Press release

Thursday 5 March

Manchester leads but can others follow? The best way forward for the NHS means changing the law

Ten Local authorities in Greater Manchester are to jointly commission health and social care services with the 12 CCGs in the area, with a current value of around 6 billion pounds in 2016 [1] in a move towards integration and local accountability for health and social care services. But the question is, how will the NHS be protected in the absence of a clear legislative framework and statutory duty to provide listed services throughout England? A leading campaigner to change the law on how the NHS is defined and works will be speaking in Manchester this week, pointing out that the law needs to change if the NHS is to be protected. And asking people to back the NHS Reinstatement Bill [2] in Parliament by approaching their MPs and electoral candidates up to the election.

Local authorities currently contract out most of their social services and residential and nursing care to private for profit providers of nursing care which are charged for and means-tested at point of use. Nationally, there has been a major reduction in LA budgets resulting in reduced levels of service provision and entitlement to care added to pressures on the NHS.

The amount spent on social care services for older people has fallen nationally by £1.1 billion (14.4%) since 2010/11, even after accounting for additional funding from the NHS, and by a total of £1.4 billion (17.7%) since 2005/6:

• 3% of all people aged 65 and over (1,230,625) received social care in 2005/06 compared to 9.1% (849,280) in 2014/15 – a reduction of 40%.
• Between 2010/11 and 2013/14:
  • Older people receiving home care has fallen by 31.7% (542,965 to 370,630)
  • Day care places have plummeted by 66.9% (178,700 to 59,125)
  • Spending on home care has dropped since 2010/11 by 19.4% (£276,922,528) falling from £2,250,168,237 to £1,814,518,000
  • Spending on day care has fallen even more dramatically by 30% (£113,618,974) from £378,532,974 to £264,914,000

The real concern is that if funding is not restored alongside a strong legislative framework to ensure that the NHS continues to be provided throughout England as a planned National Health Service, the commissioning board will use cost shifting and marketization to break up the NHS and decrease access to NHS funded care by blurring the boundaries between what is free healthcare and what is charged for.

It is a crucial moment for local authorities to engage in local health services but legislation is required to ensure that the resources and services are distributed fairly and on the basis of need throughout England. The proposed NHS Reinstatement Bill [2] due to be tabled in in Parliament on 11 March will do this; and now it is crucial that everyone lobbies their MPs and electoral candidates to support it before and after the election.

Professor Allyson Pollock will be speaking at the Mechanics Institute, Princess Street, Manchester, on Thursday 5 March at a meeting organised by CLASS on the future of the NHS [3]. She will be talking about what the new Bill means, and why we need it now more than ever. Professor Pollock has helped draft the new Bill with lawyer Peter Roderick, and it is attracting increasing support from across the political spectrum.

The NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015 is due to be tabled before Parliament on 11 March. It will restore the NHS to its proper place and prevent further damage to the NHS by:

• Reinstating the government’s legal duty to provide key NHS services in England.
• Abolishing market structures like foundation trusts.
• Abolishing competition and contracts.
• Allowing commercial companies to provide services only if the NHS could not do so and patients would suffer.
• Centralising PFI debts so they can be reduced.
• Stopping immigration health charges.
• Stopping treaties like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) without Parliament’s approval if they cover the NHS.
• Establishing local Health Boards from the bottom up.
• Re-establishing Community Health Councils for public accountability.
• Requiring national terms and conditions under the NHS Staff Council and Agenda for Change system.

Professor Pollock said:

‘The NHS is withering away because the duty on the Sec of State to provide has been abolished. This NHS Reinstatement Bill is needed to restore the duty to provide a national health service throughout England and make services accountable to local people again. The current break-up of services and their fragmentation and marketization and erosion of entitlements has only be made possible by the Health and Social Care Act of 2012. The current trajectory is to increase the blurring of boundaries between services that are free and those that are paid for in the marketplace – with market providers making those decisions about the winners and the losers.

‘Support this Bill. Write to your electoral candidates and MPs. We are many – but time is short.’

Editors’ Notes

Venue details:

Election 2015: Manchester – What’s at stake for the NHS?

The Mechanics Institute, 103 Princess Street
Manchester M1 6DD

Thursday 5 March 2015, 6:30pm.

