Say No to Privatisation!

The government’s obsession with forcing competition in the NHS continues despite continuing opposition from all walks of life. Huge petitions have been organised and I am pleased the organisation I support helped in this process.

NHS clinical commissioners interim president Dr Michael Dixon, who helped draft the Health and Social Care Act, expressed dismay at section 75 regulations that will force competition in the NHS and give rights to private companies.

Dr Dixon warned GPs risk taking “their eye off the ball” and getting “bogged down” in whether or not they are being competitive.

Dr Dixon also pointed out that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) may have to defend expensive legal claims from private companies for not having put services out to tender.

“It is going to make everyone watch their back and a whole industry of people who challenge things back and forth as to whether they have been sufficiently competitive or not, and opens the window to providers to challenge the CCGs,” he said.

A rethink of section 75 has now been announced, but we must all keep up the pressure on our politicians and Government to abandon these proposals in their entirety. Say no to privatisation and please continue to defend our very precious National Health Service. Please at least do your bit and sign a petition. We have little time. Thanks.

Save our NHS!

The National Health Service we all depend upon could soon be just a fond memory,  if its place is taken by a profit based health- market, where only money talks.

The Government’s new plans for the NHS could spell the end of its precious, pioneering ‘free for all at the point of need’ principle. It could be turned into a profit-driven free-for-all in the very worst sense.

New legislation means that NHS managers are being pressed to order services from profit-making private providers, costing us extra money, at the expense of genuine healthcare.

Action we need to take. By persuading these managers to adopt safeguards that will protect our health services from ambitious corporations for whom cost comes before care.

What we must do – Encourage the new managers – known as Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) – to adopt two safety clauses that have been drawn up by lawyers for the national campaigning group, 38 Degrees.

Important we act now. – Because your local CCG is currently finalising plans that could completely change the way it delivers its service.

Please see my previous post on the Clinical Commissioning Groups, which are making decisions as I type.

And please locate or form a local group now and for starters request a meeting as well as organising local campaign groups. It is not too late.

Further savage cuts!

Council leaders in Coventry say they need to save £61m over the next three years to help meet a budget shortfall.

The council said the measures it was looking at included cutting £3m from its community services, including adult social care, libraries and wardens.

Leaders at the Labour-run council also say council tax will increase by 2% next year. Previously they were also said to be cutting up to 800 jobs.

Union officials said the cuts could potentially mean “Armageddon” The number of job losses planned at councils in England and Wales because of Government spending cuts has increased to over 37,000 in recent weeks.
The GMB union said 27 local authorities had announced or threatened staff losses, with many more set to follow suit as the scale of their budget cuts becomes known.

Thousands of workers in Birmingham, Walsall, Croydon, Sheffield and Rhondda Cynon Taff faced having new terms and conditions imposed on them, while councils across the country were having to make huge savings over the next four years, the union added.

And please remember- 76 percent of the current cuts have yet to be implement.

It was reiterated the warnings that entire services run by the authority, which has an annual budget of about £1bn, would have to be “decommissioned” to meet the budget shortfall. He said he also expected the figures of claims to rise. But he did not seem certain. Does he know anything?

The council leader ”said the authority could only afford to borrow £429m of the £757m figure without having to get special dispensation from the government to take out more loans”.

All this ‘bunkum’ about what can be affected financially should be treated very cautiously. After the last World War we were apparently broke, but we still created a National Health Service.

The West Midlands Pensioners are proud to have supported these mainly women workers in their struggles.

It has been announced that almost £4bn a year off the governments welfare bill will be slashed by uprating Britain’s poorest families by just 1% a year until 2015. I assume this will affect people on Pension Credit, but at the time of writing this is not clear. Austerity measures will be extended to 2018, as debt-cutting targets are missed, the Autumn Statement revealed. Other information to follow and must mention the proposed 3 pence petrol increases to be intoduced in the new year. We surely must plan for even larger campaigns in the New Year. Happy festivities to all.

Health Care and the Economy!

It was about eight years ago that I felt assured enough and to the best of my knowledge that the economy was going to ‘go  bust’. Very cheap and easily obtained mortgages was just one of the clues, backed up by historical facts and a little economics. Most economists got it completely wrong, often because they were in complete denial or wanted to protect their own interests in a speculative and so called free world. This continues today.

Now things have edged forward, I wish I had been wrong. Please do not believe the new ‘green shoots debate’. We simply have to start talking about a different society.

In the meantime, lets try to protect our NHS  from any further fragmentation and  privatisation.

The Clinical Commissioning Groups will play a major role in commissioning health services and will have a nationwide budget of billions of pounds at their disposal. They are tasked with developing Commissioning Plans and replacing the role of Primary Care Trusts.The CCG’s will have responsibility for commissioning or buying health and care services including non-specialist acute services, community services, and continuing healthcare, Mental Health and other important services.

The big move to privatisation is the requirement upon CCG’s to contract with any qualified provider’.

Influence over the CCG’s is therefore of paramount importance.

Meetings need to be convened to involve local people in campaigning to pressure their CCG’s to make changes to their constitutions.

Ivor Timson

Diary date: Saturday 10th November 2012- Birmingham- 1-15 pm 0nwards. Carr’s Lane- Church Centre, Birmingham UK. Who owns our NHS? Speakers and refreshments.

Twaddle from the USA!

