Author: Steven Carne

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.