Details/book:

http://classonline.org.uk/events/item/election-2015-manchester-whats-at-stake-for-the-nhs

Contact:

The Campaign’s press officer is Alan Taman:

07870 757 309

healthjournos@gmail.com

http://www.nhsbill2015.org/press-contact

 

[1] Widely reported and since commented on. See http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/25/greater-manchester-councils-to-control-6bn-of-health-spending-report

[2] www.nhsbill2015.org.uk . The Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill is a non-partisan campaign and has a wide range of support across the political spectrum (http://www.nhsbill2015.org/our-supporters/ ). It encourages the public to contact prospective parliamentary candidates in their constituency, determine their views on the Reinstatement Bill, and gain their support for it wherever possible:

http://www.nhsbill2015.org

Twitter: @nhsbill2015

[3] The Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS) is a think-tank established in 2012 to look at key social issues from a left perspective: http://classonline.org.uk

 

 

 

Press release

Wednesday 4 February 2015

100 on the Green

Over  100 Green Party candidates for the May General Election have given their clear support for the NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015 [1] and there is no sign of that support slowing down. This impressive wave of support reflects the Party’s core commitment to public services which are not privatised, but are true to their founding principles and can safely continue to be publicly owned for the future.

The NHS Reinstatement Bill frames a clear mechanism to protect the NHS against the damage of privatisation, in overturning key aspects of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and earlier legislation that set the NHS in England on the road to fragmentation – often without public consultation, and nearly always without their full awareness. As such, it reflects Green Party policy towards the NHS and other public institutions which have been threatened by privatisation and now stand on the brink of collapse as successive governments sought to sell them off for ideological reasons, and despite growing evidence that there is no strong financial argument supporting the privatisation agenda [2].

Far from being yet another ‘top-down, centralised, re-structuring’, crucially the NHS Reinstatement Bill hands responsibility for provision of service back to the Secretary of State for Health, something the HSCA severed [3] – thereby effectively uncoupling ultimate responsibility for the NHS from Parliament. It also spells out how, if the NHS is to be saved, it must:

• Reinstate the government’s duty to provide the NHS in England.
• Re-establish NHS England as a special health authority.
• Re-establish District Health Authorities, with Family Health Services Committees to administer arrangements with GPs, dentists and others.
• Abolish marketised bodies such as NHS foundation trusts, as well as Monitor, the regulator of NHS foundation trusts and commercial companies [4].
• Allow commercial companies to provide services only if the NHS could not do so and otherwise patients would suffer [5].
• Abolish competition [2].
• Re-establish Community Health Councils to represent the interest of the public.
• Stop licence conditions imposed by Monitor on NHS foundation trusts. These will reduce the number of services that they currently have to provide from April 2016: the end of the universal service.
• Bring the terms and conditions of NHS staff back under the NHS Staff Council [6].
• Prohibit ratification of treaties like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) without the approval of Parliament if they would cover the NHS [7].

Jillian Creasy
 is Health spokesperson for the Green Party, and prospective parliamentary candidate, Sheffield Central:

“I fully support the NHS Reinstatement Bill. I qualified as a doctor in 1982. I have worked through the marketisation and privatisation of the Tory and Labour years and now the Coalition. Bringing in private providers does not only fragment services and leach money out of the public economy, it threatened the whole ethos of public service. Staff across the board have been forced to concentrate on prices and targets, instead of thinking about how to maximize the quality of care. Nothing short of complete reversal of privatisation will restore the NHS we know and love.”

Professor Allyson Pollock worked with Peter Roderick, a lawyer, on the NHS Reinstatement Bill:

“We’re delighted so many Green Party candidates have voiced their support. It’s encouraging to see candidates for a party which stands for responsible public ownership and an eye to the legacy we leave our descendants say they are behind us. Members of the public, parliamentary candidates, health professionals: all are coming forward to say enough is enough – and this Bill is the way back to a future health service we can be proud to think of protecting. Please, if you do nothing else before this election, ask your parliamentary candidates to say what they think of the NHS Reinstatement Bill and let us know.”

 

Editors’ Notes

[1] The Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill is a non-partisan campaign and has a wide range of support across the political spectrum. It encourages the public to contact prospective parliamentary candidates in their constituency, determine their views on the Reinstatement Bill, and gain their support for it wherever possible.

The Campaign’s press officer is Alan Taman
07870 757 309
healthjournos@gmail.com

[2] The belief that ‘competition is always best’ does not work when applied to healthcare. A comprehensive and universal health service is best funded by public donation, which has been shown to be far more efficient overall than private-insurance healthcare models. [Lister, J. (2013) Health Policy Reform: global health versus private profit. Libri: Faringdon.

[3] The HSCA has removed the Secretary of State for Health’s responsibility to provide as well as promote a universal, comprehensive health service in England. In effect, this has compromised parliament’s ultimate responsibility for the NHS. [Pollock, A. and Price, D. (2013) In NHS SOS, ed by Davis, J. and Tallis, R. Oneworld: London, 178-181.]The NHS Reinstatement Bill [http://www.nhsbill2015.org/the-bill] would restore this founding principle of the NHS, which has been undermined largely for ideological reasons and despite the evidence that inequalities in health are growing in the UK as a direct result of wider inequalities fostered by the same ideology [Dorling, D. (2013) Unequal Health: The scandal of our times. The Policy Press: London, Chapter 1].

