Brent Trades Council 25/1/2016 (Report By P.Murry Brent & London Green
Party Trade Union Liaison Officer)
1)
College of N.W.London
I attended as an observer because Indro Sen
UCU Branch Secretary of the College of N.W.London had been invited. I was
trying to find out for Green Party TU group and UCU retired members’ branch
more info re the dispute at CNWL. Sen did not attend the meeting and info was
still needed on the current state of the
dispute ie: were the merger plans for CNWL and Westminster College, whether
there were any redundancies and was Sen himself suspended or dismissed, I’ll
try some other contacts at the College.
2)
NHS ‘Sustainability and Transformation Plans’.
There two speakers on this subject, one whose name I didn’t note, and
Anne Drinkell. In summary STP’s are the latest plan for NHS ‘reform’ seen by
many as an attempt to prepare for a privatised health service and introduction
of insurance related health provision. STP’s had been secretively planned with
minimum public and professional consultations. N.W.London ( Hounslow, Kensington&
Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Brent, Harrow and Ealing) was a prototype area
for STP’s . The rationales given of
improving specialist care, such as Cardiac provision, didn’t make much sense as
specialist provision was already available. Ealing and Charing Cross hospitals
were immediately under threat. STP’s could also foist more responsibility onto
local authorities for social care onto local authorities which couldn’t cope
with the responsibilities that they already had.
A more detailed summary of the issues around STP’s from the London Green
Party Campaigns discussions on 14/1/2017, is added below.
Considerable professional and public opinion against STP’s appears to be
gathering, the BMA has opposed them. Well attended public meetings had taken
place in Hammersmith and Brent Labour Party was campaigning ahainst them at its regular stalls.
I t was reported (by G.Durham), to have
instructed Brent Council to oppose although Brent Labour group leader had advocated a ‘dented shield’ strategy of
being involved with STP’s in order to
mitigate their worst effects. The Trades Council agreed to support the
NHS demo on 4 March (http://www.prruk.org/4-march-2017-its-our-nhs-national-demonstration/),
the Green Party was supporting this.
3)
Other matters discussed
a)Post Office Closures: Harlesden Post
Office Threatened: impractical scheme of re-Locating Post Offices inside local
shops. (see http://greenseniors.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/green-seniors-should-support-postal.html).
APPENDIX
LONDON FED POLITICAL EDUCATION SESSION ON HEALTH SERVICE ISSUES, 14.1.
17
NOTES OF DISCUSSION AND SPEAKERS’ PRESENTATIONS
Speakers:-
Heather Finlay, Green
Party activist in Hackney and lay member of Hackney CCG, also of Hackney
Healthwatch: the Sustainability and Transformation Plans; what they mean, how they
threaten major cuts, how to respond to this.
Merril Hammer, Save
our Hospitals Campaign Hammersmith and Charing Cross; experiences of opposing
hospital closures and how to campaign to preserve what we have.
Helen Mercer; People
vs PFI
Pam Zinkin; Islington
KONP (Keep our NHS Public)
Some web sites to
look up for background:-
Health Campaigns
Together: www.healthcampaignstogether.com/
Keep our National
Health Service Public (KONP): www.keepournhspublic.com/
People vs PFI: www.peoplevspfi.org.uk/
There was quite a lot
in this meeting about ‘Sustainability and Transformation Plans’. Each group of
London boroughs has one – they aim to reduce the cost of the NHS by various
‘savings’ which include moving people out of hospital faster and treating more
of them as outpatients in the first place. All this throws extra burdens on the
grossly over-stretched local authority social care budgets. A number of local
councils have refused to endorse the STP for their area, or merely to ‘note’ it
rather than say they support it. Campaigning to avoid these cuts can be
addressed to councillors as well as to central government. Hopefully resistance
from local councils and from within the medical profession will induce the
government to put more money into the NHS and into social care. The various
CCGs were supposed to sign contracts with NHS England to accept their local STP
on 23 December. What follows is a lengthy consultation period in which the
nature of the cuts can be debated and challenged – although unless central
government changes its mind, the extent of the ‘savings’ demanded has already
been set.
Notes of discussion –
main practical proposals
1) Green Parties should be seen to oppose
STPs. It’s not too late for councils to object. They can also impose conditions
on the STP partnership.
2) As individual Green members we can join
existing campaigns like HCT and KONP. It helps those organisations if Green
Parties affiliate.
3) We can also start our own campaign in
our area if there is none- but they tend to be more effective if non-party.
People can start a branch of KONP or HCT if there is none locally.
There is a helpful
resource pack on the HCT web site about campaigning, including against STPs.
4) We can and should support the NHS
Reinstatement Bill, which has its second reading in the House of Commons on
February 24th – see http://www.nhsbill2015.org/the-bill/
A helpful amendment
which could be proposed to this bill would be to alter the way in which
re-nationalisation of PFIs would be dealt with – as per Helen’s talk – to take
back the assets rather than the debt. Replacing the debt with government bonds
would help the companies rather than deprive them, and of course add to the
national debt. Alyson Pollock and Peter Ruddick may try to secure an amendment
to reflect this change.
