Thanks to everyone who helped out and came to see us on our Stall at Hanwell Carnival. It was great to talk to so many local people about the NHS crisis and to promote our campaigns. This year as always there was huge public support for our NHS combined with lots of stories of the difficulties in accessing services and big waits for vital treatment.
Hundreds of people took our leaflets and agreed to send a message to the new North West London Integrated Care System Chair opposing private companies sitting on the Integrated Care Board, and around 200 people signed our ‘Re-open Mental Health Beds’ Petitions.
And the kids loved the ‘skeleton’ photo opportunity!
According to the CQC, in their recent Inspection Report, Ealing Hospital staff ‘treat patients with compassion and kindness and respect their privacy and dignity’ – certainly good to hear but not surprising to us.
As we move closer to the break up of our NHS into 42 new ‘Integrated Care Systems’ (ICS) there are grave concerns about unreasonable targets, placing even greater pressures on staff to be ‘more productive’, and big financial squeezes. It seems that the North West London ICS, which includes Ealing, is starting its life with a £93 million deficit – and it’s a similar story around the country.
IT’S CARNIVAL TIME IN HANWELL – JOIN US THIS SATURDAY 18TH JUNE
Once again Ealing Save Our NHS is joining in the festivities with our colourful Stall and some fun for the kids. We have a great new leaflet calling on the new NWL ICS not to allow private companies to sit on their Boards, and balloons and stickers too. It has become a tradition to have a photo opportunity and this year ‘Skeletons’ are the theme again, with our ‘face in the hole’ as you can see from the photo above.
If you are visiting Hanwell Carnival please come and say a hello, take a photo and a leaflet or have a look at our new leaflet here.
CATCH UP ON OUR EXCELLENT SPEAKER – PAUL DAY – ON ‘YOUTUBE’
We were delighted in May to have Paul Day from the Pharmacists Defence Association & Union as our Guest Speaker and he was really fascinating. We certainly realised we didn’t know very much about Pharmacists at all!
There are 58,000 Pharmacists in the UK, 66% are female and 45% BAME but seniors are usually men.
Mostly pharmacists are employees not owners. The PDA has 34,000 members and is the only independent union for pharmacists. Half the sector is in the hands of 10 companies- Boots and Lloyds are the best known in London.
To qualify as a pharmacist takes a minimum of five years and although they have considerable medical training, the emphasis is on supplying medicines to meet individual needs. Perhaps it’s not a surprise that they often pick up on GPs mistakes and can help with more minor conditions.
Pharmacists as we know are the most accessible part of NHS where anyone can speak to a health professional and sometimes that’s what many of us do as when we can’t see out GPs.
Current issues for the union include; pay and workplace pressure; violence & abuse; safer pharmacies; unnecessary closures; remote supervision and prescription charges.
Interesting to note on unnecessary closure, that despite Boots sent £4 billion to their parent company despite closing pharmacies at times due to staff shortages – profits first!
BBC EXPOSE – OPEROSE RUN SURGERIES PUT PROFITS BEFORE PATIENTS:
An investigation by BBC’s Panorama (shown on Monday 13th June) has found that Operose, the UK’s biggest chain of GP surgeries, has let less-qualified Patient Associates (PA) see patients without adequate supervision leading to claims that the company is putting profits before care quality. A PA can see patients and support GPs in diagnosis and patient management, but is supposed to have supervision from a GP.
The BBC sent in undercover reporter Jackie Wakefield to work as a receptionist in one of the 51 GP surgeries owned by Operose Health, a subsidiary of US private insurer, Centene. It was at this surgery that a GP said they were short of eight doctors and the practice manager said they hired the less qualified Patient Associates because they were “cheaper” than GPs – Operose employs six times as many physician associates as the NHS average, according to NHS data.
For every 2,000 registered patients, there are on average the equivalent of 1.2 full-time GPs. But at Operose practices the average is half that,at a little over 0.6 full time equivalent GPs
While undercover, Panorama was also told about a backlog of important patient referral documents, often unread by doctors or pharmacists for many months.
NHS campaigners who opposed the takeover of AT Medics GP Surgeries in 2021 by Operose/Centene have certainly been vindicated.
And if you can access BBC I Player you can still watch the excellent Panorama expose which was shown on Monday 13th June at 8.00pm on BBC 1.
CQC INSPECTION OF EALING HOSPITAL:
The CQC did an unannounced inspection of Ealing and Northwick Park Medical Care and Core Surgery and a separate inspection of how ‘well led’ the London North West Trust is. Overall the Trust is still rated as ‘requiries improvement’and the Trust itself agrees that is a fair rating at this time.
Whilst Ealing Hospital medical care staff were deemed to ‘treat patients with compassion and kindness and respect their privacy and dignity’, overall the service was rated as ‘requires improvement’. Reasons for this rating included – high vacancies among nursing staff, uncertainty about responsibilies in some areas and senior executive teams and some ward leaders not being visible, as based at Northwick Park. ESON is not surprised by some of the problems as we have maintained that Ealing has been neglected by the Trust until fairly recently.
Surgery however, was rated as ‘good overall’ with similar comments about the treatment of patients and good leadership within the surgical teams. There was also one area in medical care and two in surgery that were rated as ‘outstanding’. One of these was upskilling surgical staff to enable outpatient and inpatient teams to work together more responsively to improve patient outcomes – good news for us!
Northwick Park received the same ratings as Ealing for both medical care and surgery.
We look forward to hearing how the Trust plans to address the inspectors concerns and achieve a ‘good overall’ rating, which it has committed to do.
GP EXTENDED HOURS MAY NOT BE SUCH GOOD NEWS:
In October this year the Government has said that Primary Care Networks (groups of GP surgeries) must provide extended hours from 6.30 – 8.00pm Monday Friday and 9.00 – 5.00pm on Saturday in the area covered. For many patients who work full time this must sound like a really positive move.
Primary Care Networks range from 5-10 practices so the chance of seeing your own GP during the extended hours is small. It is hard enough not being able to see your own GP but this would make continuity of care even less likely.
Latest figures of GP numbers show that there is just over 1 GP for every 2200 patients. There are 1343 fewer doctors then in 2017 but 3.1 million more patients – it’s no wonder that GPs are leaving.