[4] The Bill would ensure that any handover of employment for NHS staff from NHS FTs, CCGs and NHS trusts to the new NHS bodies was conducted with the full participation of Trade Unions and would require the Secretary of State for Health to make regulations setting out the terms and conditions of transfer. Overturning the current situation where long-established agreements with the workforce are being systematically overturned, to the detriment of many NHS staff.

[5] The NHS has always used private firms, partnerships and individual traders to provide services it could not easily or as cost-effectively provide for itself, eg some legal services and construction of or repair to NHS buildings. What the NHS Reinstatement Bill does is end the current obligation on NHS services to use tendering to determine which organisation delivers front-line healthcare: this is pro-privatisation engineering and is an ongoing threat to the comprehensiveness of NHS care.

[6] The Bill would ensure that any handover of employment for NHS staff from NHS FTs, CCGs and NHS trusts to the new NHS bodies was conducted with the full participation of Trade Unions and would require the Secretary of State for Health to make regulations setting out the terms and conditions of transfer.

[7] The TTIP, if enacted as it stands currently, would make it very difficult for future governments to reverse the provision of healthcare by private organisations if they could show this would prove commercially damaging to them [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership ].

 

Press release

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Efford Bill Falters with Tory Filibustering

In a triumph of procrastination, Tory MPs sitting on the House of Commons Committee for the Efford Bill (NHS (Amended Duties and Powers Bill)) showed their mastery of filibustering today – by spending over 2 hours debating whether future meetings should start at a later time.

Clive Efford’s Private Members’ Bill is Labour’s attempt to fix the damage already done to our health service by the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Yet it is being killed slowly at its committee stage by Tory MPs. Mr Conservative David Nuttall’s amendment to the Bill, proposing to shift the start time of future meetings from 9.30 am to 10 pm, set the stage for Mr Nuttall to spend most of the hearing describing why this would be a good idea, including his view that it would allow MPs more time to get to the meetings during adverse weather. He was repeatedly supported in his procrastinations by Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative), who at one stage said that the later start would help ‘Westminster clerks’ brains’ to work better.

It now seems certain that the filibustering will continue until the Efford Bill runs out of time and fails to become law.

The only committee member present who voiced strong opposition to this was Phil Wilson (Labour), who on a point of order was able to state what most people would surely be thinking:

“… the NHS is the top concern of the public outside this House. This Bill received a second reading with 241 votes to 18. Won’t people struggle to understand why we’re not discussing the substance of the Bill rather than having to listen to Conservative members waffle inanely for nearly two and half hours?”

To which the Conservative Chairman of the Committee, Jim Hood, simply replied: ‘this was not a matter for the chair’.

If there were ever doubts that the current government has any intention of stopping or slowing down the continued privatisation and dismantling of the NHS, this latest act of parliamentary filibustering should dispel them.

The NHS Reinstatement Bill goes further than the Efford Bill in tackling the current dangers to the NHS. It focuses directly on the risks of the purchaser-provider split, as well as giving back to the Secretary of State the responsibility to provide a universal, comprehensive health service (instead of just promoting one, which is now the case). It is critical that it is included in the next Parliament, and the Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015 is asking as many people as possible to approach their prospective MPs before the election and find out whether they support the Reinstatement Bill.

Campaign spokesman Alan Taman said:

“Filibustering is not new. What is new, and shocking, is the way Conservative MPs are using this tactic to stop any substantial discussion on such an important topic. We can expect more of the same unless MPs know they can’t get away with it. Then to see the NHS crumble as its most profitable services are given to private providers and we are left with a two-tier service. You can probably guess where the poorest and most vulnerable will have to get their healthcare from. This has to be stopped by changing the law. We’ve one chance to save our one health service. Please, support the NHS Reinstatement Bill.”

 

Editor’s Note

The Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill is a non-partisan campaign and has a wide range of support across the political spectrum. It encourages the public to contact prospective parliamentary candidates in their constituency, determine their views on the Reinstatement Bill, and gain their support for it wherever possible.

The Campaign’s press officer is Alan Taman
07870 757 309
healthjournos@gmail.com

Press release

22 January 2015

SNP Back NHS Reinstatement Bill

In a move which confirms the need for the NHS Reinstatement Bill and affirms the aims of the bill’s Campaign, SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon has made plain her party’s determination to stop NHS privatisation in England as well as Scotland, and to form alliances with English parties and organisations who want to see the current dismantling of the NHS stopped.

There is growing political opposition to the effects of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 in England, which is leading to marketization and the withering away of NHS funded services. The SNP’s statement and Nicola Sturgeon’s comments on national media describe clearly how the SNP would vote to support any legislation which stopped marketization of the NHS in England as well as in Scotland.

