Pathology Services is next..........

Now the SHA want to have a Pathology model for the East Of England.....yep you got it........ Another Privatisation exercise....... the rub with this is that the interim Chief Executive of Hinchingbrooke had a hand
in the review of services......what will it mean.....probably not much at the Hospitals, but you will find
a big central lab somewhere for the G.P and non essential work......How many samples and results will be
messed up then..... I would think the Horse Lab at Newmarket will be having another punt at this one like
they did in 2007..... shame on you EOE SHA and shame on you the Department Of Health
It will be interesting times.....as out friends in Cambridge have been empire building......but will the
empire strike back?...... depends how much cash they have

Addenbrookes Pull Out..........

Well that is one less bidder for the Franchise......... Now we need the others to follow suit

We will be ramping up the Campaign against the Privatisation of Hinchingbrooke from 22/02/10
We say privatisation as this is what it will be, although the Assets and Staff will remain in the NHS
BUT and the big BUT is how will savings be made to make a profit for the Private companies......

Well it will be Selling off the Support Services..... Porters, Catering, Radiology, Pathology and Pharmacy
....and it goes on........... just to try an save cash..... but it won't, it will cost more
AND
the effect of a service like Pathology goes deeper than Hinchingbrooke............
It will reflect on the community as a whole....Hinchingbrooke process the Majority of the GP
blood samples locally on an agreed service level and most bloods are complete within 24hrs of
being taken by your GP, this will no doubt suffer as a consequence

Join us to make this a General Election Issue.............
Not just locally But Nationally too..........
It is a chance for you to challenge your MP and the candidates for their seats..........
Ask them where they stand, where their convictions are.....the shadow health minister
accepted a £21,000 donation from Care UK one of the interested parties.........
Do you think that is the right thing to do?.........

Let's Hit The Streets Again...........

Lets us tell them we want OUR Hospital IN the NHS not Run for profit..............


Your Health, Your Money, Your Say............

Mr Lansley and the £21,000 donation

Save Hinchingbrooke Campaign heard of this yesterday and read the article in the Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243579/Andrew-Lansley-embroiled-cash-influence-row-accepting-21-000-donation-Care-UK-chairman-John-Nash.html

Needless to say, we are very concerned by this news.........and it needs to be put into context.....

The latest plan from the SHA is as you all know......to try and get another party, either an NHS Trust
or more preferable to the SHA a PRIVATE HEALTHCARE COMPANY with links to the USA or
Canada, to manage the hospital. There have been some issues and it has been decided that the Staff,
Buildings and capital will remain in the NHS, only the management will change, however there are still
issues with this as any new management could still outsource departments to one of their other
companies under a Retainment Of Employment model.
Now Mr Lansley is a member of the Stakeholder Panel along with 39 others, we were not invited to
be members, I wonder why?.
The Stakeholder Panel began their work last October 2009 and the usual introductions and aims were
shared. Now Mr Lansley accepted a £21,000 donation in November 2009, this was from Care UK.
The Stakeholder group have let the Expressions of Interest advertisement be placed and expressions have
now been tabled by 6 organisations, one NHS Trust and 5 Private health companies all mainly based in
the USA and Canada (surprise surprise). One of these was.....Care UK.......
With Care UK making a donation to a member of the Stakeholder panel, we at Save Hinchingbrooke are now calling for the Chair and the SHA to STOP THE PROCESS NOW.....
If the SHA is determined to press on with the process then we suggest that Mr Lansley resigns from the panel forthwith and Care UK withdraw their expression of interest. There should also be a full review of how the stakeholder panel was made up and any expressions of interests fully declared.

This does prove, before any general election has taken place that the Conservative party are going to
press ahead and break up the NHS for their friends and business..........
Just like they did for finance/buses/rail etc in the 80's/90's ...
look what happened to those industries.....we are suffering today....service is worse and pockets are lined

Leave the NHS alone.........KEEP IT PUBLIC

Its been a while.........

Since I have posted and that is because not much has occurred at Hinchingbrooke Hospital,
other than the re opening of the wards to the rear of the hospital.
Yes these are the wards that were threatened under the PCT's great Option 2.....where
care was going to be provided in the community........clearly...as we said
IT DOESN'T WORK.......IT WONT WORK.....WITHOUT INVESTMENT
hence why there is a need to provide facilities for the elderly in hospitals or locally
funded public care homes.
The Stakeholder panel have met and expressions of interest in taking on the management of the
hospital and as you all know, Save Hinchingbrooke Campaign, oppose this stupid format.
This is only a means for the East Of England Strategic Health Authority to see if the private
sector is a means to assist the NHS and to give Dr Dunn's position sone credibility in the mean time
The end game, should another management team be chosen, will be that they will make money and
the historic debt will never be paid off.......AND the SHA will then write off the debt, claiming that
they have tried to but matters have not worked out as planned.......and ruin the Hospital as a consequence

The PCT have exhumed their Option 2 ideas again, suggesting that Care In The Community is the way forward
Dr Cox was used as the "face of NHS Cambridgeshire" in December suggesting that it is a radical plan that will
assist NHS Cambridgeshire to reduce it's historic debt and also added that to many of us were still using
hospitals..........Well Dr Cox and NHS Cambridgeshire....savings are closer to home....
NHS Cambridgeshire should centralise their Administration base in Huntingdon rather than having sseveral
local offices with duplicated staff. Localised community services could be run out of GP surgeries among other
things Option 2 doesn't and will never work in the format that was proposed in 2006 and again in 2009

3 Years On

It is 3 years tomorrow when we all marched to Save Hinchingbrooke Hospital and I fear
that we will be doing the same again.
This time it will be to stop the Franchise and ultimately Privatisation of
Hinchingbrooke Hospital..........
Our local MP is for the Franchise although he claims that the process should be carried
through, however that is a sit on the fence approach, rather than a this is where I stand
approach.
His party has pledged to offer "free" social care if you pay one of their pals in city, £8000 "up
front guv" so you can have heathcare in your old age..... WHAT..... that is akin to NHS Cambs
Option 2........ you can have care........perhaps, possibly, maybe or then as Option 2 maybe NOT....

The main issue with the 2 old firm parties is that they love to collect statistics (this was started by
the Thatcher government and carried on since by Blair and Brown) as a means to "bash" the other
party with figures, now the Lib Dems want to stop this pathetic data collection scenario and
with the £50m per year saving invest in Healthcare..... which would you choose?.......

Lets fight to keep Hinchingbrooke in the Public Sector and not allow it to be sucked into
the Private sector by stealth........

Tory MPs back expansion of private sector role in NHS - read here -

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=23&storycode=4123494&c=2


So this would mean 8 of the 40 member Stakeholder on the Panel are in agreement before
the process is underway - shame on you - You came out to support
the Save Campaign as it suited your purpose at that time
Now is the time to do it again, revisit your principals and
not the party line.......

and support Local People NOT National or International
Profits instead of Patient Care......

From the Guardian -

The NHS is about care, not markets

Downsizing the workforce is a business response to loss of profit – but it doesn't account for the

NHS goal of universal healthcare

Read Here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/03/nhs-business-markets

NHS workforce cuts plan rejected

On the news today NHS workforce reductions have been rejected following a report
by yet another firm of Management Consultants at high cost to the Taxpayer.
McKinsey and Company tell how 37,000 clinical and admin posts can help the
NHS to save £20Bn
Not being one not to have an opinion on this, I have to add that CUTS are
not an option, with the population getting even more elderly and with older
people being accepted for Transplant donors, we need to keep spending
on staff and patients.
One means of saving is to streamline some services to G.P's but that would need
more funding in that area to release Secondary Care providers (hospitals) to
be more efficient.
This is what Option 2 for Hinchingbrooke was suppose to go somewhere to achieve
BUT it was never funded properly and was probably as poor funded as the Care
in The Community for the elderly too, that was given £2.2m token to provide a
service, needless to say, The Campaign said that £22m would be needed to achieve
that plan and we were right, Care in The Community is on it's knees and joint budgets
with the County Council are the order of the day, that together gives the Commissioners,
NHS Cambridgeshire, to fragment the service they provide to the Private sector.

