NHS winter crisis looms

I read that article too. I'm not comfortable about the NHS providing services on a commercial basis, nor being involved in complicated trade deals. I knew about HealthcareUK and I admit that I'm suspicious, because it could be privatised. It seems like the NHS is behaving like a commercial organisation and the patients are incidental. This is a far cry from what was originally intended. I wish somebody (journalist, politician, charity/think tank, etc) would investigate what's going on in detail. I have a horrible feeling that money intended for patient care is somehow being 'leaked'. The same thing is happening with the academisation of schools, which I know more about.

www.nhsforsale.info/

keepournhspublic.com/useful-links/

Lots of links on here to groups that are investigating and campaigning.

This shows the reorganisation of the NHS, the numbers of staff working in each department. There is no mention of Healthcare UK.

chpi.org.uk/

chpi.org.uk/santas-transformation-plan-stp/

This shows some information about financial gains from the NHS, and where the money goes.

www.nhsforsale.info/private-providers.html

Healthcare UK is not part of the NHS. It is a separate organisation formed by the Department of Health, UK Trade and Investment and NHS England - different thing entirely.

I couldn't find the list, but noted the reason for setting up CHPI:

"The need for such a Centre has been evident for a number of years. Over the last decade a democratic deficit has emerged where key decisions about health and social care policy have been taken by a tight network of actors to the detriment of the public interest. This was brought into sharp focus when the 2011 Health and Social Care Bill made its way through Parliament.

No independent research-based body currently exists to present an alternative view of the reform agenda which has led to the largest reorganisation of the NHS in England since its creation.

Moreover, policy making has become less transparent, more opaque and more centralised than ever before and there are increasing concerns about conflicts of interest emerging for practitioners of health care in England, as well as for policy makers themselves."

Very, very true! That's the problem. Nobody understands where money is being spent. Stories about stationery are being used as a cover up to the real wastages. They make great headlines, because they're easily understood and the general public doesn't know any different anyway.

chpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/The-architecture-of-power-in-the-NHS-Scott-Greer-Jan-2014.pdf

Sorry, page 7 onwards of this.

Thanks for the link. Healthcare UK isn't there, because it's not part of the NHS. It's a trade/marketing organisation set up by government departments to support/faciltate trade in healthcare products.

This is a link to the government's press release about the healthcare mission to China:

www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-organisations-sign-new-deals-in-china

It states that deals worth £250 million were signed in total. It doesn't say how much Royal Liverpool University Hospitals paid for the scanner, nor whether the money was in the UK's or China's favour.

Eleven deals were concluded. Two of them were with hospital trusts, which operate as individual institutions with their own budgets.

However much the scanner cost, it's not true that the money could be spent elsewhere within the NHS, because it will come out of RLUH's budget. RLUH possibly think that it can recoup some of the money by charging other NHS trusts to use it.

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/healthcare-uk

It's part of the Department of Health and UK Trade and Investment. It must have people working for it outside those two departments.

butnhs.wordpress.com/2016/12/29/there-is-a-toxic-culture-at-the-top-of-the-nhs/

I wish all these groups would get together. The anti-Hunt brigade needs a single voice. We need a TUC for the NHS.

Good. One council fights back.

www.stratford-herald.com/63615-council-clear-rejection-nhs-transformation-plan.html

I don't understand the point you're making, dj. Healthcare UK has been set up as a separate body with its own governance. It is accountable to the DIT and DH, but not part of either, in the same way that outsourced healthcare providers often display NHS logos. The DH is not the same as the NHS either.

Exactly, daphne. There are far too many bodies involved in the NHS nowadays. Use of the NHS logo in no way implies that the company is part of the NHS. Any company can buy the right to use the logo.
Completely wrong in my opinion.

Have a Happy New Year.
Off to celebrate now, with my son.

Can oyu tell me who governs Healthcare UK? As far as I can see there is only one director. Can't find out any more information.

Healthcare UK is a joint initiative of the Department of Health (DH), UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and NHS England.
www.gov.uk/government/organisations/healthcare-uk/about

There is a Governance Board

is it a Quango?

I thought there was going to be a bonfire of Quangos

I know all that, Jalima, but it doesn't tell you who is on the governance board. I can only find one name, and that does not make a board.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2017/01/02/there-would-have-been-no-social-care-crisis-if-half-of-all-qe-had-been-given-to-the-local-and-devolved-governments-of-the-uk/

This can solve the NHS and social care crisis, if there is the will to do so.

www.gov.uk/government/people/deborah-kobewka

www.welfareweekly.com/nhs-staff-morale-hits-rock-bottom-as-confidence-in-jeremy-hunt-plummets/

A shame it's behind a paywall in the BMJ. I'd like to read it all.

www.thecanary.co/2017/01/04/theresa-may-just-savaged-nhs-tory-health-chair/

twitter.com/hashtag/DoHballs?src=hash

For heavens sake, is this what the Red Cross is for?

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/commissioning/commissioning-topics/emergency-admissions/red-cross-deployed-to-cope-with-nhs-humanitarian-crisis/20033586.article

The government should be ashamed of this.

I just can't believe that this government is allowing this to happen in our affluent country, and why everyone isn't out on the streets protesting, but I suppose until you are personally affected it doesn't hit home. God help us if there is a flu epidemic. Shaming indeed.