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Will the as yet unbuilt Healthcare Campus for Hinchingbrooke ever be built? Well if it is not then Healthcare in the Community will likely fail as four in five UK local authorities have insufficient care for older people in their area, with the shortage most acute for some of the most vulnerable in society, research suggests.

The Family and Childcare Trust surveyed councils across the country and found they are struggling to meet needs amid a background of growing demand, budget cuts and recruitment difficulties.

The survey is published on the same day as an undercover investigation by BBC Panorama is to be broadcast, exposing shocking neglect at two Cornwall care homes, including vulnerable people being left unattended and a nurse saying she will use morphine to “shut up” a resident.

The deficit identified by the Family and Childcare Trust means more than 6.4 million people aged 65 and over are living in areas that do not have enough older people’s care to meet demand.

Only one in five councils reported having enough older people’s care in their area to meet demand, the survey found.

Just under half (48%) of the 182 councils (out of 211) that responded said they had sufficient availability of home care and a similar proportion (44%) reported having enough places in extra care homes, which allow people to live independently with 24-hour emergency or on-site support.

Only a third of local authorities said they have enough nursing homes with specialist support for dementia, which is predicted to affect one million people in the UK by 2025.

The survey also highlighted large regional variations, with just 7% of outer London councils reporting enough older people’s care to meet demand. The only area where more than half of local authorities reported sufficient care was the north-east, where 57% responded positively.

The findings will add to the sense of crisis surrounding social care, with delayed transfers of care – when patients are medically fit to leave hospital but unable to be safely discharged – at record levels.

Council and NHS leaders, as well as the Care Quality Commission, have called for urgent action, with the chancellor, Philip Hammond, facing pressure to increase social funding in Wednesday’s autumn statement.

Inner London councils pay the highest rates for residential care for older people, at £649 a week per place, compared with the lowest rate of £464 in north-west England, according to the survey. The UK average for a residential place was revealed to be £27,113 a year.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “This government is committed to making sure older people throughout the country get affordable and dignified care. That is why we are significantly increasing the amount of money local authorities have access to for social care, by up to £3.5bn by 2020.”

Monday’s Panorama sees reporters go undercover at Clinton House in St Austell, and St Theresa’s, in Callington, near Plymouth, both owned by the Morleigh Group.

Hidden camera footage captured one resident left on a bed pan for 40 minutes and an out-of-date prescription supplement relabelled for use by another resident.

Clinton House is being closed as a result of safety concerns and St Theresa’s is under investigation by authorities along with two other Moreleigh Group homes.

Moreleigh Group said it had already removed the staff involved and reviewed its systems and procedures, prior to receiving information from Panorma. Cornwall council apologised for the failings.

The Cambridgeshire Sustainability Transformation Plan appears to be a blueprint for savage cuts and blows the lid on government plans to privatise the NHS. The sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) have been dubbed “slash, trash and plunder” by campaigners. Govt plans to cut £22 billion from the NHS budget by 2020 could see thousands of beds lost and units closed, including A&E departments. Doctors have raised concerns about being shut out of the plans. Most of the proposals were shrouded in secrecy before being published, with NHS England ordering managers not to give out information until bosses had given approval. The Cambridgeshire plan was initially led by Dr Neil Modha, the chief clinical officer responsible for Cambridgeshire’s disastrous £800m Uniting Care Partnership contract for services for elderly people.

That collapsed amid controversy only months into a seven-year deal, following a bidding process that cost over £1m. Within the STP are shocking plans for NHS privatisation and a reducing “dependence on public funding in line with current devolution discussions.” The local clinical commissioning group (CCG) details plans to become an “accountable care organisation” (ACO) — a model based on costly and inefficient US private health companies. It would see a group of firms take over care for a given population for a certain amount of time under a contract with a health commissioner. Campaigners say it’s a step towards scrapping the NHS as a public service and turning it into one that runs on insurance, as in the US. The details of the STP are the clearest sign yet that the government is paving the way towards the wholesale privatisation of the NHS. Plans to bring in the private sector are revealed when it talks of “leveraging” the ‘Cambridge research’ brand and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough-wide education and business offer to attract investment and make new partnerships.” The plans also contain £500m of cuts.

