phenomenalplace

This cyberknife shown above should be available to you and and your family if you need radiotherapy treatment to treat a cancer. It is 8 times more successful than chemotherapy. Currently, only 5 places in the UK have them. This one above is at Harley Street Private Clinic in London. Areas such as the North East, North West, South West, Midlands and Yorkshire & Humberside do not have access to this treatment. Update: NHS Sussex this morning have announced they are to buy 5 machines for their PCT. Great news for the people of Sussex ( here ). What makes this even more galling is that there is currently a £169,000,000 underspend in the Cancer Drugs Fund for this year. This wasted millions should be used to buy the equipment above so that you and your loved ones can have access to this cutting edge treatment. We in Labour Left  have used the one click gadget below to tweet Health Ministers Paul Burstow and Anne Milton to ask them to use the Cancer Drugs Fund underspend to buy c...

1. Derriford Hospital, Plymouth The hospital is being asked to find £54m savings in two years. The workforce's morale is at an all time low as Serco who run the cleaning & catering contract in the hospital arbitrarily cut staff's hours by 17 leading to an annual lost of more than £7,000 a year for some staff. Hospital bosses for months refused to meet Trade Union officials until strike action was threatened. In the latest twist, just today two non-executive directors have resigned their posts at the hospital in protest at the poor running. The new chair for the hospital has just been appointed from outside the hospital with no appreciation or understanding for how hard things have been for the staff. 2. Great Royal Western, Swindon Staff that this hospital are among the most deflated in the country. Wards have been shut down, staff have been asked to re-apply for their posts (in some cases unsuccessfully). Staff have been disciplined for their social media usage and Multi-N...

Virgin are in my bad books. First they take the NHS in York to the CCP accusing them of predatory pricing because York NHS beat Virgin to a contract by charging lower prices. Then Virgin gain 18 contracts throughout the UK to run anything from community care to sexual services. Worse still, this week, the story broke of their 5 year ill treatment of Virgin Media customers who suffer death. Instead of showing compassion Virgin go on to threaten and abuse the family members left behind to settle unpaid bills. Now Virgin have teamed up with 7 PCTs in the NHS Lancashire area to help deliver "virtual" or "video" diagnosis. It works as follows. You switch on your camera on your computer, give me a peek & I'll tell you if your gonna have a stroke or not. Well, it is not quite like that since I am not qualified to diagnose, and they'll probably have a proper camera (or a "telekart" as they're calling it) but the basics are the same. A dude will now...

w In February 2010, just after Tony Blair appeared at the Chilcot Inquiry, ComRes published a poll for the Independent that asked voters if they think Tony Blair should be tried for war crimes.  37% voters thought he should, whilst 57% of voters thought he should not.  As a percentage of voters on the electoral roll in 2010, this means that 17 million voters wanted Tony Blair placed on trial for war crimes. Those in favour were predominantly the young (those under 35) and those from northern or poorer parts of the UK.  Those who were of mind not to put him on trial were mostly the elderly, southern wealthy types. You can see the data for yourself ( here ). If you want to geek out on why polling is a science not an art, and how we are able to recalibrate the polling %s into numbers of actual voters, then please follow this link ( here ).

On 24 separate occasions since the NHS Bill became law, Andy Burnham and Ed Miliband have said that they will repeal the NHS Bill. Upon closer examination of their detailed comments about what form this will take, we can say that they include: 1. Awarding the NHS Preferred Bidder Status in the tendering process.  2. Repealing the 49% Cap of Private Sector Involvement in the NHS. 3. Preventing CCGs commissioning to themselves. 4. Reforming MONITOR but in a way that is unclear. None of this goes far enough and to me it is no wonder that an NHS party has been formed with a view to contesting seats at the next election. Below, I outline the policies Labour should be embracing on the NHS if we are to present ourselves as a radical alternative to the Tories on Health. 1. We need to support  François Hollande 's attempts to enshrine in EU Law the right of all EU citizens to have access to a publicly funded healthcare system. This important principle, if agreed, would have the a...

The government is currently engaged in rank hypocrisy throughout the UK. They have conspired to pass an unwanted NHS Bill, force £20bn of NHS cuts through and shut down many wards, hospitals and units all in the name of cost savings exercises. The spectacle of government ministers leading the campaign to save NHS Hospitals ONLY in their own constituencies will sicken many NHS activists to their very core. If these ministers really cared about the NHS, then they would have done something to prevent cuts, closures and carve ups throughout the UK, not just the areas where they seek votes. What sickens me the most is that Government Ministers are using their own special influence within the government to cherry pick which hospitals must go, and which ones are given special consideration. So, the Trafford A & E in Greater Manchester is to be shown no mercy because it has no government minister that could save it.  Wards have been shut at The Great Royal Western, Shrop...

