Liverpool City Council councillors hear about closures of 2 GP practices and falling vaccination rates
Liverpool City Council councillors hear about closures of 2 GP practices and falling vaccination rates
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EXCLUSIVE: NHS STP plan topic of special public meeting of Wirral Council councillors on 13th February 2018
EXCLUSIVE: NHS STP plan topic of special public meeting of Wirral Council councillors on 13th February 2018
Edited JB 30.1.2018 20:09 to add more detail about what meeting is about.
When looking at the calendar of public meetings at Wirral Council for February 2018, I noticed a special meeting of the Adult Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee had been scheduled to start at 6.00 pm on Tuesday 13th February 2018 in Committee Room 1, Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.
For those that have been following local politics around the NHS, or who read this blog regularly, you’ll be already aware of the controversy surrounding the STP plans (or to spell out the acronym Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships).
I am told that the special meeting on the 13th February 2018 (which will be held in public) will be discussing this topic as well as the NHS Five Year Forward View. As the agenda and reports are scheduled to be published on the 5th February 2018, I can’t provide more detail than that.
However there is a certain strength of feeling both on the Wirral and over in Liverpool about changes happening and proposed changes to the NHS.
It is a political topic that arouses strong feelings in people, especially those that rely heavily on NHS services.
Wirral Council’s Adult Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee will also be meeting in Committee Room 1 in public tonight at a meeting starting at 6.00 pm.
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Councillors ask Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group to reconsider closure of Eastham Walk-in Centre
Councillors ask Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group to reconsider closure of Eastham Walk-in Centre
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Mayor Anderson rejects plan for NHS cuts at packed meeting of protestors
Mayor Anderson rejects plan for NHS cuts at packed meeting of protestors
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protest before Liverpool Health and Wellbeing Board (Liverpool City Council) 1st December 2016 (Cunard Building)
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Liverpool Health and Wellbeing Board (Liverpool City Council) 1st December 2016 Part 1 of 3
Last week I witnessed a large protest of local people angry at proposed changes to their National Health Service.
Despite a very large number of people with banners and a megaphone who came into the Cunard Building, unlike previous protests in Liverpool neither the local police (or even Liverpool City Council’s own City Watch) nor local newspapers appeared to be present.
In fact the protest was so large, there was not enough space for all of them in the Banquet Suite on the 6th floor where the public meeting was held.
Mayor Joe Anderson (of Liverpool City Council), Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Board rejected the NHS STP (Sustainability and Transformation Plan) emphatically and let some of the protesters address the meeting with their questions.
Clearly, the protests about this issue are getting bigger and the protesters louder.
Some are openly predicting an early General Election. At this point in time I see an early General Election as unlikely but the political outlook is very fluid.
It remains to be seen what happens next, Liverpool certainly has a long history of protest politics and of calling for political reforms.
The rise in racist abuse following the Brexit referendum is concerning and political uncertainty coupled with economic uncertainty mean that these are ideal conditions for civil unrest to happen.
The recent 2011 riots (at a time of anti-austerity protests) were sparked by the police shooting dead a black man in London. There is a concern that the rise in racism following the Brexit referendum could lead to history repeating itself.
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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.
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!
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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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