It has been brilliant to hear lots of the stories of the well run, friendly and efficient vaccine delivery here in Ealing and around the country. It is definitely a good news story and a great example of how the NHS, does it best when it’s allowed to get on with the job of looking after us. How unlike the privately run so called ‘NHS Test & Trace’ that is now heavily dependent on local authority-run Test & Trace to back them up by chasing down new carriers of variants and encouraging self-isolation. Without a doubt a locally delivered service works best! Despite being in lockdown and at the height of a pandemic, the Government has still found the time to draw up worrying plans to take even more control of our NHS and which we will certainly be campaigning against! As a first step we urge you to sign the ‘We Own It’ Petition You can read more about these stories and the Petition in this issue of our Newsletter. ESON Meeting next Tuesday 16th February – the ‘Mental Health Crisis’ It’s our monthly meeting next Tuesday and we will be discussing the Mental Health crisis, hearing updates on the vaccine rollout, Peoples Inquiry and Government plans to re-organise our NHS. Our Guest Speaker will be Alia Butt, Chair of NHS Staff Voices. Alia is an NHS Psychotherapist & passionate about fighting for better mental health services. She will be answering questions and leading our discussion on the crisis in Mental Health services and how we can effectively campaign. Definitely one not to miss! We would love to see more people get involved and new ideas, so please think about joining us, you will be very welcome. Tuesday 16th February, 7.30pm. Please contact me to be sent the Zoom link Vaccination News: The vaccine roll out is definitely a good news story and NHS staff have been working very hard often as volunteers to help get the vaccine to us –well supported by the local authority too. Nearly 40,000 vaccines have been delivered at Ealing Town Hall and the Dominion Centre butCouncillors and MPs have raised concerns about the lack of sites at both the East end of the Borough in Acton and North of the Borough in Greenford, Northolt, which might be affecting take up. Two new community pharmacy sites are opening: Boots in Greenford Retail Park and Roxanne Pharmacy (Greenford Methodist Church) and one has opened by Remedy Pharmacy, St Marys Church) Hopefully this will help with ‘vaccine hesitancy’ which is becoming a problem as you can see from some of the figures we have obtained. As of the 8th February first vaccines have been given to – Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers – 84% of residents but only 47% of staffAll those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers – 77.5%All those 75 years of age and over –82%70 -74 years of age – 80.7%Clinically extremely vulnerable individuals – 55%Housebound –74.6%The picture for take up according to ethnicity shows that take up for those defined as ‘White’ is 79.44% compared to ‘Black & Black British’ which is only 48.35%. The figures are much higher for Asian or Asian British at 71.97% A lot of work is being done by the NHS, Ealing Council and community groups to try and combat vaccine hesitancy, some of which we have shared on our ESON Facebook. In a turnaround from previous advice people aged 70+ can now ring up to ask for appointments by contacting their GPs, ringing 119 or booking at the mass vaccinations centre – the nearest one of these is CP House in Ealing Broadway. Don’t believe the Media – the Tories are not ending privatisation! Many of you will have seen headlines and reports on a leaked Government White Paper on the NHS, which outlines plans for a new top-down reorganisation of the NHS. The media reports, especially from The Times and the BBC clearly following a steer from Downing Street, both herald the plans as a step to “scrap forced privatisation and competition within the NHS”. So does this mean an end to privatisation? The answer is unfortunately NO. The White Paper clearly says ‘there will continue to be an important role for voluntary and independent sector providers‘. In fact these plans will also allow private companies like Deloitte, to sit on the new Integrated Care System (ICS) Boards that make decisions on how NHS money is spent! Of course it is better that the NHS bodies will no longer be forced to put contracts out to tender, but it doesn’t apply to IT and other non-clinical services and they will still have discretion to do so. It seems likely to us that this Government will INCREASE privatisation by handing out big contracts, sometimes without even going out to tender. This is after all the same Government that has already awarded least £20 billion of pounds in contracts, without any competition, to the private sector. If they were genuinely ending privatisation then they would be taking steps to end private contracts already awarded, but there is no mention of bringing back outsourced services at all. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION : Anti- privatisation campaigners ‘We Own it’ have launched this petition to call on the Government to stop the private takeover of the NHS – please sign and circulate Local Authorities could be silenced! Hidden away in the White Paper and without any mention in the media are plans to limit opposition to ‘reconfigurations’ of services in a number of ways. The Government are proposing to abolish the power that Local Authorities have to refer reconfigurations to the Secretary of State for further review. Hammersmith & Fulham & Ealing Councils used this power to get an Independent Review of ‘Shaping a Healthier Future’ plans to close Charing X and Ealing A&E. Although it didn’t stop it then it certainly helped to build the case against it. The justification for stripping local authorities of this right of referral is that the Secretary of State is to be given the power to intervene early in the reconfiguration process – apparently having both would create a conflict! The Government are also proposing to make it a legal duty for local authorities to ‘collaborate with health authorities’. This could mean that local authorities would not be able to oppose or campaign against local NHS cuts, re-organisations or privatisation. There has been quite a bit of coverage and analysis of the White Paper from campaigners – all well worth a read: – Government used crisis to increase privatisation – Keep our NHS Public White Paper Power Grab -LowdownNHS New NHS White Paper -LowdownNHS Peoples Covid Inquiry launched: In the absence of an arranged formal public investigation, campaigners believe that the timefor a Covid Inquiry is now, in order to analyse why this country has suffered over 100,000 deaths, andwhat lessons should be learned to inform future decisions and policy making. A host of leading academics, celebrities, campaigning groups and unions together with frontlineworkers, have joined with Keep Our NHS Public to launch a People’s Covid Inquiry. A dedicated website and campaign video has also been launched which will feature testimony from members of the public, keyworkers and celebrities. You can watch the Peoples Covid Inquiry Launch Video here – Overseeing proceedings will be the renowned human rights barrister, Michael Mansfield QC. Participants will include: Chair of Independent SAGE, Sir David King, author and poet Michael Rosen, Lancet editor Richard Horton, Representatives from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group,President of the UK Medical Women’s Federation Neena Modi, and GP, writer & broadcaster Phil Hammond. The first session, ‘How Well Prepared was the NHS? is on 24th February. You can get more information on the Inquiry, register to watch sessions and submit a question to the panellists on the website – please spread the word! ‘Vaccines for ALL’ Campaign launched: Ealing Save Our NHS is supporting a new campaign that has been launched to ensure the coronavirus vaccine is made safely accessible to everyone, regardless of immigration status, ID or proof of address. The Government has stated that everyone is able to access the coronavirus vaccine and recently announced an amnesty, but in practice, people are being asked for ID, are unable to register with a GP, and are afraid to access services because of longstanding and entrenched barriers to healthcare and fears about the Home Office “hostile environment”. Without further action the pandemic will continue to have a disproportionate impact on all marginalised groups including migrant communities, people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness, and BAME communities. The Campaign is calling for a number of measures including a ‘firewall to prevent the sharing of information with the Home Office’ and an end to the hostile environment created by NHS migrant charges. You can read more about this campaign, which is supported by Medact, the Refugee Council, the Joint Council for Welfare of Immigrants, Trade Union Congress and 140 other organisations in this article– We are seeking assurances from the NHS to ensure they are taking steps to remove any barriers to vulnerable people accessing the vaccine or seeking medical help. A great line-up of speakers and workshops is planned for the evening and already nearly 500 people have signed up. The failures of the privatised ‘NHS Test & Trace’, the PPE Scandal and the blatant cronyism in allocating lucrative contracts have certainly fuelled interest! Don’t miss out – register today here – Latest Health Campaigns Together Bulletin – a really good read The fifth issue of the monthly news bulletin includes the latest news and articles on the Mental Health crisis, the leaked White Paper (that has subsequently been published) and info on Vaccination & Test Trace campaigns You can read a copy here