In a press statement the SNP said:

“The SNP are indicating support for the Campaign for an NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015 being pursued in England by, among others, Professor Allyson Pollock, Professor of Public Health Research and Policy. It proposes to abolish competition and the purchaser-provider split, re-establish public bodies and public accountability, and restrict the role of commercial companies. The Campaign also states that their proposed Bill would reinstate the government’s legal duty to provide the NHS in England.”

In an interview for Channel 4 News Scotland’s First Minister said:

“I’m signalling today that if there are votes in the House of Commons after the general election that would propose halting the privatisation of the health service we’re seeing in England, that would propose restoring the health service as a fully public service, then SNP MPs would vote for that because that would help us protect our own budget in the future. It would also be part of our progressive alliance with others in England who also want to see a halt to NHS privatisation.

“The NHS Reinstatement Bill aims to restore the Secretary of State for Health’s duty to provide core NHS services throughout England, overturn the split between the health organisations providing care and those paying for it (the ‘purchaser-provider split’), and end the wasteful practice of compulsory tendering for services. The only way to stop the abolition of the NHS completely is to change the law.”

Professor Allyson Pollock worked with Peter Roderick, a lawyer, on the NHS Reinstatement Bill:

“The SNP have taken a crucial stand in defence of universal health care and against the destruction of our NHS in England. The Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill is non-partisan, and we welcome support for the bill from all parties. The SNP’s comments have given us the clearest signal yet that this must happen to restore the NHS and prevent its wholesale destruction.”

[Ends]

 

 

Editor’s Note

The Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill is a non-partisan campaign and has a wide range of support across the political spectrum. It encourages the public to contact prospective parliamentary candidates in their constituency, determine their views on the Reinstatement Bill, and gain their support for it wherever possible.

The Campaign’s press officer is Alan Taman
07870 757 309
healthjournos@gmail.com

 

Press Release

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Mutually Assured Destruction:
Why Hinchinbrooke means the law must change

The withdrawal of Circle from the management of Hinchinbrooke Hospital is not an isolated example. It is an early symptom of the failure of the NHS and there will be more unless the current incremental destruction of the NHS is stopped by changing the law. The worst thing to do is nothing and there is very little time to act.

This is the argument of the Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill, Lord David Owen’s solution to reversing the changes of the Health and Social Care Act (HSCA). Writing in the Guardian today, Lord Owen exposes the argument for ‘mutual’ management of NHS organisations by commercial interests such as Circle and what remains of the public service for what it truly is: a misapplication of principles which may well work in areas like retail or manufacturing but which simply cannot work in providing comprehensive healthcare. Far from generating mutual commitment and the best possible outcomes for the public, these schemes are merely the mechanism by which pro-market, pro-privatisation parties can dismantle the NHS as a unified, comprehensive public service.

The only way to stop this is to change the law. By ‘de-coupling’ the responsibility of the Minister for Health for the NHS, and instead only insisting ministerial duty is confined to ‘promoting’ healthcare, the HSCA ensured there was no ultimate parliamentary responsibility for the NHS. It also further widened the gap between those providing the care and those paying for it, and made it almost impossible for existing NHS services to be regarded as the preferred one: providers are obliged to put services out to tender. All of which guarantees fragmentation and a carving off of the most lucrative sections of the NHS to private providers, again at the cost of undermining comprehensive and equitable care for all.

Far from being yet another, top-down, centralised imposition of change, the NHS Reinstatement Bill seeks to stop then repair the damage already done and restore the NHS for what it is admired globally as being: the fairest way of allocating health resources for the public so that all can be confident they are going to get the best available treatment, and none have to face the nightmare of being excluded because they live in the wrong area, or can’t find the money for private healthcare.

Professor Allyson Pollock is Professor of Public Health Research and Policy at Queen Mary College, University of London, and is a passionate supporter of the Campaign:

“What Circle have done at Hinchinbrooke betrays the true agenda for the NHS under existing legislation: a less comprehensive, less effective and less accountable service which is increasingly in the hands of private providers. Who in the end always have the option of shrugging their shoulders and walking away, leaving the taxpayer to find the solution. The solution is apparent now. We have to stop this or it will become more common, and our NHS will continue to fragment. The Reinstatement Bill has to become law, and quickly.”

[Ends]

 

Editor’s Note

The Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill is a non-partisan campaign and has a wide range of support across the political spectrum. It encourages the public to contact prospective parliamentary candidates in their constituency, determine their views on the Reinstatement Bill, and gain their support for it wherever possible.

The Campaign’s press officer is Alan Taman
07870 757 309
healthjournos@gmail.com