There was a lively debate at full Council last Monday 7th November on the subject of the future of our National Health Service and the impact this will have in Walsall.
There have been a number of reports for example that have been to the Board that runs our Manor Hospital earlier this year which indicated some concerns from an inspection that while most elderly who were questioned were happy, some were not and monitoring of access to food and water at times was not up to standard. Another report into maternity services also revealed over 1000 ‘incidents over the last year, some minor but some more serious.
The inspection of elderly services came to health scrutiny when we took the opportunity to question the head of nursing at the Manor on that report. The one on maternity services will be on a future agenda. There was also a report that long term waiting lists had risen ( those waiting over a year)
Could it be that these reports are a sign that our local hospital is desperately trying to balance their accounts and make cutbacks so that they can go forward to be accepted as a Foundation Trust?
All hospitals have been commanded to prepare to be Foundation trusts and be looked at by a new national body called ‘Monitor’ which is supposed to look over these Foundation trusts but seems to be more of an economic regulator than a body with real clout to assess outcomes. These new Foundation trusts will be free to promote and increase the proportion of private treatment provided.
Such reports with the amount of changes happening in the field of health and social care, could only be scrutinised in depth if a whole meeting designated to look at that one area or a special working party asked to report back. In reality only those with a good working knowledge of the NHS and hospitals can lead such an in depth questioning of professionals who are well practised in giving careful answers in response to what they could perceive is an attack on their profession.
Bringing in our national health service is one of the many great achievements of the Labour Party and it is true that successive Governments have tried to alter the management structures to make the NHS more ‘efficient’ but probably more in reality to keep the costs within some kind of budget. Here we have for the first time, 80% of the NHS being handed over from central control to 250 commissioning groups run by local doctors. While respecting their genuine professional integrity , I cannot see how they can impartially allocate such vast sums of money that directly affects there own income. 7 out of 10 doctors do not want this .
In some parts of the north, there is already evidence that some GP practices are being told they will not be accepted into the new commissioning group unless they change their more expensive patterns of costly health care.
We are told that the new bodies set up to advise and monitor the performance of the these new GP commissioning bodies will be called the Health and Well being boards… I do not believe they will have enough power to seriously challenge these new commissioning Boards.. we shall but try of course as the only show in town.
The new chair nationally of these commissioning boards Professor Grant indicated that he was not a user of the NHS which is worrying as to how much faith he has in the NHS.
These proposals now coming into place will cost nationally around £5 billion with independent legal advice saying that this will be a real threat to the fundamental principles of the NHS and in fact take the national out of the NHS title and promote a two tier health care service with promotion of private alternatives.
We call on scrapping this Bill now before it goes on in future years to promote scrapping of our NHS.
Just a note on the liberals who are facing oblivion as a party having sold their soul for a key to the wash room of the cabinet office and are coming up with all sorts of smoke screens to try and cover their tracks. I know the public out there will hold them to account at the next election.
On a footnote in repsonse to a comment posted 9th November
The figures in the notice to Council were correct at the time of writing. The waiting lists of over 1 year are now down to 40 ... just a 200% increase over the past year. The maternity services report will go to the next scrutiny meeting at my request. The Liberals in coalition had the power to bury this reorganisation of the nhs bill as recommended by the majority of health professionals.
Talking to colleagues at the Hospital, they complain that they cannot do their job to the standard they were trained to do at times due to time pressures .. brought on by financial pressures due to the hospital tryng to comply with the strict financial rules before going down the Foundation route. Nationally there are more serious reports from hospital patients and even in Yorkshire GPs complaining they have been asked to change their treatment patterns before being invited to join in the commissioning group as their current pattern was too expensive!
Nationally labour have tried to fight these changes and have an on line petition for anyone to sign calling for the NHS Bill to be withdrawn.
Regards
Ian Robertson
