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Integrated Care Systems
Scroll down this page for:
1: Rebuild Our NHS.
2: Rebuild Our NHS: Get Private Profiteers Out! Sign this electronic letter to the Chair of North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (NENC ICS)
3: Send an email to the Chair of North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (NENC ICS)
4: Copy in key people and liaise with political groups and trade unions
5: North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (NENC ICS)
6: Integrated Care Systems – Bad news for patients and staff
7: “Integrated and Caring”? Definitely not.
8: Impact on the pay, terms and conditions of NHS staff
9: Impact on local decision-making and democracy
10: North East opposes Integrated Care Systems
11: Links – newspaper items, opinion pieces, reports
12: The Health and Care Act 2022
13: “STPs” and “ACOs” – remember them?
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“Rebuild Our NHS” campaign
From 1st July 2022 our NHS across England will be reorganised. England will be divided into 42 new NHS bodies called Integrated Care Systems (ICS).
After 14,000 We Own It supporters emailed NHS leaders in the last few weeks, the chairs of 7 ICSs have come out and pledged that private companies won’t sit on their boards.
The 7 ICSs are:
Bath & North East Somerset Swindon & Wiltshire ICS // Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire ICS // Sussex ICS // Birmingham & Solihull ICS // Hertfordshire & West Essex ICS // South East London ICS // Suffolk and North East Essex ICS.
We need to get the “North East and North Cumbria ICS” signed to to this pledge – see Actions 2 and 3 below…..
Please remember: If we don’t fight to protect our NHS, we will always lose. But if we fight we have a chance of winning.
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Rebuild Our NHS: Get Private Profiteers Out! Sign this electronic letter to the Chair of “North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System”
We need to get the “North East and North Cumbria ICS” signed up to the pledge – no private companies on ICS Boards.
1387
KONPNE is campaigning jointly with “We Own It” and local residents against any further privatisation of NHS services within the new “North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System” (NENC ICS).
So far 1387 people in the North East have joined in the “We Own It” campaign by writing to the Chair of the new “North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System” (the organisation to commission all health care in the region from 1st July this year) to demand the pledge: NO PRIVATE COMPANIES ON ICS BOARDS.
From the 1st of July 2022 our NHS across England will be reorganised. England will be divided into 42 new NHS bodies / “Integrated Care Systems”. Each ICS will be controlled by a board of directors with a duty to provide healthcare for people in the area.
THE REALITY: Integrated Care Systems 1) Allow private companies like Deloitte to sit on boards that make decisions about how to spend NHS money 2) Introduce the American model into our NHS where unaccountable decision making bodies prioritise profit margins and making savings over caring for people’s health. This model is likely to lead to cuts and closures of NHS hospitals and A&E 3) Push more people to go private as cuts are made. Patients have already been promised greater rights to choose private treatment and have it paid for by the NHS 4) Open the door to more cronyism – yet more contracts would be given to government pals like Serco, as we’ve seen in the pandemic, but without any competition – that’s what the government means by ‘reducing bureaucracy’ 5) Encourage private companies to take the NHS to court if they’re unhappy.
This reorganisation of the NHS provides our local NHS leaders an opportunity to reset the direction of travel of our NHS. Instead of continuing full steam toward more and more privatisation they must put the needs of local people first. After a pandemic that has brought our NHS to its knees and 10 years of chronic underfunding by the government, we demand that our local NHS leaders rebuild our NHS and get private profiteers out NOW. It is time for our NHS to stop working for private companies profiting from it and start working for local people who depend on it.
Here in the North East, the aim is for the Chair of the ICS Board to receive 3,000 emails about this fundamental issue. Using this link, you can easily add your postcode and send the prepared email. Please share this link with your family, friends, colleagues and contacts on your social media too.
This leaflet from We Own It describes the Campaign action:
KONPNE will be arranging some local events to get this message out to the public – we will let you know places and times
You can read up on the background to ICSs on our website here and remember: If we don’t fight to protect our NHS, we will always lose. But if we fight we have a chance of winning.
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Alternatively, send an email to the Chair of “North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System” (NENC ICS)
You may prefer to write a personal email to the Chair, and the national office of “Keep Our NHS Public” have provided a template letter as a guide – but try to put the issues into your own words. The template letter identifies a number of demands/issues to put to the ICS chair to try to get firm commitments about the way that the ICS will be run and services provided. These demands could alleviate some of the worst aspects of the legislation.