The British Medical Association, who represent doctors, are not in favour of this extension of hours and apparently they haven’t been consulted despite their best efforts. They think it will only add to the number of GPs leaving the service.
It is an example of yet another sticky plaster fix from this Government. Instead of properly funding and training more GPs – lets just try and squeeze more out of them!
JAVID CALLS NHS ‘A DEFUNCT BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO STORE IN AGE OF NETFLIX’ !
The NHS is a “Blockbuster healthcare system in the age of Netflix,” according to Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, who presumably thinks that – like Netflix – the NHS needs to be saddled with unsustainable debt, much more expensive than its rivals, and falling behind on quality and options.
“He said large-scale changes were needed in areas such as the use of technology and data to help frontline workers deliver the high-quality service the public expects.
And this includes a big push on productivity to save £4.6 Billion a year and definitely no new money.
It is expected that the managers will once again be under the hammer even though it is generally held that the NHS has far too few managers. They are only 2% of the workforce and as a result doctors and nurses are being forced to spend hours doing managerial and admin work, time that could be better spent doing actual doctoring and nursing.
‘THIS IS GOING TO HURT’- AUTHOR ADAM KAY TO SPEAK AT ESON JULY MEETING!!
The well-known author and former doctor Adam Kay has agreed to speak and answer questions at our online July Meeting. He is best known for his book, This is Going to Hurt’, which was recently a television series. The book and series focus on his experiences as a obstetrics and gynaecology junior doctor from 2004-10.
The series was ironically partly filmed in Ealing Hospital’s empty Maternity Unit, which was an added incentive for him to speak to us.
You can hear Adam Kay on Tuesday 26th July – more details nearer the time.
Yet none of this causes ‘our’ Government to change course. Instead they have pressed ahead with the Health & Care Act, which will only make matters worse, and have set impossible financial targets for NHS Trusts and the newly created ‘Integrated Care Boards’. If they comply with these targets it will mean a much worse service for all patients.
All the more reasons for us to keep up our campaigning!!
**ESON CAMPAIGN MEETING: TUESDAY 17th MAY**
We hope you can join us at our online Campaign Meeting next Tuesday at 7.30pm
From 7.30 – 8.15pm we will hear from our Guest Speaker, Paul Day, Director of the ‘Pharmacist Defence Association and Union’ (PDA). The PDA represents and supports individual pharmacists (and pharmacy students). Pharmacists played a fantastic role in supporting the roll out of the Covid vaccine and are under increasing pressure from the Government to play an even greater role in patient care without extra resources. Paul will be happy to answer questions, including concerns about drug supplies.
From around 8.15pm we have the business part of our meeting where we will be discussing our Stall at Hanwell Carnival on 18th June, campaigning in ‘NWL’, ideas for leaflets and a report back on our meeting with local NHS officials on mental health and future NHS organisation in the Borough.
You are very welcome to join our meeting at 7.30pm on the Zoom link here –
EALING BROADWAY STREET STALL – SATURDAY 21ST MAY:
Our next Stall will be from 11.30 – 1.00 pm outside Marks & Spencers in Ealing Broadway. As usual we will have plenty of leaflets to give out and our Petition to reinstate acute mental health beds in the Borough.
If you can help for a while we will be very pleased to see you.
A ROUND UP OF WHATS HAPPENING IN NORTH WEST LONDON NHS:
Ealing Hospital: A review of services is to take place at long last! We are pleased to report that the new Chief Executive of London North West NHS Trust, Pippa Nightingale, has agreed to meet us to discuss this and other concerns.
North West London:
Along with other campaigners in North West London we attend the ‘in-public’ meetings of the North West London CCG, which covers eight Boroughs and is soon to be replaced by the North West London Integrated Care System (ICS). It is an opportunity for campaigners to gather information and ask questions about what’s happening to our NHS services.
Some of the highlights from the recent NWL CCG meeting are –
Unacceptable levels of bullying and harassment in NWL NHS: This was revealed in the National NHS Staff Survey along with general dissatisfaction among staff across the Board. The new NWL CEO Rob Hurd is making it his top priority to address it.
Finances under the Cosh: Plans to reduce their ‘projected’ £92.9million deficit – and the Government’s unreasonable targets of pre-Covid levels + 4% for elective care activity will only lead to more cuts.
Apparently NWL ICS is the lead for the London Ambulance Service and its £69 Million deficit, so more cuts for this struggling service no doubt.
Private Contracts: There are literally hundreds of contracts but we only get to hear about the eight over £5million. BMI/Circle are doing very well with a £6 million contract for ‘increasing elective care capacity’. Apparently the NHS can’t meet the Government’s 104% target without them.
Performance: Pretty much a tale of long A&E waits, emergency calls not being answered in 30 seconds as required and in some cases being ABANDONED. Shockingly people needing a Mental Health assessment routinely wait 12 hour in A&E and this was normal even before Covid!
‘HEALTH & CARE ACT – AN ATTACK ON THE NHS’ :
The Health & Care Act, which has just been passed by Parliament, is an attack on the NHS, breaking it up into 42 regional and separate units, called Integrated Care Systems (ICS),
These Integrated Care Systems cover huge areas. The North West London ICS, which includes Ealing, covers eight boroughs with a population of over 2.2 million.
It will have a massive budget (tightly controlled by Central Government) and total control over who delivers services and indeed what services are provided across the whole of North West London.
It will also open the doors to even greater privatisation and doing absolutely nothing to address the massive shortages of staff and chronic underfunding.- in fact there is even a threat to national pay and conditions for NHS staff.
We have a short article on our website that explains the new NHS structures and the threat of the Health & Care Act to the NHS.
It’s an easy read and it would be great if you could circulate it to friends and family.
FRIMLEY TRUST LOSES £9M FOR NOT MEETING GOVERNMENT TARGETS
Not far away from us in Surrey, is Frimley Health Foundation Trust who cover Wexham Park Hospital in Slough among others. The Trust is set to lose £9m for not meeting the Governments elective targets in 2022-23, £2m of which is because it needs to close theatres to fix a dangerous roof – you couldn’t even make this up!
The story in the ‘Health Service Journal’ goes on to say that, despite the theatre closures, the Trust still expects to carry out 99% of the amount of elective work it did in 2019-20. But this isn’t good for the Government, who have set every Trust a target of carrying out 104% of elective work they did pre covid.