• 
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  Who is James Murray, the New Health Secretary?
  Following the resignation of Wes Streeting, James Murray has been appointed as the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. As campaigners for a properly funded, publicly provided NHS, it is important that we understand the background, politics and priorities of the person now responsible for our health service. In a recent article,… Read more: Who is James Murray, the New Health Secretary?
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  A&E performance data for North West London ICB, including Ealing Hospital – Feb 2026
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NHS England is planning to rip up key provisions of the 2012 Health & Social care Act and bring in yet another disastrous re-organisation.

Ealing Save Our NHS explains what’s going on and why we oppose it in this response to the official consultation.

Response to NHS England Consultation on:
“INTEGRATING CARE: NEXT STEPS TO BUILD STRONG AND EFFECTIVE INTEGRATED CARE SYSTEMS ACROSS
ENGLAND”

Ealing Save Our NHS subscribes to the widespread view that the NHS reorganisation Health and Social Care Act 2012 has not been fit for purpose. The current proposals may be an attempt to remedy the situation but our view is that they will undermine the public service ethos of the NHS in several ways.

The document entitled “Integrating Care” makes claims that existing Integrated Care Systems, or ICS have been successful. Our experience of the ICS in North West London is the opposite. The unsupported assertion by NHS England that ICS are successful seems to us like somebody marking their own homework.

With no apparent statutory basis, the North West London ICS appears to have taken control of NHS budgets, laid down parameters for Trusts and taken leadership of the CCGs. It seems as though this document is a call for Parliament to rubberstamp what has already been put in place.

REMOVAL OF ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY

This sidestepping of democracy is reflected in the proposals. There is no accountability, ICS meetings are to be held in secret, apparently without the public being able to attend or even see minutes.


Local authorities are not to be part of ICS in their role as elected representatives of the public. Instead a couple of Local Authority officers are to take part on behalf of several Councils and merely acting in their role as Managers.

The only involvement of the public is that controlled by the ICS themselves i.e. official consultations, focus group type arrangements, ‘citizens panels’ and the like.

Despite many references to involvement, in reality the public and their elected representatives are to be firmly excluded. Even the non – elected, privately run and generally toothless Healthwatch bodies have only a token mention.

In contrast, there is nothing in place to prevent profit making private health companies from taking part in the ICS and policy decisions should they succeed in winning certain contracts in the future.

It is clear to us that the preferred Option 2 would be even less transparent and accountable than Option 1, since it would give all control to the secretive ICS

BOTTOM UP OR TOP DOWN MANAGEMENT

Inexplicably, paragraph 1.1 claims that ICS are a bottom up approach – the very opposite of the actuality which is a centralisation of policy, function, control and finance.

At the heart of the ICS will be a free hand to invent frameworks for delivering health services in their region of England and to allocate fixed budgets for such delivery. Such decisions will be within a framework to be set in turn by NHS England.

We see this is as a huge step away from decisions being made by clinicians. Claims that policy will be clinically driven are not borne out by the detail of the proposals. In reality those few senior clinicians involved in the ICS will become primarily managers, open to being viewed by their colleagues as career motivated or even autocratic.

Although “Integrating Care” is peppered with claims such as “enabling NHS organisations, local councils, frontline professionals and others to join forces to plan and provide around residents’ needs as locally as possible” the plan does the very opposite. In reality it changes the balance of decision making, moving away from clinicians and front line staff towards the ICS centralised management. There would be centralised financial straitjackets and inevitably an increase in centralised measurement of targets.

The vision for the workforce in 2.16 clearly undermines the ethos of public service in favour of a business style view of staff motivated by career goals and meeting targets. Those who fit in may be rewarded; those who use their initiative outside of official targets may be at risk of becoming demoralised.

MOVING AWAY FROM COMMUNITIES

The ICS areas are big regions, each including many varied geographic and social communities. For many years the NHS has evolved to meet the needs of their local communities, employing staff locally and addressing local needs. Despite the claims to the contrary, it’s clear that this is to be undermined. Services will be assessed at Regional ICS level, more remotely than they are now. Indeed some so-called ‘specialist’ services are to be directly controlled by ICS for the whole region.

If you have no money, you can’t afford to travel miles to a hospital. If you have different treatment in different locations, or you are a parent or a carer for someone who does, you may fail to access treatment. If you have no relationship with overworked staff providing the treatment or the admin allocating the treatment, you may fail to access it.

A MOVE TOWARDS MORE INEQUALITY

Even at this early stage, regionally centralised ICS policies are already obscuring the reality of social needs and social discrimination.
Despite the good intentions of those involved, decision makers are simply unaware of the impact of their decisions. Their plans and strategies inevitably brush aside needs that they are unaware of and are not readily quantifiable.

Alongside this is a vision of a move towards Individualisation of Health Care –“put the citizen at the centre of their care”. This is a view of care that might appeal to the young, the well-educated, the articulate and the computer savvy. Others will be left behind.

The model of individualised care will of course be popular with the wealthy, those who can supplement their healthcare with private provision.
Individualised care, driven by digital and data is a model that facilitates finance driven management. It is a system based on targets, moving away from decisions by local clinicians. There are of course exiting possibilities of selective use of online and digital, but this should be to supplement one to one care, not to reduce it as “Integrating Care” may imply.

Strangely, GP practices are hardly mentioned in the “Integrating Care” consultative document, though they will be greatly affected. It seems to us that although unstated, underlying the document is a continuation of the policy to move services “into the community”. Perhaps there is an unstated hope that hard pressed GP practices and online support can somehow substitute for a reduction of local service provision and the move away from holistic local hospital treatment. If so, we think that would be disastrous.

