Politicians need to rethink the role of the private sector in the NHS

For all the pre-election pledges to protect its funding, the NHS is clearly threatened by major cuts. Yet one area of English health policy has remained apparently immune from the debate on cost savings – the main parties all still cling to the dogma that efficiency in healthcare is best achieved by ­promoting competition and ­encouraging the private sector to provide ­services. As practitioners of medicine and supporters of the NHS, we believe this consensus must be challenged.

Leak revealing scale of proposed NHS cuts ‘torpedos’ talks on jobs guarantee

Foundation trusts threaten job losses, abolition of bonuses and daytime working hours that end at 10pm

NHS staff are facing compulsory redundancies, consultants the loss of bonuses and district hospitals severely reduced funding, according a leaked health service document proposing savings to negotiate the economic downturn.

The internal briefing paper circulated by the NHS foundation trust network (FTN) calls for wide-ranging reform of national wage scales, an end to guaranteed employment for trainees and a cap on pensions for those earning more than £100,000 a year.

Such radical cost-cutting – being discussed by senior managers as part of the reconfiguration of the health service to deliver more community services – threatens to undermine the NHS employment guarantee proposed last month by the health secretary, Andy Burnham.

Headteachers back SATs boycott

PRIMARY school headteachers in Swindon have indicated overwhelming support for a threatened boycott of Sats tests, says a local head teacher.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT) are in favour of scrapping the Sats assessment for 11-year-olds in favour of teacher assessment.

They argue that children’s progress would be measured much more effectively and communicated to parents and potential secondary schools without the need for stressful exams.

WH Smith targeting staff, claims union

WHSmith is cutting workers’ pay only two years after removing their final salary pension scheme, says the Unite union.

The union said last week’s announcement that 100 or more workers will be asked to re-apply for more lower paying jobs was a “disgraceful” targeting of the company’s worst paid workers.

The government should implement its commitment on prescription charges – without delay

To Anne Snelgrove, MP and Michael Wills, MP from Swindon TUC

I was concerned to read in yesterday’s Observer that the government appears to be delaying the implementation of its commitment to abolish prescription charges for ‘long-term conditions’. According to the article the Gilmore report, which was expected to be published in the summer, has been completed but the government has held up publication. As you know we support the abolition of all prescription charges in all of the UK. However, having made this specific commitment (which falls short of that) the government should stick to it.

We can speculate on why the Gilmore Report has not been published (it would cost too much?) but the remit which he was given was difficult to say the least. In effect he was asked to create a hierarchy of diseases with a time table to phase out charges over time. Who is to say one illness should be exempted and another not, and which one is exempted before another?

Anger over Gordon Brown’s failure to implement free prescriptions pledge

Chronically ill to protest against plan being put back until after general election

Gordon Brown is Chronically facing a backlash from charities representing up to 15 million people with long-term health conditions after it emerged a promise to give them all free prescriptions is likely to be shelved until after the general election.

TUC Aid Haiti Earthquake Appeal

TUC Aid is making an appeal to affiliates, union members and to the general public for funds for emergency relief and long-term rehabilitation of the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

The earthquake which struck the island at 21.53 GMT on 12 January 2010 has left a trail of destruction. According to the President of Haiti, it has caused some 50,000 deaths. Massive damage has been caused to Haiti’s underdeveloped, poorly maintained infrastructure and property, with most buildings including hospitals and private dwellings in the capital – Port au Prince – turned to rubble. The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that some 3m people, most of whom have been made homeless, are in dire need of food, clothes, shelter and essential medicines. The people of Haiti, considered to be the poorest country in the western hemisphere, had been recovering from the devastation caused by hurricanes.

Swindon TUC Conference – Campaigning for Public Services

Download Leaflet here: conference0310

Swindon TUC has organised a conference on the theme of Campaigning for Public Services. It will take place on Saturday March 20^th, starting at 11.00 a.m., at the Broadgreen Centre, Salisbury Street, SN1 2AN. Speakers will include PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka, FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack and John Lister of Health Emergency.

Private Health company helps finance Conservative Health team

The Times has reported that the Conservative health team is being funded by the wife of the chairman of one of Britain’s largest private hospital companies. Shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley received £21,000 in November from Caroline Nash, wife of John Nash, the chairman of Care UK.

Care UK runs a network of GP practices, NHS walk-in centres, out-of-hours services and NHS treatment centres. The company admits that 96% of its business (more than £400m last year) came from work for the NHS. It’s obviously money well spent. The Tories have promised to make it easier for private providers to perform more NHS work.

MPs attack £5bn government bill for ‘grotty’ new housing

The Homes and Communities Agency is under fire for bailing out sub-standard private sector projects

The government risks repeating the mistakes of the postwar housing boom by wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on funding “grotty” new homes, say MPs.

The Homes and Communities Agency, the national housing and regeneration body for England, which has an annual investment budget of more than £5bn, has admitted that 27 of the private-sector projects it has bailed out scored five or less out of 20 on the industry’s Building for Life benchmark, with two scoring just 1.5.