An overall £35.2m deficit is predicted for Frimley for 2022-23 – bad news for their patients..
John Lister and the team at ‘the Lowdown’ have been very busy doing some in-depth research on the 42 new Integrated Care Systems due to come in to being on 1st July which will control health care across England, including in North West London.
Almost all of them are projecting big deficits in their first year which will bring them in to conflict with the Government who has made it very clear they must break even in 2022/23.
So all the fine words we have been hearing about the ‘benefits of integrated care systems’ are no more than a cover for a system of control to keep costs down regardless of patients needs or demographics.
North West London is not covered in the Lowdown article, but will be the subject of the next in-depth article – however it is still very interesting reading. Read it here.
HIGH COURT RULING AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT
The government’s policy towards care homes in England at the start of the Covid pandemic has been ruled illegal, in a significant blow to ministers’ claim to have thrown a “protective ring” around the vulnerable residents.
Dr Cathy Gardner, one of two grieving daughters who brought the case after their fathers died from Covid in care homes in April and May 2020, called on Boris Johnson to resign after the landmark ruling, saying the illegal care homes policy was just one of several failures in the management of the pandemic.
More than a quarter of all deaths among care home residents in March and April 2020 involved Covid-19 – more than 12,500 people.
Michael Mansfield QC, who chaired the People’s Covid Inquiry, urged the public to hold the Government to account: “If you can show in an individual case that a relative or loved one died as a result of exposure to someone who transmitting or carrying Covid, which is what must have happened in those early days, then obviously the first port of call is going to ministry and saying you want compensation”
Well done to Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris for shining the spotlight on this disgraceful treatment of vulnerable people, it shows that victories can be won against the Government.
‘THIS IS GOING TO HURT’- AUTHOR ADAM KAY TO SPEAK AT ESON JULY MEETING!!
The well-known author and former doctor Adam Kay has agreed to speak and answer questions at our online July Meeting. He is best known for his book, This is going to Hurt’, which was recently a television series. The book and series focus on his experiences as a obstetrics and gynecologic junior doctor from 2004-10.
The series was ironically partly filmed in Ealing Hospital’s empty Maternity Unit, which was an added incentive for him to speak to us.
You can hear Adam Kay on Tuesday 26th July – more details nearer the time.
The Health & Care Bill, which has just been passed by Parliament, is an attack on the NHS, breaking it up into 42 regional and separate units, called Integrated Care Systems (ICS),
These Integrated Care Systems cover huge areas. The North West London ICS, which includes Ealing, covers eight boroughs with a population of over 2.2 million. It will have a massive budget ( tightly controlled by Central Government) and total control over who delivers services and indeed what services are provided across the whole of North West London.
As each ICS is effectively autonomous they can choose which services to prioritise and which not to prioritise thus creating a postcode lottery. There is even a threat to national pay and conditions for NHS staff.
THE THREAT OF EVEN GREATER PRIVATISATION
One of the most publicised threats to the NHS has been that the Bill will open the doors to even greater privatisation. Decisions on awarding contracts will be taken by new Boards of ‘Directors’ called Integrated Care Boards (ICB)
Lots of campaigning was done to stop private companies sitting on these Boards but was unsuccessful. Instead the Chair of the ICB has the power to decide whether an appointment to the Board “could reasonably be regarded as undermining the independence of the health service”, which doesn’t actually preclude private companies from sitting on Boards or other committees and therefore able to influence decisions on what care is provided, by whom and for whom.
The one thing private companies won’t have to do anymore is compete with each other or the NHS to provide services, as the Health & Care Bill abolished the requirement to put contracts for NHS services through a competitive tendering process. However as the British Medical Association (BMA) has argued, without making the NHS the default provider, scrapping competitive tendering only opens the door to contracts being handed out to private companies without transparency. In other words – more cronyism!
A SNAPSHOT OF OTHER ASPECTS OF THE BILL
Undermining terms & conditions of NHS Staff – to meet Government financial targets ICSs will be under pressure to reduce costs by using fewer staff or less qualified staff or even introducing local pay.
Deregulation of NHS professions – downgrading nurses and doctors could now be on the cards
Discharge from hospital without assessment – no check to see if patients or carers can cope!
Powers for Secretary of State to intervene in reconfigurations – so they can push through closures of hospitals or A&Es like Ealing
“Digital first” approach to NHS – making online GP and hospital appointments the norm
Sharing of Patient Data – more profits for private companies, who can target patients for private treatment
Social Care Cap of £86,000 – good news for well-off people!
Emergency Care no longer specified as available to all those present in the area – so people not registered with a GP may be turned away – an undermining of a basic principle of the NHS.
KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC ON PASSING OF THE BILL STATEMENT
Keep Our NHS Public nationally and groups like Ealing Save Our NHS have been campaigning vigorously against the Bill.
You can read their response to the passing of the Bill here
YOU CAN DO SOMETHING TO STOP THE PRIVATEERS
The national anti-privatisation campaign – ‘We Own It’ has launched their ‘Rebuild our NHS: Get Private Profits Out’ campaign to build pressurise on ‘local NHS leaders’ across England.
The campaign’s demands are simple:
Ban private companies from being on our local NHS decision making boards & committees
Ban private companies from deciding who provides NHS services
End outsourcing and privatisation of NHS services
‘We Own It’ want help to get 3,000 emails sent to each Chair of the new 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICS).
They have made it very easy for you to send these emails.
All you have to do is click on this link and write in your postcode and in two minutes an email is on its way to Penny Dash, Chair of our ‘local’ North West London ICS.
Thanks to everyone who signed the ‘SOS NHS’ Petition calling for an urgent £20 billion for the NHS. A very respectable 177,000 signatures was handed in to Downing Street the day before the Spring Budget.
Well, unsurprisingly Chancellor Rishi Sunak did not deliver the funding we wanted but the fight
needs to carry on as chronic underfunding and understaffing exacerbated by the Covid Pandemic are putting NHS staff and services under intolerable strain.
Billions of pounds of NHS money have been given to private companies ill-equipped to deliver a decent service – whilst the NHS is starved of the funding and even more cuts are ordered to “make it more efficient”! It really is time to get the privateers out of the NHS. So please support the campaign to ‘Rebuild Our NHS and Get Private Profits Out’.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN
REBUILD OUR NHS: GET PRIVATE PROFITS OUT!
