Looks like it could soon be 'RIP the NHS'?

This is about the STP in the Durham/Darlington/Teesside area.
Next week there is going to be a march from hospital to hospital. It will be absolutely ridiculous if there is only one A&E in an area this large.

"Documents we have seen show that at least 2 or 3 of our local A&E departments (North Durham, Darlington, North Tees, James Cook, Friarage) will close. The effect on our hospitals could be so severe that only James Cook would retain an A&E department.
County Durham and Darlington Trust has a £14.7m deficit which would have to be eliminated in order to access funds. The closure of one of the Trust's maternity units has been proposed.
We are hugely opposed to these closures which will put lives at risk and so we are marching between hospitals in Northallerton, Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Shotley Bridge, Durham, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and North Tees in order to show just how large our footprint is and how dangerously isolated we will become as a result of these savage cuts."

Does anyone know anything about the STPs in their areas?

Despite the fact that all A&Es in the area are not meeting their targets, and neither are the hospitals, Hunt is still saying the NHS needs to save £22 billion by 2020.

Did you watch to documentary tonight about the billions of pounds of tax payers money paid out to consultants by the public sector (NHS being one of the worst offenders ) durhamjen.? One doctor said they could totally run 2 hospitals per year on the money wasted writing papers etc. by private "consultants" .

Planned closures of many pharmacies means that a lot of people advised to see a pharmacist for minor complaints will not be able to do so and many people will have to travel much further to pick up prescriptions. More pressure on GP's surgeries and A&E.

Implementing the coalitions's healthcare reforms is estimated to have cost over £3*billion*. The NHS is spending billions on 'procurement teams', who have to organise bids for services and draw up all the legal documents.

It puts the £4.6 million allegedly spent on health tourism in perspective.

Face up to it! The NHS is underfunded.

The trouble is, gillybob, it's the government which sets up the initiatives which need management consultants, as a result of its constant tinkering and imposition of systems.

But even some of the top consultants and doctors within the NHS (were actually in the program) and said that they can see it with their own eyes. People being brought in from consultancies to write papers about papers costing millions upon millions of pounds that should be spent on patient care. It is the same within local government and no doubt in education too.

Apologies for mentioning education but had to find some of the papers from my recent failed appeal. Lots of figures, boxes and gobbledygook written by a VERY well know team of accountants/consultants regarding the square footage of every classroom down to broom cupboard of every school in the district. I wonder how much that cost? The cost of a school perhaps? A few classrooms? 100 additional teachers?

The whole public sector needs a giant kick up the pants .

The classroom measurements don't cost much and stay the same from year to year, unless there are extensions. The information is actually useful, because it's partly how a school works out its maximum capacity (its PAN). There is a formula for minimum classroom sizes and additional rooms such as broom cupboards, libraries, office space, etc. If there had been extra space, you could have used the information in your appeal and challenged the PAN.

The big waste in education is from constant changes to the curriculum (enforced by central government) and the amount siphoned off by some of the big academy chains (another government initiative).

Government initiatives are also responsible for the amount of paperwork in the NHS. One of my sisters was a senior manager in the NHS and it used to drive her mad. The 2011 reforms are costing the NHS dearly. If you remember, these were sold to the public as putting the patient in charge of care, but they've done nothing of the sort. Don't kid yourself. The NHS is underfunded. It's one of the most efficient healthcare services in the world for what it costs, but the public wants more without paying more.

PS. The last thing the public sector needs is yet another kick up the pants, because every kick costs money. What it needs is to be allowed to get on with the job without constant reforms and funding on par with other developed countries.

Hardly when despite numerous requests we were only given the documents seconds before we entered the appeal room daphnedill ! Deliberate? Yes I think so. And as for the cost of this document. I have no idea. But given who wrote it (their name is at the bottom of the front page and every other of the 40 pages) I would imagine it wouldn't have been cheap. Also will need to be updated every time a school is even slightly changed, refurbished, built, closed, and/or rooms have a change of use. This is in black and white so guaranteed.

