Here is press release from campaign website below - at last all our campaigning is paying off:
GLOUCESTERSHIRE ANTI-PRIVATISATION BATTLE HEATS UP
LOCAL CAMPAIGN IS FRONTLINE IN BATTLE FOR FUTURE OF NHS
Having forced
Gloucestershire health bosses to scrap previous outsourcing plans,
through six months of campaigning (1) and Judicial Review proceedings
(2), anti-cuts groups across the county have achieved another highly
significant breakthrough. Local NHS bosses have finally accepted that
the county's 9 community hospitals and 9 health clinics can remain in
the NHS (3). The option of creating a standalone NHS trust is now 'exceptionally' back on the table, having previously been ruled out by
the Department of Health. In a battle with national repercussions for
those fighting NHS privatisation, campaigners are now calling for this
and other NHS options to be pursued, without a tender, as has happened
in most of the rest of the country. Click read more to see the rest.
On Thursday 17th May,
campaigners took their calls for genuine consideration of NHS options
to the first public meeting of the shadow Clinical Commissioning Group,
the organisation created by the Health and Social Care Act, made up of
local GPs, which will take over the role of choosing which organisations
provide local healthcare services from the PCT in 2013. The Keep
Gloucestershire‟s NHS Public campaign are asking for anti-privatisation
campaigners locally and nationally to rally behind their campaign, and
will hold rallies on 16 June across the county (4).
On Wednesday 16th May
Jan Stubbings wrote to campaigners admitting that they have a choice
regarding whether or not local NHS services are handed to an NHS
organisation, or put out to tender (see 3). This latest twist follows a
court order reached in February 2012 which forced the PCT to withdraw
its plans to outsource hospitals and services to a Community Interest
Company outside the NHS (5). Campaigners, who have criticised secrecy
and confusion surrounding NHS Gloucestershire‟s plans, are calling for
further clarity about which NHS options are being pursued and more
commitment to them. They also want a democratic choice on keeping
services in the NHS. James Beecher, Chair of local campaign group Stroud
Against the Cuts (SATC) said:
“There is no reason
why services must be auctioned off. While services remain within the
NHS, local health bosses always have a choice to keep them publicly
owned and accountable. We can avoid wasting up to half a million pounds
on an unnecessary tendering process, exposing our NHS to EU laws and the
damaging effects of privatisation.”
Jan Stubbings, Chief
Executive of NHS Gloucestershire has written to “stakeholders” that: “We
want to make sure that local people have an opportunity to express
their views.” Chris Moore of Stroud Against the Cuts said: “A few a
booklets and stage managed drop-in sessions with the very people who
have pushed the outsourcing so strongly, hardly constitutes reasonable
public & staff consultation. The people of Gloucestershire, and
local NHS staff, deserve a fair, transparent and democratic
decision-making process, with a clear choice to keep our local health
services in the NHS. We urge people to make their voices heard now”
Chris Moore of Stroud
Against the Cuts said: “More private companies in the NHS means huge
sums are wasted administering contracts and paying dividends. All
private companies, including so-called „social enterprises‟, make
decisions secretively, divert money to new layers of management and
bureaucracy, and away from patient care, which are already suffering
from government cuts (6). In Gloucestershire staff numbers have dropped
by a quarter, and waiting times are rising. They fragment our NHS and
damage the care that patients receive. In Nottingham community health
services taken over by a so-called „social enterprise‟ now provide
factsheets instead of hands-on physiotherapy.i These are the kind of
cuts and worsening care we can expect more of as private companies
takeover our NHS.” For notes see here.
Caroline Molloy of
SATC said “The support of the people of Gloucestershire and NHS staff
for this campaign has forced NHS Gloucestershire management to think
again. We will continue to both fight any attempts to privatise our
local services, and to join with the national movement to defend our
NHS, that has been burgeoning since the passage of the Health and Social
Care Act as the strongest assault on our health services yet.”
No comments:
Post a Comment