The private sector is making huge profits out of the NHS and this Government seems committed to give them even more of our money whilst starving the NHS of much needed funds.
The national anti-privatisation campaign – ‘We Own It‘ has launched their ‘Rebuild our NHS: Get Private Profits Out’ campaign to lobby local NHS leaders across England and have asked ‘Keep Our NHS Public’ groups like Ealing Save Our NHS to help.
The campaign’s demands are simple:
Ban private companies from being on our local NHS decision making boards & committees
Ban private companies deciding who provides NHS services
End outsourcing and privatisation of NHS services
The We Own Itcampaign aims to build unprecedented pressure on ‘local NHS leaders’. They want to get 3,000 emails sent to each Chair of the new 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICS). These Integrated Care System bodies will control NHS budgets from 1st July 2022 and plan ,decide and commission NHS services.
We Own It have made it very easy for us to send these emails.
All you have to do is click the link below and in two minutes an email is on its way to Penny Dash, Chair of our local North West London ICS.
‘KEEP FREE COVID TESTS’ – PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION
Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr John Puntis has set up this Petition which now has over 500,000 signatures. Although launched the day before free Covid tests ended, it is still worth signing and circulating. The end of free lateral flow and PCR tests, reflects a dangerous mindset that the Covid pandemic can be simply wished away by those hoping to persuade us that a return to ‘normal’ is imminent.
TIME TO STOP THE PING PONG AT EALING HOSPITAL:
Since 2017 when the disastrous plans (‘Shaping a Healthy Future’) to close our A&E and beds were finally consigned to the dustbin, we have been campaigning for a proper plan for Ealing Hospital.
Despite some much welcome investment in Ealing recently, the flow of services has mostly been one way – out of Ealing Hospital into Northwick Park Hospital. The situation was worsened by Covid when lots of services were closed and re-located, including 24 hour Emergency General Surgery and Trauma & Orthopaedics and were very slow to return. Emergency General Surgery re-opened only as a daytime service, while ambulances with suspected trauma patients continued to be diverted away from Ealing to Northwick Park.
Finally, as a result of campaigning by ourselves, MPs and especially the determination of the staff at Ealing Hospital, 24 hour Emergency General Surgery restarted in December 2021. Then on Monday 28th March the ambulance divert was finally lifted, so trauma patients will once again be treated at Ealing Hospital (hurrah!)
At a recent meeting of the Council’s Health & Wellbeing Board we heard that a Review is to finally take place of the ‘Ealing site’, which is welcome – better late than never. However in the meantime, more services are STILL being ‘centralised’ at Northwick Park Hospital.
Breast & Urology:
A major investment is to take place of Breast Care and Urology, but it comes as no surprise that the beneficiary is once again Northwick Park which, the Trust pretends, is patients’ favoured geographical location! (So apparently, this doesn’t depend on where people actually live.)
We have tried to impress on the London North West Healthcare Trust our concerns about the accessibility of Northwick Park and how such moves will worsen health inequalities, but so far they are not listening.
Ealing Hospital, we are told will retain the ‘current Breast Service’ (which is only 2 of the 4 pre-pandemic clinics) and treatments such as radiology and there will probably still be some Urology clinics at Ealing but not anything else. As for Central Middlesex Hospital, it seems its ‘so-called’ limited Breast & Urology services are to completely cease!
We hope to meet with the new London North West Trust Chief Executive, Pippa Nightingale, to raise our concerns and discuss the future for Ealing Hospital.
Public Satisfaction with the NHS at its lowest since 1997
A recent British Social Attitudes survey shows that public satisfaction with the NHS has fallen to just 36%, the lowest since 1997. Dissatisfaction with GPs has fallen quite dramatically with only 38% of patients satisfied with the service compared to 68% satisfaction in 2020.
For the first time people were asked what they thought the most important priorities should be for the NHS. Top of the list was making it easier to get a GP appointment, followed by improving waiting times for planned operations and increasing the number of staff in the NHS. This is not surprising, given the difficulties in getting GP appointments and when about four in ten people are either on the 6.1 million waiting list for treatment or have a family member who is on it.
Public support for the principles of the NHS remains strong with a big majority supporting the NHS being free when you need it and available to everyone and a significant majority supporting the NHS being primarily funded through taxation.
We would recommend reading GP Dr Nick Mann’s response to the public satisfaction survey on the Keep Our NHS Public website here
Mental Health Services near to collapse
According to a shocking new report by mental health charity stem4, publicised in The Guardian, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are in a state of near-collapse across much of the UK.
The report draws on a survey this Spring of 1001 GPs, and finds 95% of respondents believe CAMHS services are either in crisis or very inadequate, revealing a deterioration over the past six years.
Almost two thirds of GPs fear their young patients may come to harm through lack of access to treatment, with half reporting that 60% of their referrals are rejected, because young people’s symptoms of anxiety, depression or self-harm are not seen as “severe enough”. Almost one in five (18%) say a patient has attempted to or taken their own life due to lack of access to treatment over the past 12 months.
Cleaners and Porters at Croydon Hospital win a big pay rise
A strike at Croydon Hospital has been called off after GMB members won a ‘massive’ 24 per cent pay rise. Cleaners and porters at the South London hospital were due to walk out on Monday in a dispute over wages and sick pay. But now their employer, outsourcing giant G4S, has offered the workers an immediate 24 per cent pay rise with backpay and an occupational sick pay scheme. It’s great to see low paid workers who worked throughout the Covid pandemic winning some justice!
Kendal & South Lakes campaigners stop move to new hospital 45 miles away!
The story – a downgraded local hospital, a tick-box ‘public consultation’ and a local Healthwatch giving an veneer of fake accountability – that sounds a lot like our experience of fighting to save Ealing Hospital!
Local people in Kendal and South Lakes were supposedly being consulted on options for a bid to the New Hospitals Programme – except of course it was rigged for the favoured option, which was to close their nearest major hospital, the Lancashire Royal Infirmary and replace it and the Royal Preston with a new hospital 45 miles away near Preston.
A very vigorous campaign by Kendal & South Lakes Keep Our NHS Public has led to the removal of the option to build a new hospital near Preston. They now intend to fight on to get much needed funds for their local hospital, Westmoreland General which has been facing closure for some years. Yay! Well done to them!
