RESIST THE BREAKUP OF THE NHS THROUGH PRIVATISATION AND CUTS!


BRIEF UPDATE April 2018
(N.B. This site is not currently being regularly updated. )


FOR COMING EVENTS, MEETINGS AND OTHER INFORMATION

SEE BELOW AND THE MAIN SSONHS WEBSITE

www.sheffieldsaveournhs.co.uk


To be put on the SSONHS mailing list or for any other queries please email teamssonhs@gmail.com


NHS11END


The government's increasingly desperate attempts to defend their record on the NHS have become less and less credible over the last year. This is partly due to in
creasingly effective local and national campaigns and partly to the crisis in hospitals, primary care and social care has forced more and more of those involved to speak out against the damage being caused by austerity. But many of those who are being damaged have no voice. Poor people, disabled people and the chronically ill have fewer opportunities to make their case as their benefit and treatment rights become eroded. NHS staff are generally gagged in one way or another. Exit can be the only escape leaving the NHS still weaker and now less and less able to recruit staff from overseas.

Large national demonstrations and industrial action by junior doctors, nurses and others have made the strength of feeling around the country quite clear, to the extent that even the Conservatives have got worried enough to promise the outlines of a new financial deal this summer. But will it be too late? Certainly it will be insufficient to undo the damage inflicted since 2010. Meanwhile the stress on services which affect the need for healthcare becomes more and more acute. The unspupported costs of Social Care (which is subject to means tested charges) is driving local authorities to bankruptcy.

Another threat is the developing reorganisation into Integrated Care Systems (previously known as Accountable Care Systems) which threaten to become Accountable Care Organisations. In our local area the Integrated Care System covers Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Bassetlaw as well as Sheffield. (See posts below.) Increasing pressure from campaig
ners and within the Labour Party is deterring local councils to sign up to these in case they become vehicles for further cuts and privatisation.

Across South Yorkshire resistance is building to the threatened implications of the ICS for local services and South Yorkshire Save Our NHS have formed a political party to stand in the Sheffield City Region Mayoral election on May 3rd 2018. See also Barnsley Save Our NHS.


THE NHS IS
NHS21END_(Small)NOT KILLED OFF YET. Campaigning does work whether on the streets, in the press or, increasingly in the lawcourts. The government's high-handed tactics are being subjected to an increasing number of judicial reviews. At national level these have forced a public consultation on Accountable Care Organisations starting in May 2018.


Cartoons by Samantha Galbraith @sgalbraith47


For more national information see Health Campaigns Together and Keep Our NHS Public


FUTURE EVENTS


April 14th 2018 11.45 Regional Demonstration to Save the NHS Leeds

April 25th
Soviet Healthcare via Targets: Are Governments Bringing it into the NHS? Roco 2pm or 7pm

April 28th Sheffield Demonstration against proposed closure of the Minor Injuries and Walk-in Centres (see main website for details)

June 27th The NHS is 70 - but what is its life expectancy? Festival of Debate / SSONHS panel discussion and social. Roco 7pm - 11 pm.

June 30th Health Campaigns Together march for the NHS in London See main wesbite for details.

SSONHS planning and information meetings are generally on the first Monday of the month, except for bank holidays. They are usually at 6pm at the United Reform Church. Chapel Walk/Norfolk St S1


To contact us email teamssonhs@gmail.com

PREVIOUS EVENTS


In 2016 abnd 2017 we worked with Sheffield Festival of Debate and other colleagues to promote realistic discussion of the issues facing the NHS. On 4th May 2017 we had a lively meeting debating the future of hospitals and in 2016 we mounted an exhibition on NHS privatisation to coincide with a play, A DUTY OF CARE about Labour and the healthcare market. On 22nd November 2016 we held a panel-led debate on the future of the NHS with local NHS leaders, academics and campaigners. We also held a public meeting on 4th July 2016 to celebrate the NHS anniversary, discuss the STPs, the implications for privatisation in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire and the consequences of the EU referendum result.


In March 2016 we held a successful workshop Taking Back Our NHS




We supported the Junior Doctors throughout their action because we felt they were being unfairly treated and were being treated as the advance guard for Hunt's uncosted, unfunded and misconceived ambition for a 7 day NHS. (For one of our supporter's views at the beginning of the dispute see this column in the Sheffield Star http://tinyurl.com/oo8qoc3)

For our questions to 2017 General Election candidates and canvassers about the NHS see our
website campaign page


2016 8th-22nd November Exhibition on NHS privatisation How come we didn't know by London photographer Marion Macalpine
Theatre Delicatessen, The Moor


22nd November SSONHS Festival of Debate event
Why is the NHS Under so much pressure? How can we save it for future generations?
Speakers included Dr Tim Moorhead, Chair, Sheffield CCG, Kevan Taylor (Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust) and Professor Sarah Salway (University of Sheffield, Public Health) + local campaigners

Taking Back Our NHS SSONHS workshop

Saturday 12th March 2016, 10am - 2pm

(2015)

Tuesday 22nd September, 7pm screening of Sell Off, attended by well over 100 people.

