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It has certainly been an interesting couple of weeks. Our local health bosses, Ealing CCG, have picked the bidder who they want to run our community health services in a massive contract. \u00a0It\u2019s a consortium of West London NHS Trust & several other partners using a \u201ccorporate structure\u201d. Plus this week, we heard NW London health bosses have confirmed that Ealing & Charing Cross Hospitals were unlikely to lose any beds before 2023. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n NHS bosses forced to admit beds cuts at Ealing & Charing Cross Hospital can\u2019t be done:<\/strong><\/p>\n North West London health bosses have been forced to acknowledge that their plans to cut hundreds of beds at Ealing & Charing Cross have to be postponed yet again and that no bed cuts will be taking place in the next 5 years. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In their statement on 18<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0October, NWL NHS said – \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have always been committed to revising our initial projections for future hospital bed numbers in line with actual activity. Our latest analysis suggests that the number of beds in NW London has gone up slightly since 2012 and\u00a0<\/span>we expect the number of bed numbers to stay more or less constant for the next five years at least.<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Of course this is good news as far as it goes BUT these health bosses have STILL NOT CHANGED their plans to downgrade our hospitals merely delayed them until they think it\u2019s safe. They have two problems \u2013 local opposition which has been very strong, combined with the fact that their plans would only work if they can reduce hospital admissions, which hasn\u2019t been happening.<\/span><\/p>\n This obviously shows how right Ealing Save Our NHS, Ealing Council, health workers and the people of Ealing have been, and how wrong the management consultants and Health bosses have been.<\/span><\/p>\n Sadly, Ealing Hospital has been and continues to be deliberately starved of support in the meantime and has lost a number of services. Now more than ever our Hospital needs a big boost of funding and commitment if it is to survive. But there\u2019s light at the end of the tunnel so let\u2019s keep on fighting to save it!<\/span><\/p>\n The whole\u00a0story has been reported in Get West London<\/a>, which is the online Ealing Gazette.<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s how Ealing Council<\/a>\u00a0reported it to the public in a recent press release –<\/span><\/p>\n If you want to read it from the NHS bosses\u00a0it\u2019s here<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Consortium of NHS trusts to \u2018run\u2019 our community health services<\/strong><\/p>\n Ealing\u2019s health bosses (Ealing CCG) have put our community health services on to the market place. \u00a0They asked for bidders to run these NHS services in a 10 year, \u00a31.3 billion contract, claiming that Ealing community health services would be more integrated and co-ordinated if they were run by a so-called \u2018single provider\u2019. This is nonsense as most of our community health services are already provided by London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (London North West Trust), who also manage Ealing Hospital. \u00a0There will probably be less integration, not more.<\/span><\/p>\n \f<\/span><\/p>\n The latest announcement from Ealing CCG is that the contract has been won by a \u2018consortium\u2019 of NHS Trusts led by West London NHS Trust (previously – Mental Health Trust). \u00a0There may well be a single contract, but it is laughable to call it a \u2018single provider\u2019. The winning consortium consists of\u00a0<\/span>three\u00a0NHS Trusts (Central & North West London, Hillingdon and West London) plus at least 2 charities and inevitably many sub- contractors. \u00a0On top of that the integration of Ealing Hospital and community health services has been broken, and the London North West Trust will be deprived of considerable finances.<\/span><\/p>\n Cuts to our community services seem inevitable as the winning consortium has to deliver a greater amount of community health services within a very tight budget. No wonder that both London North West and Central London Community Health NHS Trust pulled out of the bidding as they felt they\u00a0<\/span>couldn\u2019t provide safe, quality services for the money<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Of course we are pleased that a private company didn\u2019t win but this rotten contract system has pitted NHS Trust against NHS Trust, wasting millions of pounds of scarce NHS money in preparing rival bids. \u00a0It forces NHS Trusts to behave more and more like private businesses. In fact the contracting system probably wastes between \u00a34 -10 billion pounds of NHS money a year \u2013 outrageous!<\/span><\/p>\n As the saying goes \u2018it\u2019s not over until the fat lady sings\u2019. \u00a0This contract still has to be approved by the NHS at a national level and Ealing Save Our NHS has submitted a long list of objections so watch this space to see what happens. We have also requested that Ealing Council use its powers to scrutinise the contract and the impact on the local NHS including Ealing Hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n More NHS bureaucracy and name changes<\/strong><\/p>\n One thing you can be sure of these days is that money can always be found for more NHS bureaucrats. Health bosses in North West London have set up yet another body, catchily called – \u2018NHS North West London Collaboration of CCGs\u2019, with a raft of highly paid officers to run it. This new body will be commissioning services across NW London, including acute services, so what we ask, will be the role of local health bosses, Ealing CCG, and any possibility of local accountability- none or next to none we think.<\/span><\/p>\n The NHS seems very keen on name changes these days, particularly when they become a bit unpopular, so the North West London STP (the mechanism set up to implement cuts under the guise of integrating health and social care) has now become the \u2018North West London Health & Care Partnership\u2019. It is a funny kind of partnership given that two local authorities, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham, didn\u2019t sign up to the STP because it meant supporting the closures at Ealing & Charing Cross hospitals. \u00a0Since they didn\u2019t toe the line they have been told they can\u2019t be on the Partnership Committee!!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Get Involved \u2013 come to our Campaign Meeting Tuesday 20th November:<\/strong><\/p>\n Ealing Save Our NHS always welcomes new people to helping with campaigning and our campaign meetings are a good place to start. \u00a0The latest announcements on the future of Ealing & Charing Cross and the Community Health Services contract will certainly be one of the main discussions. We will also be making plans for a Day of Action in local shopping centres before Christmas. We would love to see you on the 20th.<\/span><\/p>\n Please come if you can: 7.30pm, Tuesday 20th November in Northfields Community Centre.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Health tourism \u2013 fact or fiction?<\/strong><\/p>\n A weeny part of the NHS budget is spent on \u2018health tourism\u2019, but it\u2019s a great excuse for the Government to pretend we have no money. \u00a0What are the facts?\u00a0Check out this excellent leaflet<\/a>\u00a0hot off the press from Keep Our NHS Public.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n