“Are we going to fight for the NHS – YES WE ARE!!”
This was the was the resounding call at todays uplifting protest.
Over 70 people turned out for today’s SOS NHS Day of Action to show their support for our NHS and its workers. Lots of people driving by in cars, vans and buses who constantly beeped and took our leaflets.
Around the country there were over 80 similar events calling for emergency NHS funding now; pay justice for health & care workers and a publicly owned and run NHS.
A big thanks to all our speakers who did us proud expressing both passion and anger and urging us on to fight on to defend and save our NHS. And of course we had plenty of chants in between.
There was a really great turnout from all our lovely campaigners and supporters as usual. We were also joined by Dr Sonia Adesera from Keep Our NHS Public, Virendra Sharma MP and Dr Onkar Sahota, Ealing Reclaim Social Care Action Group, Southall Community Alliance, Seniors Action Group Ealing, Ealing Housing Co-op, Green Party, Indian Workers Association and Stand Up to Racism.
Thanks to all those who came and to Ealing Trades Union Council for all their help and support.
We certainly did show that we are here to fight for our NHS and support NHS workers all the way!
NHS workers are under the worst pressure ever, with beds at full capacity, huge waiting lists, staff shortages, and an insulting 3% pay offer for workers facing 7.1% inflation (and rising) has added to the demoralisation.
However, despite all the pressure and lack of resources NHS workers are still doing a fantastic job caring for us on the Covid wards and stepping up to help ensure that the booster vaccines get out to as many people as possible.
But coupled with the sheer exhaustion of 2 years of caring for Covid patients, it is no surprise that over 27,000 NHS staff left the service just in the last 3 months of 2021.
Hard as it will be, we need to make the Government urgently fund the NHS and that is why ‘Keep Our NHS Public’ and ‘Health Campaigns Together’ have launched a new campaign called ‘SOS NHS’.
If you want to get more involved in campaigning to save our NHS please support the new campaign and come to our AGM on Tuesday 18th January.
Wednesday 19th January SOS NHS RALLY – EMERGENCY FUNDING NOW !
SOS NHS is a new coalition of campaign groups and trade unions which are demanding emergency funding for the NHS to support services and staff and not the private sector.
This is the hardest winter ever in health and social care for a generation and that’s why SOS NHS believes we must act now to save staff morale, avoid a mental health crisis among health and care staff and safeguard services for patients and service users.
It’s three demands are –
Approve emergency funding of £20 billion to save lives this winter
Invest in a fully publicly owned NHS & guarantee free healthcare for future generations
Pay staff properly: without fair pay, staffing shortages will cost lives
Please join the Online Rally 7.00pm, Wednesday 19th January
Speakers from Keep Our NHS Public, Health Campaigns Together, People’s Assembly Against Austerity, Unite the Union, GMB, We Own It, NHS Support Federation, NHS Workers Say No, NHS Staff Voices, Doctors in Unite, Doctors for the NHS, personalities, politicians and more.
There will also be a SOS NHS National Day of Action on Saturday 26th Februarywhich aims to have local actions across the country. ESON will be supporting the SOS NHS campaign and discussing ideas for a local action at our AGM next week.
Please put the date in your diaries and watch out for our update.
ESON AGM & Meeting – Tuesday 18th January:
It’s AGM time, so we will be looking back over the last year and reviewing what we have done and discussing our campaigning priorities for 2022. It’s a good opportunity to find out more about what we have been doing and help us plan our campaigning for the next few months. You will be very welcome.
Our AGM kicks off with Lewis Baker, new Campaigns Officer with ‘Keep Our NHS Public (KONP), who will be talking to us about his work which includes liaising with local groups like us, and updating us on KONP’s national campaigning.
We will also be electing our Officers & Committee. If you are interested in getting involved please get in touch for more information – very happy to chat.
Join the meeting on Tuesday 18th January, 7.30pm here –
The Agenda will follow on Monday, so if you would like to attend, please email us.
Health & Care Bill
The Health & Care Bill which is now being debated in the House of Lords is a major threat to the NHS as a comprehensive, publically funded and publically provided service.
Some of the threats include:
Breaking up the NHS into 42 new Integrated Care Systems with huge budgets and the power to decide which services to provide – so a postcode lottery;
No requirement to provide an emergency services for everyone present in an area i.e. those not on a GP list.
Private sector companies allowed to sit on Integrated Care Boards and Committees and make decisions on how public money is spent – more profits for them!
Removing any requirement to assess patients care needs before they are discharged from hospital.
Loss of public accountability with no requirement for meetings of Integrated Care Boards to be held in public, publish papers or allow public questions in public.
Gives power to NHS Digital to share patient data with third parties including the private sector.
Giving the Secretary of State greater powers to intervene locally.
Although Health campaigners want to see the Bill thrown out we’re also hoping to persuade members of the Lords to amend some of the worst aspects as mentioned above.
Peoples Covid Inquiry writes to Met Police concerning ‘criminal matters’
In December the Peoples Covid Inquiry which was chaired by Michael Mansfield QC published its findings on the handling of the Covid Pandemic and concluded the Government was guilty of misconduct in office.
Keep Our NHS Public who conceived and organised the Inquiry have, following legal advice, written to Cressida Dick, Metropolitan Police Commissioner setting out the case that the Government has committed two criminal offences namely corporate manslaughter (excessive Covid deaths) and misconduct in public office.
BREAKING NEWS – Government PPE ‘VIP’ lane for political friends declared ‘unlawful’
Congratulations to the Good Law Project and EveryDoctor who successfully challenged the Governments secretive fast-track VIP lane for PPE contracts, worth billions of pounds, to those with political (i.e. Tory) connections. On Wednesday 12th January the High Court ruled this had been unlawful. The Court found in favour of the claimants and said:
“The Claimants have established that operation of the High Priority Lane was in breach of the obligation of equal treatment… the illegality is marked by this judgment.” (§512)
The Judge agreed the VIP lane conferred preferential treatment on bids: it sped up the process, which meant offers were considered sooner in a process where timing was critical, and VIPs’ hands were held through the process. Some justice at last!!
