Brent demonstrators outside Burnley GP Practice condemn US takeover - it's OUR NHS!

Photo: Amanda Rose

 

Photo: Martin Francis

 

Photo: Amanda Rose

Photo: Martin Francis

 

There was a good turnout today outside the Burnley GP Practice in the Willesden Centre.  The practice has recently been taken over by US private health conglomerate Centene along with two others in Brent and many in the rest of London.

The protesters were cross party and no party and included Cllr Janice Long an oustanding champion of the NHS.  The protest was part of national action by campaign group WeOwnIt  and organised as a local alternative for those who could not make it to Centene's national HQ in Central London. 

 

PETITIONING IN GLADSTONE PARK

 

 NHS Banner Photo: Anna Delazol

A demonstration and petitioning was also held in Gladstone Park for those unable to attend the event in Willesden.  One of the organisers said:

In one hour we met around 60 people. Some wondered why so little or nothing is in the news about the takeovers of GP practices by Operose and Centene. Others promised to sign the petition on ‘We Own It’ website. Some signed up to offer help in campaigning in the future. People were worried about the Integrating Care Systems proposals by the Tory Government to restructure the NHS in England. We should all be worried.

The protestors were joined by Cllr Shafique Choudhary.

                                                                                Cllr Choudhary Photo: Anna Delazol

Brent Trades Council organised a group to join the Central London demonstration outside Centene HQ.

 

Photo: Pete Firmin

Ken Livingstone added his name to the petition againstCentene takeovers of GP practices:

 

Demonstrate tomorrow against takeover of our GP practices by private US health company - Willesden Centre 2-3pm

 

Local Demonstration - Willesden Centre, Robson Avenue tomorrow 2-3pm

 

49 GP practices in England have been taken over by a private health company based in the United States. The decision was made, very quickly and quietly, at a Brent Clinical Commissioning Group  meeting in December. 

 

The GPs who had been on the board have resigned and been replaced by appintees from the insurance company. Three of the GP practices are in Brent and one of them is in Willesden Green - The Burnley practice based at Willesden Centre for Health & Care in Robson Avenue. 

 

There are London wide demonstration against the takeover planned for Thursday 22nd April. The local demonstration Outside Willesden Centre for Health & Care, Robson Avenue, NW10 3RY - where the Burnley GP practice is based. Time 2-3pm Stay for 5 minutes, stay for an hour. Wear a mask, keep socially distanced. 

 

If it gets too crowded we may have to do a walking march / demo along Robson Avenue! 

 

Bring a home made banner with you. Bring a friend. (You can go to Roundwood Park after the demo!) In Central London - there is a demonstration outside Centene headquarters, the details are: Address: Operose Health HQ, 77 New Cavendish St, W1 6XB Time 3-4pm 

 

 

 

The Background 

 

Green Left the eco-socialist group in the Green Party has issued the following statement in sypport of tomorrow's demonstrations:

 

Green Left urges Green Party members and supporters to join the campaign against the takeover of General Practice surgeries by Operose Health, owned by Centene, a US health company.  The campaign includes a demonstration outside Operose Health HQ in Central London on Demonstration outside Centene headquarters on Thursday 22^nd April 2021 3-4pm (Operose Health, 77 New Cavendish Street, W1 6XB) and in other areas of London as well as Nottingham and Leeds. Details here: https://keepournhspublic.com/event/stop-corporate-take-over-gp-surgeries/

 

Green Left notes that 70 GP practices in the UK, 49 of them in London, have been taken over by the Centene Corporation, a major US health insurer, through its UK subsidiary, Operose. These were approved by NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) without consulting the public or local councils and with minimal oversight of the effect on NHS staff and quality of service. 

 

We demand that CCGs prohibit any further takeovers by Centene or other for-profit companies; and that all such existing for-profit contracts be terminated as soon as legally possible. 

We believe that Centene has made its large investment in UK NHS GP practices, through Its UK subsidiary Operose, in the expectation that Operose will in future pay dividends to the parent company. Operose has contracts to digitalise the NHS, transferring various patient-physician interactions to online only, with serious implications for future quality of care. It is clear from the business model that dividends will involve the closure of non-profitable parts of its business. This could include closure of GP practices that remain unprofitable despite "rationalisation" through cuts in staff, wages and services to patients. Local GP practices in deprived communities, or with a large number of older patients, may be particularly vulnerable to closure and transfer of patients to large area GP hubs. This will create difficulty for patients with impaired mobility to reach a doctor. 

 

We cannot trust   the 'due diligence' of CCGs who permitted the sale of independent-provider contracts to a new corporate owner, while apparently ignoring that Centene is accused by the Attorney General of defrauding Ohio of millions of dollars of Medicaid payments.

 

Unless these profit-driven takeovers are stopped, our NHS GP Services will be commercialised and taxpayers will pay more for a reduced service, the profits ending up in the US.

 

More information is available here: https://weownit.org.uk/blog/3-reasons-centene-bad-your-local-gp-practice

 

 

The danger to our NHS posed by Integrated Care Systems

 Guest post by Liz Wood of North Devon Green Party. This was originally a letter to her local newspaper. I asked for permission to post as a guest article as it sums up the issues so well.

