Latest news on who will run our community health services & more
The Summer is over but it has certainly was a busy one for Ealing Save Our NHS (ESON). Some of our worst fears about local health bosses (Ealing CCG) plans to get a single provider to run our Out of Hospital services (community health services), have been realised. Our local NHS Trust, who provide community nursing and many other services decided not to bid – definitely bad news. On the bright side though we managed to give Virgin Care, who want to get their hands on our NHS, a bit of an upset when they came to Ealing last month – please read on….
Who might run our local community health services?
The whole process of choosing who will win the 10 year, 1.3bn, contract to run our Out of Hospital services (community health services) is shrouded in secrecy but, we now know that at least two NHS Trusts felt unable to bid. These are:-
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (our local Trust) who did not submit a bid because there was ‘a significant difference between the cost of the quality of care required and the amount that the tender allows us to spend’.
And Central London Community Health Trust (CLCH) who pulled out ‘because they can’t provide any decent safe service for the money the CCG was willing to pay’.
The fact that two Trusts felt unable to bid confirms our worst fears that the Contract is not safe, not financially viable and likely to fail as a similar one did in Cambridgeshire. And of course our local Trust is likely to face huge financial problems. Not only will they lose around £45 million in income, but have lost the benefits of sharing costs and staff across both the hospital and community health services. Ealing Hospital could well be a big loser in all this as we have pointed out in Letters to both Ealing CCG and national NHS regulators NHS Improvement.
We have now asked Ealing Council to join us in pressurising Ealing CCG to commission an independent impact assessment of the single contract on our local Trust and Ealing Hospital as soon as possible.
Virgin Care not welcome here say protesters:
Despite having less than a week to mobilise people, ESON managed to get over 50 people, to join our Protest against profiteers Virgin Care, who came to Ealing Town Hall to sell their wares on 17th August. We were joined by Keep Our NHS Public campaigners from London, West London Unite Community members, Julian Bell, Leader of Ealing Council and Rupa Huq MP.
Some of us went in to the Virgin Care Meeting, which exposed Virgin’s poor understanding of Ealing’s Community Health Services. They also didn’t seem to understand that they would be expected, if they won the single contract, to deliver a ‘transformation’ so that people would stop needing hospital beds or the A&E! And not surprisingly Virgin told lies about how good they were and tried to deny they had sued the NHS when they lost a contract in Surrey, which is well known!
NHS regulator says we will scrutinise Ealing Contract plans:
In 2015, an £800 million, 5 year Older Peoples and Adult Social Care Contract in Cambridgeshire collapsed when the Uniting Care Partnership, an NHS Consortium terminated the contract as it was ‘no longer financially viable’.
After this debacle NHS England and regulator NHS Improvement set up strict guidelines to ensure this did not happen again. We wrote to NHS Improvement and NHS England and asked them if they would be scrutinising the Ealing Out of Hospital Contract tendering process and were assured they would. In their own words:-
“We (NHSI and NHS England) shall collectively consider whether the Ealing CCG governing body and the preferred bidder, when identified, can demonstrate that: …. .. the commissioner (ECCG) and preferred provider have the capacity and capability to deliver the contract.
I think our readers know that we don’t think either the CCG or whoever wins the Contract can deliver but it’s good to know they are being scrutinised.
SAGE Public Meeting ‘Who is taking over our NHS’, Thurs 27th Sept
Seniors Action Group Ealing (SAGE) is holding this very welcome Public Meeting to discuss how the care of older people will be affected by putting community health services out to tender and how it might impact on specialist services, care homes etc. Initially, the CCG Chair, Dr Mohini Parmar and Managing Director, Tessa Sandall agreed to speak but then withdrew saying it might prejudice the procurement process and therefore they wouldn’t be able to answer all of peoples questions. Perhaps they didn’t like the look of the other speakers?
There is still a very good line-up of speakers with Dr Louise Irvine for Keep Our NHS Public, Julian Bell Leader of Ealing Council, Steve Pound MP and Eve Turner for Ealing Save Our NHS. Please spread the word and come along.
The Meeting is at 5.30pm on 27th September in Ealing Town Hall.
AND another Consultation on restricting 17 treatments
Stories abound now of patients being denied treatment, long delays and alternatives being offered that worsen your condition. Here is yet another rationing of treatment right across England. This time there are 17 treatments/ procedures up for the chop. These include knee arthroscopies for osteoarthritis, injections for non-specific back pain, varicose vein surgery and haemorrhoid surgery. Although it’s ‘claimed’ many of these treatments don’t work, they also aim to save £200 million despite all the extra money that was supposedly given to the NHS.
NHS England are now consulting on their plans, which closes on 28th September via an online Survey, easy to fill in. You can register your views here–
News story with the full list – here
Please come to our Campaign Meeting – Tuesday 18th September
We meet every third Tuesday in Northfields Community Centre to discuss and update ourselves on what’s happening in Ealing Hospital and our NHS, exchange ideas and thoughts and plan our campaign activities. We very much welcome new people and new ideas for things we can do.
Our friendly and informative meeting is at 7.30pm in Northfields Community Centre, 71a Northcroft Road, Ealing W13 9SS. Tea and Coffee also provided. It would be lovely to see some of you then.
Street Stall this Saturday in Ealing
This Saturday 15th September we will be leafleting and running a Stall outside Marks & Spencer in in Ealing Broadway from 11.00 – 1.00pm. Why not drop by and help or just say hello. Our latest leaflet is attached for a read.
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