The template letter is here and information about the demands is here
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Copy in key people
It will take around 10 minutes to email the Chair of NENC ICS – and the impact of your email will be magnified by copying in key people in the North East. National KONP suggest some possibilities here. We need to ensure that all people involved in NHS decision-making know that we need an NHS run for the public, not profit.
You don’t need to copy your email to all the people on this link. Pick the ones who are most important in your area and/or with whom you already have contact. Their responses will be crucial if this is to have any impact on the Board and Chair.
This is democracy in action – please ensure that your voice is heard.
The email addresses of all North East MPs, local councillors and local Healthwatch groups are located on our links page here.
and liaise with political groups and trade unions
It would help greatly if supporters liaise with any political groups or trade unions they may be a member of – it is crucial that they hear your views about these issues.
Please adapt these motions to reflect the recent changes re the Health and Care Bill now attaining royal assent and has become law:
“Oppose Integrated Care Systems in the English NHS: Model motion for trade unions” – click here
“Oppose Integrated Care Systems in the English NHS: Model motion for Labour branches CLPs” – this can easily be adapted for use by other political parties and organisations – click here
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North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (NENC ICS)
> ICS Strategic Five Year Plan: Presentation by Mark Adams to the Councils’ Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee (20th January 2020) is here
> Map of the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (NENC ICS). This is sub-divided into four Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs) , with each Partnership area being divided further into places:
From North Tyneside CCG Annual Report 2020/21, page 12 (here):
“The keystone of the wider, regional strategic work is that of the Integrated Care System (ICS). In June 2019, the North East and North Cumbria area was confirmed by NHS England as an ICS. The North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) is a regional partnership between the NHS, local authorities and others, taking collective responsibility for resources, setting strategic objectives and care standards, and improving the health of the 3.1million people it serves. Our ICS is a collaboration of NHS commissioners and providers, and our partners, and not a new organisation with statutory powers. This is set to change in the future, following the publication by the Government on 11 February 2021 of a new White Paper called “Integration and Innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all”. Work has started to understand the impacts of this White Paper and this will continue at pace during 2021/22. However, the ICS will take on formal status with statutory powers”
Leading Health Care (4th January 2021) Professor Sir Liam Donaldson appointed Chair for the Integrated Care System for the North East and North Cumbria
11th November 2021: Chief executive appointed to North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board: Sam Allen has been appointed as chief executive of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) and will start the role in the New Year 2022. More information is on the ICS website here
17th January 2022: Dissatisfaction from Sunderland City Council leader Graeme Miller, who queries “how having an ICS that runs from the Scottish border down to the south of Yorkshire is going to deliver place-based service delivery to residents in Castle ward in Sunderland….. This is a car crash coming, but the NHS will force it through. What we’ve got to try and do is get them to see sense, and hopefully listen to us and understand that the local authority structure is a very good partner for them. But they’ve got to then treat us like grown-ups. We’re not there as a tick-box exercise.” Full article: Health Service Journal (17th January 2022) Councils squirm over NHS ‘power grab’
Draft Integrated Care Board constitution. The ICS website states: “The Integrated Care Board (ICB) constitution is an important document that sets out what the ICB will do and how it will work. We are keen to hear from all our partners and anyone interested in the work of the ICB – on any aspect of our draft constitution. We will be making our submission to NHSE/I on 3 December 2021 but we will be keeping the document under review”.
The draft constitution is here
Please read this draft constitution in the context of this very helpful article from 999 Call for the NHS (2nd December 2021) Responding to draft NHS Integrated Care Board Constitution public consultations – we have circulated this article to all North East MPs, councillors, Healthwatches and, of course, the new ICS
A website providing information on ICSs across England is here
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Bad news for patients….
The Health and Care Bill has now gained Royal Assent and has become law – this provides statutory powers to 42 Integrated Care Systems throughout England. The following gives an overview of what we are faced with:
and staff….
The following video from Pubic Health Matters gives a good overview:
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“Integrated and caring”? DEFINITELY NOT.
More like “UNDERFUNDED, UNDEMOCRATIC, UNFAIR, UNSAFE”…..
April 2022 saw the Health and Care Bill gaining Royal Assent and becoming law – confirming “Integrated Care Systems” as new NHS bodies. From July 2022, the NHS will be divided into 42 pots of money with limited ‘population health budgets’ designed to find more ‘efficiency savings’ aka CUTS. The number of commissioning organisations is reduced from almost 200 to just 42 ICSs – this requires merging (and eventually abolishing) local “Clinical Commissioning Groups” (established as public bodies by the Health & Social Care Act 2012).
