The public have until 8th January 2021 (less than 3 weeks away) to comment on the Governments NHS Strategy as published by NHS England and written by US tech companies and UK business consultants/private healthcare companies; with absolutely NO input from ANYONE in NHS England or anyone with a healthcare background!
New Government legislation to put all these changes into law will follow in April 2022 Once that happens, it will make the Health and Social Care Act 2012 which started the move to a private NHS, look totally benign!
But exactly WHEN was this consultation exercise ever announced via the media and how have people become aware of it?
The consultation exercise on the already partially implemented policy document entitled Integrating Care Next Steps For Integrated Care Systems, is about ensuring that the NHS is broken up into 42 autonomous organisations and healthcare provided by private healthcare companies in the UK and from the USA! Already GP services are being put out to tender and American private healthcare companies have bid.
The whole of the NHS in England will be broken up into what is designed upon the failed USA Accountable Care Organisations and now called the positive sounding "Integrated Care Systems".
This actually means bundling your local NHS services into one block contract to be handled by one organisation for 5 - 10yrs with a fixed lump sum - controlling the finances to the providers beneath them who in turn will control their financial business by evaluating what services they can afford to deliver whilst at the same time maintaining "sustainability" (making money).
But using the phrase ‘integrated care’ makes it harder for the public to understand what that actually means, because the words alone aren’t ones describing healthcare that the public generally will have anything against. After all, who doesn’t want hospital care, and social care integrated into a seamless healthcare provision?
The consultation document is available to download from the unionsafety e-Library, and you are urged to read it and respond!
Be warned that it is full of deliberately misleading jargon and requires careful reading.
The NHS England Cunning Linguist department has supplied local authorities and STP partners with a whole new dictionary of absurd lingo to allay the fears of those pesky troublesome campaigners who are "ridiculous" to think that NHS England would dare to introduce a copy of the USA Medicare/Medicaid system.
New words and phrases invented to ensure one huge smokescreen:
* Manage Demand or Demand Management
* Integrated Care Partnerships & Systems
* Place Based Care
* Care Closer to Home
* Aligned Budgets
* Vertical & Horizontal Integration
* Integrated Strategic Commissioning Function!
Once the whole of the NHS in England is broken up into Integrate Care Organisations (ICO), the wholesale privatisation of NHS in England will start in earnest with contracts being awarded based on lowest cost and maximum profit.
The provision of Local NHS services and hospital procedures will be determined by the ICO on the basis of profit and cost and NOT by need!
We have already seen 31 NHS Hospital procedures being cut, and many more will follow. It will no longer be a ‘National’ health service but a ‘Regional’ ICS determined service! One that is purely based on the maximising of profit and one with private healthcare providers and shareholders!
As stated, the public have until 8th January 2021 to comment and people need to be aware that the Government will claim that the public was consulted and most agreed that integrated care has the full support of the public!
Many NHS supporting organisations and pressure groups are concerned that between NHS Trusts setting themselves up as limited companies, and the introduction of ACO/ICOs, there is now no doubt that the NHS is being fragmented and quickly destroyed!
The British Medical Association (BMA) had this to say:
“Combining multiple services into one contract risks the potential for non-NHS providers taking over the provision of care for entire health economies, as the contract would be subject to open competition rules. Moreover, a single ten-year contract would force re-procurement each time and create significant uncertainty.”
NHS England consultation web page can be accessed here The consultation document can be downloaded from the Unionsafety E-Library
Source: BMA / 999 call For NHS / Gov. UK / unionsafety / openDemocracy / The Guardian / Calderdale and Kirklees 999 Call for the NHS