We will have to agree to disagree re the kick up the pants daphnedill one thing for sure is you couldn't run a private company the way the public sector is run. They would all be bust. Imagine running an engineering company with 2 engineers and 10 admin staff? Imagine running a garage with 3 mechanics, 1 salesman and 20 admin staff? Also imagine those companies bringing in PWC to write a paper about where they could make savings. It's a joke.

These 'initiatives' do not need management consultants. The wages paid to top managers ought to ensure they have the skills to do the job themselves.

I saw this first happening with our LEA in 2001 when, rather than undertake an internal restructuring exercise, a firm of these 'consultants' were paid to prepare a report. There was no need to employ this firm, there was sufficient expertise to complete the report 'in house' but it was easier just to get someone else to do it, and money was being thrown at LEAs by the, then, Labour government.

Gradually more and more was handed over until now a huge proportion of council budgets are eaten up by managemnt consultancy fees according to this programme.

I was pleased to see some councils, such as Liverpool, taking much of the work back in house. That's the way foreword.

Yes I was pleased to see Liverpool taking charge Anya and getting rid of the vast amount of consultancies. Can't remember the name of the Welsh council but that woman? She definitely had something massive to hide .

I really wanted to watch that programme, and now I wished I hadn't. I knew this consultancy business was one big rip off but I'm sure none of us realised how bad it is.

What wasn't mentioned, but happens, is that managers who were initially employed by the LEA, NHS, etc, often take 'early' retirement, on a final salary pension, then are immediately re-employed on a 'consultancy' basis!!

It's more 'jobs for the boys' in fact.

'In her response to Corbyn’s question, May put the following figure on extra NHS spending:

We’re giving £10bn of extra funding to the NHS.

But, only a day ago the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted the £10bn funding had been abandoned. Considering this, May appears to have dodged the question by making stuff up.
Breaking the wrong records

A historic level of debt is not the only record the government has broken with our health service. On Friday 14 October, the Conservatives tried to sneak out the biggest sell-off in the history of the NHS. £7.9bn of contracts are up for sale in the latest NHS bonanza, 7.3% of the entire health budget.

The Conservative’s accelerated privatisation takes us up another rung of the ladder. DoH figures show that the amount of money going to “independent sector providers” more than doubled from £4.1bn in 2009-10 to £8.7bn in 2015-16.

Privatisation of the NHS appears to be the aim of the Tory government. Unsustainable public funding levels fabricate the need for private provision. But much of the mainstream media looks more concerned with documenting so-called jokes than the ongoing sell-off.'

This is what it's all about. Privatisation of the NHS.
How can Hunt say one day that the NHS is not getting £10 billion extra and May say it is the next day?
She has no idea what is going on in her government departments.

Bottomless pit...it is not sustainable!

Wouldn't matter how much money you put it, it's just not sustainable.

I agree with you, Anya. Over the years, LAs have employed fewer managers capable of strategic reports, as they've had money siphoned off first to grant maintained schools and then academies and free schools. In Essex, the Children's Services boss is a political appointment and, from the evidence I've seen, he knows sod all about education. He wouldn't be capable of producing a report.

@gillybob

Local authorities hardly employ any admin staff these days. That's why the whole system is so fragmented and why, incidentally, nobody was in the position to plan for places for your grandchildren. Local authorities control transport, some admissions and special needs but almost everything else is delegated to schools. There's a shortage of permanent strategic oversight and planning.

So what do you suggest, Ruth 1958?

www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/paul-hobday/nhs-is-it-all-about-money-money-money

We can afford the NHS. It's just a question of priorities.

This is interesting, Dr Sarah Wollaston telling Hunt off for lying about NHS cash.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/home/finance-and-practice-life-news/stop-pretending-nhs-is-awash-with-cash-mps-tell-health-secretary/20033045.article

Just a shame it's taken so long and will not save the NHS anyway.

For those who want the NHS to be properly funded.

act.goingtowork.org.uk/page/m/1f11b213/3ab9ec2e/5403ba6b/5407f9b4/2057470596/VEsE/

Not that this government will take any notice of the TUC...

Research into how little we spend on the NHS compared to 20 other countries.

theconversation.com/britains-nhs-is-chronically-underfunded-but-great-value-for-money-for-now-67579