• 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)

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.

Following the announcement  on 2nd July 2012 that the Joint Committee of North West London Primary Care Trusts was consulting on hospital closures across west London, over 250 concerned residents attended a meeting chaired by Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith, and decided to launch this campaign. The domain name is registered to Andy Slaughter MP and he continues to pay the annual fee and hosting charges for the site.

 

 

Update on 31st March: Appeal now fully funded - JR will be heard on 23rd and 24th May in the High Courts of Justice on the Strand

Round 3 appeal for the Pollock Judicial Review challenging the lack

of consultation and no parliamentary scrutiny of STPs starts.

 

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/jr4nhs-round3   #JR4NHS

The Guardian on-line election survey - 6th April:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/apr/06/england-local-elections-how-are-you-voting-and-why

An opportunity to tell pollsters how important are local NHS campaigns.

Suggested answers for "What are the main issues locally?"

(1) Name of your local health campaign

(2) Name of your local STP.

Just for the next few days!!

999CallfortheNHS Judicial Review "Comprehensive Healthcare for All" on 24th April at Leeds High Court

Details

The great day in Court is coming very soon!  On 24th April starting at 10am the High Court in Leeds will hear the arguments for comprehensive healthcare for all and against Accountable (now rebranded "Integrated") Care Organisations.

See:   https://you.38degrees.org.uk/events/justice4nhs-rally-24th-april-2018

Supporters are welcome in person for a dignified rally outside between 9am and 9.50am at:

Leeds High Court, 1 Oxford Row LS1 3BG
1 Oxford Row LS1 3BG
Leeds, LS1 3BG
 
Messages of support are also very welcome at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..   Strong messages - legal and polite - should be compassionate and encouraging.
 
For an overview of the issues at stake in this Judicial Review see their review dated 18th April:
 
"Our case is based on our deep concern that the Accountable Care Organisation contract is not only unlawful under current NHS legislation -  but would lead to restrictions and denial of NHS care, and the abandonment of the core NHS principle of providing comprehensive care to all who have a clinical need for it, free at the point of use.

It would replace this with health insurance company principles, based on assessments of financial risk and returns.  

Unlike the present system, which pays NHS providers an agreed price for the treatments they deliver to patients, the Accountable Care Organisation contract requires NHS commissioners to pay a fixed lump sum to cover the whole range of services for the population in a given area. This passes financial risk to the providers, and from providers to patients.

Because if providers were to get more patients needing more complex treatments than the fixed lump sum would cover, the pressure would be on to restrict or deny patients’ access to treatments. Particularly patients whose treatments are more costly and whose prognosis means their treatment is not such good value for money.

This would lead to a two tier health service where those who can pay go private and the rest are left with a bargain basement, limited NHS.

If NHS England wants to change price setting and payment methods for the provision of NHS services, it should do it in accordance with the law. If that means changing the law, that is something for Parliament - and the public that puts MPs there - to decide.

Nothing good happens when government and its quangos decide they are above the law"

 
 

Local Elections on Thursday 3rd May: don't forget to "Vote for the NHS"

Details

 

It's April 2018. And the campaign "Save Our Hospitals" has been going for nearly 6 years.

VOTE  FOR  THE  NHS!

The campaign is to save Charing Cross Hospital as a major acute hospital with a blue light ambulance, tier one, consultant-led, 24/7 Accident and Emergency dept, with approx 400 beds with a full range of acute medical services with diagnostic facilities, surgery and oncology treatment, etc. Everything that makes a District General Hospital - a rather special one as it is one of Imperial College Medical School's network of teaching hospitals with St Mary's, Paddington, the Hammersmith Hospital and Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital.

And yet, despite the worst "winter crisis" that any doctor can remember and no relief in sight, the NHS has still not budged from its support for the flawed plans in "Shaping a Healthier Future" and the NW London "Sustainability and Transformation Plan" which call for Charing Cross to be "downgraded" to a "local hospital" with a dozen or so beds, which is in truth a clinic.