Three days after the World Health Organisation placed Omicron on its Covid “variants of concern” list, news slipped out that the UK government was planning to sell off the publicly funded Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC) in Oxford. While other countries have been scrambling to build vaccine capacity, Britain has chosen this precise moment to sell, to the highest bidder, what was to be its first strategic vaccine development and manufacturing centre.
According to the Government source, who leaked it to the Financial Times, since the private sector has stepped up so marvellously during the pandemic, producing huge quantities of vaccines there was simply no need for the Government to take part in making them itself!!
VMIC, when finished in 2023, is expected to be able to produce 70 million doses in six months. But rapid production is only one of the reasons to fund and build VMIC. The others include providing critical support to vaccine manufacturers at various stages in the process, from development through to taking a new vaccine into public use.
Oxfordshire Keep Our NHS Public has been working together with We Own Itto oppose this scandalous sell off – Please Sign the Petition
You can read more on this story from the excellent John Lister in ‘The Lowdown’
John Lister writing in the Lowdown reveals that Chancellor Rishi Sunak has shifted policy from giving the NHS “what it needs” to fight Covid to reportedly warning Health Secretary Sajid Javid that additional spending on will have to be paid for, either by cutting spending elsewhere or by raising taxes. Definitely worth reading.
Despite Covid we have still had some good protests this year, including our celebration of the NHS 73rd Birthday in July and have recently resumed Street Stalls in Ealing, West Ealing and Greenford.
So a big thanks to everyone who has supported us over the year.
We have focused on spreading the word about the dangers to our NHS of the Health & Care Bill- yet another Government major re-organisation, just when the NHS is under the most enormous pressures and nearly 6 million people are stuck on waiting lists!
And have also been highlighting the Mental Health Crisis and the lack of any beds in Ealing for children, young people and adults.
OUR DECEMBER ROUND UP OF NEWS AND SOME PHOTOS:
‘Misconduct in Public Office’ says Peoples Covid Inquiry:
The Peoples Covid Inquiry has been a tremendous achievement by ‘Keep Our NHS Public’. Following months of interviews and evidence gathering the final report was presented at a successful Press Launch on 1st December.
Accusing the government of “serious governance failures”, the Peoples Covid Inquiry said: “These contributed to tens of thousands of avoidable deaths and suffering, and they amount to misconduct in public office.”
Some of the press coverage is well worth reading, link here
The Inquiry Chair, Michael Mansfield QC, said there had been “dismal failure in the face of manifestly obvious risks”.
He said the probe had identified a “theme of behaviour amounting to gross negligence by the government, whether examined singularly or collectively”.
“There were lives lost and lives devastated, which was foreseeable and preventable. “From lack of preparation and coherent policy, unconscionable delay, through to preferred and wasteful procurement, to ministers themselves breaking the rules, the misconduct is earth-shattering.”
KEY FINDINGS INCLUDE:
1. The depleted state of the NHS and other public services prior to the pandemic was a determining factor in poor outcomes and led to avoidable deaths.
2. The government was poorly prepared for the pandemic and moved too slowly, which led to avoidable death.
3. The government adopted the wrong strategy leading to loss of life and growing mistrust in its advice.
4. The government’s poor record on inequalities has put the most vulnerable at risk from illness and death from Covid-19.
5. Misconduct in public office: There has been dismal failure in the face of manifestly obvious risks.
And, of course we will keep you updated on any legal action against the Government!
Our Last Stall of the Year:
It’s been lovely to be able to talk to people again on the streets about what’s happening to our NHS and to hear their concerns. We had lots of support in Ealing and West Ealing, while Greenford was as welcoming as usual on December 4th. We gave out lots of our leaflets opposing the Health & Care Bill and on the Mental Health crisis. Most popular was our Petition calling on the NHS to urgently provide acute psychiatric beds for adults, children and young people in this Borough. 13 people braved the cold to help – what stars!
ESON joins Protests Against the Health & Care Bill:
Despite the unprecedented pressure on the NHS with queuing ambulances, patients on trolleys, 6 million people on waiting lists and GPs unable to cope, this Government is more interested in pushing through a major re-organisation so they can exercise more control of the NHS and open it to even more privatisation.
In November we joined in a very lively protest in London against the Health & Care Bill, on the eve of the Third Reading. Unsurprisingly the Bill went through the Commons and is now in the Lords – where there will be further attempts to amend some of the worse aspects.
We had a good turn out from Ealing and were pleased to see Rupa Huq MP speaking on the platform. It was a real coming together of different campaigns, MPs and unions with much determination to fight on to defend our NHS.
SIGN THE PETITION TO THE LORDS
Anti-privatisation campaign group ‘We Own It’ are asking people to help lobby Members of the House of Lords. By signing and circulating their Petition. It asks the Lords to amend the Health and Care Bill to stop private companies sitting on NHS boards and make the NHS the default provider.
Round up of News from Ealing Hospital & London North West NHS Trust:
To cope with the increasing Winter pressures more beds have opened at Ealing Hospital and Intensive Care beds have increased to 12 at Ealing and 24 at Northwick Park (NWP). The London Ambulance Service has been asked to ease the pressure on Northwick Park by equalising ambulances between Ealing and Northwick. (It’s a good job the Ealing A&E is still there to help!)
Improvements are being made slowly in the Maternity Service at Northwick Park Hospital following its very poor rating by the Inspectors.
Plans to restructure the Breast Service are underway and it seems likely that a substantial part of the service will be centralised at Northwick Park, although the Trust claims they are still maintaining Clinics at Ealing and Central Middlesex Hospital at the same time – they are producing a Report in January and we are ready to campaign if necessary.
It is unusual for services to return to Ealing Hospital once they are cut, but common sense has prevailed at last and the Trauma Service will be re-opening in the New Year. This means that ambulances with trauma patients will no longer be diverted to Northwick Park – definitely good news.
Have Your Say – Review of End of Life /Palliative Care Services:
A major review of ‘community based’ specialist palliative care services is being carried out by the North West London NHS. They say that whilst there are some excellent services , not all residents in North West London get the same quality or level of services or are even able to access these services, which they want to address.
By community-based they mean; hospice in patient or day care, such as Meadow House in Ealing Hospital, care homes, community hospital or in the patient’s home. But it doesn’t includehospital based end of life/palliative care, district nursing or GP services.