The CCG has been involved in consultation over closing minor injury units in rural parts of the county while plans for Peterborough and Stamford NHS Trust to acquire Hinchingbrooke Hospital Healthcare Trust are being fiercely opposed by Hands Off Hinchingbrooke campaigners, who fear that jobs and services will be lost, and ultimately to meet savage savings targets Hinchingbrooke Hospital will become unsustainable.

Unison Cambridge Acute Hospitals spokesman Stuart Tuckwood said that “the current deficit in the NHS is due to government funding not keeping pace with demand, on top of a shambolic and chaotic reorganisation that is pushing trusts into debt. “The £22bn savings cannot be delivered without cuts and we fear that is what ‘sustainability’ will mean for services in our area. “We have already experienced the devastating effects of failed privatisation in this area with the collapse of the £800m Uniting Care Partnership contract and the disaster of [privateer] Circle at Hinchingbrooke, who cut and ran after less than three years, leaving the public sector to pick up the pieces as the hospital was placed into special measures.” The CCG said the plans weren’t final and would be subject to consultation.

The NHS managed to withstand the financial pressure for the first three years of this parliament, but it is now under increasing strain. Many NHS organisations are reporting that they have ‘come to the end of the track’ in being able to reduce costs using traditional measures. Many large NHS organisations seen as financially stable and effective at managing their resources are now in deficit. Foundation trusts with financial reserves are able to draw on these to deal with deficits in the short term but by definition this is not a sustainable solution to the NHS’s funding problems.

The increasing number of providers in deficit is symptomatic of the mounting difficulties that trusts face in realising cost savings and assuring quality standards (through increasing nurse staffing, for example) in the wake of the Francis Inquiry. The government has found additional funding in 2014/15 – some new, most reallocated from within existing budgets – to support direct patient care. It has also announced plans to increase the frontline NHS budget by more than £3 billion in cash terms in 2015/16 with some of the increase earmarked for service transformation.

In the NHS five year forward view, NHS England argued that the NHS could deliver productivity improvements of £22 billion but would require £8 billion a year of additional funding by 2020/21. Most independent commentators suggest that delivering productivity improvements on the scale suggested will be a very tall order and that £8 billion is therefore the bare minimum that will be required. As yet it is unclear whether all three of the main political parties will commit to provide this level of funding.

While there is undoubtedly scope to deliver further productivity improvements, for example by tackling variations in performance between NHS providers, better procurement of goods and services, and greater integration of care, these will take time to deliver savings. Also, the NHS needs to be able to access funds to invest in new models of care before resources can be released from existing services. In the absence of an adequately resourced transformation fund, it will be extremely difficult to do more than prop up existing services in the short term.

The next government will inherit an NHS that faces growing pressures on all fronts. It will need to act quickly to ensure that there is sufficient funding to sustain as well as transform services in the next parliament. The NHS is working at or very close to its limits and patient care will suffer unless more resources are found.

The comment in the Hunts Post – 16 Nov – that the Merger is ‘Best Option’ for the future of Hinchingbrooke Hospital is not the ‘Best Option’ for Hinchingbrooke Hospital as far as our campaign group is concerned.

First of all we need to correct the assumption that it is a merger – it is not – it is now formally an acquisition.

It is very clear to our campaign group that this is a ‘Done Deal’ and that the Boards of both Hinchingbrooke and Peterborough and Stamford Foundation Hospital Trust have used so called ‘Consultation Meetings’ as a box ticking exercise.

Our campaign group know that we can do nothing to stop this acquisition and unless a miracle occurs it will go ahead on 1 April 2017.

What will this mean for Hinchingbrooke Hospital?  Well for a start it is estimated that between the two trusts 170 staff – mainly support staff will lose employment.  It will mean that all the assets of Hinchingbrooke will come under the control of the new trust, and all finances that would previously have come to Hinchingbrooke will also go to the new trust.

