Today’s report in the Observer concerning the scandalous failure of care at the Surgicare centre in Hertfordshire, run by the services group Carillion, makes somber reading. Three deaths of patients who had been admitted for routine treatment prompted an independent report before Christmas, as the Observer recounts: the report also contained the admission that nurses [...]
Posts Tagged ‘NHS’
Ten years of Carillion putting profits before patients at PFI hospital
Dec 3rd, 2012 by Andy Newman.This week marks the tenth anniversary of Swindon’s Great Western Hospital (GWH) opening in Swindon, one of the earliest Private Finance Initiative (PFI) build and operate hospitals, and only the second opened by Carillion. The anniversary was marked today by a dozen GMB shop stewards protesting outside, highlighting the long running industrial dispute between the union and [...]
Privatisating benefits the public? – pull the other one!
Aug 22nd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.So the latest Tory wheeze to commercialise the NHS is to get hospitals to sell their services abroad, using the NHS brand to rake in more private money (which would not of course be necessary if the government were not imposing £20bn cuts over 5 years). It is claimed that NHS patients will benefit. Bookmarks [...]
First big cracks appear in Lansley’s privatised health service
May 27th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The whistleblowers who have revealed serious deficiencies in an out-of-hours GP service run by a large private health company which is believed to be putting patient care at risk have performed an important public service. This concerns the contract in Cornwall run by Serco, a private operator which provides services for government in defence, prisons, [...]
Vigils against the NHS Bill across the UK
Mar 18th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.This Monday 19 March at 8pm, there will be holding a series of coordinated NHS Vigils, across the UK to draw attention to the importance of halting the Tory NHS Bill. Everyone interested in peacefully registering their opposition to the NHS Bill is welcome to attend (DETAILS BELOW). The purpose of the meetings is to [...]
The gold I want to go for
Mar 8th, 2012 by Len McCluskey.My call for civil disobedience around the time of the Olympic Games caused a media storm last week. Nick Clegg was “gobsmacked”. David Cameron called me “unpatriotic”. I couldn’t care less about their criticism. Clegg is busy dismantling the legacy of those great Liberals Keynes and Beveridge, the architects of the welfare state and full [...]
Full steam ahead with a commercialised public services Britain
Jan 20th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.There could not be a clearer signal that the ultimate goal of this Tory government (forget the Coalition myth) is the full-scale commercialisation of all Britain’s public services than the latest plan to bring in the credit-rating agencies to monitor and control NHS hospitals. This is taking the country back to pre-1948 when finance, not [...]
Hinchingbrooke hospital: lessons of Southern Cross
Nov 15th, 2011 by David Osler.Southern Cross became a FTSE 250 company on the back of the profits it made from looking after the elderly. Earlier this year it realised that it could no longer afford the rent on the care homes it once owned, but had sold off and leased back. Unlike most business models that don’t pan out, [...]
Slow-motion breakdown across our public services
Nov 15th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The real Border Agency scandal is not whether Theresa May or Brodie Clark authorised the relaxation of checks on millions of visitors over the summer, but rather that job cuts and expenditure squeezes are cutting swathes through the immigration rules. In the last fortnight it has been disclosed (and one wonders how much else has [...]
UK Uncut to shut down Westminster Bridge in protest over NHS bill
Sep 23rd, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Thousands are expected to occupy one of London’s most iconic landmarks on 9th October in last-ditch attempt to defeat the bill condemned by doctors as ‘undermining all that is precious about the NHS’. UK Uncut has announced that it is planning a spectacular act of mass civil disobedience in a last-ditch attempt to defeat the [...]