PFI burdens on local
authorities are huge – this impedes them from taking responsibility for social
care properly.
Contracting out of some
NHS services means it is effectively being given away rather than sold for
money – see article in the latest Green World (the one about to come out ?).
(This was from Mike Gold; see also his own blog, www.radicalsoapbox.com).
Although there is
little money left in the NHS for adequate monitoring of services, the public
can hold PFI companies and sub-contractors to account through Healthwatch.
There are meetings where the results on ‘key performance indicators’ are
presented and can be challenged. There are financial penalties if these key
indicators are not achieved.
Some debate as to the
relative importance of local actions like this and national lobbying and
Parliamentary intervention. However…
5) the meeting was impressed by Heather
Finlay’s role on the CCG and Healthwatch in Hackney, and concluded ‘every Green
Party needs a Heather’ – though with a warning that this sort of committee work
is very time-consuming.
It’s hard to get the
public to believe and take in what is happening to the NHS – they just think
everything is ok unless their own or their family’s treatment hits an obstacle.
6) It’s important to issue lots of
leaflets, which must be very simple and avoid acronyms. Green Parties can help
distribute KONP, HCT etc leaflets with Greens’ own material. So when we do a
leaflet round, we can add a health related leaflet to it as well.
7) Publicising the issues about the NHS
crisis and its roots in STPs, PFIs and sub-contracting can also be done through
social media; especially useful to create video clips.
8) The March 4 demo about the NHS will be
very important and we should start mobilising for it.
9) We should set up a London group within
the London Fed to support local parties in health related campaigning and
coordinate between them, for example the several boroughs who share a
particular STP ‘footprint’.
Helen Mercer of
People against PFI outlined the dangers and costs of PFIs and – as described
above under point 4 - mentioned an apparent flaw in the forthcoming NHS
Reinstatement Bill; that it calls for re-nationalisation (i.e. public buy-back)
of the PFI debt, whilst a better policy would be to call for the buying back of
the much smaller amount of equity capital in the PFI company, thus acquiring
the assets involved. The arguments she made are already online at:-
Merril Hammer of Health
Campaigns Together talked about the STPs (Sustainability and Transformation
Plans) and strategies to oppose them including by and involving local
councillors. Text of talk ...scroll down...
Forthcoming health
related events:-
Saturday 28 January
London Rally & Protest - Hands off our NHS
12:30 Old Palace Yard. Invite
your friends on Facebook here.
Message about 4 March
demo from Health Campaigns Together:-
The leaflet for the 4th March Demo will be available by 12th January;
please send Louise your orders
louise.irvine@runbox.com
(make sure you include a postal
address).
It is a generic leaflet. If groups want a PDF designed with their local
details about coaches or contacts added to the design let us know and we can
get it designed and sent back to you for local printing. We are very grateful
to People’s Assembly for leaflet design and to Unite for printing.
Some groups are doing a day of action on Saturday 14th to help build for
the demo and if you would like leaflets for that please let Louise know as soon
as possible so we can get them to you in time.
We also have a website now www.ournhs.info.
Please send any information about local groups’ arrangements, coaches
and contact details and we will upload to the website. This will be
particularly helpful for people who find out about the demo but don’t know
about local transport arrangements.
Please share the information with your local contacts and on social
media via Facebook and Twitter (#ourNHS). There is a demo Facebook page :https://www.facebook.com/events/1771664639725061/
Finally, any donations would be welcome towards our costs. You can
donate to Health Campaigns Together and the details on how to send donations
are on the HCT websitewww.healthcampaignstogether.org
(Louise said) I also attach our list of demo supporters so far. (it is
not complete). If anyone has any to add please let me know. It would be good to
have the growing list of supporting organisations on the website.
The HCT meeting on 21 Jan will discuss plans for the demo and we are
hoping there will be a wide representation of campaigners there.
Any queries just email or you can phone me on 07922 277395.
Best wishes and happy new year to you all,
Louise
Merril’s talk on
STPs:-
TALK – GREEN PARTY – 14TH JANUARY 2017
SUSTAINABILITY AND TRANSFORMATION PLANS
(STPs)
1. WHAT IS AN STP?
·
Sustainability and Transformation Plan
·
Slash Trash and Privatise
·
Slash Trash and Plunder
·
44 ‘footprints’ across England, 5 of
them in London – combining CCGs and local councils
2. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF STPs?
·
Govt and NHSE – to improve health
provision in the context of a population that is growing older, living longer
and is presenting more complex problems.
·
Reality: cutting funding and moving to
more privatisation. What is proposed is politically driven and not driven by
health concerns. Tories never liked the NHS. Elected on a ‘no more top down
reorganisation of NHS’ they have, first, had the Health and Social Care Act
2012 implemented. This rolled out the marketisation of health care. (Caroline
Lucas is fighting this with the NHS reinstatement bill), and now, with no
legislation and no full parliamentary debate, instituted the STP top down
reorganisation.