The Department of Health commissioned this report ( link here ) into Homelessness's link with NHS Discharges. The report produced by St Mungo's and Homeless Link found that 70% of homeless people who are discharged from NHS hospitals are actually discharged onto the street. No attempt is being made to safeguard the recovering health of homeless patients. Homeless people die much younger than you and I and often carry serious illness related to dirty needle usage or alcoholism. These people need our compassion, love and support if they are to get better and get their lives on track. Research shows that family breakdown on abuse during their adolescence are key factors in their declining health. As I have shown from other research, homelessness has risen 14% under this Tory government with more than 45,000 households being declared statutorily homeless per year. Given that the average household is 2.3 per home, we can be sure that the true figure of actual homeless people is much...

Radiopharmaceuticals more commonly known as radiotherapy is a precise/localised way of targeting cancer. It causes less damage to the tissues around the cancer area than chemotherapy because it is so precise/localised. Results show it is 8 times more successful than Chemotherapy. If you wish to geek out on original EU guidelines on the storage and safe usage of radiopharmaceuticals then please follow this link ( here ). In October 2010, the Tories announced a cancer drugs fund of up to £200,000,000. This was a good decision and one which should have led to 1000s of lives throughout the 28 Cancer Network areas of England being saved. Conceivably, the £200m could have paid for this radiotherapy treatment.  The sad fact is that there is currently a severe under spend in the Cancer Drugs Fund. Only £71,000,000 has been spent so far this year. Even the Tory newspapers accept that this is potentially costing thousands of lives per year ( here ). What's more, the Cancer Drug Net...

These 80 fat cat  jobs in the NHS earn a combined salary of almost £10,000,000 a year. They average at nearly £120,000 per post annually. This excludes pension relief, company car and bonuses. In evidence submitted to the local pay & senior salaries review, it was yesterday recommended that regional NHS bosses earning a fortune in salaries should be exempted from the regional pay review. This advice was given at the same time as plans are underway to cut the wages nurses, Health Care Assistants, porters, auxiliaries and other cleaning staff receive in the North East, North West, Midlands, South West and Yorks & Humber. This is black and white hypocrisy, inequality and double standards at its very worst. The justification for protecting high paid fat cat NHS bosses from regional pay cuts was that the roles they held were national posts not really reflective of local market conditions. Why should ordinary NHS staff lose up to 30% of the wages because the...

Every NHS Trust in England is now legally obliged to either seek Foundation Trust status or merge with another NHS Trust by 2014.  This is part of the regulations to emerge from private consultancy firm McKinsey during the drafting of the Tory Health Bill. The problem is that 50% of NHS Trusts are failing in their application for Foundation Trust status. This is causing them as a secondary option to seek a merger. A merger, if achieved, is by no means a disaster because at least it gives the trust a chance of remain in public control. So Trafford, Northumbria, St Hellier and Cumbria are all seeking a merger with a more financially healthy NHS Trust close by. Even if mergers are achieved, however, very often the larger Trust in the merger seeks to offload the less financially viable parts of the supposedly failing trust. For example, Trafford A & E is at severe risk of closure. It is just one of a long list of places under threat that I could bore you with. But there a...

Yesterday, the government published the list of the 212 Clinical Commissioning Groups that are to be established throughout England. Some will serve populations as low as 67,000 while other super-CCGs will cater for nearly 1 million patients. ( see the full list here ). For the first time the government have published an expectation of the costs in running their new CCG structure.  A closer examination of the government's data shows that annual costs just to run the CCGs will amount to £1.334 billion a year. Over the course of a parliamentary term this is a combined running cost of £6.67bn . The chairs of the CCGs will for 2 days work a week be given £40,000 each. Two other part time staff will earn smaller sums of £25k. In terms of the calculation of the running costs, there also appears to be some disparity. By dividing total running costs by the number of patients a CCG expects to serve, we can say that some CCGs such as North Somerset CCG will cost £26 per patient to run, whi...

