New Year and fresh campaigns

2013 will be a busy year.  At a national level regulations to implement the 2012 Health and Social Care Act will continue to be laid before Parliament.  Further waves of privatisation are likely to be initiated by the Coalition and the continuous demand for efficiency savings is likely to lead to cuts and financial failures - as is currently happening in South London.  Pressures on staff will increase, probably leading to higher stress and sickness rates.  Wages will be frozen and benefits such as tax credits cut.

There is also widespread concern about the capabilities of CCGs although this does not apply to Sheffield which is likely to be one of the few CCGs to be authorised without conditions. 

At a local level important reconfiguration reviews are under way (e.g. Right First Time), AQP service providers will soon be in operation, and the local authority is having to make a swathe of cuts, which will include closures - including some services for children and for older people as well as community libraries, leisure centres etc etc.  Cuts in benefit levels will have increasing effect, meaning that ill health and demands on health services will increase.

SSONHS's first campaign will be around the future of the Minor Injuries Centre at the Hallamshire.  It seems to be no secret that Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust would like to transfer it to NGH.  This can only be for financial reasons since it will make access much more difficult for people in the south and east of the city as well as risking still more of a bottleneck at NGH despite the planned expansion.  Petitioning starts on January 12th at noon outside the Town Hall and in Broomhill Shopping Centre.