The best way to save NHS resources is to cut the Target culture, reduce the need for
many of the Targets, which have been with us since the Thatcher era as a means for
each Political party to score points against each other, this must stop NOW.
With Targets going then admin and managerial jobs will go, but with some Foundation
Trusts looking to go to 7 day working then those staff could "shift" across to another Trust.
Private Contactor's are not the way forward, recently Sunlight, the Laundry provider for
some local Trusts have been cutting back on the collection of dirty laundry and in one
case bags containing soiled laundry were left on the ground and not in cages, awaiting
collection.....in the hot sunshine which weakens the plastic bags leaving them vulnerable
to be investigated by rodents and other vermin. Again Profit before Patients
and providinga service, this is why Private Companies should be OUT of the NHS.

Privatisation has not worked with the Railways, it is a shambles and recently National Express
decided to pull out of their contact as they couldn't make enough money from the East Coast Main line........

Will Private companies jump ship from the NHS?.... of course they will
The aim of Save Hinchingbrooke Campaign in conjunction with Keep Our NHS Public and
the Hinchingbrooke Staff Unions, is to

Keep Hinchingbrooke in Public Hands, run by
Local People For Local People...........

Stakeholder Meeting 1

Campaign members will be at today's show meeting to launch the "Franchise" of Hinchingbrooke

Needless to say it will be a P.R exercise at this first meeting,
we will be presenting our Anti Franchise
petition ,which was signed by the people of Huntingdon and surrounding area,
at a later meeting

With the Franchise mechanism meaning that this will be a Transparent and Scrutinised
process then it will be doomed to fail and a waste of taxpayers money and NHS resources...
...a bit like PCTOption 2 for Hinchingbrooke that was put in place in 2007..........
will the instigators please stand up....

All in all the Franchise exercise is a slap in the face and betrayal of the
Hinchingbrooke staff and the Huntingdonshire people....Again........
This is nothing but a political pawn so the Tory's show that they support Private
Healthcare, I am not a supporter of the Tories nor the Labour party nor indeed of
any of the Political parties.
Care UK and the Private Healthcare bodies have already rejected the idea of
the Franchise as the scheme is not flexible enough for them OR in Private Health
Care speak, they wont make enough money.
The Hinchingbrooke deal will mean that the Assets and Staff will remain in the
NHS so that means Private companies Can't cut the staff salaries nor sub contract
parts of the hospital for Private use.......

We wait and see the process begin........and during this time we will have a
General Election.....But which of the parties will be brave enough to stop the process
and who will be brave enough to attend a Save Hinchingbrooke Campaign Public Meeting
....watch this space for dates/times

Today is the day

The Stakeholder Committee meets today, the Favoured 40, now with 40 People on the panel how can they make a decision?......

I have been asked by others "How can I join the Panel", that is asked when they see the list of members of the Panel

They haven't even invited me on the Panel, the man who started the campaign to keep Hinchingbrooke from
closing, enough said............

Sent to me today by e-mail..........

Why 9 MP's?

14 (count them) councillors

And Half a dozen Health Service Senior managers....

Quite obviously NOT a decision making committee then!!!!

40 people, me wonders how often we'll see them all?

Here is the list.....................
BUT WHO WILL REPRESENT LOCAL PEOPLE...............NO ONE


Hinchingbrooke Stakeholder Panel – Membership List


1. Dr Andrew Wright, Chair of Hunts Comm (Practice-based GP commissioning
consortium)
2. Dr Catherine Hubbard, Chair of Medical Advisory Committee, Hinchingbrooke Hospital
3. Mr Hisham Abdel-Rahman Chair of the Local Negotiating Council (LNC),
Hinchingbrooke Hospital
4. Ann Seeds, Chair of Trust Staff Council and RCN representative, Hinchingbrooke
Hospital
5. Chris Marshall, Trust Staff Council member, Hinchingbrooke Hospital
6. Phil Green (Unison), Regional TU Officer for Hinchingbrooke hospital
7. Tracey Lambert (Unison), representative Full time TU officer for Social Partnership
Forum
8. David Monks, Chief Executive, Huntingdonshire District Council (Panel Chair)
9. Cllr Steve Criswell/ Cllr Ian Bates, Huntingdonshire District Council
10. Tim Pilsbury, Chief Executive, Fenland District Council
11. Member of Fenland District Council
12. Greg Harlock, Chief Executive, South Cambridgeshire District Council
13. Cllr Ray Manning, Leader of the Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council
14. John Hill, Chief Executive, East Cambs District Council
15. Member of East Cambs District Council
16. Rod Craig, Executive Director: Community and Adult Services, Cambridgeshire
County Council
17. Member of Cambs County Council
18. Karen Cameron, Town Clerk, Hunts Town Council
19. Member of Hunts Town Council
20. Antoinette Jackson, Chief Executive, Cambridge City Council
21. Member of Cambridge City Council
22. Ian Dewer, County Executive Officer, Cambs and Peterborough Association of Local
Councils
23. Alistair Burt MP – North East Beds
24. Jonathan Djanogly MP – Hunts
25. Malcolm Moss MP – North East Cambs
26. Shailesh Vara MP – North West Cambs
27. Andrew Lansley MP – South Cambs, Shadow Secretary of State for Health
28. James Paice MP – South East Cambs
29. Sir David Howarth MP - Cambridge
30. Patrick Hall MP – Bedford
31. Nadine Dorries MP – mid-Beds
32. June Griffiths, Chair, Friends of Hinchingbrooke Hospital
33. Patrick, Chair of Huntingdon Community Group
34. Mrs Ruth Clapham Cambridgeshire LINk representative contact for Hinchingbrooke
Hospital
35. Jessica Bawden, Director of Communications, NHS Cambridgeshire
36. Tom Dutton, Assistant Director Strategy and Delivery, NHS Cambridgeshire
37. Andrew MacPherson, Director of Strategic Projects, NHS East of England
38. Mark Millar, Chief Executive, Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust
39. Anita Pisani, Director of Human Resources and Organisational Change,
Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust
40. Julie Farrow, Chief Executive, Hunts Forum

Well done Hinchingbrooke....... but why did you need to help ?

My mother takes a Cancer drug and up to recently has had no problems in obtaining this via prescription
from the pharmacies in Huntingdon.
2 months ago, matters got so that one pharmacy could not get her required medication, so she went
elsewhere and then the drug was unobtainable there too, so she tried another and was informed that
"we can't get this anymore, go back to your G.P.........
So she did and the result ended where the prescription was raised and dispensed at Hinchingbrooke
hospital, so a big thank you to all at Woodlands and Pharmacy.

BUT......... WHY and WHO is responsible for the medication being unavailable at local pharmacies......

Is it the PCT or Drug Companies...........?

My mothers drug is expensive so perhaps it is the PCT saying NO.............OR
Could ot be the Drugs companies, refusing to supply branded drugs in small quantities to
pharmacies on the back of the "Generic Drugs" policy of the PCT.........

I will be writing to the PCT to get their feedback on this issue..............

Today...........26th August 2009...........My Father was also told a drug he takes for his Eyes is
unavailable, same scenario as my mother, he is now awaiting a call from his very helpful G.P

SO WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE ?

Who is on the "Stakeholder Panel"?

I have been asked this by many members of the public who have called me to find out the answer to the
question............


So will the Stakeholder Panel members.......Please Stand Up and identify themselves........!!!!!