3. WHAT ARE THE KEY
FEATURES OF STPs?
·
CUTS. Nationally, the NHS has to
deliver £22bn in cuts by 2020/21
·
Huge reduction in hospital beds,
closing A&Es, moving to more ‘care in the community’ – it varies to some
extent between STPs – but let me give some figures for the NW London STP
·
Closure of 2 hospitals and more than
500 acute beds to be lost, despite effects of earlier A&E closures… Aim to
cut more than £1.3bn in NW London … increased workloads for already
overstretched GPs … more online GP consultations … privatisation through
American-style ACPs … and by encouraging prevention and wellbeing so people
don’t get sick!!
·
Lack of evidence – and what they do
present is ‘unfit for purpose’ – and the costings etc. don’t add up!
·
Dependence on social services – now
hugely cut and without more than a minimal ‘bribe’ from NHSE. And dependence on
unpaid carers … in our STP, 103,001 unpaid carers.
·
Innovation in context of cuts simply
cannot work
·
Not only are STPs being implemented
without parliamentary approval; local consultation is a farce – more a sales
job to a very limited no. of people
·
Further, STP governance is moved
further away from any form of local accountability. Meetings will not
necessarily be open to public. Much local control disappeared with the 2012 Act
and the setting up of unaccountable CCGs (Clinical Commissioning Groups) which
are really a market mechanism. Now, the governance will move even further from
local accountability.
4. CURRENT CRISIS
·
Clearly a result of ongoing cuts to the
NHS, particularly hospital services. In NW London, there has been no recovery
from the disastrous closure of 2 A&Es – and yet 2 hospitals are to be
closed and turned into glorified UCCs (Urgent Care Centres) when they can
neither cope with current emergencies and the growing backlog of non-urgent
operations.
·
This is a pattern being repeated across
the country
·
In Worcester, only this week, 2 people
died waiting for care, one after a 35 hour wait on a trolley; the other of an
aneurism after many hours on a trolley.
·
More people being seen in corridors
etc.
·
The details being covered in the press
are the tip of the iceberg!
·
One patient in NW London, with acute
appendicitis, was not seen for 16 hours in total. She attended one hospital,
was transferred to another and then to another … with long waits, in pain, at
each. This is shocking!!
·
Overwhelmingly, the crisis is being
caused by lack of beds for seriously ill patients, staff shortages partly
because of funding and partly the result of recruitment issues (a real problem
in London) and NOT because people are inappropriately using A&Es. The
government is moving blame from itself to the patient – this is dangerous. A
small anecdote on staffing: Richard Sykes (Chair of NHS London); ‘working our
staff to death’ – there are no efficiency savings left to be made.
5. COMPARATIVE FIGURES (OECD)
· Health care
expenditure in Germany, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and
Austria in 2015 was higher than UK expenditure as % GDP – and it has fallen significantly
since. Indeed, this week The Guardian said that % GDP spent on health is
already at 6.6% - compared to 11% in Germany and an EU average of 9.9% in 2015.
· Practicing doctors
per 1000 population. European average 3.5; UK average 2.8 – only just above
poor eastern European countries
· MRI units – Europe
average 15.4; UK – 6.1 per million population
· CT scanners – key for
cancers – Europe average 21.4; UK – 8 per million population. And for both, the
no of actual MRI scans or CT scans are well below the European average. Also
interesting, then, that cancer survival rates are poor in the UK.
· Indeed, mortality
rates for pneumonia and COPD in the UK are also significantly worse than the
European average.
· Hospital beds per
1000 population. European average is 5.2; UK is 2.7 – and Germany has 8.2.
6. WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Give some
consideration to priorities for Green Party, Green councillors and individual
Green party members.
·
Get the Green Party, locally and
nationally, to oppose STPs. It is NOT too late to get councils to object!
Signing up without proper scrutiny etc.
·
Join, as individuals, local campaigns –
non-party political but would be welcomed with open arms
- London STP areas
and local campaigns
NW London: Westminster, K&C, H&F,
Hounslow, Ealing,
Brent, Harrow, Hillingdon
SW London: Croydon,
Kinsgton, Merton, Richmond,
Sutton, Wandsworth
SE London: Bexley,
Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth,
Lewisham, Southwark
NE London: Barking
and Dagenham, City of London,
Hackney, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Tower
Hamlets, Waltham Forest
N Central London:
Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey
Islington
- start a campaign if
there isn’t one in your area
· Get the Green Party –
nationally and local branches – to affiliate to KONP (Keep our NHS Public) or
HCT (Health Campaigns Together). See web sites www.keepournhspublic.com/ and www.healthcampaignstogether.com/
· Familiarise yourself
with information about STPs and campaigning – see HCT website
· Support the March 4th demo.
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