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.

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)

Wage freeze for the rich!

Fightback on wages as the rich get richer. 

Result of years of below-inflation pay increases, a two-year pay freeze since 2010 and refusal by local government employers to pay the Chancellor’s promised £250 to the 69% earning less than £21,000 during the pay freeze, have recently emerged. For part time workers – more than half the workforce – purchasing power is now at 2002 levels and many are working in poverty. Near were I live in Birmingham, the Council prepare for even more cuts which should be resisted. Key findings from the report from Unison, titled Living on the Edge include:

1. 1.7 million people worked in local government in England and Wales in 2010 – around a quarter of the 6.9 million working in the public sector. Three quarters of the local government workforce are women. Well over half of the workforce works part time.

2. Local government (like the rest of the public sector) has a much higher proportion of women in its workforce than the private sector. Local government has a much higher proportion of part time jobs than the rest of the public sector.

3. Two thirds of the jobs in local government are manual or clerical jobs – almost exactly the same proportion as in the private sector. In the rest of the public sector, only one third of jobs are manual or clerical.

4. Eight per cent of full-time workers and 38% of part-time workers in local government earned less than the Living Wage of £7.20 an hour in 2011. This is a quarter of the workforce.

5. Both full time and part time hourly earnings in local government are well below those in the public sector as a whole. Part time hourly earnings in local government are above those in the private sector (where a quarter earned £6 an hour or less in 2010).

6. High inflation coupled with a pay freeze that began in April 2010 slashed the real value of earnings in local government by 13% between April 2009 and February 2012. A fall this big is unprecedented. Continuing high inflation means that earnings will fall further still.

7. Thanks to the pay freeze and inflation, typical fulltime hourly earnings in local government have sunk back to the levels of the early 1990s. Typical parttime hourly earnings have fallen back to 2002 levels.

8. Low paid local government employees usually need benefits and tax credits to keep their household out of poverty. The higher but still modest minimum income standard is rarely reached.

9. Low paid local government workers and their families are in a financially precarious position. A reduction in hours, a child leaving school or a partner whose eligibility for contribution based social security ceases can all take the household to the edge of poverty. This is despite the fact that the local government employee continues to work. Pay for these workers is poverty pay.

10. Quality of service considerations – and in the case of care workers and others in personal service occupations, considerations of the human rights of clients – are grounds for improving the pay and conditions as well as the training of local government employees. The pretence that jobs such as caring for elderly, frail or otherwise vulnerable people requires but little skill is a symptom of our society’s inability to recognise and value some of the things in life that matter most to most of us. 

Thanks to Unison and False Economy.