I have not been invited to a member of the Panel.....so as the leader of the Campaign which stopped the closure
of Hinchingbrooke Hospital & opposed to the Ill Fated Option 2 (started but clearly proved not workable or
sustainable).......... my input in the process is not welcome

From The BBC Website

"Before the process starts, an independently-chaired Stakeholder Panel is being set up to represent the interests of local people and Hinchingbrooke Hospital staff at every stage"

UNTIL THE SAVE HINCHINGBROOKE CAMPAIGN IS ON THE PANEL, LOCAL PEOPLE
WILL NOT BE REPRESENTED..........

We Have Never Been Away

Well the Campaign has not stopped, we have been busy, waiting in the wings for the Franchise process to be
announced.

We are now on Twitter to so follow us - http://twitter.com/SaveHinchNHS

We also have an Anti Franchise Petition which was signed by the people of Huntingdon to deliver to the Panel, with
a copy to No 10.....

There will be Public Meetings, where Panel members and M.P's as well as other speakers will be invited to
attend and these will be of the "Question Time" format.

New revelation.....

"Shadow business secretary Jonathan Djanogly's £5,000 claim for a set of automatic gates to his home" was published today by the Telegraph, now under the rules there has been no wrong doing, it has to be argued that are/were the rules right?......And should these people be given the right to be M.P's?

Use your vote on June 4th..... Vote the sitting MEP's and Councillors.....OUT....new blood and new support for the NHS and the Campaign...

This says it all..................

Information for patients

Our assessments look at how well healthcare organisations perform in a number of different areas of interest to patients and the public. The scores below show how many of our assessments were met for Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust.

• Safety and cleanliness: 12/13
• Standard of care: 8/9
• Waiting to be seen: 11/12
• Dignity and respect: 9/10
• Keeping the public healthy: 5/5
• Good management: 16/17

LOOK AT THE MANAGEMENT RATING....................

It has got to be a NO.................. to the ill conceived franchise scheme & write off the debt

Lets be frank look at the mess all the privatised utilities and companies are in yet alone the Thatcher deregulated industries like buses and BANKS...............

Well Done

Hinchingbrooke Hospital do it again................top marks from the Healthcare commission but still a black mark over the historic debt.

Our stance is vindicated that the current board does NOT need replacing by a franchise

What is needed now is for Gordon Brown and Alan Johnson to do the decent thing...........

Help Hinchingbrooke out like you have helped the irresponsible banking "industry", but not to the
tune of £50bn but to the tune of £38m, wipe out the debt your policies caused .

DO IT NOW........................................YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE............

NEXT..........

The next event for the Stop the Franchise will be a public meeting in Huntingdon.

The campaign is to organise a "Question Time" type meeting where members of the Public, all NHS users, can come and ask questions to the assembled panel of where they and their Party/Organisation stand on the Franchise/Privatisation issue.

Watch this space for a date and the panel members, we are hoping to have members from all of the political parties, local politicians, NHS staff, Union leaders and one special speaker for the night.

UP FOR GRABS..............

its published, the report that TELLS IT AS IT IS.............................

This detailed report tells you the ludicrous idea the Government & SHA have
to Franchise out Hinchingbrooke and why this is wrong and unworkable.

READ IT AND ASK YOUR MP where he stands on this issue................

Maybe next time you get the chance to vote you will choose differently?

Click on the link in the side bar for UP FOR GRABS..........

The Countdown

October 4th is almost with us and this is the start of the main campaign

to STOP THE PRIVATISATION & FRANCHISE of HINCHINGBROOKE HOSPITAL

The body Keep Our NHS Public has been working for sometime on this issue and the
mainstays of the local group are Unison branches along with other Trades Council members.

The main focus is to let the public know and to understand what this "Franchise" will mean for them and for their NHS.

It recently came to light that our Strategic Health Authority in their wisdom decided to follow a Department Of Health led initiative and suggest that due to the financial position of Hinchingbrooke Hospital it would be a candidate for the Government's ill conceived "Franchise" system
This would mean that Hinchingbrooke Hospital could be managed and run by a local Foundation trust or a Private company.
Now many of us have reservations about Private involvement in health care whether you are political or not and our Hospital was in threat of closure in 2006, until that is the local people signed petitions and walked the streets.

The latest idea as I have said is to look at the franchise system, however what they not said is that when they happen to decide to go to a Consultation there will be ONLY one choice, what they are saying is that they will choose who will run Hinchingbrooke and you have to agree with as there is no other option, not only that they have already said that the "preferred" bidder for this franchise will get MORE ACTIVITY AND A LARGER TARIFF, that means in the last 2 years they have taken work and money from Hinchingbrooke they are going to give the
people who they give the franchise to MORE WORK AND MORE MONEY than
Hinchingbrooke get................

WE SAY - STOP WASTING PUBLIC MONEY, WIPE HINCHINGBROOKE'S DEBT
AND PAY THEM THE CORRECT TARIFF..............................

AND LEAVE THE HOSPITAL ALONE.......


Dont forget to join the March on the 4th October 2008 and please sign our Petition
we need your names as we are going to submit this to the SHA and copy it to the
Department Of Health and take it to N0 10 Downing Street...........

Be There

                           OCTOBER 4th 2008.......................

     Be There if you care.............

          Be There if you want Your NHS to be the best.............

      Be There if you want NO More Local Health Cuts..........

Another "Preferred" bidder messes up............

Well yet another Government initiative has messed up, this time it's Education.

The up coming Students have not received their sats results...........they should not be paid for 

this debacle and their contract should be made void.

Again it is Government cost cutting that has failed and a Private Company who are just seeing the pound signs and NOT delivering the goods.

We would expect the same if we allow Hinchingbrooke to be "Franchised" off without a FULL public consultation and why don't the SHA & PCT want a public consultation......

Because they know what the public want.................

Hinchingbrooke in the NHS and run by the NHS and not by the PCT another Trust or some fly by night Private company........

Thanks to the Hinchingbrooke Staff & the Other NHS staff

I just want to add a personal note here, something I do not normally do.

My father underwent a Heart Valve operation at Papworth Hospital on the 3rd July 2008, he was

sent home on the 8th July 2008..........yes 5 days later.........

On the 12th July 2008 he suffered a Stroke, I happened to be with him when this happened and

thanks to the Switchboard and the Ambulance crew he was admitted quickly into the care of the staff at Hinchingbrooke.

Subsequently he ended up on MAU under Mr Borland's care and was diagnosed as having a stroke, he is now recovering on the Magnolia Ward and is doing quite well.

Can I just express my thanks to all that have dealt with my father over the past few days and thank goodness that we saved Hinchingbrooke  from closure

The OSC agree with us................

They agree that any Consultation that is put to the public is a Sham..........let's be honest here

the SHA and PCT want to give us a choice of a "preferred" bidder, which means they are going

to tell us who they want to run Hinchingbrooke........that's a franchise then..........and then we get 

consulted on it.............mmm.....that stinks.

There is ONLY one way to have a fair consultation...........let the public decide

And there is really ONLY one PREFERENCE..........KEEP IT IN HOUSE...........

Quality is the key........Alan Johnson says...........

Tell us the Truth and what you really want Mr Johnson, lets face it you keep sending mixed

messages.

3 weeks ago you claimed that there could be a "Franchise" arrangement for "Failing Hospitals"

and how unfortunate was it that Hinchingbrooke was used as an example.

It is a Top 40 Hospital in the UK and is in the Top 5 for Patient satisfaction so they meet the

QUALITY criteria that was laid out yesterday.

Let me broaden the argument, 3 weeks ago it was Hinchingbrooke bashing due to the Government induced historic debt which moves Hinchingbrooke to fill a "Failing" criteria

yet on the 30th June 2008........Hinchingbrooke would qualify for £7-9m extra funding due

to the quality of its services...............so in essence, if Hinchingbrooke were given say £7m this year 2008/09 and kept the performance to receive the same amount in 2009/10 that would

in effect clear the £14m historic debt..............

So why do we need a "Franchise" or Takeover?.................er we don't.............

ON FRIDAY 4TH JULY, THERE IS A MEETING BETWEEN THE OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY COMMITTEE AND HINCHINGBROOKE.............

