have a worsening debt record than Hinchingbrooke EVER had Need a £46 million injection next year to stay in business Patients COMPLAINTS are up All this information is in the public domain and still McPhearson & Dunn think it's a good "deal" It seems to me the "deal" was done as a mere experiment due to short-sighted cheap deals done when the hospital moved from Brampton road. The Department of Health cant sell Hinchingbrooke as they do not own the land.... and it was never sold to them it like the Woodlands centre was provided by donations. What makes me cross is the Hospital...OUR hospital is being rundown by fly by night start up company run by Del Boys.... Circle Hinchingbrooke Ltd is an easily disposed of asset by Circle Holdings Ltd We will be on the streets again and I hear that Huntingdon Trades Council are ramping up the Circle Out campaign again

Health & Social Care Bill

Well dear Friends and NHS supporters.... the Health Bill is soon to be passed.
I feel we have been betrayed by Politicians, especially the all evil Tories and their sidekick Liberal Democrats and finally the Queen.

Now Is the time to fight back and at the next election the NHS will be the main topic and voting material.
Labour, no I am not a supporter have nailed their intentions to the mast that they will repeal this rotten bill, I believe the Green Party will also support this too.

The Greens have also been full supporters of the NHS and would do the decent thing in government and tax the rich and we would not be in the austerity mess the Tories have taken us into.
The Health Bill will be very difficult to implement, you need staff on board, the will to implement and EU competition rules will make things very drawn out too, in fact it won't be implemented by the next General Election.
As Campaigners we can assist the delay by challenging local decisions, being involved in Health Watch, Patient events at G.P's and challenge CCG's
Hunts Health CCG leader says he would like the Health Bill dropped as per G.P's and the majority consensus. But will as all Health professionals try to make the best of this until the reorganisation is done again in 2-3 years time.

The biggest issue is the NHS Risk Register has not been published although it has been leaked that it contains the facts that 50 NHS Hospitals WILL close under the Tories evil plans. With an ageing population this is stupid and like the Tory PFI idea crass too.
We are "lucky" to still have Hinchingbrooke NHS Trust still with us, Stephen Dunn has brokered a "deal" with Circle for 10 years(although this could be finished at anytime) so we can I guess we are "safe". I have said in previous posts the "deal" will give Circle £100m more than Hinchingbrooke would have had over the 10 year period and Circle will get 5000 more patients too.
This shows what I said all along, the Circle "deal" is not the same as Hinchingbrooke NHS would have had and NOT the level playing field that Stephen Dunn claimed it would be, like the Government....he Lied.

The next challenge too is Acer Ward and also Hinchingbrooke's staff canteen.
Acer Ward, has a campaign on Facebook and Petition to stop this valuable ward from being closed for good. The awful run "virtual" NHS Trust, Cambridge & Peterborough Mental Health Trust, Farms out much their work rather than dealing with it in house, to charities and voluntary groups while the directors get fat and the trust loses cash and is underfunded.
If Acer Ward is allowed to close and I believe that the local MP is NOT behind the campaign then this will leave Acer Ward building to be empty.
I have information that Circle have no plans yet to use the facility, but then under rules would not be able to for at least 6 months.
It then could become a PRIVATE ward or wing....... One hopes that isn't the case.

The next issue is the Staff canteen. Since Circle started the menu has changed, the new chef serves hardly any meat dishes and usual favourites and numbers using the canteen have dropped dramatically, seriously lower numbers.
Staff now visit the front cafe or the country park for normal lunches and dinners rather than eat the new menu
I see this as being done on purpose as Circle had identified this area as a place to expand for offices.... yes offices....
It looks like Circle are gunning to move Welbeck St their HQ to Hinchingbrooke which would save a fortune....

Enough from me at this time.....BUT

THE SAVE ACER WARD PETITION MONSTER ROADSHOW

Starting 10.00am in St Ives at the Oliver Cromwell Statue, Market Place, St Ives.

Members of the Save Acer Ward campaign team including campaign creator and spokesperson, Liz Stokes, will be hitting the streets, markets and pubs on Saturday 24th March to Monster the good people of St Ives, Huntingdon and St Neots into signing our petition to Save Acer Ward,

We will be available for interview and photo opportunities on Saturday 24th March - starting 10.00am in St Ives at the Oliver Cromwell Statue, Market Place, St Ives.

The Petition was started in St Ives by Save Acer ward campaigner, Anita Whateley and we will be also visiting the other market towns of St Neots and Huntingdon,

With the NHS Cambridgeshire & NHS Peterborough board meeting on Wednesday 28th March, where the ward's fate will be decided fast approaching collecting petition signatures will demonstrate the strength of public opposition to the closure of Acer ward, Huntingdonshire's only inpatient mental health facility (over 1500 signatures already collected).

Or to sign the online petition visit our website www.saveacerward.wordpress.com and follow the link

Debt and more debt... Blame it on PFI

I get very cross when Peterborough City Hospital's CEO bleats about their £46m of debt.
Putting this into perspective of course, this was accrued over an 18 month period, unlike Hinchingbrooke's which was accrued over 15 YEARS

Stewart Jackson the MP for Peterborough blames PFI for the City Hospital Debt, however this PFI deal was signed when the PFI shortcomings were already on the table and exposed for all to see. The blame surely lies with the City Hospital Board and the PFI contract managers.

In my view, the City hospital should suffer the same indignity as Hinchingbrooke and be put out to tender to see if another NHS or a company like Circle would propose to manage the trust...... Oh No .... La La Lansley gives them a Bail Out, £8M more than the Hinchingbrooke Debt too....

The biggest issue for Peterborough City is the parasitic contractor Serco, who are their partners and PFI Facilities managers.
Serco were "lined" up alongside Circle to manage Hinchingbrooke and I bet they are circling to take over the Hospital.

Circle also have some issues coming up soon,with the Special Care Baby Unit and the Childrens Unit. The issue is..... they are used and run by the soon to be defunct Primary Care Trust and NOBODY yet has announced what is to happen to these units. I see an Acer Ward coming up, with out of Touch local councillors, satisfying their own needs and conning voters for the May elections, getting caught with their trousers down yet again
You see there are NO councillors who are really Health Service Aware.....
The other issues are the Transforming Pathology where the East of England SHA or rather it is now merged and called NHS MidlandsEast.... privatisation of blood services.
The Pathology Labs are seen as a prime candidate to be run by a single Trust and a centralised service. This idea is fine on a purchasing type of scenario to purchase consumables and Lab supplies..... BUT not for management.
This Centralisation is merely to process "cold" lab bloods from GP's and it was proposed in 2007.
However....the 2007 proposal was by the biggest predator in the East of England....Addenbrookes....who had done a deal with HFL labs, the Racehorse Lab to take on their allocated staff at this new unit but it was exposed and it was withdrawn at the time.
It has reared it's ugly head again of course as the great predator is pushing to be the Central Lab...and with that will go the HFL deal ,,,but it will only get in place AFTER the SHA is defunct....dodgy deal done dirt cheap....
The last issue is MHRA....they inspected Hinchingbrooke late last year and the Labs were told they needed more staff to be operating at a safe level, however the "old" management didn't commit to new staff due to the imminent Circle rip off deal. Circle now are saying NO to more staff.....BUT MHRA are coming back next week.....so will Circle get their arses kicked....you bet they will

A NEW DAY DAWNING....

One has to wonder how Hinchingbrooke staff will greet patients, one tweeter has suggested "tongue in cheek" .....Welcome to Circle Hinchingbrooke Ltd... but who knows.

My inside sources as well as my meeting attendance keeps me "ahead of the game" when it comes to news and news to me comes easier than in 2006 when Hinchingbrooke was threatened with closure.....
Many people now use Twitter and I follow @NHSspy and @circlebrooke who I am led to believe work "within the walls".
If Twitter was about in 2006....things at Hinchingbrooke would not have got this far....twitter pushes news and campaigns in real time, mostly faster than BBC/SKY etc.
We could have stopped this nonsense on 21st September 2006 if twitter was born back then.... but it wasn't so we are here....

I still continue to get emails from staff and patients and letters stuffed through my letter box......

I shall not say my job as campaigner is done here....because it isn't.....