Here, in the North East, we sit within the “North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System”, which covers a huge geographical area from Cumbria in the west, to Berwick in the north and to Whitby in the South – scroll upwards to see the map and the organisations involved. This (and a number of other ICSs across England) is already in place as a partnership organisation, but without legal status and statutory powers, and with no public accountability; in July 2022, this huge organisation will have statutory powers.
One of the major objections we have to ICSs is that they will lead to increased privatisation. Proposals for this top-down re-organisation include tight financial control from the centre and with even less public accountability. The result will be massive new opportunities for private companies through the ‘Health Systems Support Framework’ (HSSF) – set up to facilitate easy contracting by ICSs. The Framework consists of organisations accredited by NHS England to support the development of internal structure and management of ICSs, and, potentially, also to play a long-term role in direct management of ICSs. A quarter of the 83 organisations approved by NHSE to take on contracts with ICSs, and potentially also take seats on decision-making Boards of ICSs are American-based, offering expensive data-based systems designed to benefit US insurance companies and private hospital chains.
Additionally, NHS England argues that existing law, such as the Health and Social Care Act (2012), does not provide a sufficiently firm foundation for the work of ICSs, so they propose scrapping Section 75 of the Act, which, for example, requires commissioners to put any contract worth over £615,278 out to tender. Removing Section 75, by itself, won’t reverse the marketisation of the NHS. Worse still, it would involve revoking Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition Regulations, so turning the NHS into an unregulated market. The proposals also recommend that NHS services be removed from the scope of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, allowing commissioners more discretion when procuring services. It means that ICSs would be able to choose whether to award a contract directly to a provider or go through a more formal procurement process. Such flexibility massively increases opportunities for cronyism.
It remains clear that ICSs will be instrumental in further developing privatisation and, indeed, opening up the NHS to very large-scale (ICS-size) takeovers by multinational corporations and institutions.
A second major objection we have to ICSs is the lack of democracy and accountability; there will be little scrutiny by our local Councils and it will be much more difficult to oppose any decisions to ration NHS services or deny access to care. The huge ICS organisation would be more remote from the needs and concerns of any local community. This point has been powerfully argued by the all-party Local Government Association (LGA), which represents the leaders of 335 of England’s 339 local authorities. Their response (29th December 2020) to the recent consultation states:
“We are concerned that the changes may result in a delegation of functions within a tight framework determined at the national level, where ICSs effectively bypass or replace existing accountable, place-based partnerships for health and wellbeing…. Calling this body an integrated care system is to us a misnomer because it is primarily an NHS body, integrating the local NHS, not the whole health, wellbeing and social care system.”
ICSs will be statutory NHS bodies and, as such, limited in their ability to work in partnership with others, such as with local authorities in addressing health inequalities.
“In contrast to local authorities, ICSs are not subject to democratic control. NHSE’s proposals will give them the power to create publicly unaccountable joint committees, potentially including representatives from private business, to make legally binding decisions about major resource allocation and service provision….Although ICS Boards will supplant existing public bodies, there appears to be no requirement for them to meet in public, publish their Board papers and minutes, be subject to the Freedom of Information Act, or to have any democratic participation from the communities they cover.” Keep Our NHS Public comment is here
Thirdly, KONP rejects the assumption, repeated frequently throughout ‘Integrating Care’, that social care might be managed through NHS ICS structures. KONP campaigns for a publicly provided national care and support service. At local level, we argue it is essential that social care continues to be managed by local authorities, retaining essential links to wider local authority responsibilities such as housing, education and leisure.
In its response to NHSE’s proposals, the Local Government Association (the national voice for local government) raises concerns that ICSs won’t be a partnership of equals across the broader health, wellbeing, and social care system. Instead, ICSs will be NHS-led, allowing a power grab that brings LA resources such as capital assets and funding for social care and public health under ICS (and thus NHS) control. There is also a risk that power won’t be devolved to local systems. Rather, central control will remain, with missed opportunities for real collaboration between the NHS and LAs to address the wider determinants of health, such as affordable housing and a safe environment. Local Government Association response is here
Integrated and caring? Definitely not.
