Revealed: Tory Plans for Hospital Closures and Further NHS Privatisation

I have written before about Jeremy Hunt’s opaque and secretive reorganisation of the NHS, which is being drawn up behind closed doors at this very moment through Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs).

Despite my best efforts, there still seems little appetite among the media to talk about STPs, but I think that will change when the outcome of this project becomes clear. Following the publication of the NHS “reset” (otherwise known as NHS Improvement: Strengthening Financial Performance & Accountability in 2016/17), we can finally be a lot clearer about what is in store for local health services and it doesn’t look good.

The “reset” sets out three areas where action will be required to improve the financial position of the NHS. The first two; tackling excessive paybill growth and implementation of Lord Carter’s recommendations on back office efficiency savings are discussed in my last post about the “reset.”

But it is the third that should cause us most concern. It tells us that “by the end of July, STPs should have reviewed services which are unsustainable” and proposes “the consolidation of unsustainable services... with a view to take early decisions to re-provide at nearby units.” This in other words means that some “units” or hospitals will be closed and that it will happen sooner rather than later.

Whatever the rationale behind these closures or mergers might be, it is completely unacceptable that these plans are being drawn up without any scrutiny. There can be no explanation for such an abject failure to provide any kind of transparency, other than a fear from Ministers about what the reaction of the public will be. My concern is that once the plans are published, any changes will be presented as a fait accompli.

The STP plans were initially due for submission by the end of June, but after I probed Ministers as the deadline began to approach, I was told that “the degree of detail that will be provided by 30th June will vary” and promised that sign off of the plans would occur “in a series of waves over the coming weeks and months.” When the plans are finally be published any drafts submitted to Ministers should be open to public scrutiny and consultation.

The third priority of the “reset” goes on to state that STPs should also have “developed plans to re-provide these services in collaboration with other providers.” And if that isn’t a euphemistic enough reference to privatisation for you, the Business Plan of NHS Improvement goes on to outline a priority to “explore” and “facilitate” new private sector partnerships.

CCGs that have been placed in special measures are to be subject to a series of potential interventions including being disbanded altogether. However it is the reference to “Accountable Care Organisations” (ACOs) as a potential replacement for CCGs that will set alarm bells ringing. ACOs are commonplace in the USA and whilst the official language over here is about them looking at “place based” working, the fact that on the other side of the Atlantic they are intimately connected to the private insurance system is bound to raise questions about where this is heading.

As the respected Health Service Journal has reported, NHS Improvement also said the NHS sometimes “underutilised” the private sector and that “a new work programme” would examine the “most promising” areas for greater collaboration. It plans to look at “outsourcing of new, novel or restructured clinical services” and “independent sector management models.”

Further issues arise with NHS Improvement’s powers to intervene in failing regimes such as the removal of autonomy over key spending decisions. The Department of Health will also reserve the right to exchange surplus assets for cash for any providers under a programme of financial special measures.

Be in no doubt the Government have amassed a huge range of tools to reshape the NHS by hook or by crook but because they have passed responsibility onto the 44 STP footprint areas, you won’t see Jeremy Hunt or Theresa May standing up in Parliament to announce or even to defend hospital closures or the further creeping privatisation of health services. However we should be under no illusion that it is their policies that are responsible and we should do everything possible to hold them to account.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/justin-madders/nhs-privatisation_b_11388948.html


F.ck this f.cking government who are out to make money for their mates whichever bastard is in charge!

Privatization is always a conservative priority, and if they say they don't want to privatize something, they’re simply lying.

Completely agree. Hope they fry in hell.

I guess a few on here will be supportive of this - Didge.,Nicko,Nems, Tommykins at a guess.
Making money out of illness is just not right now any level.

All I read was some speulative claims being made

Nothing substanciated

So what is there to defend?

Nothing, as its claims being made that have not happened.

Handy Andy wrote:I guess  a few on here will be supportive of this - Didge.,Nicko,Nems, Tommykins at a guess.
Making money out of illness is just not right now any level.

Maybe you should point the finger of blame where it truuly should be placed on?

The Labour Goverment in 2003

Blair government’s approach was to “market-make”; and so, from 2003, successive waves of independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) were opened throughout England. Run by private companies for profit, ISTCs were contracted (often on very favourable terms) to provide solely NHS elective procedures, creating extra capacity in the system to bring down waiting lists, and at the same time forcing existing providers to polish up their act if they wanted to hang on to any of their more “profitable” work.

Would you support a fully privatised health service,Didge?
NOT free, but only available for insurance payers.
Think how many Trident missiles you could build with the savings.
I assume the £350 million Brexit saving for the NHS was yet another Tory/UKRAP lie.

Handy Andy wrote:Would you support a fully privatised health service,Didge?
NOT free, but only available for insurance payers.
Think how many Trident missiles you could build with the savings.
I assume the £350 million Brexit  saving for the NHS was yet another Tory/UKRAP lie.

What has any of the above got to do with the fact this article is based off speculative opinion.

I support having the NHS, but because the Labour Party started to Privatize some of the aspcts of th NHS, its now problematic to reverse this. So like I say you need to lay the blame at the door of the people who started this
The Labour party

Didge wrote:

Handy Andy wrote:
I guess  a few on here will be supportive of this - Didge.,Nicko,Nems, Tommykins at a guess.
Making money out of illness is just not right now any level.

Maybe you should point the finger of blame where it truuly should be placed on?

The Labour Goverment in 2003

Blair government’s approach was to “market-make”; and so, from 2003, successive waves of independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) were opened throughout England. Run by private companies for profit, ISTCs were contracted (often on very favourable terms) to provide solely NHS elective procedures, creating extra capacity in the system to bring down waiting lists, and at the same time forcing existing providers to polish up their act if they wanted to hang on to any of their more “profitable” work.

LET'S NOT FORGET that more than a few observers considered the guvm'nt under Blair's right wing of the British Labour Party to be a defacto conservative regime, after a few of their economic rationalist/Thatcher-like decisions, Didge...

Especially, taking Britain into Iraq to back GWB's tomfoolery..

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

Didge wrote:

Maybe you should point the finger of blame where it truuly should be placed on?

The Labour Goverment in 2003

LET'S NOT FORGET that more than a few observers considered the guvm'nt under Blair's right wing of the British Labour Party to be a defacto conservative regime, after a few of their economic rationalist/Thatcher-like decisions, Didge...

Especially, taking Britain into Iraq to back GWB's tomfoolery..

It was still the Labour Party Wolf