They are carrying out a series of ‘engagement’ events to get the views of people with experience of end of life /palliative services. We hope that this is a genuine attempt to improve services, which are a bit of a patchwork and won’t lead to cuts in our local services.
NWL NHS has published a document setting out why they are carrying out this review and have invited comments from residents. There is also a survey for people to complete.
The closing dates for people to give their views is Weds 23rd February 2022
You can read more about the issues and how to get involved here –
Some good reading on Health & Social Care:
The December issue of the excellent Health Campaigns Together Bulletin is packed with the latest news and analysis on what’s happening to our health services – something you can’t read in the Media! Among the many interesting articles is news of the ‘End of Virgin Care’ and ‘SOS NHS’ a new campaign to save health & social care plus the ongoing scandals of privatisation and dirty deals.
The crisis in our NHS is continuing and worsening with daily stories of A&Es under severe pressure and some even declaring black alerts. The pressure on A&E means not only that patients end up waiting for hours on trolleys or chairs waiting to be seen but ambulances are unable to handover over patients.
Unfortunately the pressure on A&Es and the growing number of Covid patients in hospitals is only adding to the waiting lists which have now reached 5.8 million. But of course the Government continues to blame everyone but themselves for the ongoing NHS crisis.
This month we have news on what is happening to our local ambulance services, campaigning against the Health & Care Bill (or ‘corporate takeover bill’) and our upcoming campaign meeting with GP, Dr Louise Irvine, who will be answering our questions on GP services.
ESON Campaign Meeting –Tuesday 16th November -7.30pm
Questions & Answers with Dr Louise Irvine
GPs have been big news in the media recently with some newspapers running a pretty nasty campaign claiming GPs are lazy and not seeing patients. It is understandable that patients get frustrated at long delays in seeing their GPs but the blame should be directed at the Government for failing to address the growing number of GP vacancies and to invest properly.
We are delighted that Dr Louise Irvine is joining us again for a Q&A on GP services. Louise is a South London GP, a tireless campaigner and well known from the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign. She is also a member of the Keep Our NHS Public National Steering Group.
The meeting will be on ZOOM
Join the meeting on Tuesday 16th November at 7.30pm
Also on the Agenda will be updates on Ealing Hospital & the Trust, campaigning against the Health & Care Bill, Mental Health services and a roundup of NHS news.
Why are waiting – ambulances queues at A&Es growing:
At our October meeting we were fortunate to have a talk by Malcolm Alexander, Chair of the Patients Forum for the London Ambulance Service (LAS) on the situation in London
They have been doing a great job in monitoring the LAS and mounted a very successful campaign that has halted LAS plans to close 60+ ambulance stations and replace them with ‘hubs’. The cuts would have increased demoralisation among staff and led to even longer ambulance waits.
Malcolm told us about the worsening performance of LAS which is failing to meet target times for ambulances to reach critically ill patients, and the massive number of hours lost due to waits outside A&Es.
The October LAS figures show in London alone 1943 patients waited over an hour in ambulances to be handed over to A&E. Ealing Hospital seems to be doing better than most with 22 patients waiting over an hour that month whereas Northwick Park had 173 patients waiting over an hour!
The most recent figures for England as a whole show that ambulance handover of one hour or more up fourfold with 28,900 ambulance handovers lasting longer than an hour during a four-week period in October. This was almost four times higher than the 7,772 hour-long handovers recorded in October 2020.
This means patients laying in roads or on floors at home, waiting for ambulances that are stuck in queues outside A&E.
A&E waits are not the only factor in increased waiting times for ambulances as like the rest of the NHS there are large numbers of staff vacancies across the ambulance service.
The Governments claims to have a 10 point action plan for the Winter, which includes writing to Trusts and Systems telling them to take immediate action to stop ambulance delays – a magic wand anyone!
Health & Care Bill a threat to the future of our NHS:
On 23rd November the Health & Care Bill comes back to Parliament having gone through the committee stage where it can be amended by MPs. Whilst there has been some useful amendments the fundamental threat remains that the Bill will undermine a comprehensive, national, publically run NHS.
As readers may know the Bill carves up the NHS in to 42 regional integrated care systems with massive budgets and control of decision making for all NHS services in their area – in our case North West London.
This means they have total control over who delivers our services and in particular what treatments they will prioritise and which not to prioritise thus creating a postcode lottery. There is even a threat to national pay and conditions for NHS.
The potential for private health companies to increase their influence has been well publicised and although the Government has amended the Bill so that individuals with ‘significant interests in private health’ can’t sit on the main Integrated Care Boards, there is nothing stopping them from sitting on the myriad of sub committees.
Public accountability will be significantly reduced with no guarantees of meeting taking place in public or papers being publically available although we have been told that this will happen in North West London – how transparent they are will remain to be seen.
Margaret Greenwood MP has written an excellent article in ‘Open Democracy’, which spells out very clearly why MPs should be voting against the Bill on 23rd- which you can read here.
‘We Own it’ Poll shows lack of public support for Bill:
A Survation Poll recently carried out for anti-privatisation group ‘We Own It’ shows only 2 out of 10 people surveyed thought re-organising the NHS should be a Government priority.
Whereas in contrast 8 out of 10 said they wanted the Government to prioritise tackling waiting lists and ensuring people could see their GPs face to face.
Of the 1,008 people polled, 72 per cent said they were worried that the proposals would open the health service to contracts being given out to private companies without scrutiny.
70 per cent of Tory voters polled raised these concerns, while 83 per cent of Labour supporters did.
We Own It director Cat Hobbs said the group’s survey shows that the public, including a majority of Tory voters “are rightly very concerned about the likes of Richard Branson getting contracts in our NHS by the back door.”
“We’re calling on all MPs to take a stand now for our NHS and stop this Bill from damaging our health service” she added.
Coming just before the vote on the Bill on the 23rd this should give Tory MPs some food for thought.
JOIN THE PROTEST AGAINST THE Bill:
Monday 22 November, 5.00pm, Richmond Terrace SW1A 2JL (near the Cenotaph and 10 Downing Street
An alliance of health workers, campaigners and celebrities led by ‘Unite’ the union have called a protest outside Parliament on 22nd November to oppose the Health & Care Bill ahead of the vote on the Bill on 23rd November.
Ealing Save Our NHS will be joining in with our banner and would love to see a good turn out from Ealing.
