THE REVOLVING DOOR & THE CROSS-PARTY WHITE PAPER

Are the NHS reform plans based on New Labour's' 2006 white paper? and what's a Labour peer doing heading up an STP scheme then praising Lancashire teaching hospitals NHS trust? Are all 3 main political parties in favour of a private-public NHS partnership? What the hell is going on?

The current boss of NHS England 'Simon Stevens' is a turncoat and entered government with New Labour (he was previously a Labour councillor for Brixton and former advisor to Labour PM TONY BLAIR).

Stevens was previously vice president for Unitedhealth, the largest private healthcare insurer in the U.S.A. He will sell his soul for fame and fortune and has U.S Accountable Care Organisations (ACOs') ready for privatisation in England as his goal. The reason he is head of NHS England is because NHS England were set up by the real privateer (the previous health secretary) 'Jeremy Hunt' with no input from the NHS or those who use it.

It appears Stevens has simply expanded on New Labours 'Our Health Our Care Our Say' white paper from 2006 and added American style ACOs into the integrated part of the Sustainability & Transformation Partnership (STP).

STP = Straight To Pocket (private sector pocket)
*Labour's 2006 white paper is said to be the blue print for the 'five year forward view' which in turn is the blueprint document for all STPs. So not only has Stevens expanded on Labour's 2006 white paper, but he's handed it over to the Tories and it appears to be supported by Labour Peer Lord Pat Carter. 

The Labour Peer Lord Carter, like Tony Blair, seems to be just another Tory in disguise. Carter (real name Patrick Robert Carter) is heading up the Slash Trash & Privatise care home scheme, he visited Lancashire county council in late July along with the Lancashire Teaching hospital trust who closed the A&E department 24/7 at Chorley & South Ribble Hospital in April 2016. So what's a Labour peer doing promoting the STP privatisation plans? 

• New Labour's 'Tony Blair' appointed Carter as a Labour peer in 2004.
• Lord Carter co-founded private nursing home company 'Westminster Health Care' in 1985 with Martin Bradford. He's been lobbying for the private care-home sector to take on more patients from over-stretched NHS hospitals ever since Simon Stevens revealed the STP plans for England.
• Carter was also previously president of Mckesson enterprise ltd international operations group (business portfolio holder), Mckesson specialise in orthopedic imaging/consultancy private sector work.
• In 1985, Lord Carter founded Westminster Health Care which he built into a leading health care provider and subsequently sold in 1999. Carter is now a private investor and director of public and private companies in the fields of insurance, healthcare and information technology.

Previously many Labour politicians have made full use of the 'revolving door' between industry and government. Alan Milburn and Patricia Hewitt are among the ten previous health ministers who have taken lucrative consultancies with private health care companies.

More links below...

Is this the blueprint for the STPs five year forward view?
New Labour's 2006 white paper 'Our Health Our Care Our Say': a new direction for community services

Lord Carter visits Lancashire Teaching Hospitals July 2017

https://www.lancsteachinghospitals.nhs.uk/latest-news/news-19072017-lord-carter-visit-2992

BIO Baron Carter (lord Carter of Coles)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Carter,_Baron_Carter_of_Coles

Lobbying for transparency

http://www.transparency.org.uk/our-work/uk-corruption/lobbying/#.WgLpSlt-qDI

Co-operation & Competition panel for NHS funded services

https://www.ccpanel.org.uk/about-the-ccp/profile-lord-carter.html

Are STPs based on New Labour's white paper from 2006?
http://mavericksunite.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/are-stps-based-on-new-labours-white.html

Chorley A&E closure, super-hospitals, & NHS Privatisation
http://mavericksunite.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/chorley-closure-super-hospitals-and-nhs.html

STPs in legal limbo: Enter the lawyers

The Lancashire & South Cumbria (L&SC) Sustainability & Transformation Plan (STP) is a collection of documents from the five areas across the L&SC region shown above.  Proposals in the so-called 'plans' involve a complete top-down re-structure of the NHS, along with proposals that attempt to alter the legal framework of the NHS.

The main objective of the 'Five Year Forward View', the blueprint document all STPs are based on, is to introduce models of care founded on the principles of American Health Maintenance Organisations and private insurance policy healthcare plans. After all, the boss of NHS England Simon Stevens, previously worked for UnitedHealth, the largest private healthcare insurer in the states.


One model of care is called an 'Accountable Care Organisation' (ACO), and you guessed it, there's one proposed for Chorley & South Ribble in the L&SC STP (in fact the STP has proposed an ACO for every CCG locality.

Only last week NHS England (NHSE) defined 8 areas they intend rolling-out ACOs, and worryingly, one of them is the Blackpool and Fylde area. NHSE state once the ACO is in full swing they intend implementing it across the Lancashire & South Cumbria footprint, i.e. including Chorley & South Ribble.

The following article, kindly reproduced from Health Campaigns Together, briefly explains the requirement to change legislation if STPs are to evolve into a commercial operation where providers struggling with large deficits, are willing to sell their souls (and assets)  and create a partnership with purchasers (CCGs) to forward NHS privatisation......
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As it comes to the difficult question of trying to implement the proposals in STPs, often in the teeth of bitter local opposition, NHS managers are now beginning to wonder about the legality of STPs and the potential Accountable Care Organisations they are hoping to establish.

Legal firm Hempsons has produced some briefing material which underlines these concerns. In their Fit for the future briefing on June 17 they set out an “NHS legislation wish list”, and note in particular the problems created by Andrew Lansley’s health and Social Care Act:

“The current health and social care legislative framework is a brick wall that
STPs and ACSs run into when they try to share decision making and join up
services. It is designed for an inherently non-integrated, competitive quasimarket.
“ […]

“The section 75 partnership regulations (NHS Bodies and Local Authorities Partnership Arrangements Regulations 2000 No. 617) provide limited ability for a CCG to share its commissioning functions with a local authority.”

“NHS foundation trusts simply cannot share decision making. NHS trusts are ham-strung by limited powers to invest in corporate bodies.” In response to this, Hempsons argue the need for new legislation:

“What might be some legislative changes that would enable the NHS and local authorities to integrate services and develop and implement STPs and ACSs? We suggest some below.

“Some may be more controversial than others, but they all recognise the reality that the NHS (steered by NHS England and NHS Improvement) is in many ways already reversing out of a competitive quasi-market back to a centrally directed system where the purchaser-provider split is abolished and foundation trust autonomy offers few if any benefits.”

The Hempsons Seven Steps to accountable care pamphlet, produced jointly with NHS Providers, again stresses that STPs have no legal status or powers: “Key considerations that should be taken into account by STP partners leading on the evolution to accountable care are:

• STPs currently have no powers to make decisions: their recommendations need to leave partners with real choices on whether to accept the recommendation
• they are not legal entities; this makes it difficult to hold them accountable, so STP leaderships need to take care to refer back to partner organisations and respect the unique role of boards and well as the liabilities and dutiesof directors
• STPs are not board-led organisations and will not have a NED [non executive director] majority or built in NED challenge. […]
• there is a system-wide imperative to make swift progress and a seeming unanimity as to the way forward; in these circumstances leaderships need toguard against group-think
• the transition from STP to ACS to ACO is clearly difficult to achieve in the current legislative framework. Clarity and simplicity in decision-making are therefore preferable to complexity.”

above article kindly reproduced from July 2017 issue of Health Campaigns Together

Related

Where's the legal basis for STPs?