I promise to blog at least weekly even if not much is happening at the Hospital and even if it is commenting on the local health economy such as the PFI doomed Peterborough Hospital which has more debt than Hinchingbrooke yet only open for 18 months......

One thing staff at Hinchingbrooke can be well assured..... they have worked 110% over all the years and the debt was NOT their fault....
If successive Political meddling had not got in the way then they would not have the debt, Tories have their Neo Liberal Private good, Public bad views and Labour wanted to be seen to be doing something....
We all know that Hinchingbrooke has had a tough life, Locals donate much time etc. and even the land it is built upon was donated and hence why the 2006 sell off and ideas to sell land to the rear where scuppered.
You see D0H and SHA number crunchers only care about what they can make or cut in budgets NOT about Patients.....sadly

We have suffered 50% per capita funding since 1982 due to Baroness Blatch and the Tyrant Thatcher's "deal" which deemed the area as not requiring a 100% funding ratio.
We have suffered Health Rationing on a massive scale and it has shaped the Health care map locally. Failures in Tory Councils to provide infrastructure have helped Hinchingbrooke stay open as the road network locally is appalling.

Recently as Christmas 2011, Hinchingbrooke's activity for A&E has been running sky high, good for Hinchingbrooke of course but you have to wonder why that is.....

In the main it is down to the Private Run "Urgent Care Cambridgeshire" who are responsible for Out of Hours GP.....they tend and personal experience confirms this to tick the box take the money and A&E pick up the case....hence why many just opt to go straight to A&E....and the SHA/PCT as now and DOH wonder why we do that...
Private companies like UCC and Harmoni making cash for doing little...

It's a new dawn today for Hinchingbrooke, staff and buildings and ALL building work and facilities are NHS.... the pen pushers at the top taking the financial risk are Circle Health....they are sadly "doing a tory" and shifting responsibility to staff for Profit & Loss,which means when it fails and it surely will...the Staff are at fault and Circle walk away unscathed and with knowledge of the NHS for another assault somewhere else a little easier


Thanks to all Hinchingbrooke supporters....The Fight Goes On Until Hinchingbrooke is finally back in the NHS .....AND run by a true Social Enterprise....The People of Huntingdonshire.....

Goodbye NHS

Today is Hinchingbrooke's Last Day as an NHS run hospital, for now anyway.

It is a sad day for Campaigners who fought not just to keep Hinchingbrooke from closing but indeed fought to get the hospital built and moved away from the old County hospital on Brampton Road. Locals remember that the land Hinchingbrooke is built on was DONATED to enable the facility to be built, but that's for another day as the foundations to the NHS to Andrew Lansley mean nothing as all that matters to him is lining his pocket from Tory health care donors

It was revealed by Circle yesterday that the Circle Health Hinchingbrooke will be run as 20 or so "Clinical Units" of 50 to 100 staff and ALL Staff members are responsible for Profit & Loss of those units......see I WAS correct PROFIT before patients and staff are Coerced into this scam too.
Building works are being done too, new windows and now frontage and atrium roof as well as the new rear car park carved up to make way for a new back up generator..... Customers of Hinchingbrooke will obviously think these are being paid for by Circle.....WRONG...paid for by the Taxpayer and yes ....all these items were identified by Hinchingbrooke long ago, the windows 15 years ago.....Circle arrive and get what they want, when they want it.....

"Magic" Ali Parsa has sorted some Near Patient blood machines for quick testing, they don't do it all but it makes a good show, what he forgets is the Lab staff will spend 90% of their days quality controlling these machines....

I end this post albeit a brief one, with some thoughts......

Now Circle Health have announced that Staff are responsible for Profit and Loss, you have to ask a) What actually are Circle Health doing?...not managing that's for sure b) Will they finally admit their LIE that they are a Social Enterprise as Profits don't go with non profit Social Enterprises c) the Treatment Centre and Hospital have a recruitment campaign as of tomorrow....yes because the activity will be up by 100% to what the Treatment centre was designed for.....

Today at Hinchingbrooke NHS you are a Patient....as of Tomorrow you are a Circle Hinchingbrooke Ltd Customer with a Price on your head.....

Ironic how....in 2006 they were going to run down and close the Hospital...we campaigned and kept it open....so they hand the "management" to Circle Health in the private sector and they throw money at it.....and it will be a bottomless pit.....as this ROTTEN TORY Government will do their worst to make this "work", well on paper anyway......

The Staff will be the ones who are blamed....when it all goes wrong...but we know different, don't we.....

THE REVELATIONS KEEP COMING

Since the announcement of the Circle Health Hinchingbrooke NHS "deal" it seems that more comes out daily to show my warnings have been vindicated.

One local Tory biased propaganda weekly paper call me a scaremonger and fall just short of calling me a liar, but as they dine and meet with our local and "dodgy" MP, who has been berrated for his expenses claims and recently brought to book over share dealing and a possible conflict of interest with his government office.

I warned that this "deal" was Profits before Patients and today it is revealed just that they are not a social enterprise
One thing you will notice is the debts that Circle Health made a pre-tax loss last year of £44.3m and yet they claim to be able to pay off Hinchingbrooke's historic,government induced debt of £38m. This does sound dubious as with this years £10m losses in 10 months added then the prospect for this to fail are high

On top of this we find that Patient Care is to fall this was again, Highlighted by me and again I was brandished a scaremonger and all but a liar and yet again I will be vindicated.

The other issue is the motives of Circle and how they can manage to turn a profit, even a small one.
One of the largest liabilities for a Hospital is staff pay and lets be fair we are paying for highly skilled people here,from x-ray, blood testing,porters and the like right up through Nursing staff to Consultants. All are trained to high standards to provide there service to the patient.

Under the Circle "deal" all the staff are to be retained using the Retention of Employment model, which means they are seconded from the NHS to the new company while retaining their NHS employment status, terms and conditions.
However, I know what Circle are going to do, they are going to, through slick presentations, going to offer to staff the chance to opt out of the NHS ROE model and choose to TUPE to their Terms & Conditions with an offer of shares that will never be worth the paper they are written on.

The outcome for those who choose the TUPE route will be devastating as Circle will not bat an eyelid when it comes to culling staff as these poor souls will be cast to the wilderness without a care and yes the shares will be worth nothing.

Under the current management team, Hinchingbrooke makes a small surplus, enough to keep it in the black but not enough to eat into the Historic debt that was caused over the years by successive governments and their relentless top down reorganisations.
So, who will Circle make any more cash to really eat into the debt and as the architect of this dubious deal the non clinical "Dr" Dunn claims?....they wont.

Unless the PCT and the forthcoming CCG's favour Hinchingbrooke Hospital for treatment,(I hazard a guess DOH "guidance" will "encourage" this) and the upcoming health bill's "Bung Tariff" (higher than normal payment)used then they wont make any more surplus than they currently do.
If this happens, having more activity(patients through the door) and a higher tariff(payment for work) then this is unfair and again I said this would happen if/when Circle or anyone else was handed the Hinchingbrooke Management to make it work,or seen to work.

The only other means to save cash is for staff numbers, already cut to the bone, to be further reduced.
I know of managers who have already been "encouraged" to consider early retirement and the TUPE crowd as I have already explained will also be fair game for the Circle axeman.

I also wonder, not as so much as to who pays, but should something go wrong in the hospital that requires repair. I ask this as the back up generator at Hinchingbrooke is now a little suspect and was noticed during last Friday's power cut. We all know the NHS will have to pay for this to be repaired or replaced BUT how will Circle react to a failure like this and what procedures are in place for such an occurance?....

There will be more to follow on from this but remember......under the terms of the "deal".... Circle Health can get out of the contract at any time.....

My words to them is.... Get out now, while you can or you will regret it...

Remembrance Day

Today we remember our Troops that have given the ultimate sacrifice at 11:00 please spend a minute to remember them......

Sadly we need to apply the same to the NHS in England,as of yesterday...the ultimate treason took place.... RIP..

The Day After.....

Yesterday was very busy, I did a quick interview on the radio and said that I think the Circle Health "deal" will be a Flash in the Pan.

My reason....they won't make cash out of it under the Health & Social Care Bill structure, if it gets passed along with the huge NHS cuts that the CCG (commissioning groups that take over from the NHS Cambs PCT) face.