The Government is failing in its pledge to rebalance the economy, which is now more dependent than ever on financial services and still remains hell bent on destroying our National Health Service. Of course, it has  little chance of rebalancing the economy, particularly as it is in denial about so many economic facts. But it can reverse some of it’s lunatic policies of further fragmentation of our healthcare system and privatisation. The worldwide system of capitalism is in a deep and irreparable state of crisis. And do not believe the twaddle from the USA economists. It is a tissue of lies.

If you live in or around Birmingham UK- join us at the following meeting.

March and Rally- Who Owns the NHS? 10th November 2012- 1-15pm

The list of speakers for this important meeting and rally is now confirmed as;

Peter Last WMPC- Chair
Joe Morgan- GMB Regional Secretary
Dr Jacky Davis- NHS Consultants Association
John Partridge- Unite Regional Assistant Secretary
Mary Locke- Unison NEC and Health Worker 

Gail Adams- Head of Nursing- Unison- Chair of Mary Seacole Committee- Unison.

Meeting at Carr’s Lane Church Centre, Birmingham City Centre, Near Birmingham New Street Station- Saturday 10th November 2012- 1-15pm- 5-0pm.

Plenty of opportunity for all those attending to speak and contribute to this important debate.

Ivor Timson MSc (Econ)

Economists and gobbledegook!

The Government recently offered i’ts “final offer” on pensions. Danny Alexander stated that “the new pensions will be substantially more affordable to alternative providers. By offering transferred staff the right to remain members of the public service scheme, we are no longer requiring private, voluntary and social enterprise providers to take on the risks of defined benefit that deter many from bidding for contracts in the first place.”

Similarly, in his first letter of remit to the new chairman of the School Teachers Review Board, Michael Gove asked them to report on “how the pay framework for teachers should best be made more market facing in local areas,” with reference to the private sector.

It is not just education that is under attack. The same process is being carried out across all public services, as the recent passage of the high-profile NHS Bill shows. Against this background interest rates remain at 0.5 per cent which we all subsidise at the expense of savers and others.

We face not just savage austerity cuts, but a politically motivated attempt to completely restructure the British economy and effectively abolish the public sector. The economists continue to re- write their own history and talk gobbledegook. This helps to pave the way to move again to a private sector for all, which has been deemed a complete failure as has the capitalist system. And the rich get richer, while many suffer in poverty.

Mass Campaign to retain our NHS!

01-02-2012

The coalition’s NHS ‘reforms’, the biggest shake up of the health service in 60 years, are a “damaging, unholy mess ” that will need overhauling in five years’ time, the editors of three leading healthcare publications claim.The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, will attempt to soothe the anger of critics, particularly in the House of Lords where the health and social care bill will return next month, by proposing 200 amendments to the legislation later this week.

“The government’s NHS reforms have proved divisive and destructive. They have slowed the improvement of NHS services and cost the UK money that it can ill afford.” So many other organisations are vociferously opposed to the changes.

So for us all, it is still not too late to campaign to overthrow these changes to our precious National Health Service.  Please, write, telephone, e-mail, text or visit your MP and a Peer of your choice. Join or form campaigns in your area. Please see the many articles on our websites/ blogs, and please act now on a very urgent basis.

Any alternative and a genuine democratic society must surely have at it’s core, a system of health care which provides a comprehensive range of health services, which are free at the point of use to all residents. The various forms of ‘responsible’ capitalism now being discussed are full of contradictions and can never survive. We need real change with no more tax dodgers, corrupt bankers, politicians, speculators or generic phonies!

Birmingham March and Rally- 27 October- 12- noon.

Well just one more. Bad news about the NHS and the Lords vote. But we must continue the struggle and call for all the groups and organisations to unite in opposition to the new proposals.

And for information a number of Rallies and demonstrations will be taking place over the coming months. This is just one of them called by the WMPC.

The Regional Council are organising their own Demonstration and March in Birmingham. The start will be at 11.30 am from-T&G House, Broad street, Birmingham on Thursday the 27th October 2011- to arrive in Chamberlain Square at 12.00 noon  to 1.30 pm, in the amphitheatre in front of the City Library. The meeting will be addressed by speakers from the WMPC, the GMB Trade Union and the Wholesale Market Federation. The Fair Pensions for all and rights in retirement campaign week, is being called by the NPC. Join us for the March or the rally at 12 noon. E- mail or Telephone the Secretary for further details. Placards, banners and speakers. Please note the change to Chamberlain Square 12 noon- 27 October 2011. See you all there!      Visit the site 

http://www.westmidlandspensioners.org.uk

Economy and our society!

Well that really was the very last one on this topic. Over the months we have seen politicians imprisoned, further wars, a continuing global economic crisis, high rates of unemployment and that is just for starters. But perhaps  one very important matter I have neglected is our precious NHS which now looks in danger. For example, 

• The Secretary of State’s legal duty to provide a health service will be scrapped. On top of that, a new “hands-off clause” removes the government’s powers to oversee local consortia and give some guarantee of the level of service wherever we live. We can expect increases in postcode lotteries  together with less ways to hold the government to account if the service deteriorates.
• The NHS will almost certainly be subject to UK and EU competition law. Private health companies will be able to take new NHS commissioning groups to court if they don’t win contracts. Scarce public money could be tied up in legal wrangles instead of hospital beds. Meanwhile, the legislation lifts the cap on NHS hospitals filling beds with private patients. We must avoid a US style system.

• And has we now know this bill has now been passed, with only a  handful of Lib Dems voting against. So it is now imperative to  lobby the members of the House of Lords and join in the  demonstrations planned for October.
• Enjoy your weekend and I hope you join me on my new Blog        planned for October.                        Ivor Timson  MSc (Econ)