We see no serious attempt to do more than pay lip service to the issue of health inequalities. The promise of some sort of future “needs based allocation formula” only serves to convey a lack of understanding or commitment.

Oliver New
Chair, Ealing Save Our NHS
Info@ealingsaveournhs.org.uk
8 January 2021

https://ealingsaveournhs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/ESON-response-to-NHSE-consultation-on-ICS.pdf

• Private Healthcare Profits Are Draining Vital Resources from Our NHS
• Who is James Murray, the New Health Secretary?
• GPs to Vote on Potential Alternatives to NHS Contracting Model
• Defending the NHS From Big Tech
• A&E performance data for North West London ICB, including Ealing Hospital – Feb 2026

Thanks to those who joined us.

It’s was great to be out on the streets again

We had around 30 people supporting our event and took lots of photos to send to the organisers and local media. As always we had a good old shout too – “Take our NHS out your Trade Deal!!” Lots of hoot & toots from passing traffic too, so all in all a good day!

The last few months have certainly been ones of highs and lows.  Definitely one of the highs have been thousands of nurses and other NHS staff across the country protesting for a well-deserved 15% pay rise.  

Unfortunately the lows must include the shambles that is our so-called ‘NHS Test & Trace’ system, which is so vital to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and protect us all.  

We have been continuing to press for services to be fully restored at Ealing Hospital along with our 3 local MPs and recently were invited to discuss our concerns with the LNWH Trust who manage the Hospital. 

We have a really good fun Quiz to test your knowledge about the test & trace system so do have a go 

You can also read here about big changes to the way we access A&Es in London. 

Please take the time to sign the important petitions on Track & Trace, protecting the NHS from Trade Deals and for an Independent Inquiry on the handling of Covid-19 – Thanks

What future for Ealing Hospital? 

At the end of last month we met with London North West NHS Trust Chief Executive Chris Bown, Deputy Chief Executive Simon Crawford and Chief Medical Officer Martin Kuper to discuss our concerns about the future of the Hospital and be updated on their plans.  

We were already aware that some services had been restored, such as daytime emergency general surgery, daytime Trauma & Orthopaedic surgery on Monday, Wednesday & Friday (for patients able to go home from A&E) diagnostics such as Endoscopy and Breast imaging and that the number of critical care beds had been increased.

Chris Bown (Chief Executive) spent some time telling us about the big capital investment (over £2 million) they were making in Ealing Hospital in the Intensive Care Unit (critical care beds), Endoscopy, new MRI scans and more. This is of course very welcome. 

However, we were disappointed that there is still no overall Plan for the future of Ealing Hospital and no immediate prospect of night-time emergency surgery or a full Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery service being reinstated. So for now ambulances will continue to be diverted to Northwick 

Park for Trauma & Orthopaedic cases, and night-time surgery will be run on an on-call system from Northwick Park.

It does rather seem that Ealing’s role is currently to provide an A&E service, help to cope with the pressures of Covid-19 and help the Trust reduce its considerable backlog in diagnostics and elective care (so they plan to use EH theatre capacity fully) which of course needs to be done.  

The problem is that there is no assessment of our local health needs and health inequalities so difficulties in accessing services because of disability, poverty, language difficulty, age etc are simply not being addressed. 

Instead, everything is now being decided at the regional level by a new body called the North West London Integrated Care System (ICS).  It’s based in Marylebone and led by Lesley Watts from Chelsea & Westminster NHS Trust.

Democracy & accountability are non-existent for this ICS. Decisions are secret and there is no public scrutiny or open meetings. This is clearly an issue for campaigners across North West London.

We will continue to monitor the situation at Ealing Hospital and work with our local MPs to press for services to be returned, when it is safe to do so.  

The Latest NHS Re-organisation is a Single CCG for North West London (NWL):

Currently there are 8 Borough based Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in North West London who each commission health services for the population in their Boroughs, such as Ealing.  North West London NHS is keen to get rid of them by merging them in to a single CCG, which is national NHS policy. 

Campaigners and Councils in NWL oppose the merger as it removes what little democracy and accountability currently exists at the local level and we fear that local health needs are less likely to be addressed if all decisions are taken at the regional level. 

The latest version of the merger plans came out in August and like the previous version in 2019 has minimal local authority representation and public accountability. 

Ealing Save Our NHS and other NWL campaigners were asked to comment.  You can read our comments here

Accessing A&E – a new booking system for London!

Some of you may have already heard that a new A&E booking system via NHS 111 is being introduced across London over the next 2 months. It’s called ‘Talk before you Walk’ 

In a recent letter, seen by ESON, Lesley Watts, CEO of the NWL Integrated Care System sets out the plans for London.  