CCG's will ration Hospital referrals and our healthcare locally, way more than was forced upon the local Health Board in the 80's.

As the majority of patients know,especially the elderly ones, how their Health Care has been rationed over the last 30 years with us have 50% of national funding instead of being afforded the full funding other areas get and now we are going to get even less and with an expanding and ageing population....is that fair?..NO
But then is this rotten government fair.....NO..and the 80's Government who reduced the health care funding was of the same ideology as today's

Pre 2006 Hunts PCT had a deal with Hinchingbrooke where the Hospital got paid under tariff, so more patients were referred and referred earlier.
The result being balanced books everywhere and Patients conditions were treated at an earlier stage and better outcomes achieved.

Post 2006 and Labour's top down creation of Cambs PCT and EoESHA things got tougher, especially because the Treatment centre was to handle referrals from a large area yet during the build the goal posts changed....and hence Hinchingbrooke's debt...likewise PBR was introduced too compounding the debt.
Post 2006 led to the SHA suggesting the hospital may close.....well that's history as we kept it open......however, the number of "interim" Chief executives of the local trusts came and went and took their £1000 + per day and nowt changed.

Cambs PCT as it was before renaming to NHS Cambridgehire, said that Hinchingbrooke would have 25% less activity and more will be done in the community.
They built Oak Tree Centre a Darzi type unit, where minor procedures could be done and grandstanded a £2m investment in community services.
I said that £2m was only enough to provide vehicles and phones and maybe offices but not services....and I was correct.
Over the past few years NHS Cambs was formed and Cambs Community Services formed and CCC is funded by PCT and Cambs County Council and this is where things get complicated.
Social care is allocated by the County council and Community Services has taken on that service with some former county employees now in community services and they are house.....in the Oak Tree Centre...the Darzi type unit where the treatment rooms (still with sinks and cupboards etc are used as meeting rooms and offices)and not providing healthcare.

It's all in a mess really but then things have got more stable where you visit your GP and he may or may not refer you to a hospital of your choice, in the main with the rubbish road network we choose Hinchingbrooke as it is close by.

Out of Hours care is another story and post Dr Ubani scandal,most go straight to Hinchingbrooke and bypass the GP route. This is being discouraged but the 2004 choices made post GP contract led to Private companies running OOH GP's and failed.

Is Circle the answer or retribution for keeping Hinchingbrooke open?

Circle is just payback for keeping the hospital open, and a political opportunity to get the Private Sector parasites into the NHS, nothing more.
When you see the local political structure and how it got to this then you have the answer to why Hinchingbrooke was a soft target.

In the post Marching and Save Hinchingbrooke fall out, the Hospital restructured and has made annual surplus's and the hospital has been refurbished too.
Everything has been done to make the Hospital run efficiently and Circle wont make anything like the changes they want to without sacking staff...

Magic Ali said yesterday they they want to reduce red tape etc....that is a DOH issue and about data collection, any clinical procedures have parameters that cannot be changed to prevent errors, although Addenbrookes the wonderful have made grave surgical errors recently.

Circle Health take over next February, in my last post I said January but there you go.....and how will they make money...they wont unless there is more activity (bodies through the door) I do know the intention is to run the Theatres 24/7 and I would hazard a guess many will be shipped from Circle's other units to keep throughput up.

Under the Health Bill, this is a failed and old model that is not sustainable.

Magic Ali is going to use Hinchingbrooke's Support services, for FREE,for his other units....sterile services, Blood Labs,Catering and X-ray to save cash at the other units and we pay for it.....

Only Transparency will show that this is not going to happen and his other business's will pay the going rates,but of course we know that we will never find out....but yes I will...an insider who tweets,as well as staff members who send me anonymously information to share.

Circle will also be getting rid of middle managers, in fact I know of 3 who have been "encouraged" to retire early so that they then will not be replaced.
Circle have had their "pink and fluffy" orchestrated stunt filled staff meetings all this week, before the announcement yesterday and they only like sessions which do not question their motives.

Lastly, the contract is watertight in Circle's favour....they can get out whenever they want.... so that gives me and the community no faith in the deal which in fact isn't worth the paper it is written on

The time has finally come

It has been a while since I have posted here, mainly due to Hinchingbrooke NHS being
still run as well as ever by the current efficient board and staff members.

However, things have moved on for the NHS, with the Secretary of State, Mr Lansley froma neighbouring constituency pushing to part privatise the system,well he claims different but we all know that is far from the truth.

He and his rotten politics want to allow "Any Willing Provider" to be able to do NHS work.

We all know Hinchingbrooke NHS Trust...OUR...Local hospital, many of us marched to keep open in October 2006, has been gifted by the Stakeholder panel of 40, no member properly representing the public and any public events being held at awkward times so non one attended as well as NO public consultation.

Mr Lansley, yes the Secretary of State for Health was a panel member when Circle Health were chosen to manage Hinchingbrooke in November 2010. As yet, this contract has not been signed and Mr Lansley has now distanced himself from the process, even though he was part of the selection process. I believe he should have restarted the process as soon as he was placed in office as Secretary of State for Health as being part of the selection process makes it a conflict of interest.

Needless to say, the Contract for the so called "Franchise" is signed on 1st November as a Transition period takes place until Circle Health get their grubby, parasitic hands on OUR hospital on January 1st 2012

Circle Health claim to be a Social Enterprise, when in fact they are a Hedge fund bankrolled, for profit, offshore company which in fact is a totally different definition and they have mislead the public and been economical with the truth
Circle Heath are also £38m in debt and so far for 2011 they are £9m in debt...for me not a good basis for someone to run Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

One bonus with this "deal" is that Hinchingbrooke will be afforded some protection, protection from A&E closure and Maternity Closure as well as keeping the Hospital fully functional.

During the next couple of years Andrew Lansley is making ALL NHS Trusts into Foundation Trusts or close, Hinchingbrooke is exempt from that process due to the Circle Health "franchise".
My other concern, although not as large for this area as others in the UK is GP commissioning, for us and our 30 year of Healthcare rationing we will see little change yet for those areas who have been afforded 100% funding, unlike our 50% funding they will find rationing of care difficult to deal with.

I have been informed that there are proposals for each GP to only refer 4 patients per week to secondary care (Hospital) which is outrageous and should be stopped.
The largest issue, and this has been ongoing again for 30 years, is social care.
Social Care budgets are provided at Local Council level and they then place the care to the elderly population that is in need.

In recent years the Primary Care Trust, as it has been, and the County Council have merged 2 budgets to get a fund that is somewhere near the bottom of the need requirement for Cambridgeshire. This fund really needs to be 200% larger today and rising 10% each year to cope with the elderly population alone.

Currently we hear horror stories that the NHS Nurses in hospital are not caring for our parents and grandparents properly. In reality the Council & PCT are not doing their jobs due to funding and the NHS is picking up the pieces.

Community Care as outlined in the PCT's Hinchingbrooke plan and agreed by the now Commisioning groups Chair Maureen Donnelly has failed and failed miserably as I predicted in 2007. The 25% less activity for Hinchingbrooke, also part of the plan has failed and failed miserably due to patient choice and of course Fuel costs and the awful A14.

As I write this, Addenbrookes, the Rosie and Hinchingbrooke are at full capacity and winter is not yet upon us. I for see that we will be having to make do or haul up to the struggling Peterborough City Hospital.

Cambridge & Peterborough Mental Health Trust are also in huge financial trouble, recently the excellent Acer ward at Hinchingbrooke has been closed to a huge outcry. The Mental Health Trust has recently become a satellite employer where in the main their services are provided a more expensive way by other organisations and charities. If you feel you are able please take part in their consultation


I can see a reasonably "settled" future for Hinchingbrooke NHS Trust as Circle Health will have to maintain services there and we really should not see too much difference to healthcare and staff. Staff are still NHS employees but will be seconded to Circle during the "franchise" period, however long this ends up being.
Current projections are that Circle Health will not make any profit from the Hinchingbrooke management "deal" and will end up funding the payments themselves to reduce the Hinchingbrooke historic government induced debt. Again this will not be good for Circle Health as they have also recently lost 2 big NHS contracts worth £54m.
I predict this "franchise" will last a maximum of 2 years, the timescale for all NHS Hospitals to become Foundation Trusts, then the Government will fund Hinchingrooke to Comply with this system upon Circle's exit from the contract.

