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Issue: 71<\/b><\/p>\n
3 October 2018 <\/b><\/p>\n
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This occasional newsletter is researched, written and edited by a group of concerned residents in Ealing, West London who want to preserve our NHS. We view the wholesale engagement of private, for-profit healthcare service suppliers as unnecessary, profligate and dangerous. Increased financial funding is what is needed in our NHS \u2013 not financial cuts, closure of vital services or privatisation.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ealing Out Of Hospital (OOH) Services Single Supplier Contract<\/b><\/p>\n Ealing CCG has, I think, admitted that it has received three \u2018compliant\u2019 bids for this 10 year contract. \u00a0Allegedly two of the bidders are:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n + Virgin Care, with some kind of association with Ealing Community Voluntary Service<\/span><\/p>\n + West London NHS Trust (until very recently called West London Mental Health NHS Trust). The bid involves Central and North West NHS Foundation Trust and Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n ECCG has promised to make some formal announcement about the \u2018outcome\u2019 of the bidding process on 5 November 2018. The plan is that 36 OOH care services will be outsourced to one of these three suppliers beginning on 1 May 2019. The initial contract value is \u00a3450 million. Over the course of the contract an additional 24 OOH care services might be outsourced to this supplier and the final value of the contract could reach over \u00a31.2 billion. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n ECCG has refused to place its business case for this contract into the public domain. With the bidding deadline having past there can now be no commercial confidentiality considerations. Has ECCG got something to hide? \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Virgin Care Terminates Elements of Single Supplier, \u00a3270 Million Healthcare Services Contract in East Staffordshire<\/b><\/p>\n \u2018Health Service Journal\u2019 has reported that Virgin has terminated large parts of a controversial NHS healthcare contract in East Staffordshire. The contract was awarded in 2015. It was a seven year, fixed price contract. Termination notices have been served for all services for which Virgin is not the direct provider. These services include hospital services, 111 and Out-Of-Hours services. Virgin and the local CCG have been arguing for 18 months. Virgin had asked for \u00a35 million extra funding.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Integrated Care Judicial Review Appeal \u2013 Financial Support Needed<\/b><\/p>\n On 18 August 2018, the campaigning group 999Callforthe NHS won the right to appeal the failed April 2018 Judicial Review (JR) about Integrated Care. The appeal will be heard before Christmas, but the campaigners need to raise money to cover their costs. Although the Court of Appeal has capped the cost liability, 999CallfortheNHS needs to raise \u00a318,000 very quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n You can read the grounds for the appeal and donate money at:<\/span><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.crowdjustice.com\/justice4nhs-stage5-courtofappeal\/ <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If the appeal is successful it\u2019s likely it will make a nonsense of the current public consultation about the Integrated Care Provider contract \u2013 as the contract under the microscope might be deemed illegal.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n NHS North West London (NWL) Makes a Second Attempt at Extracting \u00a3100 Millions from H.M. Treasury for SaHF Building Work<\/b><\/p>\n In 2012 NHS NWL launched its \u2018at least three year\u2019 Shaping a Healthier Future (SaHF) plans. SaHF would cut costs annually by 4% and would close down four District General Hospitals (DGHs) and their A&E units. No cost savings have ever been announced. After just two of the DGHs and their A&Es were closed in September 2014, A&E performance across NWL immediately plummeted and has never recovered. The two further DGH\/A&E closures failed to materialise. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There had been draft SaHF business cases in circulation for three years. The final SaHF ImBC SOC 1 business case finally emerged into the public domain in December 2016. It contained within it a cash-call for building work of \u00a3513 million. NHS NWL duly submitted this bid to NHS England and NHS Improvement. In September 2017 NHSE\/NHSI (London) rejected the bid on the grounds that the large reduction in emergency admissions postulated were unrealistic. Fairly soon after this rejection the two NHS NWL Accountable Officers resigned.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It has recently emerged that an attempt to submit an updated version of ImBC SOC 1 is underway. Its patron is the new NHS NWL Accountable Officer Mark Easton. We don\u2019t know yet whether as much as \u00a3513 million is being asked for again. A copy of this submission has not been offered, as yet, for public viewing. Mr Easton is quoted as saying he expects some response from NHSE\/I by November 2018. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let\u2019s not forget either that in December 2016, yet another final SaHF business case was mentioned in dispatches – ImBC SOC 2. It was, apparently, a business case for SaHF building work in \u2018inner\u2019 NWL with a cash-call for \u00a3314 million. Here we are 22 months later and SOC 2 was apparently never submitted and has quietly disappeared. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Integrated Care Provider (ICP) Contract Public Consultation<\/b><\/p>\n Accountable Care Organisations (ACOs) first caught my eye in 2016. ACOs, an American \u2018invention\u2019, involve long term, fixed price care contracts held by a single supplier. The supplier could be a private company. They were touted as the future vehicles for delivering integrated healthcare and social care services. 32 of the 44 STPs published in October 2016 referred vaguely to Accountable Care Organisations\/Partnerships as implementation engines for parts of the STPs. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n