Author: Steven Carne

There has been a lot of media concern about the government’s plan to share medical data with non-NHS organisations. Like many NHS campaigns around the country we are deeply concerned about the latest moves by the Department of Health and NHS England to take patient records, copy them onto a new digital database and make them available to third parties including the large American corporations who are keen to access our 73years worth of continuous patient/doctor relationship data. There’s huge amounts of money to be made in data.

This was The Times newspaper heading in which it stated that The Doctors’ Association UK said it was concerned that the proposal would erode the doctor patient relationship, leaving patients reluctant to share their problems due to fears of where their data will be shared. Certainly we think this is the case.

It was a great surprise to see the issue even featured on BBC The One Show on June 3rd.

Plan to share medical date risks eroding patient trust

Nationally the discovery that the public are only being given three weeks to opt-out of a non-publicised scheme has been met with outrage at this latest attempt to use patient data in this way. In East London one large group of GPs have refused to pass on their patients’ records to the scheme. Dr Jackie Appleby, speaking on behalf of the group said:

“General Practice is in crisis. With the pandemic, a declining workforce and increasing workload we are struggling to provide the services our patients deserve. The government and NHS Digital are well aware of this. But they expect practices to inform patients of this comprehensive extraction of their health data, giving patients the chance to opt out, within three weeks. Some of it is deeply personal. There is not time to do this in three weeks and if GPs enable this data sharing we risk undermining the trust of our patients.”

As your GP or Practice Nurse inputs your answers into the system – don’t you want to feel that your private information is being stored securely within an NHS only system? https://epaper.thetimes.co.uk/the-times/20210531/281535113908940

David Davis MP (Conservative) is part of a team who are putting forward a legal challenge to this move by NHS England and NHS Digital. He is working with The Doctors Association (UK), the Citizens (independent journalists) openDemocracy, and patient rights group Just Treatment. We are very interested in what our MP Jonathan Djanogly has to say.

If you are worried about your GP patient data being sold-off to non NHS organisations then Hands Off Hinchingbrooke are pleased to let you know…

There are two simple forms that you can use.

Type 1 Form (urgent) is a download form and requires you to simply fill in Name, address and NHS number if known. This is the form that needs to be completed and handed/sent to your GP Surgery before the 23rd June. This is with regard to your personal patient records held by the GP.

TYPE-1-OPT-OUT-FORMDownload

THIS IS THE LINK: https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/

MEDIA COVERAGE

Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9637979/Did-know-NHS-share-records.html

The Times: https://epaper.thetimes.co.uk/the-times/20210531/281535113908940

If you would like to be kept informed of the situation please sign up to our email list:

We want to wish Dr Nik Johnson good luck and show our support for him in tomorrow’s Combined Authority Mayoral elections.

Nik has been on the Hands Off Hinchingbrooke radar for many years and his experience as a children’s doctor has inspired his decision to become a local councillor and now stand for the Mayor position. He has an unwavering commitment and total passion for public service.

As an NHS Doctor he has seen first-hand the affects of the pandemic on the region and he knows that Cambridgeshire and Peterborough face huge political and ideological challenges as our communities begin to recover from the CoVid-19 pandemic. His NHS work places him at the heart of communities and we feel as Mayor Dr Nik can understand what it means to help and support people from all walks of life and be a force for positive change.

The position of Combined Authority Mayor is one in which an individual could make a huge difference to people’s lives. The Mayor and Combined Authority have a £600 million, 30-year investment fund. They have responsibilities and powers in education & skills, housing & planning, transport, and health & social care.

Surely someone with the inside knowledge of NHS & Social Care is best placed to lead a team making decisions about health and all that the word implies – a healthy region means people, environment and economy.

Please show your support for Dr Nik when you vote in the local elections tomorrow Thursday May 6th.

Good Luck Nik!

The Sustainability and Transformation website is years old. The Clinical Commissioning Group don’t say anything on their website. Where on earth can the STP Board be?

Hands Off Hinchingbrooke are perpexed at this mystery and are hoping to find the whereabouts of the Cambridgeshire & Pboro Sustainability & Transformation Board (STPB). Last seen at an online meeting in November and haven’t been seen since! January’s meeting was cancelled and if they have got together since they haven’t invited the public.

We thought we would try NHS England because, well, they know everything that goes on locally don’t they? They are the bosses after all. So helpfully they listed  Roland Sinker as the STP Lead and Michael More as Independent Chair (https://www.england.nhs.uk/integratedcare/how-did-we-get-here/view-stps/cambridgeshire-and-peterborough/) so we thought we would try that.

That bounced as undeliverable or to be exact – “Quota exceeded (mailbox for user is full)”. There must be a lot of us trying to find the STPB. Why we wonder?