My prediction is based upon the lack of profits to be made by Circle and the poor option for Hospital expansion as well as the PFI Treatment centre and the need to meet the repayments for that building.

I will be posting more frequently from now on, keeping you up to speed with what is happening at Hinchingbrooke, in fact I am there tomorrow too....

There is another plan afoot as I raised in 2007, this pertaining to the Blood test service. GP's currently have blood tests done at a local hospital and Huntingdonshire GP's are afforded the excellent 24hr blood test turnaround by Hinchingbrooke.

In fact all the days bloods from all the surgeries are processed by 20:30 each day and are available by GP's the following start of the day.

This is now in crisis as the stupid Strategic Health Authority, once East of England and now Its MidlandsEast, have decided that a "Hub" & "Spoke" system is way to go.

The Hub is a central lab and each hospital has a "hot" lab on site to process Hospital bloods. GP bloods will go to the Hub and be processed over 3 days...not within the 24 hrs they currently enjoy....

The A14 and Fuel costs won't help the scheme and the proposed PFI/NHS funded building is proposed on the Addenbrookes site, what a surprise.

Rearing it's head too is the Horse Blood lab again as it is rumoured that they will be running and taking over the spoke within 2 years and taking the service out of the NHS....for good.
Something for us to monitor and put to media.

Conflict Of Interests

It now is shown clearly that "Dr" Lansley has a conflict of Interest, he and his Tory government have recieved "donations" from Care UK and as if by magic.....Care UK "win" an NHS contract for the Prison service in the North West. Even though the NHS was the best Value and Clinical, the "responsible" adjudicators for the tendering process awarded the work to Care UK. So it was on Price alone.....?.... YES... Cheaper bid...the result will be ....Profits before Prisoners....Who cares they are only prisoners you say.....but those prisoners will soon be NHS patients....if this sham of a white paper is implemented.
Locally, we have suffered the indignity of have 50% less capitation budget and as such our health care is compromised and many services are simply, either not there or only just provided. Local G.P's and hospitals just manage to cope with this shameful level of funding they recieve and everything is cut to the bone and offices run very lean.
The same applies to Local Councils too with their grant.....shamefully and not surprisingly the Coucillors and Health Chiefs have done nothing about these funding issues and been good little tories and got on with it. My reasons for the last comment is due to the fact that the Tories introduced the 2 tier funding in the 80's which is often called the "Post Code Lottery", when in fact it's full funding or half funding.
Our Local Tory MP does not give a hoot for his constituents as he lives in London all the time apart from odd days when he stays at his country investment up here, so no good writing to him as he will sit on the fence and tow the party line and support "Dr" Lansleys Evil English Experiment.

My main issue with Lansley's plans are that the inequalities of the captitation figures and the PCT debts need to be in balance, we need FULL funding and then the PCT's leave the GP consortia with an in balance account.....while we are at it, Mr Lansley.....Make sure the NHS has the extra 14% payment for services like the sweetner that the Private sector enjoy.....lets have the level playing field and not one based on "You drop me some cash and I will see you alright" deals
Circle Health will be managing Hinchingbrooke Hospital from June, so in effect will be "safer" from much of this meddling, they will be 14% better off before they even do any work, the staff will be NHS as will the buildings....for now...
I read that Circle are applying to be listed on the stock market as they have now had some £120m of investment from Hedge funds and venture capitalists, you don't invest like that unless your expecting to get a return....a huge one...Parasites

A little bird also tells me that Circle have declared that they will be running the Hinchingbrooke Treament Centre 24/7 and running the Theatres tight too....maximising slots....Hinchingbrooke have been denied this level of activity, and when challenged the PCT/SHA claimed that "if a preferred bidder managed Hinchingbrooke, they would not be treated more favorably".....indeed they will be....as to achieve this "Factory" healthcare, you will need a) to be guaranteed the work and b) be able to cherry pick the proceedures to suit your business model....
It is a shame that the Current Excellent Hinchingbrooke management were not afforded the same status and access to this activity.
It is also a pity to see that the No 1 Maternity unit in East Anglia (achieved by NHS management and staff with low capitation funding)is to be handed over to the private sector to manage, I watch with interest.

This is outrageous for all Patients and tax payers and the level playing field will not be there........it will be okay to a degree for NHS staff members as they will have a continuous cycle of work and the support services like Sterile services and Pathology will be running at full capacity...

If Mr Lansley wants his Great experiment to work properly with no bias and no conflicts of interest, then Mr Lansley needs to fund all areas equally, clear any PCT debts, and have equal funding for NHS/Private treatment....and then we will see which is the winner.....and it won't be the Private Sector.....

NHS REFORM

NHS “reform” or rather back door privatisation is being proposed by the government, and we all know that Hinchingbrooke hospital is to be run by a private company from June this year for a set number of years. Many of us know this is a privatisation and will be proved correct as time goes on unless it fails miserably
The government are new expecting our own G.P's to run the NHS from local level and include in that the commissioning of service, or buy treatment for you and me. Up to now this has been done by PCT's but they will cease by 2013 and many of them will leave huge debts like NHS Cambridgeshire. Needless to say this debt will be passed onto the G.P consortium’s who will have to operate with the debt, which will obviously mean that they are behind before they start, rather that starting with a fresh start and balanced accounts.

The government also will keep the unfair price per head of capita, which was meddled with by Lady Blatch & Mrs Thatcher and reduced Huntingdonshire,Cambridgeshire and a few other unfortunate areas to a shocking £1000 per person, yet leaving other parts of the UK at £2000 per person for their health care.
This needs to be equalised to remove health inequalities and give our local G.P's a fair chance along with any PCT's debt also to be absorbed and written off too, to make the NHS reforms work fairly for all.
Mr Cameron says we are all in it together, well lets see shall we and please contact your MP or local councillor and candidates to make sure this is fair. I know the local MP will tow the party line and sit on the fence but you can all write to him or do something to save your healthcare locally and stop it's erosion any further. We are a poor relation as it is, same applies to local councils too, please don't sit on your bottoms and let them get away with it, do something. There will be some local meetings and other activities to save the NHS run by ordinary people and open to all. If you have visited a doctor,dentist or optician in the last 60 years then you need to be involved, maybe it should be the NHS society, please join in before your saddled with a huge Healthcare Insurance policy or no healthcare.

P.M on back foot

Cameron was on the back foot at PMQ's, he cound not answer questions on the NHS

He could not answer whether the "reforms" oops Privatisation, would reduce waiting times, well WE all know the answer to that..... NO... all there will be will be a reduction in treatment and Private firms cherry picking the easy work from the NHS and charging top whack after a year into any contract they negotiate with the G.P commisioners who will be "roughed" up by these scum....all they want is Profits before patients.
I asked my G.P yesterday about his views, in principle, like me....he thinks it is okay, what is missing is the "link" between G.P and Secondary Hospital care......
I guess we are lucky locally as the G.P's have a good relationship with Hinchingbrooke, but I fear for others where the releationship is not there as there will be a void, a void in which the G.P will be like a fish out of water.....then a "kind" company will come along to "assist" with his commissioning.....to their Hospital/medical unit...under a sewn up tight contract....

Well...... we have 2 choices......

Fight back

or

Accept this and buy Health Insurance as we will be like the U.S in 5 years if we don't fight for the NHS....OUR NHS.....

Been just a Summer and Autumn

but I am back, the Tories have left me little choice but to start up my campaign again

As many of you know Circle Health have been "gifted" the Management or rather "ownership" of Hinchingbrooke hospital from June 2011. I for one are not happy with this but as I was not invited to be one of the 40 members of the Stakeholder Panel then the blame for this fiasco lies soley with the 28 MP's and local authority members plus the Union representatives from the regions and the groups that were supposed to have been the voice of the people ........ NOT

I guess you know why I was kept out of the discussions.....

