What’s happening because of the coronavirus pandemic?

What’s happening because of the coronavirus pandemic?

What’s happening because of the coronavirus pandemic?

                                            

Cllr Chris Jones (left) Health and Wellbeing Board (Wirral Council) 11th March 2020
Cllr Chris Jones (left) Health and Wellbeing Board (Wirral Council) 11th March 2020

Last Wednesday (11th March 2020) Wirral Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board met (its meetings aren’t webcast by Wirral Council). As Leader of the Council Cllr Pat Hackett was absent, it was chaired by Cllr Chris Jones (Cabinet Member for Adult Care and Health).
Continue reading “What’s happening because of the coronavirus pandemic?”

Wirral Council’s Standards Panel met to consider complaint made about Cllr Paul Hayes’ quote in a press release

Wirral Council’s Standards Panel met to consider complaint made about Cllr Paul Hayes’ quote in a press release

Wirral Council’s Standards Panel met to consider complaint made about Cllr Paul Hayes’ quote in a press release

                                           

Standards Panel (Wirral Council) 9th October 2018 Cllr Paul Hayes (foreground)
Standards Panel (Wirral Council) 9th October 2018 Cllr Paul Hayes (foreground)

Continue reading “Wirral Council’s Standards Panel met to consider complaint made about Cllr Paul Hayes’ quote in a press release”

What did Cllr Ian Lewis ask about a new maternity service in Seacombe due to start on the 20th March 2018 and why wasn’t the councillor for Seacombe present to hear it?

What did Cllr Ian Lewis ask about a new maternity service in Seacombe due to start on the 20th March 2018 and why wasn’t the councillor for Seacombe present to hear it?

What did Cllr Ian Lewis ask about a new maternity service in Seacombe due to start on the 20th March 2018 and why wasn’t the councillor for Seacombe present to hear it?

                                     

Health and Wellbeing Board (Wirral Council) 14th March 2018 update on maternity
Health and Wellbeing Board (Wirral Council) 14th March 2018 update on maternity

Wednesday afternoon’s public meeting of Wirral Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board started without its Chair Cllr Phil Davies. Usually if he can’t make it, one of the other two Labour Cabinet Members on the Board (Cllr Bernie Mooney and Cllr Chris Jones) chair the meeting instead.

However they weren’t there either.
Continue reading “What did Cllr Ian Lewis ask about a new maternity service in Seacombe due to start on the 20th March 2018 and why wasn’t the councillor for Seacombe present to hear it?”

Why did a councillor refer to NHS Plan for cuts as a “PR disaster”?

Why did a councillor refer to NHS Plan for cuts as a “PR disaster”?

Why did a councillor refer to NHS Plan for cuts as a “PR disaster”?

Before I write about what happened at Monday’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Phil Davies shut down any debate and ruled that he wasn’t allowing the public to speak at an earlier public meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board (which he chairs) on the Sustainability and Transformation Plan.

Protest outside Wallasey Town Hall side door 28th November 2016 38 Degrees Wirral West over NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan
Protest outside Wallasey Town Hall side door 28th November 2016 38 Degrees Wirral West over NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan
Protest outside Wallasey Town Hall 28th November 2016 Green Party over NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan
Protest outside Wallasey Town Hall 28th November 2016 Green Party over NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan

Prior to the People and Overview Scrutiny Committee starting there were two protests at ways in to Wallasey Town Hall (photos above). Apologies for the poor quality of the photos!

The Sustainability and Transformation Plan is published on the Wirral CCG website or alternatively you can watch the video of the meeting (which contains a long presentation by the NHS followed by discussion by councillors).

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Video of the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Wirral Council) NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan starting at the 6m35s point)

I’ll try to sum up what this means in a nutshell. If you look beyond the fancy words, glossy brochures in essence it’s a plan for NHS cuts (that is if the plan is implemented people will lose their job).

In addition to that with such a radical reorganisation of how NHS services are delivered locally proposed, services to the general public are also likely to be altered too.

Before a decision is made there will have to be a formal consultation with the public.

I’ve been asked to decipher what decision the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee made on the STP Plan.