Virgin Media have a poor track record in dealing with customers who suffer bereavement. In 2011, one widow was billed £160, late payment fees and sent letters warning her that services would be disconnected because her husband had died and Virgin dragged their heels on switching the contract to her name ( read about it here ). Just yesterday, another gentleman, Terence Allen, is aged 62 and has been told he has just 2 weeks to live, as he battles cancer. Virgin have refused to let him cancel his contract with them, and they insist he pays £160 outstanding ( see here ). Another widow, whose husband died in 2010, has faced a 2 year battle with Virgin Media for them to refund the £36 of phone credit her deceased husband had left on his phone. As of February she had still not succeeded ( read about it here ). In 2009, Virgin left a widow to organise a funeral without a telephone after they cut off the Virgin contract when they learned of her husband's death ( see here ). The same happe...

Easington MP Grahame Morris today called for Parliamentary time to debate the issue of firearms control in the UK. See his statement in full ( here ) His call follows the tragic incident in Horden on New Year ’s Day in which four members of the same family lost their lives. Supported by Keith Vaz MP, Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Mr. Morris sought an update from the government on proposed changes to gun licensing laws and procedures. There are currently 34 separate pieces of legislation covering UK gun law. Mr. Morris has also previously raised the issue of strengthening the link between police and the medical profession when the holder of a gun license is known to have developed mental health issues. The Leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young MP, speaking on behalf of the Government said he would raise the matter with the Home Secretary and ask her to write to the Easington MP. Last week an e-petition was placed online calling for gun control and licensing p...

Get used to the phrase "virtual ward". It means caring for yourself at home. The government have come up with this innovation as a way of saving money in our NHS. They shut down wards in hospitals, reduce bed numbers and have less need to hire as many staff. The idea is that if they educate you well enough you can manage your own illness. Privately NHS staff are contacting me to express a worry about the drive. There are two major developments that suggest this is bonkers. 1. As the link ( click here ) shows for Royal Hospital in Bath, up to 1 in 8 patients who are discharged actually bounce for a whole host of illnesses. This means they have to be readmitted to the hospital. In the month of December 2011, this included nearly 16% of Cardiac Patients. If you're not happy being sent home do not let them pressure you into acquiescing to early discharge. 2. A crucial pilot study of US patients (COPD) self care in the home had to be abandoned because it resulted in a spike i...

23,561 NHS staff members (net) have lost their jobs since the Tories came to power, but what I have discovered today is that the job losses have not been uniformly spread. In short, the North of England has had to bear the brunt of the job losses (experiencing 70% of the job cuts) while the South of England has suffered just 30% of the job losses. That only tells half of the picture. When you examine the job losses by region an even more alarming picture emerges. The wealthiest, and dare I say it Toriest, parts of England have actually experienced no job losses. The South East of England has actually grown its NHS workforce since the May General Election, while the North West of England alone has experienced more than 6,500 job losses. That type of inequality in redundancy policy is very difficult to understand. The figures for job losses in the south would were actually made look more egalitarian by the inclusion of the South West. Analysts of the socio-economic profile (and ...

My own research published today on Jeremy Hunt is below, but to be frank a far more explosive piece of Hunt's financial affairs in 2004-2005 can be read on John Ward's site ( here ). If you only have time to read one piece, I suggest you make it his. Failing that, please see my piece below. Jeremy Hunt's activities as Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport are quite fascinating. His behaviour as a Cabinet Minister in the first month of the first Tory government for 13 years will astound you. he is obliged to list a) the gifts/hospitality he receives b) the meetings he conducted with outside parties. Today, I have gone through his meetings and hospitality received and the results are revealing. Jeremy Hunt's meetings with NewsCorp were the subject of a Freedom of Information request in November 2010. In that response Hunt's department withheld details of any meetings Hunt had with Rupert Murdoch, and mentioned explicitly just one meeting with James Murdoch from May t...

The graph above shows the total cost of the NHS Bailouts (accumulative) since 2009. In the first year of the figures, the NHS Bailouts totalled £187m, and from April 2010- March 2011, the figure jumped to £223m. Much worse than that however was the last financial year, and the first proper year of Tory cuts. The total cost of NHS Bailouts that year came to £415,000,000 which is more than the previous two years added together.  It is the case that some of these costs are linked to the costs of PFI. Take Peterborough NHS Trust for example who needed £46m of a bail out. There's no doubt that this was as a result of a new £289m hospital opening in 2010. We cannot, however, say that all, or even a majority of the bailouts are PFI related, after all how could bailouts in one single year jump so dramatically? The truth is that there has been tougher NHS settlements as a result of government cut backs. As a proportion of GDP, health spending is falling, and we know this because McKinsey id...