YOu may be asking who or WHAT is the STP? Good question. Well it is supposed to be a collaborative partnership of organisations across the county working together to improve the NHS in our local area. Oh and find “efficiency savings” CUTS everywhere.

When we find them we want to ask the Sustainability & Transformation Board about the move to becoming an Integrated Care System (another NHS England brainwave that is all about “joining up” healthcare and finding even more “efficiency savings”. We would like to know the following:

1. When will the STP Board announce they are becoming an ICS?

1a) Who will be the Independent Chair of the ICS?

1b) Which organisation will take the Lead Provider role and how has this LP been selected?

1c) Will this Lead Provider hold the main ICS budget?

1d) How much is that planned ‘capitated budget’ going to be and what is it to cover?

1e) Have STP/ICS Transition meetings taken place and were the public informed?

When a government White Paper – about Integrated Care Systems – is issued and the public aren’t really given the chance to find out what is going on it does make us worry. New legislation is about to lock in a system which will allow more private company involvement in the management of our NHS even though the NHS England Spin says it will keep them out.

There is a Clinical Commissioning Group meeting today online and some of us will try to attend. When we get some answers about the STP and the Integrated Care System we will ensure they are made public on our website.

If you are worried about the changes being made to our health system in Cambridgeshire get in touch. We would like to hear from you.

Monday 18th January 2021. MPs voted AGAINST the Lords’ decision that the NHS should be protected in the most recent Trade Bill that affects talks and deals with the USA.

Hands Off Hinchingbrooke agreed with We Own It and many other campaigns that MPs had a “moral duty” to protect parts of the NHS from being handed over, and protect patient data etc. in trade deals and it was hard to believe that this was the second time that this matter has had to be voted on in 6 months. Surely all MPs want to protect the NHS from the USA private health companies, don’t they?

Speaking on the forthcoming debate in parliament, We Own It campaigner Johnbosco Nwogbo said:

“This year, we’ve relied on our precious NHS more than ever before. It’s saved thousands of lives and it’s helped us fight back against this terrible pandemic. We’ve seen just how important it is, and why we can never let it be dismantled. That’s why it’s so shocking that the Trade Bill contains no protections for our NHS.”

What is confusing to HOH is the fact that Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly was in the House of Commons, taking part in the Trade Bill debate, arguing for higher scrutiny by MPs of future trade deals… YET on this matter he voted down the Lords’ amendments to exclude the NHS from future trade deals with the USA.

This link is the video of Mr Djanogly speaking: https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/westminster-news/we-own-it-on-post-brexit-nhs-protections-6908624?jwsource=cl

Voting aginst protecting the NHS seems odd when a new poll by Survation has found that three-quarters of Britons are worried about the impact a trade deal with the USA could have on the price the NHS pays for drugs.

The poll found that 77% of the public were worried that a trade deal with the USA would increase the price the NHS pays for drugs, compared to just 18% who say they are not worried.

We would invite readers to join us in asking Mr Djanogly why he did not vote in favour of protecting the NHS in future trade deals with the USA and other countries who may want to embed themselves in our health service.

We look forward to hearing his reply.

What did we do to mark the Anniversary weekend of the 72nd year of the NHS? Well some of us met for a walk and talk meeting through Hinchingbrooke Park. None of us felt like celebrating as we felt it was disingenuous to clap and cheer when we know that our once world-leading health service is now being crippled by the current government cuts and restructuring along the USA Healthcare (the World’s worst) – even at this time of emergency and pandemic.

We want to thank all the staff on every level of our health service who have continued to work for all of us during this pandemic period. Despite a government who seemed to have been prioritising private company contracts over people’s lives – the staff of the NHS have proven themselves to be the most hard-working and committed workforce we need to be turly grateful for. We hope that they are now fully supported by their managers and administration bodies of NHS England.

On our walk through the lovely park we talked about the last few months and all the failings of the government – the lack of Personal Protective Equipment, the useless NHS App, the moving of hospital patients into the community and care homes WITHOUT Covid19 Testing, and now the current chaos of the privatised Test Track and Trace system which has been a disaster – costing us, according to new reports a massive £10billion! Yet Public Health receives less than £1bn and should be the recipient of the money. That is where the expertise lies. Not in Deloitte, Serco and G4S to name but a few.

There has never been a more urgent time to examine the failing of the privatised NHS and Social Care. The interference of private companies is now destroying our once world-leading public service and replacing it with an expensive profit focused corporation managed NHS. We stand by our commitment to bring back the NHS into public hands – restored as a publicly funded.

So Happy 72nd Anniversary. It is worth remembering the political vision that set the NHS up and what it stood for – equality and social justice. We need that now more than ever.