The Tory Local Press Rag, the Hunts Post, has done nothing for this and in fact is merely a voice and free press for the Local Tory paper and the MP
While on the subject of the local multi millionare MP..... Anyone seen him recently?
The last time I recall was at the Huntingdon Rememberance Day service, mind you that was the 1st time for 5 years.......shameful

SO......where do we go from here..........?
We ramp up and support all NHS campaigns, we inform the public,Patients etc about what is happening..........and join in...it works.
This will be Lansley & Cameron's poll tax and we can bring them down.......

I like the idea of G.P's being involved with mu care...BUT and a big BUT is how much involvement and the relentless speed the Secretary of State and Prime Minister are going to try and push this through.
Their(and Thatcher's - see a theme build) Policy Maker........Oliver Letwin, did, as you now prime U.S healthcare firms at the very same time as Cameron told the millions watching the election debate thaat the NHS is protected. I think if you scroll down this blog you will find that I have already covered that and a link to the news article too. The main issue with handing the commissioning to G.P's is the huge pressure this will place on them, then the result will be that they will need some "assistance".....but the PCT won't be there....but the U.S healthcare vultures will be to offer "help" and they will obviously commission their companies to care for the G.Ps patients......in comes the privatisation...... Letwin's Baby...

All I can say is (and using today's Mirror headline) BLOOD MONEY.....

especially as you must recall Lansley's £21,000 donation from a health company...

WATCH THIS SPACE........ THE FIGHT GOES ON.....

Franchise......

Under the Lansley plans this should be dead and buried by now.....it is a project that has NOT been signed off, so is dead in water under the Laansley announcements in May 2010.

I guess they have to let due process take it's course and the 3 provider to 1 provider choice has been postponed from September 2010 to February 2011......
This means that it WILL not start from April 2011 but I would think that by then the last bidder will have withdrawn from the process....
The SHA dies from 31 March 2012, so if any Franchise is put into place to begin 1st April 2012 (due to delays) then WHO will police this..... No One.......

The best way forward is to scrap the process NOW, and when the SHA/PCT are sorted any balance can pay off the Historic debt that was induced by these 2 bodies in the 1st place......what goes around....comes around....

PCT's....... You Die Today



The SHA's are dead, Now (Thankfully) the PCT's die from today......

I can see the idea of a GP link with local hospital's and surgeons, but can the GP's cope with commisioning?.....

I guess that they will need to employ some commissioning admin folks from the PCT's when they are made redundant, but what if they cant cope........ I can see the PRIVATE heathcare providers "offering" commissioning services and choosing their own private hospitals and medical units to perform proceedures and ignore local NHS hospitals.....which is corupt.....

The "NEW" idea....not really....back to old health board days and use local hospitals, should work.....The Market has NO place in UK healthcare...

Thanks

Well I have been campaigning since 2006 and now is the time to say goodbye.....

I have Saved Hinchingbrooke from closing, with the help of colleagues and also YOU the public.
What we need to make sure is the we KEEP this Jewel in the Crown ....the only way is to use YOUR choice as a patient and go there for treatment.....Plus keep speaking out even at GP level.....

I am now taking a back seat.....my work is done.....You CAN all have a say and make people accountable.....go out there and do it.....

Goodbye All & will take a rest from Campaigning......for good....

Mike

Mr Lansley Says...

IT IS ALL HERE.......

Mr Lansley Says......

Of course, the NHS has to make changes as opportunities arise and new technologies and medicines emerge. But we cannot have change for change's sake.

Some of these closures, or reconfigurations, of local services are based on disputed or flawed evidence, and do not pay due attention to clinical opinion. Some have lacked real public engagement beyond a cursory consultation. Most do not reflect the choices that patients or GPs would make if they were in control.

Unfortunately, I cannot re-open previously concluded processes nor halt those that have passed the point of no return, with contracts signed or building work started. But the majority of cases are ongoing and we have an opportunity for a new approach.

As of today, I am calling a halt to the current process. I have asked Sir David Nicholson, the chief executive of the NHS, to inform the service of this immediately and to signal a complete change to the way we deal with these issues. This moratorium will provide a chance to reset every proposal, to reconsider every decision and to ensure that in each case they are consistent with the following key criteria.

First, there must be clarity about the clinical evidence base underpinning the proposals. Second, they must have the support of the GP commissioners involved. Third, they must genuinely promote choice for their patients. Fourth, the process must have genuinely engaged the public, patients and local authorities.

This will not merely be another tick-box exercise – it will be a tough test, which every proposal must pass if it is to proceed.

WE SAY>>>>> TELL THE SHA TO END THE PROCESS AT THIS WEEKS STAKEHOLDER PANEL>>>>

TIME TO PUT THIS PRIVATISATION PROCESS TO BED>>>>
IT HAS NOT BEEN SIGNED>>>> IT HAS NOT BEEN PROPERLY CONSULTED WITH THE PUBLIC>>>>
AND IT IS NOT CLINICALLY BASED>>>

Leaflets

Mr Salt the Independent candidate is looking for help with leaflet delivery - if you can help in St Neots or St Ives area feel free to phone me 07984 413839

Hustings

Well it's the Hunts Post hustings tomorrow and how it has all changed....

It is not a Tory rally to put down Labour and Lib Dems as originally planned, poor ticket take up has led for the organisers to invite the other candidates along.

Perhaps now we will get a proper debate and also get the answers we need about the Privatisation of Hinchingbrooke and where the Candidates stand, before you vote.

The doorstep visits have highlighted the Peoples disgust and outrage at the process to Privatise Hinchingbrooke and the NHS , they are disgusted at Labour for instigating it under their watch and the Tories as it is their Policy too.

Please try and go to the Hustings tomorrow.....

We say Thanks.... We WILL run the hospital..... AND kick out the Private Sector...We will put the current management in charge and go forth and run Hinchingbrooke for Huntingdonshire... Bring It On

Labour Manifesto

Today, Labour set the Manifesto today on health......

the points in it are

ON HEALTH

* Patients in England guaranteed to get results of cancer tests within a
week
* Maximum 18-week wait for treatment after initial GP consultation or private treatment will be offered
* Routine health checks for those aged 40 to 74, aimed at preventing heart
attacks and strokes
* National Care Service to ensure free care in the home for those with
thegreatest needs and a cap on the costs of residential care
* Every hospital to become a foundation trust, with more freedom to run its
own affairs

SO MR BROWN...... STOP THE PRIVATISATION OF HINCHINGBROOKE, WRITE OFF THE GOVERNEMENT INDUCED DEBT AND SET HINCHINGBROOKE FREE TO BECOME A FOUNDATION TRUST AND DO IT NOW.....

Why is the Hospital not mentioned?

I note from the former M.P, now Conservative Party Candidate for Huntingdonshire his website....he asks

As you go to the polling booth on 6th May, I ask that you consider the last 13 years and ask yourself the following questions:

* Are my family’s savings, pensions and jobs more secure?
* Are we as internationally respected and do we support our armed forces?
* Have our civil liberties improved?
* Am I less likely to be the victim of violent crime?
* Have we got a good deal in Europe, signing up to Lisbon with no referendum?
* Are our borders more secure and immigration controlled?
* Is our economy stronger and more competitive?

If you believe, as I do, the answer to these questions is no – there is only one political party that can reverse our nation’s slide towards failure, the Conservative Party.

So where in the above 7 questions does it refer to Hinchingbrooke Hospital or the NHS...It doesn't
One of the questions should be "Do You Want Hinchingbrooke Privatised?" ...but that is not there.... I wonder Why.... probably because Privatising the NHS is Tory Health Policy...

Vote Wisely......

Who do I vote For

Good question, who do you vote for.....

For me, the Hospital is under the threat of Privatisation, yes Privatisation it is no matter what the candidates say to you..... A Franchise is a means for an entrepreneur to make money by using a successful business model....

So lets look at the candidates......and consider that the "franchise" idea came from a Labour government, Bevan must be turning in his grave.... The Tories health policy is to "open up the NHS to other providers" ...again Privatisation of the NHS.... Lib Dems have not committed themselves yet to an answer.... Greens,the Loony Party are agreeing that it should be public as does Jonathan Salt. In fact, the A14, Guided Bus and Pathfinder house were the Election issues....until Jonathan Salt came along to support the Hospital and our campaign to keep it public.
Nick Clegg like Jonathan Salt, calls for the Strategic Health Authorities to be scrapped and needless to say we agaree and should that happen then the Privatisation, by this unelected Quango , of Hinchingbrooke would stop....