“Our concerns, based on hard facts, are widely shared by councillors, senior NHS management, GPs and seasoned analysts. NHS England’s proposed changes threaten to make the NHS less locally responsive, less accountable, more dominated by US and other management consultants and contractors, and more focused on policing cash limits than meeting the needs of patients. NHS England’s priorities should be on strengthening the NHS in alliance with local government and communities, not creating new remote bodies or adopting systems meant to maximise profits of private health insurance” National KONP, January 2021
“It is really important to understand that ‘integration’ as in Integrated Care Systems means ‘disintegration’, centralisation, loss of public accountability, opening door wider to private companies, driving down quality to reduce costs, rationing, and a fundamental shift way from a universal service providing comprehensive care to all, free at the point of use” Dr John Puntis, KONP Co-Chair, 7th February 2021 here
“The NHS is not a ‘religion’, as some would sneeringly suggest, but a hard-won right to receive medical care unconditionally when we are in need. It’s a right that we are losing fast” Deborah Harrington, Public Matters, 12th February 2021 here
“People are amazed that the government is going ahead with a massive “reorganisation” of the #NHS, despite the chaos caused by the pandemic. But this is to misunderstand disaster capitalism. It’s going ahead now BECAUSE of the chaos, hitting when the NHS is least able to resist”. 12th July 2021 @GeorgeMonbiot
“These proposals are incoherent, de-regulatory, off-target, and badly timed. They will do next to nothing to remedy the serious shortcomings highlighted by the pandemic: a depleted NHS, a privatised social care system, with over-centralised, fragmented and part-privatised communicable disease control and public health systems. Joined-up legislation is needed to revitalise local authorities and to rebuild public services” Professor Allyson Pollock and Dr Peter Roderick, Newcastle University, 11th February 2021 here
“This bill will help ease the way for more private funding and provision of health services. MPs and local authorities will have little influence over the decisions” Professor Allyson Pollock and Dr Peter Roderick, Newcastle University 7th December 2021
Read the recent Opinion article in The Guardian by Prof Allyson Pollock and Dr Peter Roderick (Newcastle University) : 7th December 2021 If you believe in a public NHS, the new health and care bill should set off alarm bells
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Impact on the pay, terms and conditions of NHS staff
The Health and Care Act carries significant dangers for the NHS workforce.
A ‘flexible’ (or malleable) workforce? The ‘flexible working’ envisaged would require NHS staff to move as required, and in some instances rapidly, to different organisations and locations. This could prove highly disruptive for individuals’ working and personal lives, especially bearing in mind the large geographical area most ICSs will cover.
Nor is there any sense of concern that the lack of a stable workforce in any location could not only be hugely stressful but create a barrier to the kind of team building that is fundamental to good patient care and work satisfaction. It’s also a matter of concern that the kind of workforce flexibility expected could serve to undermine effective trade union work and so, over time, pose an indirect threat to employment terms and conditions.
Professional regulation? What the Act does include are provisions for deregulation of the professions. And despite a recommendation from NHSE (and in contrast to the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 that ostensibly put clinicians at the centre of planning services), there is no statutory requirement in the Act for a seat on each ICS Board for a medical or nursing representative. This absence seems consistent with the Act’s focus on professional deregulation.
The Act gives powers to the Secretary of State for Health to use secondary legislation to remove a healthcare profession from regulation, and abolish the regulatory body for that profession. One of the stated objectives behind this move, outlined in the policy paper Health Care Bill: professional regulation is to support the development of a flexible workforce…..
Pay, terms and conditions? Insecurity for staff is implied by the Act requiring each of the 42 ICSs to draw up its own constitution (to be approved by NHSE), setting out how an ICS Board (ICB) will carry out its functions, including how the terms and conditions of its employees will be determined (our emphasis).
Rachael Maskell (MP) picked up this point during the Bill’s second reading, apparently referring to provisions for the transfer of staff when CCGs are abolished. She expressed concern that the proposed legislation would allow an ICS to alter the terms of Agenda for Change (AfC), the national framework for ensuring equal pay for equal work for NHS staff.
The Health and Care Bill will have long-term and worrying implications for the NHS, not least for its staff. It potentially enables new structures and ways of working that will threaten pay, terms and conditions, undermine job satisfaction and patient safety, and devalue skills and experience while weakening professional autonomy and unionisation.
MANY THANKS to national KONP for the above analysis – the full article is available on the national KONP website here. To avoid confusion, we have replaced the word “Bill” with “Act”.