Campaigning for GP practices at risk of closure

2nd July Successful SSONHS public meeting addressed by Ray Tallis and speakers from Devonshire Green and Unison.

http://www.peoplesnhs.org/nhs-staffordshire-cancer/campaign-information/maydaymarchnhs/

2nd May SSONHS stall in city centre from 11.30 Come and see us.

The 38 degrees ambulance will also be in Surrey Street at 12pm and conveying the 38 degrees petitions to local Hallam candidates at Wesley Hall in Crookes for 3pm.

25th April - March through Sheffield Hallam, with the People's NHS and 38 degrees



28th February 38 degrees petitioning around Sheffield http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/health/local-health/campaigners-take-to-sheffield-streets-in-fight-to-save-nhs-1-7132981

22nd November Leafleting in Sheffield City Centre from 12.00 pm in support of the NHS strikers. For A5 and A4 copies of the leaflet which has more information on it see the Campaigns Page at our website

24th November NHS picket lines from 7am to 11am. Rallies at the Hallamshire and Northern General (Herries Road) at 10 am.


We were proud to support the Jarrow to London march for the NHS, organised by Darlington Mums passing through Sheffield on August Bank Holiday Monday. http://999callfornhs.org.uk/ Thanks to everyone for helping and joining in.

24th JULY 2014 Public Meeting jointly with Sheffield Medsin

Is our NHS really in crisis? Behind the headlines and soundbites
Panel discussion led by GPs and health experts from the NHS and universities.

For past activities see our website www.sheffieldsaveournhs.co.uk

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Future of the Minor Injuries Unit at the Hallamshire

Updated 23 June 2013 with information from Nick Clegg MP.  Our campaign was worth running.

The future of the MIU is officially 'under review' as part of the Right First Time programme.
Often the public is only able to campaign for a service after a closure proposal has been formally announced.  Very often this is too late.  We are campaigning for the MIU now because we know that a closure proposal is a serious possibility, and we want to get public support for retaining the service while the review is still in progress. Signature gathering is going well and petitions can be downloaded from our main website www.sheffieldsaveournhs.co.uk .

The current situation is that, by all accounts, the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust would like to have all their emergency services based at the Northern General Hospital where the A&E Unit is currently being redeveloped. Both the Local Involvement Network (soon to be replaced by Healthwatch) and SSONHS are on the record as saying we expect any proposal for the MIU at the Hallamshire to be closed should be subject to consultation as it would leave people in the South and East of the city, not to mention the centre, very much at disadvantage. 


When we first raised this issue there was no guaranteed funding for the MIU beyond March 2013.  However the work at NGH and the fact that Right First Time has up to now concentrated on services for older people suggest that the MIU will remain open for at least the first part of the next financial year.    We have also just heard that that the MIU is likely to feature in a campaign informing the public about where to go for help for accidents and emergencies - this may be the campaign to be launched in March featuring the new NHS 111 service. 
In addition there a national review of A&E has been announced which is likely to emphasise the importance of tiered and accessible services.  This may lead to some A&Es being designated 999 centres and others as 111 services.  The 111 service in South Yorkshire will be provided by Yorkshire Ambulance Service in association with Local Care Direct.  The NHS Direct Call Centre was reported by Unison to be under threat but we have no further news on that.  
It is possible that that these changes would lead to the continuation of the MIU, but possibly elsewhere(i.e. not in NGH), for example in the Walk In Centre in Broad Lane, which is run by a private company under contract to the NHS.  So there could be an outsourcing / privatisation proposal.

Update 31 March 2013
In only a few petitioning sessions we gathered over 1000 signatures to save the MIU, many from people who had used it.  Indeeed some of our supporters found themselves in need of the service during the campaign.  The petition was handed to Nick Clegg MP with a copy to Paul Blomfield MP - the Hallamshire was previously in Hallam constituency but is now in Central.  Pressure on A&E this winter has forced the STHFT and NHS Sheffield to include the MIU is publicity for alternatives.  They have been made aware of public concern and Sheffield's Labour MPs have been told that there are no plans to close it.  However the MIU remains under review and we have no doubt that the redesign of A&E at Northern General will see a further surfacing of the intention to move the minor injuries service there.  The MIU remains under review and we will revive the campaign if need be.

Update 23 June 2013
Nick Clegg has now sent us extracts from the reply he received from Sheffield CCG about the MIU.  For the first time we have confirmation that in 2011 NHS Sheffield resolved to close the MIU and to reprovide the walk-in service at Broad Lane.  The CCG now says that it has no plans to decommission the MIU and any decision to do so would be taken on clinical grounds and in conjunction with the Sheffield Health Community. 

As A&E attendances nationally continue to rise, NHS England has set up a review and consultation about urgent care.  Some details are available at http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/uec-emerg-princ.pdf.  It's a bit hard going and is not patient friendly though it tries to be.  Nor does it have anything to say about separate treatment for minor injuries. The CCG may revisit its position after publication of the review.

People who have had good experience of the type of service provided at the MIU should respond through the consultation if possiblehttps://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/survey/urgent-emerging-care