Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Remember `Flashman`s`pre election promise not to change our NHS..?
NHS privatisation fears deepen over £1bn deal
Biggest health contract yet - for services including end-of-life care - is condemned by Labour
as 'audacious sell-off'
The value of the deal, to provide health services including end-of-life care for older people in
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, far outstrips the previous record of £450m, where Virgin Care
now provides a range of NHS services across Surrey.
The size of the contract on offer has sparked interest from a large number of private firms and
claims that the privatisation of the NHS is increasing in pace. Virgin is believed to be sizing up a
bid, as is another health provider, Circle, which operates the only privately run NHS hospital in the UK -
Hinchingbrooke, Cambridgeshire - and Serco, which has won contracts to provide several public
services and was recently castigated by MPs over major flaws in its provision of out-of-hours GP
services in Cornwall.
The move is the latest example of how under the coalition growing numbers of NHS services are
being put out to tender, and usually won by private operators.
Critics, including Labour, which called the new tender the "most audacious sell-off to date", say
the increasing multitude of providers is leading to the fragmentation of the NHS and will undermine
ministers' stated objective of ensuring that patient care is more integrated. Ministers, though,
welcome the trend and support the health service's right to strike deals with providers who can
offer services at the lowest price at a time when it is under huge financial pressure.
Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said: "One year to the day that Danny Boyle famously
celebrated before the eyes of the world an NHS that puts people before profits, we find a government
stealthily breaking it up and selling it off.
"This is the most audacious sell-off to date and evidence of how, in the wake of the Health and
Social Care Act, the scale and pace of NHS privatisation is ramping up."
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,584
without doubt its the biggest sell off
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Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Courtesy Guardian............
Serco: the company that is running Britain
From prisons to rail franchises and even London's Boris bikes, Serco is a giant global
corporation that has hoovered up outsourced government contracts.
Now the NHS is firmly in its sights. But it stands accused of mismanagement, lying and even
charging for non-existent work
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
the biggest health bill is £200,000 for mores murderer brady,thats the price of the legal bill that the nhs has to pay in legal fee's.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,584
NHS has some serious problems
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
yep your right there kieth,its called government cock ups,oops sorry government cuts to every thing.
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Jeremy Hunt breaks the law................
This is HUGE news. Today, we got the verdict in the court case against health secretary Jeremy Hunt, which 38 Degrees members helped to pay for.
It's the result we had all hoped for: the judge ruled that Jeremy Hunt acted illegally. He's been ordered to scrap his plan to cut A&E and maternity services at Lewisham Hospital, south London. [1]
This is fantastic news for the people of Lewisham. But it's also great news for the rest of us. If Jeremy Hunt had got away with this in Lewisham, no hospital would have been safe.
When the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign decided to take Jeremy Hunt to court, thousands of us from all across the UK stepped in to help. Together, chipping in whatever we could afford, we raised the £20,000 they needed to launch their legal challenge. [2]
It's not often that ordinary people come together to take the government to court. That was an impressive achievement in itself. But to win - and to prove that Jeremy Hunt is breaking the law - is simply amazing.
There will be so much more to do if we're going to stop and reverse this government's damaging attacks on our health service. In Lewisham, there's a chance the government may appeal the court's decision. Everywhere else, there are cuts, privatisation, and low care standards for us to battle against.
Today is a great win - but the Save our NHS campaign will need to go on tomorrow!
But let's take a little bit of time to celebrate first. Here are two ways to toast this success:
1. Raise a glass this evening to all the people who made this breakthrough possible. The 38 Degrees members who donated. All the other 38 Degrees members who are involved in the Save Our NHS campaign. The brilliant local campaigners in the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign who have worked tirelessly for months. The crack legal team at Leigh Day solicitors. And the wonderful local NHS staff who've just kept going despite their hospital being under threat.
2. Forward this e-mail to any friends or contacts who could do with a little bit of inspiration. Sometimes it can feel like it's impossible for us to make a difference. Today's success proves that when enough of us work together, we really can. People power works!
Here's what Dr Louise Irvine, chair of the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign, has to say:
"We're delighted by the judgement and the support we've got from Lewisham and beyond, especially from 38 Degrees members who donated to make today's victory possible and helped give us the confidence to stand up to Jeremy Hunt in court".
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,584
great news
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Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Courtesy Independent..............
Value for money? Watchdog turns focus on Atos - the firm that tests people claiming sickness
and disability benefits
Atos Healthcare has been paid £754m for the tests since 2005
Public spending watchdogs are to launch a new investigation into Atos Healthcare, the company
that carries out controversial medical tests for people claiming sickness and disability benefits.