From Sharon Graham, UNITE General Secretary (22nd September 2021):
“The government’s new Health & Care Bill is a Trojan horse for more privatisation, cronyism, austerity and a licence for politicians to run down and sell off the NHS. Attempting to drive this through whilst we are still in the middle of a pandemic and without a care for staff and patients is a disgrace, Unite is opposed to this disgraceful bill and we will lead a serious and effective campaign to ensure this bill is stopped. We need you all to act now, wherever you work, whichever sector, community, retired, or young members we need you all to get involved and defeat these plans that will give our NHS to profiteers at the expense of staff and all patients.
If this Bill is passed, all of us will be impacted – we need you all to act now and write to your MP to demand they oppose this Bill. NHS staff and patients will be left in a vulnerable position with this Bill leaving the door wide open for Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) to cherry pick services and undermine current working practices. APMS contracts have been described by legal professionals as “the private sector’s gateway to providing primary health care to NHS patients”. They allow companies that are not owned or controlled by medical professionals to run GP surgeries.
This Bill is deeply flawed and creates pathways for health systems that are based on models developed by the private insurance industry in the USA and elsewhere, controlled for profit against patient care. We must not let this Bill pass and destroy the universal and patient care driven service we all cherish.
Our NHS needs investment not more privatisation – help us defeat this Bill and take action now. Thank you
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Impact on local decision-making and democracy in the North East
The North East and North Cumbria integrated care system (ICS) is the largest ICS in the country, covering a 3.5 million population spanning Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Tees Valley and North Cumbria – see map above. There is much concern locally about its size and the Bill says nothing about how “place” based decisions will be made for such a large population. Local participation on the ICS Board and Partnership Board appears to be minimal. In addition, the Secretary of State stands to acquire 138 new powers to intervene in local matters.
There is a real danger that local voices may not be heard at all under the current proposals – it will be much more difficult to oppose any decisions to ration NHS services or deny access to care. Currently, changes to health service provision are discussed and agreed between health, Local Authority and other stakeholders at the local “Health and Wellbeing Board”, and changes are scrutinised by local Councillors sitting on the “Health Scrutiny Committee”. All this will change, with much less input from local Councillors, our elected representatives, and thus decreased local democracy.
The point that huge ICS organisations would be more remote from the needs and concerns of any local community has been powerfully argued by the all-party Local Government Association (LGA), which represents the leaders of 335 of England’s 339 local authorities. Their response (29th December 2020) to the recent consultation states:
“We are concerned that the changes may result in a delegation of functions within a tight framework determined at the national level, where ICSs effectively bypass or replace existing accountable, place-based partnerships for health and wellbeing…. Calling this body an integrated care system is to us a misnomer because it is primarily an NHS body, integrating the local NHS, not the whole health, wellbeing and social care system.”
The Health Service Journal recently reported (27th July 2021) that 9 councils in Cheshire and Merseyside have recently set up a series of “red lines” and pre-conditions which they say must be met for an integrated care system to be successful. The fact that these Councils in the North West feel the need to set out any “red lines” is an indication that the Bill’s proposals will largely sideline local authorities and should be seen as an attempt by Councillors to ensure genuine collaboration to meet their responsibilities and determine outcomes.
In November 2021, all Conservative councillors in Oxfordshire County Council voted for a motion that was critical of the Health and Care Bill. See the motion here
……and, on 17th January 2022, dissatisfaction from Sunderland City Council leader Graeme Miller, who queried “how having an ICS that runs from the Scottish border down to the south of Yorkshire is going to deliver place-based service delivery to residents in Castle ward in Sunderland….. This is a car crash coming, but the NHS will force it through. What we’ve got to try and do is get them to see sense, and hopefully listen to us and understand that the local authority structure is a very good partner for them. But they’ve got to then treat us like grown-ups. We’re not there as a tick-box exercise.” Full article: Health Service Journal (17th January 2022) Councils squirm over NHS ‘power grab’
November 2021: Letter by Dr Pam Wortley, Sunderland and District KONP
The Lowdown (6th February 2022) NHS reorganisation proceeds before health bill has been passed
Health Service Journal (17th January 2022) Councils squirm over NHS ‘power grab’
999 Call for the NHS (2nd December 2021) Responding to draft NHS Integrated Care Board Constitution public consultations
The Lowdown (20th September 2021) Gaps in Bill question level of local control
Keep Our NHS Public (2021) Local Authority Scrutiny of NHS Provision
Health Service Journal (27th July 2021) HSJ- Council Red Lines
British Medical Association (14th July 2021) ‘Wrong Bill at the wrong time’ – BMA council calls on MPs to reject Health and Care Bill
The Lowdown (9th July 2021) New Health & Care Bill will gag local voices
Local Government Association (29th December 2020) LGA response to NHS England and NHS Improvement consultation on integrated care systems
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North East opposes Integrated Care Systems
“Integrated Care Systems” (or “Accountable Care Organisations” as they are known in America) have no place in our NHS. Throughout 2021 and the early part of 2022, there has, understandably, been strong opposition to Integrated Care Systems / Health and Care Bill in the North East and across the country.