So, Who do you vote for..... Well if you want Hinchingbrooke to stay in public hands.... Not Labour or Conservatives.... If you want to keep it public..... vote for any of the others.... if you think the parties are corrupt..... Vote Independent.... BUT whatever you do..... Vote... a Vote not cast is a wasted Vote

Guided Busway

The Truth behind the bus way and what a waste of Tax payers money it is......

And it still Isn't running yet

They were obviously hoping that it would be there or almost there before the local and General Elections - for whatever reason, other than incompetence the Tory Councilors must be disappointed that their work on the doorstep is going to be very difficult this time.

I have delivered leaflets for the Lib Dems and I am also working with the Independent candidate at the General Election as Save Hinchingbrooke is A-Political and not affiliated to any party.
I was with Mr Salt, Independent on Saturday and he was in Huntingdon town centre.
In the main he got a good reception but there were many people who were NOT going to VOTE..... the main reason..... The Expenses and no Trust in the Tories locally and to top that the old "Tories always get in here" argument. Needless to say I always urge people to vote..... the ONLY wasted vote is one that is not cast.

Guided Bus Article

Report To County Council

make your own minds up whether the Council are incompetent and should, now £40m in the red because of the guided bus.....should ,like Hinchingbrooke, be put out for Franchise.....?

Election issue

a month ago I was speaking to Keep Our NHS Public and they said that Hinchingbrooke should become a General Election issue..... I agreed but was a little unsure how we could achieve it.
I was called up by Jonathan Salt to discuss the Save Hinchingbrooke Campaign and he was interested as to how the historic debt came about

We discussed at length and he agreed also that the Hospital should be an election issue too.
Since then Jonathan has chosen to run for the Huntingdon seat and I have agreed to work with him on this journey.
The Campaign is still strong and we are having an awareness day on the 24th April 2010 so that the People of Huntingdon know the TRUTH about the Privatisation, I say privatisation as our local M.P see's fit that this is played down, however it is the truth. Now Conservative policy is to open up the NHS to outsiders...or rather Privatise it all, so the conservatives buddies can put their noses in the NHS trough to cherry pick the goodies.
Interestingly, Nick Clegg of the Lib Dems has the same view as Jonathan Salt.... Scrap the Strategic Health Authorities.... unelected bureaucrats....a Quango and waste of Tax PAyers cash and meddling with the likes of Hinchingbrooke...... lets start making savings NOW...... Scrap the SHA & Stop the Hinchingbrooke Privatisation.

I wonder how many feel the same?

Lobby Your MP

To stop the Privatisation of Hinchingbrooke and the NHS all from your seat

Here is the Lobby Form

Fill in the form

Opinions

We all have our opinions and we will all have the chance to use that opinion to vote in the upcoming election.
Now before you vote consider what candidates say......

Mr Salt is campaigning against the Privatisation of Hinchngbrooke end of, clear and concise, yet Mr Djanogly, the sitting MP, is saying that he “simply did not buy” the union view that this would lead to the privatisation of the hospital.
Now we all know from debates in the house that Mr Djanogly was confronted by a member claiming that "The hon. Gentleman clearly has a jaundiced view of trade unions."
This probably is why Mr Djanogly is playing down the issue of Privatisation, lets face it the staff at Hinchingbrooke might be NHS staff under the Privatisation plans yet they WILL be working for the PRIVATE sector.
SO what part of this process is not PRIVATISATION?..... none of it
And with Conservative Health Policy gunning to Privatise the NHS as a whole the election is about your health care.... Free or do you want a service that is destroyed for profit, like the Gas/Electric/Trains/Buses/Cleaning in Hospitals.....

If these are the answer

See the link to open the document, this will inform you of how the bidders to Privatise Hinchingbrooke are NOT fit for purpose

Here is the Document that tells all you needs to know

Circle Health

Circle Health claims to be a different type of company, and has been proclaimed as basing itself on the “John Lewis” model of “partnership”, with 2,000 clinicians. But half of the company is owned by big financial institutions, and this is the source of the funding for a planned network of 30 new hospitals at a cost of almost £1 billion (Times Online).
Its brand new £30m showpiece hospital in Bath, lavishly spacious, designed by Lord Foster ‘s team and feted by the media for its innovative design, has just 28 beds – less than 10% of the capacity of a very different hospital in Hinchingbrooke, and of course has no facilities for emergencies or for patients with complex medical or surgical needs. And while Circle’s boss Ali Parsa, an investment banker, talks a good talk, there is no evidence that his company – accustomed to the generous budgets and relaxed, stress-free environment of private medicine – is capable of managing anything on the scale of an NHS general hospital.
Their website also confirms that Circle has no real grasp or experience of a busy and pressurised hospital environment. The company is aiming to open”surgical clinics and GP centres” where its surgeons can perform consultations and procedures that do not have to happen in a hospital setting in specialities such as dermatology, ophthalmology, ENT and plastic surgery. This, claims Circle, “drives down the price of healthcare by avoiding the unnecessary infrastructure of a hospital”. In addition, Circle says it will offer “services such as diagnostics, chronic disease management and post-operative homecare” through a mobile infrastructure and in peoples' homes. Again no evidence of appropriate experience in running a large and complex hospital.
Nor does Circle’s track record with NHS care inspire any confidence: in 2007 Circle Health took over Nations Healthcare, a company running three “independent sector treatment centres” with NHS contracts (Eccleshill in Bradford, Burton and Nottingham). Nations had been the company in charge of Eccleshill when a patient, Dr John Hubley, died after surgery because the centre did not keep any emergency supplies of blood on site. The scandal was exposed on BBC’s Panorama, and the coroner said at the inquest on Dr Hubley that he would most probably have survived if his operation had been carried out at Bradford Royal Infirmary, describing the centre’s policies as “Mickey Mouse”.
The takeover by Circle may have changed the management structure, but it has not substantially increased the performance of the treatment centres, which have delivered well short of the level of treatment stipulated in their £324m worth of NHS contracts. According to the latest official figures (April 2009) the Nottingham Treatment Centre was running at just 72% of contract, Burton at 76% and Eccleshill at 87%, leaving Nations 25% below contracted activity – equivalent to £82m of taxpayers’ money for treatment not delivered.
But at the end of last year, the local paper reported that Circle’s Barlborough Treatment Centre had delivered just £41,000 worth of operations in exchange for guaranteed payments of £791,000 in 2009, and had delivered just £4m of work for a £9m contract, to expire this year. (Nottingham Evening Post November 13).

Ramsay Health Care

Ramsay is Australia’s largest private healthcare provider. It is part of the NHS Partners Network group of private health providers that challenged the procurement process at NHS Great Yarmouth & Waveney (along with Acevo).
Ramsay operates nine “Independent Sector Treatment Centres”, and is the fourth largest provider of private hospitals in England, having bought 22 small hospitals from Capio UK for £193m in 2007.
Ramsay’s managing director Pat Grier told the Guardian that his group had been attracted to Britain because of “significant growth upside due to the shift towards outsourcing NHS services to the private sector” (Guardian 28 October 2007).
More recently the company has been reported in Healthcare Europa as bragging over the way in which it has increased profit margins in the UK hospitals it took over from Capio, with Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) increased from 20% to more than 25% in the first year and again to over 30% in year two. (http://www.healthcareeuropa.com/articles/20100322)
Ramsay’s ISTCs may be generating guaranteed profits for the company, but the latest official figures show that they are delivering as little as 66% of contracted activity in one unit, with five out of nine delivering less than 80%. Of the total of £244m it is being paid for contracts, Ramsay’s ISTCs are being paid almost £56m for operations that are not delivered.
In Southampton the Ramsay-operated ISTC has been so unpopular that GPs have been directed to over-ride the principle of “patient choice” and refer elective patients only to the ISTC where services were running well below contracted levels, and not to the local University hospital where most patients had chosen to have their treatment (BMA News Review October 10 2009).