Hands Off Hinchingbrooke would like to show their gratitude and support to all the staff at the hospital, the local community nurses and staff of care homes who will all be coping with the consequences of the COVD19 pandemic.

Nationally there is a problem of NHS Staff not being equipped with sufficient Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) – high standard masks, visors and owns etc.

We feel we need to do all we can to support the staff of Hinchingbrooke now part of the North West Anglia Foundation Trust (Peterborough& Stamford). We are writing to the CEO of NWAFT to find out more about the situation at Hinchingbrooke.

We would remind the public that keeping safe distance from one another is essential at this time and we should remember this is a mutual respect action designed to protect one another, not stigmatise or cause fear.

And oh the irony! Saturday 10th August we spent a windy but great afternoon at the Huntingdon Carnival talking to local people about the uncertain status of Hinchingbrooke – we chose the theme “Your Guess is as Good as Ours” because we are asking questions of the “Cambridgeshire Leaders” but the answers are not forthcoming in any form that is useful.

Then just TWO days later the Health Service Journal caused a stir by announcing that “Cambridgeshire Leaders” have set out plans to remove all trauma work from Hinchingbrooke (“a struggling district general hospital”) as part of a major clinical reconfiguration.

Q1: WHO ARE THE “LEADERS”?

Well there is the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) – made up of clinicians and NHS execs – who are (in theory) the budget holders and in charge of commissioning NHS care for our county region which is also known as ‘FootPrint 21’ which is governed by something called the Sustainability & Transformation Partnership Board (STPB) – which has no LEGAL STATUS and is simply a collection of interested parties including charities, local authority figures and various NHS groups & bodies who have all agreed to collaborate – whooppee!

Q2: IF THE STP HAS NO LEGAL STATUS…?

Why is it making proposals and decisions about our NHS services? This can’t be right can it? Yet that is what is happening. (NHS England wants all STPs to become Integrated Care Systems by 2021/2 – that’s another post coming soon).

At the STP Board meeting in July Caroline Walker, CEO of North West Anglia Foundation Trust (yes that is what Hinchingbrooke is part of now) delivered a paper that contained the clues…

1. In December 2018, DHSC/NHSI (Dept of Health/NHS Improvement) supported significant Wave 4 capital investment in the local system, including an allocation of £25,536m for investment in the redevelopment of Hinchingbrooke Hospital, to include renewal of the 7 main theatres, additional capacity of 55 beds and a modest upgrade of urgent care facilities to meet compliance standards and improve the effectiveness of ambulatory care and acute assessment. Q: All sounds good so why are they axing Trauma?
2. For trauma and orthopaedics, it was agreed to progress with planning for the redistribution of DGH trauma away from Hinchingbrooke to Peterborough City Hospital and Addenbrooke’s Hospital… (continued)

• This will constitute a significant service shift, and the team will work on the assumption that public consultation will be required.
• There needs to be an early view of the high level business case to test whether this development will be affordable in terms of the overall clinical and financial sustainability of the system. It is possible that further changes may need to be made to elective orthopaedic pathways in the system in order to ensure that there is sufficient operating and post-operative capacity. Q: Elective meaning patients making decisions to have treatment and having to self-fund perhaps?
• In the case of Huntingdonshire, there appears to be a higher than average rate of elective admissions for the system, which will be explored as part of the modelling. This may bring opportunities for Hinchingbrooke to become a hub for a wider catchment population to ease pressure on other services within the system. Q: Is NWAFT seeing Hinchingbrooke as a centre of making money from elective treatments?

Q3: What about the Public?

What about them? seems to be opinion. Despite the fact that throughout Caroline Walker’s paper it is repeated that: This will constitute a significant service shift, and the team will work on the assumption that public consultation will be required. (Sometime soon we assume)

Q4: If the capital funding has been applied for and agreed hasn’t the decision been made?

And what would be the point of a consultation?

Q5: What about the A&E status at Hinchingbrooke?

So what can we do?

Well… you could write to the STP Board and ask them exactly what is going on with the proposal to axe Trauma at Hinchingbrooke. The next meeting of the STP Board is the 19th September – details are HERE

Or attend the next Clinical Commissioning Group on the 3rd September in Ely – Details HERE

You could ask your local councillors what they know about the changes taking place as it will affect their work and their duty to protect local services.

Despite being labelled “scaremongerers” we have been predicting that major changes will take place at Hinchingbrooke since we fought the merger in 2016/17. These changes are inevitable (unless the public put their foot down) because of the national mandate laid down in NHS England’s Long Term Plan – which focuses on centralising acute services, pushing more care out into the community and encouraging more charity & 3rd Sector organisations to take up the flack (and funds). They want to keep people OUT of hospital – for all the wrong reasons – money.

Last one… how much available land is there on the Hinchingbrooke Estate?