KONPNE has consistently highlighted a number of major concerns, including:
– The risk of a democratic deficit
– Increased central control despite assurances of more local decision making
– The risk of prioritising constraint over collaboration
– A shift of focus for the NHS from the provision of universal, comprehensive care towards ‘demand’ management
– The risk that mere lip service will be given to redressing health inequalities
– The increased presence and influence of private companies facilitated by Integrated Care Systems
– The implications of repealing Section 75 of the Health and Social Care Act (2012) without dismantling the market in NHS services
– The emphasis on deregulation at the risk of cronyism
– New arrangements that will fragment and deskill the NHS workforce, with the possibility of deregulating some professions in future
CLICK HERE
for reports, updates, photos, links, views of organisations, feedback from MPs, unions, medics, academics, campaign groups…..
Sunny days, dark news, 2021/22: Spreading the word about the Governments plans to NHS staff, day patients and visitors outside the RVI, Freeman, and North Tyneside General, and also at Grey’s Monument (Newcastle), Whitley Bay, Consett, Blyth, and street theatre with a serious message in Newcastle, Blyth, Consett and Bishop Auckland.
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LINKS – newspaper items, opinion pieces, reports
Health Service Journal (24th June 2022) ‘We want you to feel liberated’ says NHSE (Liberation??? More like abdication of responsibility….)
Health Service Journal (22nd June 2022) Not all ICSs are created equal
West Country Voices (11th May 2022) Integrated Care Systems (ICS) are here. What do they mean for you?
National KONP (29th April 2022) The Health and Care Bill becomes an Act: Why it matters to us all
999 Call for the NHS (13th March 2022) What kind of NHS will we have in West Yorkshire come July 1st?
National KONP (10th March 2022) This rushed-through Health and Care Bill is a threat to a truly universal NHS
Just Treatment (March 2022) 2 minute video The Truth about NHS Privatisation
The Guardian (28th February 2022) Patients will be endangered by flaws in health bill, says NHS ombudsman
We Own It (10th February 2022) Sajid Javid’s new powers: A massive threat to the NHS as we know it
Somerset Live (9th February 2022) Private firm’s involvement in NHS body “looks and smells bad” but has no powers
Health Service Journal (17th January 2022) Councils squirm over NHS ‘power grab’
Natalie Bennett, Green Party Peer (12th January 2022) Click here for a video of comments in the Lords
Left Foot Forward (10th December 2021) The Health and Care Bill means entire Hospitals can be handed over to corporations
The Guardian (7th December 2021) If you believe in a public NHS, the new health and care bill should set off alarm bells (Allyson Pollock and Peter Roderick)
Open Democracy (7th December 2021) Why can’t the UK government explain what its Health Bill will actually achieve?
National Pensioners Convention (6th December 2021) Campaigners join with NPC to call on Lords to stop this bad Health & Care Bill
Consortium News (6th December 2021) US Empire Seizes UK’s National Health Service
999 Call for the NHS (2nd December 2021) Responding to draft NHS Integrated Care Board Constitution public consultations
Tribune (24th November 2021) There’s Still an NHS Left to Save
The Big Issue (24th November 2021) Health and care bill: What threat does it pose to the NHS?
