Footprints of Blood !

 

 

Sustainability and Transformation Plans or STPs.

The biggest re-disorganisation of the NHS most people have never heard of.

 

What is wrong with STPs ?

This massive shake-up is being introduced with no Parliamentary approval, no public or professional consultation or engagement.

It appears to be designed to greatly increase NHS privatisation, involving private companies in planning, commissioning and delivering "new models of care", often relying on family carers and "hospitals at home" to achieve savage cuts to budgets.

It will bring us ever closer to a US style healthcare system, slashing services and staffing, with inevitable damaging consequences for quality of care, patient access and life expectancy, and with unlimited access for the private sector.

 

On 23 December 2015 NHS England announced the enforced balancing of NHS budgets within an impossible timeframe. The NHS has been starved of funding for the last six years. The massive deficits built up in most NHS Hospital Trusts has been well publicised but the requirement, to eliminate them without delay has been deliberately hidden from the public.

 

England has been divided into 44 “Footprint” areas, within which all the hospitals, Clinical Commissioning Groups and local Councils had to work together to produce a “Sustainability and Transformation Plan” (STP).

 

Each "Footprint" was required to produce a plan to eliminate all their deficits within the current financial year. This impossible task had to be finished by June 2016 and sent for approval by the head of NHS England, (former "President of Global health" at US private healthcare company, UnitedHealth), Simon Stevens. Read more about him here.

Vast sums of money have been spent on consultants to cobble together these initial draft plans.

Balancing the budgets is likely to be achieved by:

• Cutting and downgrading clinical staff
• Abandoning safety standards and waiting time targets
• Discontinuing services
• Reducing referrals for treatment and operations
• Reducing prescriptions
• Closing clinics, surgeries and hospital Departments
• Defunding GPs and pharmacies
• Closing entire hospitals
• Selling irreplaceable NHS land

Failure to achieve the required cuts will be punished by further cuts to funding.

 

The details of the STP plans for all of the 44 footprint areas had to be kept secret, because they are feared to be politically toxic.

The SW London footprint has to achieve cuts of £600 million by 2020/1 to avoid  a "funding shortfall". (source)

The first draft for SW London was leaked by the Health Service Journal in October 2016. It talked of the five current sites of Croydon, Epsom, St Helier, Kingston and St George’s but said:

"Evidence for SW London suggests that continuing to provide acute services on five sites is unsustainable”

"STP stakeholders will analyse the “viability and sustainability of five, four and three site models for the future”

"The future of the Epsom and St Helier Trust need to be considered a priority."

Four options being considered by E&STH Trust are a new acute hospital on St Helier, Epsom or Sutton site or a new acute hospital on the Sutton Royal Marsden site. and to "redistribute all other acute activity to existing sites across the patch"

 

They might provide cancer treatment only on this one site. This could well be the preferred option of NHS England, and/or the South West London STP.

Since the passing of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, Hospitals can now earn up to half their income from private sources. and SW London's Royal Marsden tops the list, earning over a quarter of its income this way. Source

The initial leaked plan also talks of SW London having just a single, consultant led maternity unit, just for high risk pregnancies. The remainder of births presumably being in midwife led units with no consultants, emergency caesarean facilities or intensive care units for mothers or babies. The risks to mothers and babies with such an arrangement are terrifying.

There could well be just one major acute hospital with full A&E facilities in the whole South West London area.

The land vacated by hospital closures is likely to be sold, likely to property developers.

The "approved", altered and sanitised plans are now being published slowly across the country. The SW London's Plan was published on the 25th of October. They say very little of any substance but it is full of phrases like "Better services closer to home", "Better Service Better Value" and "Start well, live well and Age well" but the original goals remain and cuts are still going to be drastic and based on budget reduction not improving or even maintaining healthcare.

The cuts in hospital bed numbers alone will reduce us to third world levels of hospital bed provision.

There are not enough community health services to replace lost hospital care facilities, the funding has been savagely cut. GP surgeries are closing, underfunded pharmacies are shutting down. Doctors and nurses are demoralised and are leaving the NHS in their droves.

In 2013 we had 140 full A&E hospitals across England. When the STPs are complete there are likely to be only between 40 and 70 left. With 44 footprints you can see why the number of hospitals in SW London are being targeted. In fact any footprint with more than one A&E would be very rare.

We must fight these appalling plans which would have devastating consequences for us all.

A sham “consultation” may be launched after the plans have been approved. We must vocally make our objections known.

If these plans were to be implemented there would effectively be no NHS left all across England.

People will suffer and people will die, all in the name of turning the best, most cost effective healthcare system in the world into a US style, insurance based system for private providers to further line the pockets of their shareholders.

 

 

They plan to close our local hospitals. What can you do?

• Write to your Councillors

Councillors want to be elected again.

Make it clear that you want them to serve your interests, look after you and your family and the society in which you live.

Ask them to oppose these plans in Council and to hold those responsible to account. To organise big public meetings to raise public awareness and discuss what can be done to resist these drastic cuts and closures.

Ask them to demand proper consultation not lay back and quietly suffer imposition.

Download the sample letter to your councillors by clicking the icons below:

   

• Write to your GP

He or she will be a member of the local Clinical Commissioning Group. They, for the time being at least, have control of 80% of the NHS budget. Most GPs still seem to be unaware of STPs, they are too busy being good GPs. Tell them about it. Ask them to vote against these plans and oppose them. For all of our sakes. Remind them that when they voted against BSBV (the previous SW London hospital closure plan ) the plan was withdrawn.

Download the sample letter to your GP by clicking the icons below:

     

 

• Write to your MP.

MPs want to be elected again.

Make it clear that you want them to serve your interests, look after you and your family and the society in which you live.

Ask them to oppose these plans in Parliament and to hold those responsible to account. To organise big public meetings to raise public awareness and discuss what can be done to resist these drastic cuts and closures.

Ask them to demand proper consultation not lay back and quietly suffer imposition.

Download the sample letter to your MP by clicking the icons below:

     

• Go to Council, CCG and Health Watch Meetings.

Look them up on their website or koshh.org. Ask questions. Its YOUR NHS

 

• Help to raise public awareness.

Wear a KOSHH badge, available at the back of the room

Take a window sign and put it up, let the politicians see just how many of us will not allow our hospitals to close. How many of us will hold them responsible.

Display a Car sticker, show your support for our hospitals.

Buy a KOSHH T-Shirt. Wear it. Show your support.

Tell everyone you meet what is going on.

 

• Help our Campaign

Sign up, on line to deliver leaflets, help on street stalls, raise funds for campaign materials. Come on marches. Come to our public meetings.

 

• Check the KOSHH website regularly.

Sign our petition, sign up for our news letter. Read the latest news

• Like our facebook page.

You can find the page here.

Read and share posts far and wide.

• Follow KOSHH on twitter.

We are @Save_St_Helier - follow us here.

 

• Donate to KOSHH.

It costs money to produce campaign material and hold meetings etc. Please give generously so that we can keep fighting for our vital health services. It really is a matter of life and death.

 

It is not just our local hospitals that are under threat it is the whole of the NHS.

It’s our NHS and we will fight for it.

I believe that the NHS is the finest creation of any nation.

We can not and we must not allow it to be stolen from us.

We must fight. We must win. Join us.

Failure is not an option.