As we approach the local elections for Hammersmith and Fulham Council on Thursday 3rd May -

Don't forget

VOTE  FOR  THE NHS !

 

 

NHS Subsidiary Cos: backdoor privatization

Details

NHS trusts transferring staff into subsidiary companies to cut VAT

"Sub Cos" (or SPV - Special Purpose Vehicles) also offer new opportunities to dispose of land

Labour warns of impact on staff and standards of ‘back-door privatisation’

Haroon Siddique - The Guardian - 14th February 2018

 

Nineteen trusts have transferred non-clinical NHS staff into subsidiary companies, via a process previously described as akin to “back door privatisation”, and another 16 have plans to do so, an investigation has found.

The Health Service Journal research, published on Wednesday, suggests that almost 3,000 estates and facilities staff are already employed by eight trust-owned subsidiaries, with the majority having transferred from the parent trust.

Of those in the pipeline that provided figures, the average number of staff being transferred is around 530, which if matched at all 16 trusts would equate to more than 8,000 staff.

Staff members whose employment is transferred to the new companies will no longer be NHS employees, even if they have been guaranteed the same working conditions.

New staff employed by the subsidiary companies may not be employed on NHS terms and conditions, and may no longer be guaranteed NHS pensions.

One of the main benefits to trusts is reducing their VAT bills. But Labour and trade unions have warned that they open the door to driving down wages, pensions and conditions of thousands of NHS staff – and therefore service standards.

Pollock JR - JR4NHS - costs capped and "public interest" protected

Details

 

By Peter Roderick

In an important judgment in the High Court this morning, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb found against the Secretary of State and NHS England who had fiercely resisted our renewed application for a cost capping order. She granted an order that in the event of us losing the JR, our liability for the Secretary of State's and NHS England's costs would be no more than £80,000 each; and she ordered them to pay our costs of the hearing.

She found that this was a case which met the statutory test of public interest, brought by responsible and public-spirited individuals, and that as the costs of the defendants were "very high" they should be capped so that the case could go ahead. She added that as the public was funding both sides, as tax-payers and through CrowdJustice, a capping order was “entirely appropriate”.

She also ordered that in the event of us winning the JR, the defendants' liability to pay our costs would be capped at £115,000.  Before the hearing we had offered a cap of £100,000 for our costs.

This judgment is fantastic news and a great relief. We now know that the money our supporters have donated will be enough to pay the defendants' costs if we were to lose the JR, and that with a bit more fund-raising we have a good chance of being able to cover our own lawyers' 'reduced fee' costs.

As of 22.30 on 26th February we still need just under £700 to reach the £100,000 "stretch" goal by 8pm on 1st March.

This is the link for Round 3: www.crowdjustice.com/case/jr4nhs-round3 

Thank you

UPDATE

As of 31st March 2018: the funding goal has been reached and no more money is needed for the case to proceed. Over 9,400 donations amounting to more than £280,000 across 3 rounds - a phenomenal response - has made this case possible.  THANK YOU EVERY PERSON WHO GAVE TO THE APPEAL.

 

More Articles ...

  1. Pollock Judicial Review: we're winning - but we've got a serious problem
  2. NHS England announces consultation on ACO contracts - 25th Jan 2018
  3. Think Carillion is bad? Wait until you see what the government wants to do with the NHS
  4. Crowd-funding: third stage appeal for 999CallfortheNHS judicial review against ACOs

"The  Americanisation  of the NHS

happening right here, right now"

The structures and organisation of the NHS are rarely in the headlines

- The American health care industry and their representatives’ role is key to understanding what has happened, what is happening, and what is about to happen.

www.publicmatters.org.uk

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

 

World Economic Forum, Davos

The Financial Sustainability of Health Systems: A Case for Change

In collaboration with McKinsey & Co (2012)

Simon Stevens, President, Global Health, UnitedHealth Group
Now CEO, National Health Service

Report summarizes "cutting edge" thinking in global health care provision - 20 pages

and provided inspiration for "Sustainability and Transformation Plans" and ACOs in 2016

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

facebook_page_plugin
Twitter