Left Foot Forward (24th November 2021) How every MP voted on the ‘NHS Corporate Takeover Bill
The Lowdown (15th November 2021) The Health and Care Bill “a wasted opportunity” – Justin Madders MP gives an insider’s view
The Lowdown (14th November 2021) More flaws exposed in ‘integrated care’
Morning Star (4th November 2021) Majority of people in England fear Tories risk extending NHS privatisation, new poll finds
Open Democracy (28th October 2021) Vote looms on health bill that would subject English NHS to cronyism and cuts
The Lowdown (2nd October 2021) Exploring flaws in the Health and Care Bill
99% Organisation (September 28th 2021) Amending the Health and Care Bill
Richard Burgon MP (Leeds East) (25th September 2021) click here to watch a brief 3 min video / speech in Parliament
999 Call for the NHS (23rd September 2021) Health Minister’s Health and Care Bill anti-privatisation amendment is a dead cat
The Lowdown (20th September 2021) Gaps in Bill question level of local control
The Lowdown (20th September 2021) U turn: No private firms to sit on new Integrated Care Boards
The Lowdown (15th September 2021) Sources say no private firms on ICS boards
National KONP (15th September 2021) The Health & Care Bill and the new NHS Data Grab
We Own It blog (13th September 2021) Justin Madders MP: NHS Bill opens the door to Richard Branson
The Lowdown (9th September 2021) Health and care bill takes deep flaws into committee stage
We Own It (9th September 2021) The BMA’s Dr Chaand Nagpaul just explained really simply why private companies sitting on NHS boards is such a bad idea.
Keep Our NHS Public (17th August 2021) The Health and Care Bill and what it means for the pay, terms and conditions of NHS staff
Byline Times (17th August 2021) THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF THE NHS: What Does ‘Privatisation’ of Health Services Really Mean?
Health Service Journal (12th August 2021) Change the Health Bill to strengthen governance and democracy
“Just Treatment” video (20th July 2021) Tania and Amy’s Story
999 Call for the NHS (16th July 2021) US Health Insurance Provider in prime position to take over new NHS Integrated Care Systems
Zara Sultana MP (Coventry South) (14th July 2021) click here for Parliamentary speech
BMA (14th July 2021) ‘Wrong Bill at the wrong time’ – BMA council calls on MPs to reject Health and Care Bill
openDemocracy (14th July 2021) Protestors and doctors’ union call on MPs to block new English health bill
The Guardian (14th July 2021) Proposed reforms to NHS ‘institutionalise cronyism’, claims Labour
The National (14th July 2021) Health and Care Bill: NHS ‘takeover’ legislation passes second reading
BMA (14th July 2021) ‘Wrong Bill at the wrong time’ – BMA council calls on MPs to reject Health and Care Bill
Allyson Pollock website (13th July 2021) Key points and questions for the Second Reading
Also here: Key points and Questions re Bill from Prof Allyson Pollock and Dr Peter Roderick (13th July 2021) Click here
999 Call for the NHS (13th July 2021) Health and Care Bill – key points and questions ahead of 14 July second reading
openDemocracy (13th July 2021) Forget the spin – new English NHS bill is all about cutting our right to healthcare
The Lowdown (9th July 2021) New Health & Care Bill will gag local voices
Mirror (6th July 2021) Tory health bill published today despite fears it puts ‘private firms at heart of NHS’
The Guardian (6th July 2021) Health bill could see NHS contracts awarded without tender process
Guardian (4th July 2021) Johnson to announce controversial plans for greater NHS control
The Lowdown (28th June 2021) Tory splits on Health Bill
The Lowdown (28th June 2021) NHS Reorganisation – a never ending story
Letter from Margaret Greenwood MP to Matt Hancock (11th June 2021) is here
The Lowdown (28th May 2021) Virgin given seat on ICS Board
National KONP (7th May 2021) Statement on the Health and Care Bill 2021 is here
Leading Health Care (4th January 2021) Professor Sir Liam Donaldson appointed Chair for the Integrated Care System for the North East and North Cumbria
We Own It (11th May 2021) 16 organisations call for NHS Bill to be halted
Socialist Health Association (10th May 2021) Centene: The real agenda
We Own It (7th April 2021) More privatisation, less accountability – this government’s plans for the NHS
Bright Green (27th March 2021) Matt Hancock’s proposals for our NHS are bad news
Private Eye (March 2021) A Practice Run
The Lowdown (21st March 2021) Bleak prospects for troubled ICSs
Laura Murrell, Secretary, KONP Sunderland and District re “Consultation” Click here (obviously some “consultation” responses are more equal than others…..)
Twitter (16th March 2021) Hancock talking about ‘the false dichotomy’ between public and private… and equating GPs with companies like Virgin Click here
The Lowdown (6th March 2021) Can campaigners unite over coming health Bill?