Scandal of private testing firm that put thousands of lives at risk:
Many of you will have the read the story of the private testing firm in Wolverhampton that told 43,000 people in the South West that their PCR Test was negative when in fact they were positive!
Immensa who own the laboratory were awarded a £119 million contract last September to carry out testing without going through the accreditation process and there was no tender process either.
Stories from whistleblowing staff suggest it is no surprise with the emphasis being on quantity not quality.
Once the alarm had been set off you would have expected the Government to suspend testing at Immensa but it took weeks and apparently they are still being paid to process PCR tests for travel at their laboratory in Loughborough – unbelievable!
Unsurprisingly Covid cases in the South West have quadrupled but according to the Government it’s nothing to do with the false negative results which led to people assuming they were safe, but because Covid cases had been low in those areas. You really couldn’t make this up.
STREET STALL THIS SATURDAY: If you are in Ealing Broadway this Saturday we would be very pleased to see you at our Stall outside Marks & Spencers from 11.30 -1.00pm.
This month we have stories of the Governments latest manoeuvres, this time it’s to blame managers for not dealing with the waiting list crisis and not spending the money effectively – you really couldn’t make it up.
They haven’t got off completely scot free as there have been some damaging headlines on Covid failings but as you will read they got off fairly lightly!
There is a bit of good news about Ealing Hospital and some very good reading too.
Our Guest Speaker this month is Malcolm Alexander, Chair of the Patients Forum for the London Ambulance Service telling us more about our ailing ambulance service.
CAMPAIGN MEETING TUESDAY 19TH OCTOBER AT 7.30PM
‘CUTS & CHALLENGES FACING THE LONDON AMBULANCE SERVICE’
Our next Meeting with be on ZOOM from 7.30pm – all welcome.
Our Guest Speaker isMalcolm Alexander, Chair of the ‘Patients Forum for the LAS’ and a long time campaigner.
As many of you will have read the London Ambulance Service (LAS) has been in crisis for some time with Government cuts and underfunding leading to increasingly poor performance. More recently plans were revealed to close 68 ambulance stations, to be replaced with 18 ‘hubs’. Thanks to campaigning these dangerous plans are now on hold.
Malcom Alexander was very instrumental in the campaign against the threatened closures and appeared in the national media – we are delighted he can join us for what should be a very interesting discussion – please tune in!
Also on the Agenda will be the latest news on what’s happening at Ealing Hospital and LNWH Trust, mental health, upcoming meeting with Tim Orchard, CEO of Imperial Trust, future street stalls & the campaign for fair pay in the NHS.
To join the ZOOM Meeting here at 7.30pm please contact us.
GOOD TO BE OUT ON THE STREETS AGAIN!:
It was great to be out on the streets of West Ealing last Saturday with our Stall after such a long time. There was lots of interest especially in our Mental Health leaflet. Clearly many people and their families are experiencing problems and some are having difficulties accessing services. It certainly doesn’t help having no beds in Ealing for children or adults under 65** Thanks to everyone who came to help.
**Please do have a read of our latest research on beds in Ealing on our website produced by members of our Mental Health Working Group.
A SHORT UPDATE ON EALING HOSPITAL:
The Trust who runs Ealing Hospital meets in Public every two months, so it is an opportunity for us to ask questions. Recently Ealing Hospital has been getting more resources and some attention. At the meeting last month a clear statement was made that Ealing Hospital will remain a District General Hospital with a fully operational A&E, so they have to resource all the services that are needed to support that. There are plans to increase surgical activity but these are not yet defined. In the pipeline is plans to build a new multi-story car park, but that means the current car park will be sold, no doubt for more housing!
GOVERNMENT FAILINGS ON COVID EXPOSED OR LET OFF THE HOOK?
Media headlines on the Parliamentary Health & Social Care Committee’s Coronavirus – lessons learnt to date’ report, gives the impression that the Government failings on Covid, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths has finally been exposed. But has it?
Reading more closely and looking at the response from national campaigners and bereaved families is seems the Government has got off lightly and the real lessons not learnt.
Perhaps this is not surprising given that it was chaired by Jeremy Hunt (Health Secretary from 2012-18) keen not to be too implicated for his own role, and Greg Clark Conservative MP.
‘Keep Our NHS Public’ who recently concluded their excellent ‘Peoples Covid Inquiry’ which took evidence from bereaved families, front line staff and expert scientists and clinicians (unlike the parliamentary committee) said –
‘Despite outlining some mistakes in the Government’s early response, which will surprise next to no one, the report and the spin on it rests most of the blame on public health bodies rather than the Government, and of course Prime Minister Boris Johnson gets off almost scot-free’
Hannah Brady, Spokesperson for the ‘Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice Campaign’, saidthe report was a slap in the face for the families which is not surprising given that the Committee explicitly refused to speak to them or any bereaved families.
‘The report … is laughable and more interested in political arguments about whether you can bring laptops to Cobra meetings than it is in the experiences of those who tragically lost parents, partners or children to Covid-19. This is an attempt to ignore and gaslight bereaved families, who will see it as a slap in the face.’
Yet again the Government is shifting blame for its failures, this time it’s the waiting list crisis. According to Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, “throwing money at the problem is not the answer”, it’s down to health managers to manage the money much more efficiently and make it go much further! Just how the current (or indeed proposed) amount of funding can go further with over 100,000 NHS vacancies and lack of at least 17,000 beds, he doesn’t explain.
The Health Secretary’s plans to ‘fix the crisis’ include an independent management review which is to be led by recently retired Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Gordon Messenger (military training for NHS bosses?) Javid also proposes changes that would allow him to take control of hospitals considered to be performing poorly, possibly replacing the whole leadership team with higher performing neighbours or business leaders. This obviously isn’t going down well with health service managers who rightly see it as a ‘slap in the face’ and, many of them are reported as thinking about leaving the NHS.
OCTOBER ISSUE OF HEALTH CAMPAIGNS TOGETHER BULLETIN – A MUST READ!
The latest issue is packed with great stories and analysis as usual including; the Health & Care Bill summed up patients paying privately for hip and knee operations; fantasy hospital plans, pharmacists to cash in on GP crisis.You can read it here online –
A easy to read set of leaflets has been produced by Health Campaigns Together which summarise the key threat of the Health & Care Bill