So NO – we don’t think it is the ‘best option’  It is our view that external conditions have been imposed on both Boards to ensure this happens and by 1 April 2017, otherwise this date makes no sense.

If the New Health Campus at Hinchingbrooke gets built then any ‘profits’ that previously would have gone to Hinchingbrooke will now go to the new Trust – based in Peterborough.   Had this acquisition not gone ahead any profits made could have been used to sustain, develop and promote services at Hinchingbrooke Hospital as well as clearing any budget deficits going forward.

If, as seems likely this acquisition will go ahead, then our campaign group will then focus on ensuring that appropriate funding continues to come to Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

We urge residents of our three major towns and associated villages to join our campaign group to ensure Hinchingbrooke is not allowed to ‘Wither on the vine’ through funding starvation.

Our Campaign Group is urgently looking for new members to join our team.  We are friendly and welcoming to anybody, and you don’t have to serve on the committee, however, should you wish to become a committee member you would be most welcome as we have a number of  positions that you could help with.

These are primarily around recruiting more supporters and fundraising by for example helping out on our various stalls at local events.

If you would like to become involved in helping in our aims to Save Hinchingbrooke Hospital’s long term future then contact one of the existing committee members or send us a message on our Facebook page and we will give you as much information as possible about our aims.

Hands Off Hinchingbrooke Press Release

‘Campaigners brand takeover plans as dangerous and short sighted’

Embargo: Immediate

The local community campaign group Hands Off Hinchingbrooke has branded both trust boards dangerous and short sighted after takeover plans of Hinchingbrooke Hospital are set to go ahead.

Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust unanimously voted in favour of the take over of Hinchingbrooke hospital on Tuesday 27th September 2016. Today (Thursday 29th September) the trust board at Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust also voted in favour of the takeover which is set to happen from April 1, 2017.

The plans which could see services such as Accident & Emergency, Urgent Care, Haematology and Maternity downgraded or closed as the result of a non-resident board taking decisions which will not affect their lives or the lives of their loved ones. Both boards are not thinking about patient safety and the plans are ill-thought.

Speaking after the Hinchingbrooke Hospital board meeting, Secretary of Hands Off Hinchingbrooke, Daniel Laycock said “Both boards have prepared an ill-thought plan, this takeover will endeavour to downgrade or close services and even quite possibly close the hospital all together.

Within the Full Business Case both boards have branded Hinchingbrooke Hospital as an ambitious organisation with no chance of succeeding with the financial plan and have praised Peterborough Hospital as a potential hospital to do great things.

Both boards have also stated that they will save £9m from back office and corporate but from 12 mergers that have taken place across the country during the last 5 years this has been inaccurate and shows incompetency. This would suggest that there is no evidence to support their claim that a takeover would be beneficial for everyone.

Both trust boards haven’t taken into consideration setting-up of an “Integrated Healthcare System for Huntingdonshire (”Primary Care, Secondary (Hospita) and Older Peoples Care) as suggested by The Kings Fund Report (Foundation Trust and NHS Trust Mergers Report). This report recommends, “placed based systems of care, with the emphasis on collaboration across organisational and service boundaries to meet the needs of a defined population (such as Huntingdonshire) so as to ensure financial and clinical sustainability.

We are calling for Huntingdonshire District Council and Cambridgeshire Couny Council to start a Judical Review into the takeover of Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust by Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

We are urging resident’s from Huntingdonshire, Peterborough and South Lincolnshire to stand against the takeover so that services across all three sites are not downgraded or lost entirely and campaign with us on the streets, meetings across all three counties to fight for our NHS. The NHS is facing unprecedented attacks by means of mergers plus the Sustainability and Transformation Plan which the merger is being forced through by NHS Improvement. These are very difficult and challenging times but we must stand together as a community so that vital services such as A&E, maternity, children services or other departments that could be centralised, are not downgraded or lost altogether. This is happening up and down the country, we as a society and community from different backgrounds, countries, race, religions, beliefs, stand united in our fight to ensure that our hospital will be publicly funded, publicly provided and publicly accountable to all who use the world’s greatest health service.”