However councillors do have a scrutiny role over matters such as this. To give an example, the move of some of the functions of Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology to a new hospital in Liverpool from 2019 was rubber stamped by a scrutiny committee made up of councillors from the affected areas. The impact on thousands of Wirral patients and the consultation was reported previously on this blog.

This is what was agreed by councillors (although some voted against) at the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee (followed by my analysis of what it means).


  • The People Overview and Scrutiny Committee thank Phil Meaken for attending the meeting and presenting the key points of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan.

  • The Committee is concerned that elected Members [councillors] have had no opportunity to feed into the development of the STP, nor have they been given the opportunity to see the plan before it was published on the 23rd of November.

  • The Committee is also concerned by any lack of meaningful consultation with the public of Wirral prior to the publication of the Plan.

  • As a result of the failure by authors of the Plan to engage with local authorities in Cheshire and Merseyside Committee is concerned at the high level of anxiety and speculation of the implications for the future delivery of health services on the Wirral which the Plan has generated.

  • The Committee further notes that though there is very little detail included, many of the proposals would represent a significant variation in service delivery and would therefore need to be presented for scrutiny to this Committee and possibly a pan-Merseyside and Cheshire Committee before any proposals could be implemented.

  • The Committee does not believe that Wirral Council can agree to the STP without absolute clarity on the proposal and a meaningful process of consultation, that engages with elected Members [councillors] and local residents.



My analysis is briefly this, consultation on the Plan was going to happen and if the result of the Plan is to change how local services are delivered, the pan-Merseyside and Cheshire Committee would happen too any way. For whatever reason politicians are agreeing to steps that would happen in any event.

Obviously there is a lot of concern as to what the impact will be for staff and patients of the NHS.

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Does Labour’s plan to "rescue the NHS" involve further privatisation?

Does Labour’s plan to “rescue the NHS” involve further privatisation?

Does Labour’s plan to “rescue the NHS” involve further privatisation?

                                                 

Arrowe Park Hospital's Chief Executive explains to politicians why Monitor is investigating it
Arrowe Park Hospital’s Chief Executive explains to politicians why Monitor is investigating it

Earlier this week Councillor Phil Davies was quoted in the Wirral Globe as saying “Voters have a straight choice between the Tories’ cuts and failed austerity measures, and Labour’s plan to rescue Arrowe Park Hospital and introduce policies to raise living standards for hard-working families.”

So what is Labour’s plan to “rescue Arrowe Park Hospital”?

A report to the Health and Wellbeing Board (chaired by Councillor Phil Davies), which meets on the 15th April shows a bid to be a “vanguard site” was recently agreed. £200 million of public money will be shared across the 29 vanguard sites across England.

The vanguard site bid was jointly submitted by Wirral Council, various NHS bodies including the part that runs Arrowe Park Hospital, Cerner Ltd, Advocate Physician Partners ACO Inc and the Kings’ Fund.

So let’s just look at the history of one of these organisations involved in the joint bid.

Cerner Ltd is a subsidiary of an American corporation called the Cerner Corporation. Both Cerner Ltd and its parent company Cerner Corporation provide software for electronic health records to hospitals.

In 2005 Cerner Corporation paid the RAND corporation to write a report which stated the US healthcare system could save $81 billion by switching to electronic healthcare record systems.

However, after the American government had changed funding rules to give hospitals an incentive to switch to electronic health care records, the RAND corporation in 2013 decided that their earlier figure of $81 billion savings was “overstated”.

The vanguard site bid has phrases in it which echo the overly optimistic tone of the 2005 RAND report:

“This will have the dual focus of reducing health inequalities while achieving costs savings through and reduced inefficiency and duplication.”

“Our proposals will further catalyse these developments aimed at delivering a de-hospitalised model of care, reducing health inequalities and reducing costs.”

“During this time, Cerner UK has delivered Cerner Millennium® across 22 Trusts including WUTH, supporting NHS providers in the delivery of high quality care to patients, safely and cost effectively.”

“This results in more efficiency, improved health outcomes and significant cost savings for patients.”

So is this Labour’s plan to “rescue Arrowe Park Hospital”? To hear more about why Monitor (the regulator) are investigating Arrowe Park Hospital you can hear the detail at a recent meeting of the Families and Wellbeing Policy and Performance Committee below:

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