IN THE PAPERS FOR THE MEETING THERE IS HIDDEN THE CASE FOR THE "TAKEOVER" BUT AND THIS IS A BIG BUT...............THERE WILL BE A CONSULTATION BUT NOT A FULL ONE AND AFTER THIS "ARRANGEMENT" HAS BEEN SORTED OUT

IT IS LIKE BEING IN ZIMBABWE ..........ONLY ONE OUTCOME.................

WE NEED TO ACT NOW..........

Quality ranking key to NHS funds

Patients' rating of the quality of their NHS care will affect hospitals' and GPs' 

funding in England in the future, ministers have announced.

Information on service quality is also set to be displayed on "dashboards" in hospitals, GP surgeries and on the web.

For example, quality-linked funding could make up between £7-9m of the average district general hospital's budget of around £250m within a few years.

COME ON THEN MR BROWN..........HINCHINGBROOKE IS IN THE TOP 5 FOR QUALITY IN THE PATIENTS

SURVEY............COUGH UP NOW AND CLEAR THE DEBT......STOP THE STUPID FRANCHISE PLAN

The NHS will be 60 on the 5th July...............

Will it be a Happy Birthday ?

The NHS was born on 5^th July 1948 and was the “child” of Nye Bevan and at the time a sorely needed service to the Welfare state.

Much has evolved over her 60 years and most of the , some say unwelcome, changes have happened since the 1980's, mostly due to more administration and targets and less to do with patients. Many NHS staff and supporters think that these changes are merely political interference and the NHS being used as a political pawn.

That aside there have been many new surgery techniques, drugs and working practices adopted and there have been many Department of Health enforced changes to staff roles in the 60 years.

So all is looking rosy for the elderly lady then?

It was not until the 1980's when the then Thatcher government managed to get is hands on the NHS did we see the foundations of the current NHS problems start and the beginning of Targets and G.P fund holders and these were also accompanied by some staff changes, at that time some staff posts were ended such as Matron's and not much fuss was made.

Mrs Thatcher used the targets to beat the opposition in Parliament for some years with the “we can run the NNS better than you” message. Meanwhile she was planning to Privatise the NHS by the back-door, under the noses of the Patients who were wrapped up in their tax cuts, high interest rates (17%) and getting a job (3 million unemployed).

She did begin privatisation by introducing the Compulsory Competitive Tendering system which affected both the NHS and Local government, as can bee seen even today we are still suffering from this legacy, some Councils still have contract Bin men and many NHS hospital’s have Contract cleaners. This idea was sold to the people on the basis that it would be cheaper and would promote efficiencies, in reality we know the results, MRSA and other superbugs due to shortcuts and poor cleaning methods and also it isn't cheaper either in the long run, How much has it cost the Taxpayer for the recent “Deep Clean” exercise? And why were the cleaning companies not penalised and forced to pay up for the bill from their unearned profits they have already banked?.

This system has allowed certain companies to get in the door of the NHS to milk the NHS finances, putting profits before patients and nothing more.

When the Labour party won in 1997, many thought that Mr Blair would be the saviour of the NHS and he did have a good start by injecting more funding into the NHS.

But and there is a big BUT............ The Labour party and indeed Mr Blair himself wanted to follow some of the Thatcher principles and he used the Target culture against the Conservative opposition and he made sure there were over 200 more targets to meet.

The effect of this has been more data collection and the increased investment in the NHS has been wasted on more Administration and Management, rather than to Patient care to satisfy this unending greed for statistics to enable more political clout in parliament and for nothing more.

There have been many new treatments and drugs pioneered and with the imbalance of the weighted head per capita funding a “postcode lottery” has been introduced so that many patients cannot benefit from these treatments. This imbalance is nothing short of criminal and should be addressed as should future projections for the ageing population.

There have been many reorganisations at the Strategic Health and Primary Care levels and these have seen on the Strategic Health area redundancy payments from the 2006 reshuffle, which amounted to £80m yes £80m, what a waste of NHS funds.

Another idea that the Thatcher government introduced in the 1980's was the Private Finance Initiative, when they were in power it was just an idea and on the face of it, it does appear to satisfy the requirement to build new Hospital's but when it is assessed fully it is another waste of NHS cash.

A local example is the Treatment Centre at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, super building, modern, clean and easy to access, the original costs were set as £19m but rose to £22m, this will in fact lead to a final cost over the 30 year contract to the building alone costing £93m yet alone the extra “soft fm” costs of domestics and porters on top. This is just but one example and there are many more across the NHS.

What Next?

The Government have now got a marketisation agenda for England and this is not aimed directly at the Secondary sector (Hospital's) as many are of Foundation Status, but at Primary care level, the level most of us use.

Your G.P, community services and your healthcare is at risk from this attack, with these plans the “son of PFI”, LiFT, will surge forward and linked to the Darzi report, which sees the new Polyclinic scenario; where there are many G.P's and other services are provided in a “one stop shop”.

Some provided by private healthcare companies such a Virgin (What they know about Healthcare is beyond me, they are well known as company who see an opportunity and then take it and then when the profits are not as projected they pull out – like they did in the Power provider and Music shop sectors) .

These centres will probably work in certain areas where there are few G.P's and in a city environment but when in rural areas it will be to the detriment of patients.

There is a current campaign going on locally to Save Papworth Surgery, it is threatened with closure and the people of Papworth, home to the famous Heart hospital will have to travel 8 miles to see a G.P, that is outrageous.

Lord Darzi would do well visit Cuba where they have effective Polyclinics and they also have G.P's working in the system too, and see how that model works.

There are also other areas where the private sector try to ease their way into the NHS, Support Services, by this I mean Sterile services and Pathology labs and the like, locally again there was proposed a “network” of NHS trusts to have a Private company run a “centralised” Sterile service in Thrapston to serve some local trusts with decontaminating surgical instruments, this has now been shelved as Trusts pulled out of the process one by one, you only have to look at the current transport costs and other cost factors to see why.

As for Pathology, there was a proposal in 2007 to have ALL of Cambridgeshire's community blood tests done at Newmarket in Suffolk by a Horse Racing lab, a company was going to be set up of which Addenbrookes in Cambridge would have had a large interest, this would have led to increased blood test turnaround times(from hours to result to days to results), with extra traffic on the roads and now with increased transport costs an increase in the tariff collected would have already been passed onto the G.P's and PCT's. Not cost effective at all and again to the detriment of patients.

This is a big issue with letting Private companies in on the NHS, they as has been proved before with cleaning contracts, only there for PROFIT, they do not care for Patients one iota.

There are some Government ministers and the CBI who claim that the Independent Treatment Centres provide value to the NHS, when in fact they cherry pick easy procedures which give maximum profit and it is well known that for 10 procedures done in an ISTC, 11 are performed for the same cost in the NHS. The other complicated cases are left for the NHS to mop up.

Lets be brutally honest, look at the mess the railways are in, the contract cleaning and other privatised services they are not run efficiently or are cost effective, just a means to satisfy a shareholder profit and blow the service they provide to us the “customer”.

To monitor the performance of these companies it is left to Public companies to have their own system to check on their contractors, again another necessary financial burden.

If the Government get their way here the NHS will be like the Royal Mail, it will bankrupt itself. It will left be that the NHS will only having funding for the complicated procedures and Private companies who the rest of the work, this will result increased costs for the NHS and boom....bust and yes this will happen if they are allowed to get away with it.

The final part of this issue is the latest Government idea, to Franchise out “Failing Hospital's”. They haven't yet said what the definition of a failing hospital is, but on the day of their announcement saw fit to use Hinchingbrooke Hospital as an example.

Naturally the terminology “Failing Hospital” seems unkind as Hinchingbrooke are in the UK's Top 40 hospitals and in the Top 5 for Patient care, so why are they considered to be failing? I understand that naturally, Hinchingbrooke are unhappy about this unfortunate terminology.