The National Audit Office (NAO) move emerged as the Government disclosed that Atos has been
paid £754m for the tests since 2005. It has also landed other government contracts, including
IT work for the Home Office and Highways Agency.
Lord Freud, the Welfare Reform Minister, revealed that annual spending on the medical services
contract had risen from £73.3m in 2005-06 to £114.3m in the year to March. He said the
increase in the budget is due to a rise in the number of tests.
He was replying to a written House of Lords question this week by Lord Alton of Liverpool,
a crossbench peer who asked the NAO to intervene.
The NAO has told Lord Alton the extension of the Atos contract to a new benefits regime for the
disabled is "an area of interest" to it and it has begun discussions with the Department for Work
and Pensions (DWP).
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,584
They really are taking the mickey out of us
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
oh dear more non opinioned cut and paste,tch cant go any where without tripping over it.starting to get boring now lads.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,663
I never bother reading them unless later comments arouse my interest
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Raise taxes to fund NHS, say patients
Government should pay for long-term healthcare, say 87 per cent of people in poll
Patients overwhelmingly believe that health and social care should be funded by the Government,
and more than half are willing to see taxes rise in order to pay for it, according to a new survey.
The NHS faces intense pressure to save money as public spending slows down, at the same time
as experts warn it must become more closely integrated with the social-care system to meet the
needs of an ageing population.
In a survey of 1,000 UK patients conducted by KPMG, 87 per cent said that people's long-term
healthcare should be paid for by the Government, and 82 per cent said that social care should
also be funded from the public purse.
Some 54 per cent said that they would be willing to pay more in tax to meet the cost of the
population's long-term health needs and a similar number said they would be happy for
spending on other public services - such as defence and education - to be cut so that the health
service could meet demand in the future.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,584
I think that's fair comment
but people have to realise you cant have EVERY service at EVERY hospital
its unaffordable
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Private health groups may have to sell hospitals, competition watchdog rules
Commission says 20 sites may have to be sold to stop lack of competition pushing up prices
The Competition Commission said most patients in UK private hospitals are paying more than they
should for treatment because of a lack of local competition. Photograph: OJO Images/Rex Features
Britain's largest private hospital groups will have to sell up to 20 hospitals and end incentive schemes
that encourage doctors to send patients to particular private providers in return for cash, the
competition watchdog has recommended.
The Competition Commission, which began investigating the private healthcare sector in April last
year, found much anti-competitive behaviour in the market, and criticised four of the five biggest
operators for generating excessive profits.
The result, says the commission, is that most patients in UK private hospitals are paying more than
they should for treatment because of a lack of local competition.
The report said: "There is a causal relationship between self-pay prices and local concentration.
Private hospital operators, on average, currently charge somewhat higher prices in local areas where
they face fewer competitive constraints."
More than 100 private hospitals around the UK are in areas with little rival healthcare provision,
said the commission.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,584
Lerts hope not to much is sold off before we are rid of the cobbled together lot in 2015
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Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Democracy has stopped Britain going to war - but can it save England's NHS?
We have just seen the importance of democracy in relation to matters of life and death overseas.
We must restore it at home, too.
So parliament has prevailed, the popular will has been heard, and the UK will not go to war in Syria.
MPs looked to their constituencies, looked to the polling data, looked to the legacy of mistrust and
antipathy bequeathed by the Iraq war, and voted accordingly.
Democracy in action, the executive held to account. Whatever your thoughts on military intervention
, it is surely right that matters as important as going to war are subject to democratic decision
making in parliament, where the popular will can be heard.
Why, then, for matters as important as the NHS, have we surrendered democratic accountability
and parliamentary sovereignty with barely a whimper? Where is parliament's strength, where is
regard to the popular mandate, as our NHS is dismantled?
From the NHS's foundation in 1948 until 2012, the Secretary of State for Health had a legal duty
to secure a comprehensive health service for us all. If there were failings, he or she was
answerable to parliament - and ultimately to the electorate.
This is no longer the case. The 2012 Health & Social Care Act abolished this legal duty for the
first time. The Secretary of State is now at liberty to raid the NHS coffers - another £2billion was
clawed back last year alone - without being held accountable for the results
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,584
well the Syria vote and MP's quoting the electorate are not happy may well see MP';s do more even more to bring MP's into line and help save the NHS
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Jeremy Hunt: A single reform that can sustain our NHS
Both the public and the health service deserve honesty about the challenges ahead
You can, of course, read the whole article yourself through the link below, but it all seems to hinge upon this...
"I'll be announcing more about the changes we want through this year's GP contract today. "
I guess I will just have to take it on trust that what is to be announce today is where the 'Honesty' begins, because there is none in the article itself...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/10296418/Jeremy-Hunt-A-single-reform-that-can-sustain-our-NHS.html Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.