National KONP (Early 2021) An overview of the Governments White Paper proposals and why we need to campaign against these proposals is here
Labour Outlook (26th February 2021) Hancock’s NHS plans would see the ramping up of privatisation on a scale we’ve never seen before
The Lowdown (24th February 2021) The great consultancy boom – from Covid to ICSs
National KONP (18th February 2021) 2021 NHS White Paper: government seizes on the pandemic as an opportunity
The Canary (16th February 2021) The reasons why Matt Hancocks proposed NHS reforms should worry us all
Tribune (12th February 2021) The Next NHS Sell-Off
British Medical Journal (11th February 2021) A new bill to reform the NHS in England: the wrong proposals at the wrong time (Prof Allyson Pollock and Dr Peter Roderick)
Stewart Player, National KONP (2021) Integrated care or healthcare imperialism?
Guardian (11th February 2021) Matt Hancock to publish plans to give ministers more power over NHS
Mirror (11th February 2021) Tories unveil plans today to unpick their own disastrous NHS reforms
Dr John Lister: “We have another massive top-down reorganisation which retains the fragmentation and chaos of outsourcing…leaves huge contracts to be allocated without any competition”
John Lister (11th February 2021) PRIVATISATION IS NOT BEING REVERSED, BBC News – Click here.
Morning Star (11th February 2021) All spin and no substance in Tories’ health and social-care plan, Unions and NHS campaigners warn
John Kennedy (early 2021) for themes, proposals and questions in his paper, click here.
rs21 (10th February 2021) Are the Tories really reversing NHS privatisation?
Institute for Government (8th February 2021) Leaked NHS reforms would take us back to the wrong sort of future
The Lowdown (9th February 2021) White Paper: power grab, sea change or cementing in the status quo?
National KONP (6th February 2021) Government used crisis to increase privatisation – NHS white paper will endorse
Duncan Poundcake (5th February 2021) #NHS Not all Privatisations are equal, some are worse and some are Evil…
Health Service Journal (27th January 2021) CCG mergers must still go ahead in April, says NHS England
National KONP (January 2021) Integrated Care Systems Summary Briefing
The Lowdown (8th January 2021) Councils concern about NHS shakeup
National KONP Integrated Care Systems: The threat to the NHS, social care and public health
Click here for many links to articles about ICSs at “The Lowdown.”
999 Call for the NHS (January 2021) Integrated Care – the US Danger
999 call for the NHS (7th January 2021) We say NO! to proposed NHS legislation that would restrict access to care and profit global companies
Chronicle (17th December 2020) City leaders back groundbreaking new partnership to transform health and social care services
CK 999 Call for the NHS (14th December 2020) US companies poised to run NHS following proposed legislation
The Lowdown (6th December 2020) NHS England pushes for “integration” … but not as we know it
KONP (10th December 2020) Dangerous NHS restructuring to go ahead despite Covid
The Guardian: Years of underfunding leave NHS ‘woefully short’ for Covid second wave (5th November 2020)
CCG mergers > ICSs: The Lowdown (September 28th 2020)
https://lowdownnhs.info/integrated-care/crunch-time-for-ccg-merger-bids
Who’s cashing in on ICS’s? The Lowdown (October 12th 2020)
https://lowdownnhs.info/integrated-care/whos-cashing-in-on-icss/
CK999 Call for the NHS (2nd February 2019) What changes will patients notice when the NHS is run by Integrated Care Systems and Providers?
Further detailed analysis of the ICS proposals is given in the three part National KONP document (January 2021) linked below:
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Part 1: Corporate Agenda for Integrated Care on the themes running through NHSE’s ‘Integrating Care’ including the use of digital and data to drive system working, reform of the NHS payment system, and the influence of multi-national corporates through the NHSE’s Health Systems Support Framework (HSSF);
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Part 2: An alternative vision: achieving democratic accountability, addressing the lack of democratic accountability in ICSs;
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Part 3: Social care: relationship to ICSs, considering threats to social care from ICSs.
All documents are linked here
KONPNE Briefing Papers (October 2019)
These two Briefing Papers are for use by all members of the public – copies were sent to all Councillors in the NE in October 2019 …. they were warned….
Accountable Care Organisations and Integrated Care Systems 2019 KONPNE briefing – ACO and ICS
We need to be worried about the NHS Long Term Plan, Integrated Care Systems and Primary Care Networks 2019 KONPNE briefing – We Need To Be Worried
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The Health and Care Act 2022
konpnortheast.com 