It would appear, for Hinchingbrooke that it has been categorised as Failing because of the Labour government caused, Historic debt. The government is solely to blame for this due to the way their policy and strategy changes they have implemented along with their constant reorganisation of the NHS since 2000 which has caused hardship for All District General Hospital's in the UK and given the Foundation Trusts more freedom to go for a market based environment should they choose to.

Now to make sure that the NHS continues to provide free healthcare and be sustainable too, we need to remove necessary targets, remove Private involvement, stop PFI, fund it equally across the UK and argue the case for this valuable Public service

Nye Bevan said 60 years ago “ The NHS will only survive while there are people willing to fight for it”, this is not just a Trade Union issue, not just a Local councillor issue, not just a Politicians issue it is a Citizenship issue, one we ALL need to embrace and fight for this service before they take it away from US, it's OUR NHS...........leave it alone and in public hands

SHA statement regarding Hinchingbrooke

Well our friends at the SHA, in a statement to Radio Cambridgeshire

claim that the replacement of the Hinchingbrooke Trust board

was agreed at last years PCT consultation...................

WELL, I AM SORRY TO INFORM THEM THAT BEFORE

THEY ISSUE STATEMENTS THEY GET THEIR FACTS

CORRECT............

THE CONSULTATION CONTAINED A CAVEAT THAT

SUGGESTED THAT CONSIDERATION COULD BE GIVEN

TO DISSOLVE THE TRUST BOARD IN 2009 NOT THE

"DONE DEAL" AS HINTED BY THE SHA.

We believe that the Government should also revisit their

statement and clarify a "failing" hospital..............

Hinchingbrooke is a Top 40 hospital in the the UK in

the Top 5 for patient satisfaction and under the patient

choice system more people including former senior

staff members are using this wonderful facility............

The fight goes on to keep this Hospital in the NHS and not

farmed off to a.n other to try and pay off the government

induced historic debt................

Please read "Caught in the Crossfire" it shows clearly

how Hinchingbrooke was "bullied" into it's current financial

situation by Government policy changes.................

The NHS is a month away from being 60 and its founder said

"The NHS will only survive for as long as people fight for it."

and by golly we will fight for it.................

New Government Plans

We said this would happen.............in 2006

The government have now a crazy plan to allow private companies and or Foundation Trusts to take over "failing" Hospitals and run them...........

So with Hinchingbrooke, where will they go?

Is it a failing hospital?............well it's in the Top 40............so, No then

MRSA a problem.............NO..............so, no problem there then

Finance................yes a Historical debt that needs to be sorted out......but, 

WHO CAUSED IT.........................The Government, the very ones who want to sort out

the failing hospitals, how about sorting the failing government policies?

We say leave Hinchingbrooke alone and let them carry on with their current board and

organisation and negotiate a way to sort out the debt

Well at last!!

The East of England Strategic Health Authority agree with us...........................

on 12th May 2008 they claimed...........that.....

Ensure all 17 Acute Trusts will keep an obstetric unit, with a co-located midwife-led unit
Guarantee one-to-one midwifery care in established labour by recruiting at least 160 more
midwives

Maximise care for ill babies by increasing level 3 intensive care cots, increasing
the number of level 1 special care units and reducing the number of level 2 high
dependency units

Ensure all 17 Acute Trusts will continue to have an A&E department

Make access easier by creating a new memorable telephone number for urgent care and
ensuring consistent triage across all services

Create a series of Urgent Care Centres

Work towards providing 24/7 access to a fuller range of key acute services


There is too much unfairness in health -

There is a region wide life expectancy difference of 10 years across the region, looked after
children tend to have very poor health compared to the rest of us and there are other sections
of our society that are marginalised.

We are not meeting the expectations of those we serve - Many people across the
east of England have some dissatisfaction with NHS services.

They want more attention on basic services and standards, easier access to services, less
waiting and to be treated as an individual with respect.

and it also says and confirms what we have said since 2003 onwards..........
people want routine services closer to home rather than in major acute hospitals

Prioritise patients, not privatisation

(09/04/08) UNISON is calling on NHS trusts across England to refocus on patients, after the government’s health watchdog revealed the findings of its latest staff survey.

The poll of 156,000 NHS staff shows that fewer than half think caring for patients is the top priority in their workplace.

Karen Jennings, UNISON head of health, said: “It seems obvious that patients must be the top priority for trusts, but the Healthcare Commission survey shows that less than half of NHS staff feel this is the case in their hospital.

“Trusts must refocus attention on their patients and away from competition and privatisation,” she warned, adding: “The growth of the private sector, marketing and financial targets are having a damaging impact on the way hospitals are run.”

Around three-quarters of staff said they were not valued by their trusts; this was the most common reason given for wanting to leave their jobs.

The survey also throws up disturbing levels of violence –urgent action is needed to stem the attacks, said Ms Jennings.

“Once again, the number of staff reporting physical violence and harassment remains depressingly high. The frankly shocking figures show that there has been no real decrease in those who have personally experienced being attacked by patients or their relatives.”

FROM UNISON....................IT TELLS IT AS IT IS.............NOT A POLITICAL SPIN WHICH IS RIFE

IN BOTH THE TWO MAIN PARTIES MANIFESTOS

OFT issues statement of objections against 112 construction companies

The OFT formally alleges that the construction companies named in the SO have engaged in bid rigging activities, and in particular cover pricing. Cover pricing describes a situation where one or more bidders collude with a competitor during a tender process to obtain a price or prices which are intended to be too high to win the contract. The tendering authority, for example a local council or other customer, is not made aware of the contacts between bidders, leaving it with a false impression of the level of competition and this may result in it paying inflated prices.

