Keep Our NHS Public report
‘Patchwork privatisation’
As Blair enters the final months of his premiership it is clear he
is thinking the unthinkable on the NHS and coming up with ever more crazed
ideas. The latest of these is the plan to give individuals their own health
budget or vouchers to spend how they like – including in the private
sector. Charles Clarke has been talking about charging for NHS treatments; PCTs
are starting to outsource their commissioning role to huge private
corporations. The ‘reform’ programme seems to be relentless. Blair
is raising the stakes, attempting to cement some kind of legacy that his
successor will not be able to reverse.
At such a time a campaign like Keep Our NHS Public has a duty to
put the alternative and try to create opportunity out of crisis. We know that
the Prime Minister’s real legacy is in the chaos, cuts and closures that
are ravaging the health service, and that for the first time since its creation
the NHS is a vote loser for Labour. There is plenty of raw anger about local
cuts all over England; the task is to give this a political focus and a shared
analysis to really challenge Government policy and ensure that Blair’s
successor has to change course.
This was the idea behind the booklet which Keep Our NHS Public
published in January and which NHSCA members will have received. Entitled
‘The patchwork privatisation of our health service: a users’
guide’, the pamphlet brings together for the first time all the different
forms of privatisation being inflicted upon the NHS – PFI, independent
sector treatment centres, CATS and so on. It also provides an overview of the
ideological vision behind these developments. Unlike the Thatcher
privatisations of utilities and state enterprises in the 1980s, the entire NHS
is not being put up for auction. Instead, it is being parcelled up into
bite-sized pieces and handed over to private control bit-by-bit.
The booklet is unique and is intended as a tool for campaigners to
challenge every manifestation of the policy. It is hoped that the term
‘patchwork privatisation’ will catch on as a way to describe the
current process – it has already been referenced in several national
media reports.
The pamphlet has proved hugely popular, with many bulk orders
being made and plans for a second edition. It will also be sent to key media
commentators, opinion formers, MPs and Lords. We would encourage NHSCA members
to help secure the widest possible distribution of the document –
additional copies can be bought from Keep Our NHS Public at a cost of £1
individually or 50p each for orders of more than 10.
Campaigners’ conference
‘Patchwork privatisation’ was launched at a Keep Our
NHS Public conference for health campaigners in London in January. This event,
which was addressed by Tony Benn amongst others, brought together Keep Our NHS
Public local activists with representatives of ‘save our hospital’
and anti-cuts campaigns. It was an extremely useful exercise that generated
many ideas and gave a stronger sense of common cause.
Taking it forward
Keep Our NHS Public’s network of local groups continues to
go from strength to strength. There are now over 30, stretching from Liverpool
to Southampton and from Kent to Bristol. There is also more campaigning
activity in Scotland, which is facing a PFI onslaught and the country’s
first ISTC.
Some newly formed local groups have been very effective. Preston
Keep Our NHS Public is leading the fight against CATS, the ‘clinical
assessment and treatment services’ centres that perform some diagnostics
and operations. A deal with private company Netcare to provide a string of CATS
in the northwest has caused large-scale public outrage against
privatisation.
All the Keep Our NHS Public groups were active for the March
3rd day of action on the NHS, called by NHS Together – the
coalition of NHS staff including the BMA, Unison, Amicus and the RCN. True to
its initial objective of unifying health service staff, concerned citizens and
other groups, Keep Our NHS Public has been playing a bridging role between
unions, patients and community campaigners.
Closer ties between Keep Our NHS Public and other mostly local
health campaigns will be increasingly important in coming months. There has
been an upsurge of opposition to cuts and closures that has drawn comparisons
to the poll tax rebellion. In places there have been some notable victories.
Extensive cuts in Gloucestershire were halted after 3,000 marched through
Stroud and 5,000 rallied in the Forest of Dean. Some local councils have been
pressured into defending health services – Surrey county council ordered
the brakes to be put on devastating cuts at the Epsom and St Hillier hospital.
It demanded that the local population must be consulted on such a dramatic
move. Consultation was also secured on plans to cut district nurses and school
nurses in north London, after sustained pressure from Waltham Forest Keep Our
NHS Public.
