• 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Ways to Help ∨
  • Still Under Threat! ∨

Top ten things you can do NOW!

Remind yourself the fight is not over - the battle to Save our Hospitals has just begun!

 

Jeremy Hunt government proposal:

1. Charing Cross Hospital to be demolished with at least 60% of the site earmarked for luxury flats

2. 500 acute beds lost

3. UK's leading stroke unit shut

4. Hammersmith A&E and Central Middlesex A&E shut (both SHUT on 10th September 2014)

5. Charing X A&E to be an Urgent Care Centre (minor injuries unit staffed by GPs)

"The NHS saved me. As a scientist, I must help save it"

 

Professor Stephen Hawking told the Royal Society of Medicine

on 19/08/2017 that UK Govs have attacked the NHS since 2010

by underfunding, cuts and privatization

and are transforming it into a US system. In particular

Cherry-picking evidence for "7-day services" is unscientific and plain wrong:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/18/nhs-scientist-stephen-hawking

 

SoS for Health, Jeremy Hunt, had the temerity to tweet attacking Hawking:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/19/jeremy-hunt-says-stephen-hawking-is-wrong-on-the-nhs

which unleashed expert support for Hawking, including Prof Martin McKee:

https://twitter.com/martinmckee/status/898780776078102529

Who are we?

Save Our Hospitals is a resident-led campaign group formed in July 2012 to fight the proposed closure of A&Es at Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Ealing and Central Middlesex Hospitals.

Read More

Health Campaigns Together "Health Summit" 11-4 on Sat 4th Nov 2017 at Hammersmith Town Hall

Details

Ealing march for hospitals - 30th Sept 2017

Details

 

All NHS "surplus" land to be sold off in 6 giant Public Private Partnership deals by end June 2017

Details

Project Phoenix: Is NHS PPP about to rise from the ashes?

From   http://www.cms-lawnow.com/ealerts/2017/05/project-phoenix-is-nhs-ppp-about-to-rise-from-the-ashes?cc_lang=en  

published 12th May 2017.

(See also National Health Action Party: https://nhap.org/the-naylor-report-the-nhs-sell-off-is-being-speeded-up-our-children-are-being-robbed-of-their-inheritance/)

"Community Health Partnerships (CHP), a wholly owned Department of Health (DoH) company, currently provides public sector investment in the primary healthcare and community estate through the NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT). The aim of CHP is to deliver savings, increase service integration and drive efficient use of the primary and community health estate. As head tenant for the £2.5bn LIFT estate, CHP is also responsible for the overall management of 305 primary and community healthcare buildings across England.

LIFT, launched in 2000, was a mechanism to attract private investment into primary care facilities, particularly in areas of social deprivation. Primary care premises had historically been provided under a variety of arrangements – private ownership by GPs, private sector leases and central NHS provision. LIFT was considered to be a new form of PPP [Private Public Partnership] that invested in new build primary care premises. It has been estimated that LIFT companies have generated more than £2.2billion worth of investment, leveraging an original investment of around £53m made by the DoH and providing an on-going return on investment to public sector shareholders including the local NHS.

In late 2015, against the backdrop of crumbling NHS estates and the publication of NHS England’s five-year view (which set out a vision for wide scale transformation and new ways of working across the NHS), CHP were asked by its shareholder, DoH, to investigate and develop thinking around how a future new PPP model could be deployed to meet national strategic estate management objectives, codename: Project Phoenix.

The DoH objectives in developing Project Phoenix were to:

  1. increase the pace of delivery of estates transformation across the healthcare estate and provide solutions for a capital constrained system;

  2. provide a national approach to deliver schemes across the full range of providers to complement other approaches;

  3. provide innovative solutions to meet identified needs arising from NHS England’s five-year view;

  4. demonstrate Value for Money and provide financially sustainable solutions for the local healthcare economy.

A project board including representatives from stakeholders including DoH, NHS England, NHS Improvement, CHP and NHS Property Services was formed to oversee the model to ensure that it would meet future needs. Extensive stakeholder engagement also took place with commissioners, providers, private sector partners, advisors and the debt market [financiers]. External support was provided by PWC.

Following this consultation, the DoH preferred option is to adopt a PPP which could build on the success of the existing LIFT programme. The aim is to ensure the right commercial arrangements to attract private sector bidders and private capital and it is hoped that this will lead to a transformation of existing estates, not just new build. One of the main challenges for the new PPP will be the interface with existing LIFT companies.

A Business Case has been submitted to the DoH for approval (although this is now on hold until after the election), following which Treasury approval will be sought. The business case proposes 6 regional PPPs which have been been divided up as follows:

  • North East

  • North West

  • East Midlands

  • West Midlands

  • South East

  • South West

Project Phoenix is currently targeting the issuing of the first OJEU Notices [European tenders] in late June 2017, with the first PPPs going live later in 2017, which is a very ambitious timetable. The current plan is to use one procurement timeline to appoint all six partners for the programme. Given that it is estimated by industry commentators that this new PPP will be worth £3bn-5bn, this is one bird we will all be watching."

[Bold and underline added]

This is published on the website of CMS Legal Services, a partnership with more than 1000 partners and a strong real estate department. This article provides authoritative corroboration of an article in today's Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jun/16/most-of-central-london-hospital-to-be-sold-off-secret-plans-reveal.