1. A. H. Willis & Sons Limited
2. ARG (Mansfield) Limited
3. Ackroyd & Abbott Limited together with its subsidiary Ackroyd & Abbott Construction Limited
4. Adam Eastwood & Sons Limited together with its controlling party the Sir John Eastwood Foundation
5. Admiral Construction Limited together with (for alleged infringements from 31 October 2003) its ultimate parent company A C Holdings Limited
6. Adonis Construction Limited
7. Allenbuild Limited and Bullock Construction Limited together with their ultimate parent company Renew Holdings plc
8. Apollo Property Services Group Limited formerly known as Apollo London Limited together with its former ultimate parent company Apollo Holdco Limited formerly known as Apollo Group Holdings Limited
9. Arthur M. Griffiths & Sons Limited
10. B & A Construction (Leicester) Limited
11. Baggaley & Jenkins Limited
12. Balfour Beatty Construction Limited, Balfour Beatty Refurbishment Limited, and Balfour Beatty Group Limited (for alleged infringements from 2000 onwards) and Mansell Construction Services Limited (for alleged infringements from 19 December 2003), together with their current ultimate parent company Balfour Beatty plc. For alleged infringements involving Mansell prior to 19 December 2003, Mansell and its former ultimate parent company Mansell plc
13.Ballast Nedam N.V. as the ultimate parent company of its dissolved subsidiary Ballast plc
14.Beaufort Construction (S-in-A) Limited together with its ultimate parent company Beaufort Holdings U.K. Limited
15.Bodill & Sons (Contractors) Limited
16.Bowmer & Kirkland Limited together with its subsidiaries B & K Building Services Limited and B & K Property Services Limited
17.Bramall Construction Limited and Frank Haslam Milan & Company Limited together with their current ultimate parent company Keepmoat Limited, formerly known as Keepmoat plc
18.C. J. Ellmore & Company Limited
19.Caddick Construction Limited together with its ultimate parent company Caddick Group plc
20.Carillion JM Limited
21.Chase Norton Construction Limited together with its ultimate parent company Chase Midland plc
22.Clegg Construction Limited together with its ultimate parent company Clegg Group Limited formerly known as D E Clegg Holdings Limited
23.Connaught Partnerships Limited together with its ultimate parent company Connaught plc
24.Crown Point Maintenance Group Limited as the ultimate parent company of its dissolved subsidiary Greenwood Building Contractors (Mansfield) Limited, for Greenwood's alleged infringements after 11 June 2002
25.Davlyn Construction Limited
26.Derwent Valley Construction Limited together with its ultimate parent company Chevin Holdings Limited
27.Dukeries Building Company Limited together with its ultimate parent company Gavco 159 Limited
28.Durkan Pudelek Limited together with its ultimate parent company Durkan Holdings Limited
29.E. G. Carter & Company Limited
30.E. Manton Limited
31.E. Taylor & Sons (Southwell) Limited, trading as Carmalor Construction
32.F. Parkinson Limited together with its ultimate parent company Mowbray Holdings Limited
33.Francis Construction Limited together with its ultimate parent company Barrett Estates Services Limited
34.Frank Galliers Limited together with its former ultimate parent company Frank Galliers Holdings Limited
35.Frudd Construction Limited
36.GAJ Construction Limited together with its current ultimate parent company GAJ (Holdings) Limited
37.G Carter Construction Limited
38.G. F. Tomlinson Building Limited together with its ultimate parent company G. F. Tomlinson Group Limited
39.G G Middleton and Sons Limited
40.G. & J. Seddon Limited together with its ultimate parent company Seddon Group Limited
41.GMI Construction Group plc together with (for alleged infringements after 6 February 2005) its current ultimate parent company GMI Construction Holdings plc
42.Geo Houlton & Sons Limited together with its ultimate parent company Geo Houlton & Sons (Holdings) Limited
43.George Law Limited together with its ultimate parent company Bosworth & Wakeford Limited
44.Greswolde Construction Limited together with its ultimate parent company Mantisson Limited
45.Hall Construction Group Limited
46.Harlow & Milner Limited
47.Harold Adkin & Sons (Sutton-In-Ashfield) Limited
48.Harper Group Construction Limited and J. Harper & Sons (Leominster) Limited together with their ultimate parent company Harper Group plc
49.Haymills (Contractors) Limited together with (for alleged infringements prior to 26 May 2004) its former ultimate parent company Corringway Conclusions plc and (for alleged infringements after 26 May 2004) its current ultimate parent company Haymills Group Limited
50.Henry Boot Construction (UK) Limited together with its ultimate parent company Henry Boot plc
51.Herbert Baggaley Construction Limited together with its ultimate parent company Baggaley Group Limited
52.Hill Bros. (Nottingham) Limited
53.Hobson & Porter Limited
54.Holroyd Construction Limited together with (for alleged infringements prior to 30 March 2005) its former ultimate parent company Holderness Investments Limited and (for alleged infringements after 30 March 2005) its current ultimate parent company Holroyd Construction Group Limited
55.Interclass Public Limited Company together with its ultimate parent company Interclass Holdings Limited
56.Interserve Project Services Limited together with its ultimate parent company Interserve plc
57.Irwins Limited and Jack Lunn (Construction) Limited together with their ultimate parent company Jack Lunn (Holdings) Limited
58.J. Guest Limited
59.J H Hallam (Contracts) Limited together with its ultimate parent company J H Hallam (R & J) Limited
60.J. J. & A. R. Jackson Limited
61.J. J. McGinley Limited, together with its former ultimate parent company McGinley Holdings Limited
62.John Cawley Limited
63.John Sisk & Son Limited together with its ultimate parent company Sicon Limited
64.K. J. Bryan (Builders) Limited
65.Kier Regional Limited together with its ultimate parent company Kier Group plc
66.Lemmeleg Limited together with its ultimate parent company Rok plc
67.Lindum Construction Co. Limited and Lindum Homes Limited together with their ultimate parent company Lindum Group Limited
68.Linford Group Limited together with its ultimate parent company F. & E. V. Linford Limited
69.Loach Construction & Development Limited
70.Lotus Construction Limited
71.Milward Construction (Belper) Limited
72.Morgan Ashurt plc formerly known as Bluestone Plc together with its ultimate parent company Morgan Sindall plc
73.North Midland Construction plc
74.P D H Developments Limited (formerly trading as G. Hurst & Sons (Contractors) Limited) together with its ultimate parent company G. Hurst & Sons Limited
75.P. Casey & Co. Limited together with its current ultimate parent company The Casey Group Limited
76.P. Waller Limited
77.Pearce Construction (Midlands) Limited together with its former ultimate parent company Crest Nicholson plc
78.Peter Baines Limited
79.Phoenix Contracts (Leicester) Limited
80.Piper Construction Midlands Limited together with its ultimate parent company Piper Securities Holdings Limited
81.Propencity Group Limited together with its wholly owned subsidiary companies, ISG Jackson Limited, ISG Regions Limited formerly known as ISG Totty Limited, ISG Totty Building Limited and Propencity Limited
82.Quarmby Construction Company Limited together with its ultimate parent company St James Securities Holdings Limited
83.Quarmby Construction (Special Projects) Limited together with its ultimate parent company Justgrade Limited
84.R Durtnell & Sons Limited together with its ultimate parent company R Durtnell & Sons (Holdings) Limited
85.R. G. Carter Limited, R. G. Carter Building Limited and R. G. Carter Construction Limited together with their current ultimate parent company R. G. Carter Holdings Limited
86.Richardson Projects Limited
87.Robert Bruce Construction Limited
88.Robert Woodhead Limited together with its ultimate parent company Robert Woodhead Holdings Limited
89.Robinson & Sawdon Limited
90.Shaylor Construction Limited
91.Simons Construction Limited and Wrights Construction (Lincoln) Limited together with their ultimate parent company Simons Group Limited
92.Sol Construction Limited together with its ultimate parent company Barkbury Limited
93.Speller-Metcalfe Limited
94.Spicers (Builders) Limited
95.Stainforth Construction Limited
96.Strata Construction Limited (formerly trading as Weaver)
97.T. & C. Williams (Builders) Limited
98.T. Denman & Sons (Melton Mowbray) Limited
99.Thomas Fish & Sons Limited together with its ultimate parent company Fish Holdings Limited
100.Thomas Long & Sons Limited together with its ultimate parent company Radford Holdings Limited
101.Thomas Vale Construction Plc together with its ultimate parent company Thomas Vale Holdings Limited
102.Thorndyke Limited
103.Try Accord Limited and Galliford Try Construction Limited together with their ultimate parent company Galliford Try plc
104.W. R. Bloodworth & Sons Limited
105.Wiggett Bros & Co Limited
106.Wildgoose Construction Limited
107.William Sapcote and Sons Limited together with its ultimate parent company Sapcote Holdings Limited
108.William Woodsend Limited
109.Willmott Dixon Construction Limited together with its ultimate parent company Willmott Dixon Limited
110.Wright (Hull) Limited together with its ultimate parent company T. Wright & Son (Holdings) Limited
111.Wygar Construction Co Limited together with its ultimate parent company Wygar (Holdings) Limited
112.York House Construction Limited

THESE ARE WHY PFI CONTRACTS ARE SO EXPENSIVE AND OUTRAGEOUS AS WELL AS COSTING

THE TAX PAYER MILLIONS - NOTE THAT THE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY WHO BUILT THE

HINCHINGBROOKE TREATMENT CENTRE -  KEIR - ARE ON THE LIST - THEY ARE THE

MAIN REASON FOR THE HINCHINGBROOKE DEBT - KEEP HINCHINGBROOKE IN THE NHS

SAY NO TO PRIVATE COMPANIES......

Unmissable Read -
The NHS & the Market - The TRUTH

The NHS after 60

For patients or profits?

Sixty years ago, in 1948, Aneurin Bevan’s bold nationalisation of private, voluntary and municipal hospitals swept away a failed market system, and created the most popular of all the public services, the NHS.
New Labour reforms are reversing this historic modernisation, and spending more money to create an artificial ‘market’ in health care which could never exist without government subsidy.