But these kinds of victories are not enough. Local opposition may
stop some cuts, but the attack on the NHS is dictated by central government
policy. The task remains to harness all this local energy into a national
political movement.
The government has been damaged by all this opposition. But its
refusal to change course demonstrates that it can live with the current level
of heat. While campaigns remain fragmented and local, largely a reaction to
cuts, then the process of privatisation that underpins the chaos will continue.
Hospital campaigners must be brought into a political movement opposing this
policy on a national level. This has never been more important –
Blair’s departure is imminent but without winding up the pressure there
is no reason to expect a significant change of course.
ALEX NUNNS
Information Officer, KONP
Lymington New Forest:
the chaotic “patchwork privatisation” continues but
there is a hidden and cunning hand behind this farce.
In early February Princess Anne opened a sparkling new £65
million PFI Hospital: the Lymington New Forest Hospital. It was announced in
soft and emollient language - almost a lullaby:
“Care will continue to be designed, commissioned and funded
by the PCT to meet the needs of local people. It will not change the range of
services offered in the new hospital, that was specified by a local group of
clinicians and NHS managers based on the plans in the original business case
approved by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Strategic health
Authority…………..”
And then two paragraphs later: -
“The Department of Health Have selected Partnership Health
Group Limited as the preferred bidder from the independent sector”.
A board of directors have been appointed, and with one exception,
all are from business and accountancy backgrounds – including one from
the pharmaceutical industry – by the way, Isn’t this a classic case
of possible conflict of interest?
Partnership Health Group is a joint venture between two health
care organisations: Care UK plc and Life Healthcare Ltd., a South African firm
with very substantial assets.
An article in The Times business section of 22nd
December 2006, comments that although it looks a modest operation, Partnership
Health Care Group have very likely struck a bonanza with this contract. The
best guess is that Care UK’s earnings will rise by 10% in two years. The
Times analyst, Robert Cole also has high hopes of rich profits if the company
performs well and secures further contracts with the Department of Health.
There are other aspects of Care UK’s reputation, which are not mentioned
in the promotional material and are less attractive. These include immediate
cuts in wages and salaries of their staff in Islington. This will give rise to
disquiet among health workers, to patients and to members of the residents of
the local community in Lymington and The New Forest who will need a health
service in the future.
As part of the Day of Action to protest about privatisation of the
NHS, I was invited and visited Lymington on 3rd May. I found an
attractive small town with lots of coffee bars and bookshops and a very well
stocked marina. The members of the group of 100 protesters who marched through
this pleasant Saturday scene were on the one hand elderly people and on the
other health workers. Unison was the organisation that contributed the biggest
contribution in terms of organising energy and the turnout.
I learned that working relationships have long been poor in the
Trust, particularly in the catering department. The head chef walked out
recently leaving the service in complete chaos. At the moment this problem has
been patched but apparently typifies the on-going difficulties in
relationships. The introduction of a private contractor without warning or
consultation is seen as just how the Hampshire Primary Care Trust behaves.
It is important that this development is closely watched. The
private sector will see it as an opportunity for a breakthrough in their quest
for acceptance and profitability but we must keep in mind that the local people
have not been asked what they think, parliament has never given a mandate for
this reckless use of public funds nor for any sort of privatisation of the
National Heath Service.
RORY NICOL
More initials; more "patchwork privatisation"
In addition to the independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs)
which have been set up in many areas the government now plans a further range
of facilities to be provided by the private sector: Clinical Assessment,
Treatment and Support services (CATS) Integrated Care Assessment and Treatment
services (ICATS)
CATS and ICATS
The introduction of these systems in parts of the North West of
England – as a preliminary to their application throughout the country -
is causing great concern in the areas affected but colleagues elsewhere may not
be fully aware of the implications.
The CCSC of the BMA has issued an information and advice statement
but so far it has we understand not had general distribution so is reproduced
below.
It is followed by comments from a colleague in Newcastle working
in one of the specialties most affected, Cumbria being linked with Newcastle
for tertiary care. Written in satirical vein, reminiscent of the well known
work by an earlier Mr Blair, the anger and frustration is clear to see.
|
The NHS Consultants' Association