The Truth Behind the companies involved in the Privatisation of Hinchingbrooke

Serco

Serco is a large multinational corporation, employing 40,000 staff and turning over more than £2 billion. It appears to be even less appropriate as a potential management of a complex and busy general hospital than the other two shortlisted firms since it has no experience at all of any kind of hospital management.
Its own website claims that Serco employs just 300 “doctors and nurses” – a tiny fraction of the Hinchingbrooke Hospital workforce – in “a range of primary and community settings”. These turn out to be “'Out of Hours' Care, healthcare in prisons, nursing support as well as many major new health initiatives such as the Department of Health's programme to evaluate telehealth.” So the company itself effectively admits to having no experience of managing clinical services in a major hospital.
Instead it is best known as a services company that runs the Docklands Light Railway, operates speed cameras, electronically tags young offenders, and has contracts with the Ministry of Defence, Home Office and Department of Transport.
Its most prominent involvement in the NHS includes its involvement as a partner in various Private Finance Initiative consortia, some of which have been “successful” in completing new hospitals (Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital and Scotland’s Wishaw General Hospital) while one other (Leicestershire) has ended in an expensive failure, with the project cancelled as a result of spiralling and unaffordable costs, and Serco joining with its partners to sue for compensation.

An NHS Burning and in Chaos

Although the rhetoric of ‘choice’ implies patients having a greater variety of health care options from which to choose, the reality is that patients and communities are experiencing a range of closures, cut-backs and disruptions to their local services

This reveals an NHS in a state of shambles and disorder. No one can argue that the
various assaults upon the NHS are the result of patients’ choices or the culling of inefficient services (as claimed by the prophets of market competition). They are the result of a transition from an NHS based on rational, needs-based health planning towards a health service that will increasingly be run by private
companies and guided by a capricious and unforgiving market. Centrally imposed demands to meet government targets prior to the last elections have also aided and abetted the disastrous organisational reforms to the NHS.

The Secretary of State for Health is quick to blame financial deficits on individual hospital trusts and PCTs.
But a proper analysis of the deficits and their widespread nature clearly points to problems inherent in the government’s own reforms.

The crisis in the NHS, reflected only in part by the list of closures, cut-backs and disruptions, appears to be veering out of control, and is in danger of bringing the NHS to a point of collapse. It is not inconceivable that this is the desired aim of government policy – the more avid supporters of marketisation feel that a proper market will only be established when the NHS disappears.

Profits Before Patients

Under John Major.s Conservative government in 1996-97, after 18 years of Tory rule, the NHS was spending just £200 million a year on buying in treatment from private hospitals and clinics.
By 2007, if the Labour government.s current proposals are carried through, this will have increased tenfold.

New private hospitals and treatment centres are being built, with more planned, and in some cases existing NHS facilities - built with taxpayers. money, or expensively funded through the Private Finance Initiative at the expense of the NHS - are to be handed over to private sector operators as part of the new arrangements.

Private sector preference
The government plan to funnel new money preferentially into the private sector rather that adopt the cheaper and easier policy of expanding NHS provision, has led to a dramatic expansion of commercial medicine. The private health care sector in the UK has always been a relatively small and marginal operation, feeding off historic NHS waiting lists, poaching NHS staff, shunning emergencies and complex cases, and focusing exclusively on acute (short stay) services: but until recently it was running with only around half of the beds occupied in its (generally very small) hospitals. Now a massive increase in the numbers of NHS patients being
treated in private beds means that the traditional paying patients will only represent just over half of the caseload in private beds, with as many as 45% paid for by the NHS.
This is effectively a huge cash subsidy to enable the expansion of a private sector which will inevitably draw on the same pool of human and financial resources as the NHS, but divert a percentage of those resources from patient care to pay dividends to their shareholders.

To foster an expansion of private care to enable it to develop a sustainable market., ministers have set out to bring in commercial health care companies from around the world, and also offered private hospitals very generous contracts, paying up to 40% above the prevailing costs within the NHS, lavish subsidies towards start-up costs for new private hospitals, and guaranteed payment even for those private providers who treat fewer patients than planned.

Far from delivering new and expanded services and capacity the private sector is
increasingly competing to capture existing NHS caseload, diverting vital funds from
NHS to the commercial sector.

What exactly is Serco?

Serco is one of a new breed of company that could be termed a ‘public sector corporation’ as approximately 98% of its turnover and revenue are derived from contracts outsourced by public bodies. These projects include operating speed cameras, electronically tagging offenders and running the Manchester Metrolink. Serco has governmental links at the highest level.ii It is involved in controversial PFIschemes, and has PFI, PPP and joint venture contracts with the MoD, Home Office and Department of Transport. It even runs airports in Iraq for the US and has counter-terrorist contracts including detecting radiological substances coming into the UK. Serco’s revenue in 2005 was £2.26bn, up 38% from the previous year, with profit before tax up 28.5%.

Political Debate

There is to be a Political debate in Huntingdon during the General Election Campaign, yet only 3 of the candidates have been invited, not a democracy then?

The shameful thing is, that when the organiser was challenged by one of the other uninvited candidates, he was told in no uncertain terms that it was "a private event" although it is ticket only and the telephone was slammed down on him....

It seems to confirm that the publication that is "organising" this charade is being run so it indicates that they are indeed supporting or even maybe bank rolling the sitting M.P.
In the last few years we have heard very little from the said M.P but of course he will come out of the woodwork now it is time to get re elected.

With having a local publication inviting the M.P to a debate that clearly will be weighted in the M.P's favour and only having Lib Dem and Labour candidates to debate with, clearly it is nothing more than a rallying call to the party faithful and nothing more.
It is a shameful attempt to prevent other candidates in being recognised by the electorate and in all honesty, being that one issue to be debated is the Hospital, None of the 3 candidates are supporting our campaign.
I find it also a damning indictment that this debate subjects are just the subjects that the Independent Candidate is campaigning on. They must be concerned that the Independent Candidate will take votes away

Shameful and outrageous actions and there must be some very scared people out there if they cannot campaign cleanly so the voters can make an informed choice, not a co erced choice

The Time is Near

I think the time is near, where we will be on a countdown to a General Election.
We will all need to search our souls this time we vote.
There is NO clear water between Labour and the Tories, they are one and the same.
Tory health policy, no matter what they say to your face and how they claim to be the party of the NHS, they are clearly not
While Mr Cameron was in the UK, smiling and telling voters what they wanted to hear, the author of Thatcherism was doing his usual in the USA.
What he was doing was giving the U.S based companies notice that the Tories were going to give away Public Services to the highest bidder...or Rather Sell off the NHS.
I quote
"We will implement a very systematic and powerful change agenda where hospitals compete for patients, schools compete for pupils, welfare providers compete for results in getting people out of welfare and into work." and they also offers a powerful advocacy of introducing transformational free-market principles into Britain's public sector.

PRIVATISATION.......TO YOUR NHS....NOT JUST HINCHINGBROOKE BUT THE NHS
CAN YOU AFFORD HEALTHCARE?....
VOTE FOR FREE HEALTHCARE OR VOTE FOR TORY PRIVATISATION...YOUR CHOICE

REMEMBER.....THATCHERISM IS STILL ALIVE...IT NEEDS ENDING FOR GOOD

What's in a Title


Quite a lot in fact and some titles can be misleading.
If you listen to Radio 5 overnight you will hear a slot where Dr Karl answers listeners questions, Dr Karl is an Australian Scientist mainly Physics and in conversation he referrers to callers as "Dr" in fun.

On a more serious note, the main lead who is in fact the Commercial Director at the Strategic Health Authority or in lay terms ......the person that is charged with the task of PRIVATISING THE NHS IN EAST ANGLIA uses the title of Dr too.
Now Dr Stephen Dunn is a Doctor in the finance sector BUT NOT a Doctor of Medicine......

This obviously is MISLEADING and MAKING IT ACCEPTABLE to believe that as his title is DR then what he says is right, when in fact and like the majority of the MP's on the stakeholder panel DO NOT have the interests of Hinchingbrooke and the people of Huntingdonshire and the surrounding are, in mind

This obviously indicate that the influence of the Conservative state of Cambridgeshire has now leached and poisoned further into the local infrastructure than should be allowed.