In The NHS After 60, John Lister takes a fresh look at the origins and evolution of the NHS, emphasising the ‘reforms’ which, in its sixth decade, have begun to transform the NHS into a European-style social health insurance fund, purchasing services from a variety of private- and public-sector providers.

Lister also examines the NHS in an international context and discusses recent tendencies of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments to follow alternative lines of policy.
The conclusion looks at the alternatives for the future development of the NHS.

Will ministers roll the wheel of history further back towards a more radical market system?

Or will they move forward to a public service based on greater accountability and responsiveness to the needs and wishes of local people and those with greatest health needs?


AN ESSENTIAL READ TO THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT THEIR NHS AND HAVING IT
FREE AT THE POINT OF DELIVERY -  IT TELLS THE TRUTH FROM THE AUTHOR
OF HINCHINGBROOKE - CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE

Defend the NHS at 60



The first session of the Unison health conference has agreed to
organise activities to defend the NHS from privatisation throughout this,its 60th year. We have also agreed to campaign against marketisation in primary care, and to respond assertively to the Darzi Report.

Some very good speches from branch delegates with experience of fightingoutsourcing of admin and clerical jobs demonstrate that on the ground unionreps are having some significant success in this area.

Unsion Health Conference News


Call for cleaning staff guarantee

Minimum cleaning staff quotas should be imposed on hospitals to
help in the fight against infections, unions say.

Unison, which represents a range of staff including cleaners,
nurses and porters, said hospitals should have two cleaners
for every 30 patients.

Hospitals should be cleaned from 8am to 9pm every day to
tackle bugs such as MRSA,
Unison's annual Health conference in Manchester was also told.

But the government said cleaning was too complex to have specific quotas.
The union complained there were no minimum staffing levels for cleaners
or times for hospitals to be cleaned.

Officials also pressed for committees to be established in every single hospital
in the UK, made up of cleaners, domestic supervisors, nurses and managers.

Karen Jennings, Unison's head of health, said: "We need to use the whole
hospital team if we are going to fight off these superbugs.

"Cleaning staff are frustrated because they know which cleaning products
are effective, what equipment they need, how many staff it takes to really
clean a ward well, but they are rarely consulted or listened to.

"It should be a requirement that all NHS organisations have safe minimum
staffing levels for their cleaning services that are based on quality, not cost,
and with staff receiving proper, up to date training and equipment."

Ms Jennings said the recent deep clean exercise in hospitals was worthwhile
but was only a starting point because regular, targeted cleaning would
"significantly cut" the instances of MRSA.

Some delegates described situations where staffing was so short that if a
cleaner had a day off there was no-one to cover for them

Brian Smith - R.I.P

Who passed away 11 April 2008

When I first met Brian it seemed very odd, you see he stood out from the
other members of the congregation at that particular Church service as
a “scruffy individual”. I don't mean that it a discriminative way but it was
so obvious like a sheepdog in a field of sheep.

I could always approach Brian as we were always on a similar
wavelength and although we pushed and fought for many different
campaigns there were many in which we fought for or joined in with.

Brian supported me with my Save Hinchingbrooke Campaign
and likewise I did with his Save the Library one, however with
Christian Aid and the annual water campaigns we had the same ideals.

Brian was a tireless campaigner for many issues, Global as well as local
ones and had a passion for each and everyone of them, to the point when
he cared more for others through his campaigning than his own health,
I know how having a passion for a campaign subject takes you over.

Brian will be sadly missed by me and I am sure by many others too,
it is a pity that he never got recognised by one of the higher authorities
in the UK for his charity work and campaigns, although I am sure that
his work is being recognised now by the lord.

From Cambridge Evening News -

Rise in bullying by hospital workers

A QUARTER of hospital staff have been bullied, abused and harassed at work.

The figure from a staff survey is described as a "worrying increase"
on the previous year when 18 per cent of staff at Hinchingbrook Hospital
had complained of bullying behaviour by workmates.

The research showed nearly half of hospital staff witnessed a potentially
harmful incident in the preceding month.

But the survey, conducted nationwide by the Healthcare Commission,
showed that Hinchingbrooke was also in the top 20 per cent of similar
NHS trusts for job satisfaction.

This figure was reported despite concerns over the hospital's future
and job losses caused by spiralling debts and a review of services.

AN NHS STAFF MEMBER WHO WAS ABUSED AND BULLIED
IN 2007, THEY GAVE INTO THE BULLIES FOR FEAR OF
REPRISALS, BROKE THE RULES TO STOP BEING HIT AS
THERE IS NO SECURITY AT HINCHINGBROOKE

THE STAFF MEMBER LOST THEIR JOB AS A
CONSEQUENCE - MANAGERS NEVER BACKED THE
STAFF MEMBER - SHAME ON YOU

WE SAID THIS WAS RIFE IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE BUT
THEY DENIED IT


Care cost changes 'not working'

Government attempts to end the postcode lottery in who gets
continuing NHS healthcare in England are having little impact,
a charity has claimed.

Age Concern said figures for the three months after new
guidelines came in showed the differences remain huge.

Tens of thousands of older people with serious
health problems were paying for care that should be free
, it added.

The government said the guidelines needed time to take
effect and that there would be a review in the autumn.

Continuing healthcare is given to people who have long-term
health needs but do not need to be in hospital - most live in
nursing homes.

However, a person's eligibility for NHS funding is determined
by the local primary care trust, and the way that funding is
allocated has long been criticised as unfair.

Age Concern said an analysis of Department of Health statistics
showed there were still "real disparities".

It warned tens of thousands of older people with chronic health
conditions were paying for care that should be free.


Gordon Lishman, director general of the charity, said:
"Frail older people should not be denied the care they
are entitled to because of where they happen to live.

"PCTs need to iron out these inconsistencies or face more claims
for compensation."

Hospital bosses to explain £40m debt - From Cambridge Evening News 10 April 08


BOARD members at Hinchingbrooke Hospital could be hauled before councillors to explain a scathing report into its finances.

Liberal Democrats are calling for an extraordinary general meeting of Cambridgeshire's health scrutiny committee after Hinchingbrooke's auditor, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, said it had
"serious concerns" over the hospital's near £40 million debt.

Lib Dems on the committee want to grill board members such as Mark Millar, the hospital's
chief executive, and insist the meeting must be held in public.

Councillor Lister Wilson, chairman of the health and adult social care scrutiny committee,
told the News that members will hold a "fact-finding meeting" with the Hinchingbrooke
board before deciding whether to hold a public session.

But Cllr Geoff Heathcock, Lib Dem spokesman for health on the council,
said there must be no closed-doors meetings "over a cup of coffee" with
senior management. He added: "We won't rest until we get this public meeting."

Auditors at PriceWaterhouseCoopers issued the public interest report on March 18,
highlighting their belief that the trust will need "significant" cash support on top of
£27.3 million of temporary Public Dividend Capital it was given in 2006/07.

They say the trust is unlikely to achieve its statutory break-even duty for the
five-year period ending in March next year and have sent their report to
Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Health.

WE WILL BE AT ANY PUBLIC MEETING, SHOULD ONE GO AHEAD
WE ARE OF THE THINKING THAT THE TRUST WILL BE IN FINANCIAL
BALANCE BY 1 APRIL 2009 AS THERE ARE PLANS AFOOT
TO PASS THE RUNNING OF THE TRUST TO ANOTHER BODY

ONE BEING MUTED JUST NOW IS A SO CALLED SOCIAL ENTERPRISE -
ON READING THEIR SPEIL IT SEEMS MORE LIKE AN EX-GP & NHS
MANAGERS RETIREMENT FUND..................
WE SAY NO TO A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE..................

Return out-of-hours care 'to GPs'

GPs should reclaim responsibility for out-of-hours care in England,
an influential group of NHS staff says.

The NHS Alliance said patients had lost confidence in the care,
often provided by private firms since the GP contract
saw 90% of family doctors opt out.