Hands off Hinchingbrooke wants to speak to staff from Hinchingbrooke, Peterborough or Stamford hospitals on the proposed take over of Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust by Peterborough and Stamford NHS Foundation Trust. We want to hear from any from porters to Consultants on what they think about the take over as to what they have been consulted , whether it be supportive, aginast the proposed merger, or if you have resigned from your position or you have been forced from your position due to the take over. Even if you are worried or generally unhappy, we would like to hear from you.

You can contact us by email us at [email protected] or by our contact form below.

You infomration will be kept strictly confidential and will not be passed to anyone or third party.

The Full Business Case for the take over of Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS trust by Peterborough and Stamford NHS Foundation Trust has today been released. The FBC will hightlight the future of the new Trust under proposals made by both trust boards back in April 2016 which will be completed by April 2017. The new trust which is yet to be named will cover resident’s care across Huntingdonshire, Peterborough and South Lincolnshire with all three areas having upto 700,000 plus patients for care to be proivded.

In a joint statement, the two chief executives of the hospital Trusts, Lance McCarthy of Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust, and Stephen Graves, of Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The Full Business Case addresses the issues raised by members of the public who have been attending our engagement sessions held between July and mid-September. One of their main concerns were about patients having to travel further to access care.

“We can assure patients that the Full Business Case focuses upon us jointly  delivering care that’s better, safer and local. There are no plans to change the location of any service, including A&E and maternity, which has been a concern of patients in Huntingdonshire in particular.

“We are also hoping that residents in Huntingdonshire will take advantage of the fact they can become members of the merged Foundation Trust, and as a result, play a greater part in the running of their local hospital. This can include standing for election to the Council of Governors, which will ensure local voices will be heard.”

Hands Off Hinchingbrooke team will be looking over the FBC over the coming days and will give a full detail outline on what measures will be put in place by both hospitals in the coming weeks.

The Full Business Case will be discussed by the boards of both Trusts in the following two meetings to be held in public:

• Tuesday 27 September 2016 – Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust board will meet at 1.30pm in the Board Room at Peterborough City Hospital, Level 4 Core A.
• Thursday 29 September 2016 – Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust board will meet at 11am in the Partnership Suite at Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

Members of the public are able to attend both meetings. A series of additional staff engagement sessions are being held at both Trusts, starting on Friday 23 September.

In addition, the Trusts will be staging a further six public engagement events in October to hear feedback on the Full Business Case from members of the public. The meetings take place at:

• Hinchingbrooke Hospital’s Partnership Suite on Monday 3 October at 5.45pm
• Stamford Hospital Meeting Hall on Thursday 6 October at 5.45pm
• Deepings Community Centre, Market Deeping, on Monday 10 October at 7pm
• Peterborough City Hospital, Learning Centre, on Tuesday 11 October at 5.45pm
• St Ives Corn Exchange on Thursday 13 October at 2pm
• Bourne Corn Exchange on Thursday 20 October at 4.30pm

Full Business Case pdf

At the packed meeting with over 200 people attending, Defend the NHS Sussex held an organising meeting on Saturday 30th June in Brighton with speakers from Brighton’s MP Caroline Lucas, Joanne Land from Co-convenor NHS Momentum, Mike Campbell – Protect Our NHS Bristol, Danielle Tiplady from the Bursary or Bust campaign for nurses bursaries, Dr Todd Leckie who’s a junior doctor and fighting against Jeremy Hunt and with other junior doctors across the county on their contracts, Marion Macapline; How come we didn’t know?, Vicky Penner who’s campaigned for Save Lewisham Hospital campaign and also a works for 38 Degrees and others.

At the meeting each speaker spoke about the Nurses bursaries, junior doctors contract, privatisation and  Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) and the continuing campaign for the NHS up and down the country.

Watch the video to find out more.