MR DUNN, appears to be following the Conservative parties Health Policy which clearly states "Opening up the NHS to new independent and voluntary sector providers" which in lay terms is PRIVATISING THE NHS and Hinchingbrooke is the 1st one of this dangerous experiment, an experiment with OUR MONEY, OUR HEALTH AND WE HAVE NO SAY
THEY ARE HOLDING PUBLIC MEETINGS AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE WHO REALLY MATTER, THIS SATISFIES THE NEED TO CONSULT WITH THE PUBLIC, BUT NOT THE PUBLIC WHO ARE REALLY AFFECTED BY THE OUTCOME OF THE PRIVATISATION OF HINCHINGBROOKE.

THE PROCESS STINKS....IT IS NOT TRANSPARENT....IF IT WAS THEN THE PUBLIC MEETINGS WOULD BE HELD IN EVERY MARKET TOWN AND EVERY 2 WEEKS.......AND MORE IMPORTANTLY

MR DUNN WOULD NOT BE USING THE TITLE OF DR TO COERCE THE PEOPLE OF HUNTINGDONSHIRE INTO ACCEPTING THE PRIVATISATION OF HINCHINGBROOKE........

We need to go a new way........The only way is to choose the right person to vote for in the General Election and there is ONLY one who cares about local issues.
This man is JONATHAN SALT..... a Local man, Like myself and one who cares and is prepared to fight for MORE FUNDING FOR POLICE/FIRE/EDUCATION/HEALTH & LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE - putting right what the Tories took from us in the 1980's with their swingeing cuts.....Lets be honest the Local Tory MP's have done nothing to raise this issue to fight the Labour party in the 13 years that Labour have been in power........
Let us stop the 30 YEARS OF NEGLECT - the Tories started Broken Britain, Greedy Britain, Selfish Britain & Labour carried it on, even though they pledged to return to values of old......they made new laws to combat behaviours yet did nothing to return family values and integrity.......

Vote wisely...... Vote for Independent....Vote for Jonathan Salt

Hospitals 'should axe thousands more beds'

is what I read this morning........
A think tank....no doubt being paid outrageous sums of money claim "Reform says the NHS's focus should move away from hospital treatment as more people suffer from conditions, such as diabetes, which can be treated at home.

It says a quarter of beds could be axed to fund more personalised treatment.

The government said local health chiefs could decide, while the British Medical Association said cuts made for purely financial reasons would be "immoral".

The hospital bed count has been falling for decades, but Reforms's call represents a more rapid programme than has been seen in recent years.

There were just under 300,000 beds in 1987, but by last year that had fallen to 160,000 as advances in treatment have meant patients do not need to spend as long in hospital."

SO THAT OUTLOOK IS OKAY IN PRINCIPAL...... BUT...... BEFORE YOU CUT HOSPITAL BEDS YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE THERE IS ENOUGH SUPPORT IN THE COMMUNITY.
IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE THIS IS NOT THE CASE AND UNDER THE CURRENT FUNDING ARRANGEMENTS NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
EVEN IF YOU HAVE CLUSTERS OF G.P'S TO "POLICE" REFERRALS TO HOSPITALS, WHERE WILL YOU SEND THOSE WHO NEED TREATMENT?..... YOU WONT BECAUSE THE INFRASTRUCTURE DOES NOT EXIST. WE WERE TOLD IN 2006/07 THAT OPTION 2 WOULD PROVIDE CARE IN THE COMMUNITY -- AS WE SAID ---- IT DIDN'T --- SURPRISE SURPRISE....
IT APPEARS THAT IT WAS CLEARLY A SYSTEM OF SOUND BITES TO "ENCOURAGE" PATIENTS - THE TAXPAYER - NOT TO BOTHER USING THE NHS AND TO USE YOUR PHARMACIST INSTEAD.....YET THE GOVERNMENT HAVE GIVEN A CLEAR MESSAGE THAT NHS TREATMENT IS A RIGHT AND YOU WILL BE SEEN BY A GP AND IF REQUIRED YOU WILL BE TREATED WITHIN 18 WEEKS.....

THIS WILL NOT CHANGE, IF THE CONSERVATIVES SHOULD GET INTO POWER THEN THE NHS IS DOOMED, THEY HAVE PLEDGED TO
"Opening up the NHS to new independent and voluntary sector providers"

WHICH MEANS THEIR USUAL ETHOS OF PRIVATISATION ---IN OTHER WORDS A GIFT FOR THEIR CHUMS AND DONORS.....
BEFORE YOU VOTE CONSIDER THIS...... IF YOUR NHS OR PARTS OF YOUR NHS ARE PRIVATISED....WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE AFTER 10/20 YEARS?....
TO GET THE ANSWER.....LOOK AT THE ROADS,RAILS,WATER.ELECTRIC/GAS....WHAT KIND OF SERVICE DO YOU GET FROM THEM NOW.... VERY POOR...IF YOU CAN GET ANYWHERE,CHEAPLY AND WHEN YOU WANT TO AT THE PRICE YOU CAN AFFORD...
THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE NHS IF THE TORIES GET THEIR WAY....STOP THEM FROM RUINING YOUR HEALTH CARE......
THEIR 1ST ATTEMPT WAS CONTRACT CLEANING....THEN WE GOT SUPER BUGS DUE TO SHORTCUTS & LACK OF CLEANING MATERIALS, SO THAT SHAREHOLDER CAN BE PAID BONUSES....THE REAL SCANDAL IS.....THAT THE RECENT DEEP CLEAN OF HOSPITALS WAS PAID FOR BY US....WHY WASN'T THE BILL FOR THIS SHARED AMONGST THE CLEANING CONTRACTORS THAT CLEARLY HAD NOT DONE THE JOB PROPERLY FOR MANY YEARS?...
IN SCOTLAND THEY HAVE TAKEN CLEANING BACK IN HOUSE AND THEIR HOSPITALS ARE NOW CLEAN, THOROUGHLY CLEAN....
THE NHS IS THE POOR COUSIN, IT GETS THE RAW DEAL AND IS USED FOR EXPERIMENTATION.
CAR PARKING IS FREE IN WALES AND SCOTLAND....WHY NOT ENGLAND TOO....PRESCRIPTIONS ARE FREE IN SCOTLAND AND WALES- WHY NOT ENGLAND...?

Serco

This company is in the running as possible Franchisee to run Hinchingbrooke
This company have run Yarlswood Detention Centre since 2007, they cannot run that properly so what mess would they make of Hinchingbrooke

In April 2009, the Children's Commissioner for England published a report which stated that children held in the detention centre are denied urgent medical treatment, handled violently and left at risk of serious harm. The report details how children are transported in caged vans and watched by opposite sex staff as they dress.

A demonstration organised by Detainee Solidarity London Network was held on 12th February 2010 outside the Serco office in Holborn, London where a number of supporters and activists gathered to protest against the detention of women at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre.
The peaceful demonstration was staged in response to the treatment of women in detention at Yarl’s Wood who began a hunger strike on 5th February in protest against their prolonged detention.

The Testimony Project was represented at the protest, joining individual protestors and other organisations showing solidarity with Yarl’s Wood’s women. Among the organisations represented were No Borders London, SOAS and King’s College Detainee Support Groups, Feminist Fightback and Worker’s Liberty.

An activist from No Borders London commented on how important it is for detainees resisting on the inside to know that people are resisting in solidarity with them on the outside.

According to Feminist Fightback and the Campaign against Immigration Control, the hunger strike was called off on Tuesday, 9th February in the afternoon when officers broke up the strike and arrested four women who were the supposed leaders of the movement. These women have not yet been returned to Yarl’s Wood.

Outside the offices of Serco, the private company that manages Yarl’s Wood on behalf of the UKBA, supporters spoke of the conditions that the women on strike had been subject to. Some were trapped in a corridor for long hours without amenities whilst others were trapped outside in the snow. Women also say they were verbally and physically assaulted, racially abused and denied medical assistance.

Is this what we want for our Family members and fellow citizens......?

No if course we don't- Yet the Serco managers have allowed this to happen

If we don't oppose this proposal then we could have this at Hinchingbrooke

Stop the Privatisation of Hinchingbrooke and the NHS.......