The bottom line on the proposals to close A&E and acute
services at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary is that they are deeply flawed and
that the Joint CCGs need to end the Consultation, go back to the drawing board
and start again.
That is in many ways the easy part. The hard part is going to
be how do they finance the sort of Health Service local people deserve? We know
about the bad PFI deal and we could spend many happy hours deciding which Government
is to blame for that one but it is not the only financial factor in this sorry
saga. We have an NHS in crisis. The contract being forced on Junior Doctors is
one issue another is that GP practices like the University Health Centre and
Slaithwaite Health Centre are under threat due to cuts resulting from a new
funding formula. Against this is the backdrop of a £30 Billion national
shortfall in NHS funding identified prior to the last General Election but left
unaddressed. We also have the ongoing privatisation of the NHS where private
health companies are allowed to cherry pick juicy parts of it using public money
for private profit and with many millions of pounds of public money being spent
simply monitoring private contracts. The Private Sector should only have a very
limited & well regulated role in the NHS. The NHS Reinstatement Bill recently
put before Parliament would ensure a publicly funded, publicly delivered NHS
not just the narrow ‘free at the point of use’ one we have at the moment. It’s
a pity that MPs from one Party sought to filibuster it out of Parliamentary
Time, last Friday, and another sent only a pitiful 15 MPs to support it. The guilty
parties know who they are but will
remain unnamed on this occasion.
This brings us to the role of central Government. They
responded to the on line Parliamentary petition to save A&E at Huddersfield
with the following. They said, "It is
a matter for local determination" and "it is right that these
decisions are led by local clinicians, who best understand the healthcare needs
of their local populations ". This response fails to recognise that
Government sets the rules and is the ultimate provider of NHS funding.
Government makes the funding environment within which local decisions are made.
Successive Governments have set the rules and now this one wants to say it is a
local decision. What I do find very strange is that Prime Minister David
Cameron felt able to go to the Calderdale Royal Hospital in April last year,
before the election and guaranteed that A & E services would remain there.
I am pleased that A& E will remain in Halifax but what makes that issue one
that the Prime Minister felt he could comment on and yet the decision at
Huddersfield A&E is a "matter for local determination"?
The best possible tactic now (as well as putting pressure on
local NHS decision makers) is for those of us who want to maintain Accident and
Emergency and other Acute Services at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary to keep
knocking at the Government’s door and to make them take responsibility. They
are the key to coming to a satisfactory resolution to this crisis. They have
the power, they have the funding and it is our responsibility to ensure that
they do not evade their responsibilities. So yes Local Kirklees Party Leaders and
campaigners need to meet Government Ministers but I do wonder that if at some
point thousands of us from Huddersfield are going to need to go down to Westminster
for a Mass Rally to make our voices
heard before this all over. That is one for HandsoffHRI Campaign Team to ponder
I think.
So let’s be united. Let’s work together. Let’s get behind the
people of Huddersfield in this vital campaign. They are after all the Leaders
in this fight. Hands off HRI!
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