The final paragraph in this is:

"The Health Service Journal disclosed last week that the Department of Health was preparing to create six regional public/private partnerships covering all of England that would oversee such sales. The plan, codenamed Project Phoenix, would see the proceeds from asset sales being shared between NHS organisations and private firms. Under the plan, London and the south-east would comprise one giant, and very valuable, area."

 

Let Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, the London North West Healthcare NHS Trust and the Collaboration of NW London CCGs deny now that they plan to sell off "surplus" land - however that is defined!

 

 

 (from: "Private Eye")

Election result boosts NHS campaigners

Details

The final general election result - Conservatives 318, Labour 262, SNP 35, Lib Dems 12, DUP 10, Greens 1 and others 12; total 650 - is a stunning rejection of the austerity policies of the previous Government. But it is not quite enough to end them. The DUP appear to be ready to support the Conservatives to give them the slim majority of 6 which they need to continue in power. This will in practice be 13 because 7 Sinn Fein MPs refuse to take their seats.

But this is a very precarious arrangement, and it seems unlikely to survive another year. And the Government is not even talking with the EU about Brexit!

The results in central London are spectacular: only five constituencies - Cities of London & Westminster, Chelsea & Fulham, Richmond Park, Putney and Wimbledon - remained in Conservative hands. Even Kensington was won by Labour - by 30 votes!  Further out to the north west Harrow East stayed Conservative.  This means that in the "footprint" of the NW London STP which covers 8 boroughs (not constituencies) the only ones with Tory administrations are Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Harrow. Pressure on the Labour boroughs which have not condemned the STP will surely increase.

Opinion about the outcome of the election on Conservative policy for the NHS and social care seems divided. On the one hand Chris Ham of the King's Fund foresees little immediate change to the direction of travel. Nigel Edwards of the Nuffield Trust disagrees. The dire state of the NHS is certainly, with Brexit, the first or second most important issue to the electorate, with every part of the UK affected by NHS cuts and closures programmes which are fiercely resisted by corresponding "Save our NHS" or "Save our Local Hospital" campaigns (Ipsos Mori 8th June 2017).

Underneath the jubilation is a nagging worry: the Conservative 2017 manifesto promised on p67 "We will hold NHS England’s leaders to account for delivering their plan to improve patient care. If the current legislative landscape is either slowing implementation or preventing clear national or local accountability, we will consult and make the necessary legislative changes. This includes the NHS’s own internal market, which can fail to act in the interests of patients and creates costly bureaucracy. So we will review the operation of the internal market and, in time for the start of the 2018 financial year, we will make non-legislative changes to remove barriers to the integration of care" [my bold]. The purpose of the abolition of the internal market is, of course, to consolidate Accountable Care Organisations (or Partnership, or Systems). The nature of the "non-legislative" changes is not specified, but in the last twenty years successive governments have made increasing use of Statutory Instruments (secondary, delegated legislation - supposedly to complete or "tidy up" primary legislation) to bring about legislative changes contrary to the primary legislation by stealth and without public scrutiny. George Monbiot explains these insidious, dishonest legislative manoeuvres.

The onus is now on all MPs to study carefully the long lists of proposed SIs and reject offending ones presented casually for voting by remaining MPs on Friday afternoons.....

More Articles ...

  1. General Election 8th June 2017: Vote for the NHS
  2. Vote for the NHS Meeting Tuesday 30th May 2017, Askew Road Church, W12
  3. Tories 'relaxed' about NHS crisis because they think election is won
  4. Crowd control

Ealing and H&F Councils' new petition

The Government should immediately halt plans to close services at Ealing and Charing X Hospitals,  including blue light Accident & Emergency care

Above is a link to a new petition set up by both councils. Please click and sign - until early 2018

H&F website: Residents are urged to rally against "flawed" hospital cuts. Rally on Sat 30th Sept (see left) and Health Summit at Hammersmith T H on Sat 4th Nov are organised by the Councils and SOH.

 

Donations

Please support our efforts.

Amount: 

ISBN 978-1-78535-045-0 and e-book 978-1-78535-046-7, 80 pages

published by Zero Books 31st July 2015

The story of how our NHS was sold off to private healthcare

and why you will have to buy insurance soon

 

Save Our Hospitals response to the NHS NW London STP

Please click here to read Save Our Hospitals response dated October 2016 to the NW London "Sustainability and Transformation Plan" published 30th June 2016 (NHS NW London STP 30th June 2016) (STP 30th June appendices here).

The current STP is the Oct 2016 version. In January 2017 the finance spreadsheets and the Delivery Plan were obtained by FOI. They reveal job cuts of 8,000, outpatients cuts of 222K, planned admissions cuts of 50K and A&E admissions cuts of 64K cumulatively by 2020/21. 500-600 beds will be cut by end March 2021.

 

 

People's Inquiry into NW London NHS - commission chaired by Michael Mansfield QC

The Inquiry's findings have been published on Wednesday 2nd December 2015. The full report can be accessed here.

“Deeply flawed hospital plans must be halted immediately” says Michael Mansfield QC

Please click here to read the Save Our Hospitals submission.
 

Watch the new video "Sell-off - The Full NHS Movie"

It's all explained in "SELL-OFF - THE FULL NHS MOVIE"

57 minutes - all the information - please watch

Twitter