The graph above shows the number of homes added to the English housing stock from 2000 to 2010 by tenure . In the last ten years of a New Labour government, we added 1.6 million homes to the Housing Stock in England. That, on the face of it, seems a reasonable achievement, but when you look underneath the bonnet the true picture is quite shameful. Of the 1.6 million homes added in the last decade under New Labour, 95% of those homes were private rental. For every 20 homes to come onto the market in the last decade, 19 of them were private rental. In that same time, private rental costs have boomed. It now, excluding energy costs, will cost you £8,700 a year just to rent an average UK property.  Is it any wonder that 41% of labour's private renting voters deserted us after 1997? Of course, Labour's great shame is that we ceased to take a responsibility for social housing. The council house and social housing stock added, dwindled more than 320,000 during this era. The net result...

Researchers at Oxford University have proposed a 20% fat tax on sugary drinks to tackle obesity and David Cameron is reported to be considering implementing a Fat Tax as a result. Although the researchers claim this could save up to 3,500 lives per year, there is lots that is wrong with this type of tax. (source: YG) Calorie wise, the foods sold at upmarket boulangeries, patisserie, charcuteries and café are just as bad for you as liquid sugar drinks or 'pop'. If anything, depending upon your diet, it is arguable that fizzy drinks are less bad for you that foie gras, crepes or profiteroles. After all, if you lead an active lifestyle then a sugar drink can be quicker to convert to the energy that you need to complete your activity, whereas the saturated fats, or fatty proteins in some popular nouveau cuisine dishes could be much harder to shift. Sugar does not line the arteries in the way that saturated fats will. There's no doubt fizzy drinks can rot teeth or induce diabete...

1. Submit a freedom of information request . You'll receive an answer within 20 working days and if you ask the right questions you could transform supporters of the NHS's ability to fight Lansley's privatisation. I use " whatdotheyknow " for my queries as they are the most user friendly way of submitting a query. You can also browse the other types of queries asked there to give yourself ideas about how to word yours. 2. Choose a NHS provider, not a private one when you get your choice of operation. Under Labour legislation you have the right to insist that you are given the choice of opting to be treated by the NHS. So, if your operation or consultation letter arrives with no NHS choice, you can insist on being given one. This will keep demand/custom within the National Health Serivce and make it harder for Lansley to justify flogging it. 3.   Join your local LINks (soon to be Healthwatch). This patient driven body will oversee the functioning of the new health ...

The Tory Health Secretary has wreaked havoc on our NHS. Standards are falling rapidly and are only matched in their demise by staff morale. Andrew Lansley is cutting 1) NHS spending as a proportion of GDP, he's 2) cutting staffs' wages (especially in the north of England) and making 3) them work longer while paying more into their pensions. 20,000 staff have been 4) sacked and many have reported that they have been 5) bullied and forced to accept pay cuts or be sacked. He has allowed companies like Virgin and McKinsey to play a role in 6) reshaping the NHS constitution and 7) decide the future of NHS Foundation Trusts and public borrowing limits. Lansley is switching the way NHS funding is decided so that money is diverted from the north to wealthy areas of the south, thus exacerbating the 8)  north south divide. Lastly, patients have suffered under Lansley's NHS. The number of 9) urgent operations cancelled has climbed and so have 10) NHS waiting lists, whilst m...

The following 348 NHS Properties are to be sold to private developers ( see here ). The overall amount of land NHS earmarked for sale totals more than 591 hectares and could comfortably build 15,000 properties. That would create more than 80,000 jobs. On Wednesday, I and my Labour Left colleagues will be meeting in Westminster to make the argument for a national house building programme that focuses on building affordable rental properties for the millions of working families who struggle to pay an average of £8,700 in rent per year. We think this NHS land & Ministry of Defence land, as well as empties business properties in the City of Westminster, would make for ideal land on which to concentrate a new house building programme. If you are interested in attending the Housing event, or a debate on the same day by Labour Left on how to organise to defend our NHS, then please email me on eclarke04@qub.ac.uk for details. Everyone is welcome. For a report on the NHS land for sale, you...

(click on the graph to enlarge) The 23 private healthcare companies listed above made a combined profit of £1,335,000,000 for the last accounts each of them have published all for 2010 or 2011. I will measure this year on year to watch the growing profits of private healthcare companies. I have excluded Serco from the list because not all of their profits are made in the provision of healthcare. I also excluded addiction, cosmetics, maternity and eye clinics from the list. Some companies like Virgin are new entries into the market and so their profits are very low. Other companies with big turnovers but low profits (in fact losses) include Circle Health who operated at a loss to secure the Hinchingbrooke Hospital. In addition, I should point out that the private healthcare industry is riddled with tax avoidance, evasion and the trousering of profits. You aint no one in the health care industry if your not trying to persuade the tax man that you are making a loss...