Labour Pledge on the NHS

Now that the Health and Social Bill has gained Royal Assent, Labour in local government is the last line of defence to protect the NHS.

This ‘NHS Pledge’ enables Labour council and elected mayor candidates to campaign on the NHS in the local elections and to show how, if elected, they will work to hold GPs and hospitals to account in their areas.

The ‘NHS Pledge’ details core principles that can be adopted by Health and Well-being Boards .

.Labour has developed these pledges in an attempt to mitigate the worst effects of the Health and Social care Act.


• The pledges can be adopted by the Health and Wellbeing Boards as a statement of policy and a local NHS Forum established to encourage commissioners and providers in the local area to do the same.

• The Government denied that the HSC Bill would lead to charging, a postcode lottery, restricting the provision of treatment, waiting-time breaches and a free-market free-for-all.

• We already have examples which illustrate the reality on the ground and why the pledges are necessary to protect NHS services for patients.

If we gain those extra 4 seats that will give Labour a majority on Walsall Council. We are appalled at the allocated £18 million allocated to do the re0orgainsation in Walsall Money that should have been spent on patient care.

We will work to protect your NHS – its existing strengths, service standards and prevailing ethos.

To do this, we will ask our local Health and Well-being Board to adopt the following principles as a statement of intent for the NHS in [insert]. Working through the Board, all NHS commissioners and providers will be asked to agree to work towards these shared principles.

1. NHS founding values

We will work to:

 guarantee universal access to comprehensive health services in accordance with NHS founding values;

• prevent the encroachment of charging for services currently provided free by the NHS;

• ensure access to NHS treatment is available according to need, based on clinical guidelines and not routinely restricted according to factors such as Body Mass Index (BMI) or lifestyle choices.

Examples

• A GP practice in York (Haxby) has sent a letter to their patients with the charges shown for certain treatments that are currently free on the NHS.

• Some NHS Trusts are routinely restricting treatment based on BMI and lifestyle choices.


2. Postcode lottery

We will work to:

• avoid the emergence of a postcode lottery in this area, and across this region, by providing comparable entitlement and access to NHS treatment for all based on NICE recommendations.

Examples

• An elderly patient in the South-East died because the PCT was not given funding for a Trans-Catheter Aortic Valve Implant.

• A precision engineer from Oldham was diagnosed with cataracts and had his operation refused.

3. Waiting times

We will work to:

• keep waiting times down by maintaining the three main established standards for access to treatment (4-hour A&E; 18 weeks for elective treatment; urgent cancer referral);

• ensure the lifting of the private patient cap for NHS Foundation Trusts does not adversely impact on waiting times for NHS patients.

Examples

• The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’s Stretched to the Limit report found that patients are waiting up to 27 weeks to access physiotherapy, potentially causing their condition to worsen.

• Since May 2010 there has been a 25% increase in the number of patients who waited over 18 weeks for treatment.

• For thirteen out of the last fifteen weeks hospitals have failed to meet the Government's own lowered A&E target.

• Since the election, there has been a 59% increase in the number of patients waiting longer than 6 weeks for key diagnostic tests.

4. Collaboration over competition

We will work to:

• resist the drive towards privatisation and a free-market free-for-all in health, leading to the fragmentation and de-stabilisation of existing NHS hospitals and services;

• secure the optimum configuration of services for patients across this local authority area and this region as a whole by working together;

• seek to maintain an agreed approach to pay and conditions for NHS staff both locally and across the region based upon the existing national framework;

• operate on a ‘no surprises’ basis, establish an agreed process, period of notice and consultation for all commissioning and contracting decisions;

• integrate budgets for commissioning adult social care and children’s services with the NHS;

• introduce a ‘whole-person approach’ to care, integrating NHS services with social care and mental health services.

Examples

• All HIV Out Patient Department services are going out to tender to Ealing.

• Croydon university A&E minor injuries won by Assura virgin therefore private nurses will be working in cubicles side by side with NHS staff and not as a team.

5. Patients before profits

We will work to:

• ensure the doctor/patient relationship is not undermined by financial incentives and that public trust is maintained in clinical decision-making;

• provide strong safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest leading to loss of public trust in NHS provision;

• ensure patient choice is not restricted by the way services are commissioned or provided.

Examples

• In Bury St Edmonds GPs are opening up pharmacies in their surgeries – prescribing and dispensing medicine.

• Contracting out of drug and alcohol rehab services at south west London mental health contract won by Sussex based in Crawley so mental health patients have to travel.

published by electronic means by Ian Robertson 87 Belvidere Road walsall WS1 3AU on behalf of the Labour Party Walsall c/o Wilkes street Willenhall