Just in case you think we are relying on too few sources of information to paint our Big Picture.
You might like to take a look at this recent Daily Telegraph article about NHS ward closures where an investigation has revealed that wards in a fifth of NHS hospitals are to be closed.
Is your local hospital one of those about to lose a ward or wards?
Heads up for all blood donors – the next time you go to give blood the Blood Transfusion service may be owned by a private company.
I don’t know whether they intend to pay donors for their blood or whether they hope that people will still donate for free so that whoever wins the contract can sell your blood for even more profit than if the y have to pay you for it.
You can read more about this here on Dr Eoin Clarkes’ blog The Green Benches.
You will not be surprised to learn that the company that have been given the job of selling the transfusion service are themselves donors – they donate money to the conservatives!
With suitable apologies to Genesis, I’m not really about to breach your Copyright.
What am I going to do is make my first contribution to The Big Picture.
It was brought to my attention only this week that the great NHS Sale has begun. Apparently up to 400 community services are already up for grabs. The kind of services envisaged in this round might include wheelchair services and foot treatment to diagnostic tests, adult hearing and psychological therapies, with companies such as Specsavers, Boots and Alliance Healthcare potentially bidding for the contracts, alongside NHS hospital trusts, local medical centres and GP surgeries.
Labour’s Health Spokesman had the following to say “Be warned – Cameron’s Great NHS Carve- Up is coming to your community. As we speak, contracts are being signed in the single biggest act of privatisation the NHS has ever seen – 398 NHS community services all over England, worth over a quarter of a billion pounds, out to open tender. A forced privatisation, ordered from the top, and a secret privatisation – details hidden under ‘commercial confidentiality’ – but exposed today, in Labour’s NHS Check.”
The list of services up for tender under this system is many and various, but one at random for NE England lists the following services and their values
SERVICES OUT TO TENDER AND THEIR VALUE
County Durham
Anti-coagulation: not known
Adult hearing: £266,000
Podiatry: £1.1m
Gateshead/South Tyneside/Sunderland
Anti-coagulation: £1.1m
Adult Hearing: £2.7m
Podiatry: £3.1m
Hartlepool/Middlesbrough/Redcar and Cleveland
Adult hearing: £1.3m
Psychological Therapies: not known
Newcastle
Dermatology: not known
Anti-coagulation therapy: not known
Diagnostics: not known
(non-obstetric ultrasound)
North Yorkshire & York
Wheelchair services: £3.2m
Diagnostics: £1.1m
Podiatry: £1.2m
Stockton
Adult hearing: £266,000
Psychological Therapies: not known
Lymphodema: not known
This is happening NOW people, you’ve heard a lot from us previously about Police Reform, well that’s not the only thing we have to worry about.
This is a difficult question to answer because he has no background in health at all?
His wikipedia entry shows no links to health in terms of his education or career before politics.
Indeed his recent track record as Health secretary suggests that his brief is to sell off the NHS as described in the articles quoted below:
Jeremy Hunt is criticised for his role in £650m Virgin hospital deal New health secretary stepped in to speed up private takeover of NHS services in his Surrey constituency; and
Jeremy Hunt in new row over bid to hire adviser from private health sector New health secretary accused of privatisation agenda
In addition Dr Eoin Clarke has raised questions about possible income from Virgin and Bupa via a business that Jeremy Hunt set up – Hotcourses.
According to the company “Jeremy has stepped aside from all management responsibilities at Hotcourses Ltd in order to focus on his parliamentary duties, and is no longer involved in the running of the company”.
However According to They work for you the register of interests which was last updated in April 2012 he still had interests in the company at that time. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that Hotcourses have now overnight removed the Virgin and Bupa adverts from the site. Why do that if Jeremy Hunt is no longer involved with the company?
Interesting that the wikipedia entry states that Hotcourses has supplied financial support to his Parliamentary office and the Telegraph reports that “Jeremy Hunt avoided £100,000 tax bill in deal just days before rate rise” albeit that this was in 2010
I leave the final word to the Deputy chairman of the British Medical Association, Dr Kailash Chand who is quoted in the Telegraph as saying:
“Jeremy Hunt is new Health Secretary – disaster in the NHS carries on. I fear a more toxic right winger to follow the privatisation agenda.”
So, would you put Jeremy Hunt in charge of the Nations health?
The Big Picture 