It said GPs should club together to take charge of night and weekend care,
although this could mean buying in nurses, paramedics and doctors.
Under the terms of the 2004 GP contract, family doctors were allowed
to opt out of out-of-hours care.


The changes have led to a surge in complaints and have prompted the
Tories to call for GPs to take back responsibility in a similar way as the
NHS Alliance is suggesting.

The group, which represents NHS professionals working outside hospitals,
including some GPs, said there was confusion over the complex arrangements
now in place.

NHS Alliance chairman Dr Mike Dixon said patients were often presented
with several choices, including NHS Direct, walk-in centres, A&E and
out-of-hours providers, and did not know when to go where.

"We have a system whereby there is a void when GP services
close for the day.

"I think many doctors are concerned about this."

From Cambridge Evening News 9th April 2008

200 motorists caught on mobile phone

A SHOCK 12-day crackdown saw 200 motorists caught using a mobile phone while driving.

The alarming figure points to a huge increase in the number of drivers flouting the law -
which has already been toughened up.

If these figures were applied to a whole year, it would mean that an average of more
than 6,000 people could be putting lives in danger.

This would triple last year's shock figures of more than 2,000.

The action was part of work to crack down on those who continue to ignore
the laws in relation to mobile phones.

IT IS A PITY SOME NHS STAFF ARE AMONG THOSE WHO CONTINUE TO
IGNORE THE LAWS - THERE SHOULD BE ZERO TOLERANCE AND IT BE
TREATED AS GROSS MISCONDUCT WHILE IN OFFICE

Infection sees hospital ward shut

A ward at a Cambridgeshire hospital has been closed to new admissions after patients developed symptoms of the winter sickness bug.

An outbreak of diarrhoea hit six patients in ward 10 at Peterborough's Edith Cavell Hospital on Friday.

Two further patients have shown symptoms since the weekend and the ward is due to be specially cleaned later, a hospital spokesman said.

The hospital said no staff had been affected by the outbreak.

From Pulse................

March of the private sector

09 Apr 08

Pulse examines the threats and opportunities arising from private provision of primary care.

It’s little less than a revolution in primary care.

Private firms are bidding to run GP surgeries, open state-of-the-art polyclinics and walk-in centres, and even commission NHS services. Spending on private provision in primary care is set to triple, or even quadruple, over the next year.
But what do GPs think about it?

Our survey suggests few are enthusiastic, with only 18% saying they support the Government’s plans, while 57% do not believe private provision is capable of improving care.

But suspicion does not necessarily translate as opposition – and as ever, GPs are set to take a pragmatic approach. As many as a third would be prepared to work directly for a private company. And the offers are coming – 25% of GPs have already been approached.


GPs, it seems, are resigned to huge changes to the NHS – 71% believe major retailers will be running practices within five years.

Indeed, it is not clear whether doctors expect the NHS to exist at all in the medium-term future.

Only 16% of more than 500 GPs we surveyed said they expected ‘the NHS as we know it’ to be around in 10 years. Just 32% thought the NHS of the future, whatever it looks like, would be free at the point of use.

DEEP CLEAN

A Sky News investigation suggests the controversial 'deep clean' of hospitals up and down the country is proving less successful than the Government claims.
Deep cleans are over budget

The survey of 51 National Health Service trusts reveals a fifth have failed to meet deadlines.

The £57m programme was due to be completed by all hospitals by the end of March.

But only 37% of trusts that spoke to Sky News said they were "on track" with cleaning.

It comes as the Government announced that specialist inspection teams from the Healthcare Commission would be sent into hospitals to make sure their cleaning standards are stringent.

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HOW CAN YOU DEEP CLEAN WARDS IF THEY ARE FULL......................
OUR SCBU - YES SPECIAL CARE BABY UNIT- IS BEING HASSLED TO BECOME
PART OF THE DEEP CLEAN...............................SO WHERE ARE THE ILL BABIES GOING TO
BE SHOVED WHILE THIS DEEP CLEAN IS GOING ON...........THE CORIDOOR?

ALL FOR THE SAKE OF SPIN AND TARGETS.................IF THE CLEANING WAS IN-HOUSE
AND NOT PRIVATISED THEN IT COULD BE SHEDULED AND DONE PROPERLY
NEGATING A NEED FOR THE DEEP CLEAN

PATIENTS NOT PROFITS......................

Care not top priority - NHS staff



Less than half of NHS staff believe patient care is the top priority for trusts, an annual staff survey shows.


The rest either did not believe their NHS trust saw it as a priority or neither agreed nor disagreed, the poll of 156,000 staff in England showed.
The Healthcare Commission report also revealed wide variations in infection control standards and no reductions in the number of staff being attacked.

Unions said some results were worrying, but noted staff seemed to be happy.

Three quarters said they were satisfied with their jobs, although only one in four said they felt valued by bosses.
One in four workers said they had been harassed, bullied or abused by patients or their relatives, while 13% said they had suffered physical violence, rising to 29% for those who worked in ambulances.

Ambulance staff were also critical about the condition of the vehicles with half saying they were in a poor state of repair.

Karen Jennings, head of health at Unison, said the results about care being a priority were worrying.

"Trusts must refocus attention on their patients and away from competition and privatisation," she said.

And she added there were still "disturbing levels of violence".



ENOUGH SAID - PATIENTS NOT PROFITS & PRIVATISATION

AS FOR BULLYING & ABUSE - IT IS RIFE AND GOES UNRECOGNISED
OR IS CHOSEN TO BE IGNORED  BY MANAGERS

Workers Memorial Day 28th April 2008

More people are KILLED at WORK than in ANY wars around the world

Please take a minutes silence on the 28th April 2008 for those

Who have Died doing their JOBS............

Sadly another colleague was killed at work yesterday in Lancashire

Philip Ellison was KILLED just doing his JOB, maybe his employers

will learn from theirs and the Government's mistakes and the  never 

ending quests to make swinging CUTS

We send our condolences to Philip's Family and Friends as well as work colleagues

Join a UNION and Transform the Workplace

Patients "more ill"

We also said this would be the scenario when the consultation was being banded about as the next best thing.
We said at that time, on good authority - From a Ward Sister - that Patients were at that time being kept out in the Community by G.P's on the orders of the PCT to save money, and therefore when the finally were admitted to Hinchingbrooke their condition would be worse so they were more ill than they needed to be.
This was borne out in the "Black" alert figures for ALL of the local NHS trusts, not just Hinchingbrooke.
With these crackpot ideas then other parts of the service do indeed suffer, there needs to be better policies for the transfer of a patient from Primary Care to Secondary Care than the "leave them in Primary Care until they are on their death bed........then pass them on to Secondary Care (Hospital) and let them take the blame for the deaths............Shame on you PCT, Shame on you Alan Johnson, Shame on you Gordon Brown.

Maybe when thee Targets and Advice was sent from the Politicians and DOH  they did not expect the scally wags to interpret the policies in this way..............

But Nu Labour.............They Have and they are then Blameless...........

Care worker stabbed

Social worker Philip Ellison, 47, was stabbed and died in the attack during a home visit to a house in Fulwood, Preston, on Monday.

A 51-year-old man was arrested at the scene and is being held under the Mental Health Act.

So...........this is how we said it would be when the consultation was out.............When will one of the staff in Cambridgeshire suffer a similar fate?..............

BUT..............WHO is responsible.................bet it won't be the decision makers who are sending workers into the community to work and put themselves at risk!
It isn't cheaper to work this way..............there is NO price for a Life

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The profile is only laid out just now and we are to add more content later this week and as we add more news on the blog we will will add links to that too

The Coming Week

In the coming week we will be pushing forward the Campaign to
STOP the Privatisation of Hinchingbrooke in April 2009
So watch this space over the next few weeks

Our intention is not to hinder the Sustainable Hospital Plan
but to keep the Hospital..........In House............