The new booking system is apparently to be used for ‘urgent but not serious or life-threatening medical conditions’, supposedly to reduce waiting times and crowds in A&E and help reduce Covid transmission. 

They say they will be spending up to £6 million to recruit extra staff for London 111 including 166 doctors, nurses, paramedics & pharmacists to cope with extra demand and winter pressure. Currently only two thirds of callers to 111 get to speak to clinicians – so a third don’t!  If they aren’t able to recruit these extra staff then the claim that people will get to speak to a clinician more quickly and have an urgent face to face assessment or treatment arranged just won’t happen with worrying consequences. 

Patients can still go directly to A&E Departments but it’s not clear how this new booking system  links in with 999 calls, which often seem to get redirected to 111 as well.

Chelsea & Westminster were in the first Wave on 30th September and will be followed by Ealing, Northwick Park and West Middlesex at the end of October, then Charing Cross, St Marys, and Hillingdon by the end of November. 

Ealing Save Our NHS will be submitting a range of questions to clarify how this and asking for a meeting.

You can read the letter from NWL NHS here

The “fiendishly difficult but quite informative” test and trace quiz

With confirmed Covid-19 cases on the up, an effective track and trace system is absolutely vital. However there is little information on the organisations running the system, especially the private companies who have been handed huge contract worth millions without any competition or accountability. 

The excellent Caroline Molloy, Editor of ‘Open Democracy’ has produced this Quiz. It’s a great way to test your knowledge of the English Test & Trace system to see what you know and learn some things that you didn’t – ENJOY! Link here

Richard Horton speaks about ‘The Covid-19 Catastrophe’:

Richard Horton (editor of The Lancet) was the keynote speaker at the KONP AGM. Many people have spoken and written on the Government’s mishandling of Covid-19, but none that we have heard have done so with such passion and humanity as Horton. He was absolutely brilliant, uplifting and worrying all at the same time!   

The good news is that you can listen to him via the link on the KONP website and read the review of his latest book.

PLEASE HELP AND SIGN THESE PETITIONS:

‘We Own it’ – Tell the House of Lords to protect the NHS from Trade Deals

We Own it are asking us to support their campaign to get the House of Lords to pass the NHS protection amendment to the Trade Bill, which has entered a critical stage. Last week, Lords and Baronesses debated the amendment at the Committee Stage, and it will move to the Report Stage in two weeks, where it will be voted on. 

They say if we are going to win in the Lords, the next two weeks are absolutely critical.

In order to continue to make our voices heard in advance of that vote, We Own it are writing to the leaders of the four main groupings in the Lords asking them to whip their benches to vote for the NHS amendment and they want us to become a signatory to our letter. The more people that sign on to the letter, the more impactful it will be.

Please sign the letter and share –

Covid–19 Bereaved Families Call for an Independent Inquiry:

At the recent Keep Our NHS Public AGM, Trish Barnett from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice spoke about their fight to get justice for their loved ones. Their campaign aims to seek accountability for the mistakes that have been made and to stop those same mistakes being made again, causing more families to needlessly suffer the overwhelming grief that have suffered. They want an immediate judge-led public inquiry to look at key elements of the government’s approach and inform it going forward.

You can support them by signing and circulating their petition and donating to their Crowd Fund appeal

PLEASE SIGN & SHARE –

Remove Test & Trace from the Private Sector:

As we all know the Government’s failing ‘NHS Test & Trace’ system is not run by the NHS at all,  but by a range of private companies with little experience of public health such as Serco & accountancy firm Deloitte, recently awarded the fantastical ‘Operation Moonshot’ testing contract. Along with the health experts, we believe what is needed to ensure a successful testing system is a partnership between local authorities and public health, primary care and NHS labs. 

Dr Louise Irvine (KONP & Save Lewisham Hospital) has started this petition, now at 165,000!

 PLEASE SIGN & SHARE –

‘We Own It Petition’ – Scrap Serco Now

Despite its contract tracers failing to reach thousands of people and the availability of tests being abysmal Serco are set to get their contracts renewed.

Serco currently operate 30% of testing centres, they have sizeable contracts to run contact testing call centres (US firm SITEL being the other main provider). They also run a DWP helpline fo people shielding from the virus and help run the Governments business help line.

No wonder Serco’s CEO said he hopes it will “cement the position of the private sector” in our NHS”. No doubt at the same time as singing “We’re in the money” 

Well done to We Own It and others for keeping up the call to get them out.

Please sign the petition and circulate.