Anyone would think the Government doesn’t want us to know its plans for the NHS.  The consultation period on its current white paper was half the normal time and ran from 26 November till 8 January, when we were focussed on family and Christmas and New Year festivities, and also somewhat preoccupied with Covid.  Hardly anyone knew a consultation was taking place.  No effort seems to have been made to inform the public.  So we are left to conclude that the wide support claimed by the white paper must be from private companies (many of them American) already doing rather well from the NHS and from others now also expecting to pocket taxpayers’ hard-earned money.

 

The NHS in England is rapidly being reorganised into 42 regional Integrated Care Systems.  ICSs are, in fact, American style insurance-based ACSs, with the name changed slightly in an attempt to prevent us recognising them for what they are.  They are based on a “population health” model from the United States, which aims to spend less on care.

 

Some 83 corporations and businesses, including 22 from the US, are getting heavily involved in developing ICSs and possibly will sit on their boards, putting them in a prime position to guide decisions in their own favour.  It is significant that the head of NHS England, Sir Simon Stevens, previously worked for the American company, United Health, and that Boris Johnson’s medical adviser, Samantha Jones was CEO of Operose, a subsidiary of Centene.

 

Unaccountable ICS board plans will be binding. They could well mean more private contracts awarded without safeguards, more down-skilling and outsourcing of NHS jobs, deregulation of professional standards, reduced services (partially replaced by ‘digital’ options and volunteers), data-sharing to suit the system, and significant spending cuts.

 

Local authorities will lose the power to refer decisions on Reconfiguration (e.g. service closures) to the Secretary of State.

 

Unfortunately the Government’s successful and welcome vaccination programme seems to have made us forget the earlier incompetence and failures.  Tens of thousands of lives could have been saved by a prompt and adequate response to the first inklings of the threat of Covid.  Even before the onset of the pandemic the NHS was already stretched to breaking point by cuts and too frequent reorganisations.  Huge sums had been given to overpaid managers and consultancy firms to work out how many hospital beds they could close, which services they could cut and how many hospitals they could shut, whilst frontline workers were so overworked and underpaid that they were leaving the service in droves. 

 

Successive Conservative Governments allowed stocks of PPE to run down and decided not to replenish them, despite being warned in 2016 of the imminence of a pandemic.  When Covid did arrive, the Government refused offers from several firms to manufacture PPE, and instead handed millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to large corporations lacking the necessary expertise and experience.  

 

Professor Anthony Costello said that the Government’s failure to set up adequate testing and tracing meant that Covid could never be properly suppressed in the UK.  Again, the Government had handed out billions to private companies who were inexperienced and incompetent, instead of giving the tasks to local authorities, who did have experience in contact tracing and hospital labs, who had experience in testing.

 

The heroic efforts of our health professionals have been consistently undermined since 1979 by successive Conservative governments bent on destroying the NHS, in order to replace it with an American-style, insurance-based system that in the US has led to bankruptcy, both for individuals struggling to pay astronomical health bills and for companies saddled with huge insurance costs for their workforce: a system that can even leave people lacking adequate insurance to die on the streets.

 

We must insist that the white paper be paused and a proper consultation conducted.  We need to read the proposals in the current white paper on ICSs very carefully and oppose them with all our might, or else we shall lose our precious health service altogether.  We must demand that Eleanor Smith’s National Health Reinstatement Bill be enacted.  For all our sakes we need to save what is left of the NHS and get back what we have lost.

 

Harlesden's character 'vulnerable to sweeping changes' from nearby major developments in the pipeline

 From the Historic England website LINK

 

A key stretch of buildings is set to be restored at an important gateway to the area. This will help to make the town centre more attractive and welcoming, and help Harlesden retain its character and sense of place in the face of major new developments nearby.

 

Harlesden is a bustling, vibrant and multi-cultural hub within Brent, London Borough of Culture 2020. But its High Street has declined over a number of decades. Some of the High Street's Victorian and Edwardian buildings have seen better days. 

 

Harlesden is vulnerable to sweeping changes with nearby major developments in the pipeline which could undermine the social and economic character of the town centre. 

 

The High Street Heritage Action Zone outlined on a street plan of Harlesden © Crown Copyright and database right 2020. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100024900

 

How the Harlesden High Street Heritage Action Zone will help

 

The High Street Heritage Action Zone aims to create an attractive gateway to Harlesden town centre and support the local economy, traders and entrepreneurs, as well as offering local people high quality community spaces to come together and maintain their sense of local identity. There is an opportunity to make improvements to some of the wonderful historic buildings here so that residents, business owners and visitors benefit. 

 

An exciting project is planned, led by the Refugee Support Network, to transform a disused former bank into a focus for support for young people, workspace for small businesses, and a meeting place for community groups. The bank is at a focal point in the centre of the High Street and will bring alive this prominent building. 

 

Elsewhere, shop fronts will be repaired and restored, with opportunities for apprentices, and for shopkeepers to learn basic maintenance skills for their buildings to help maintain the sense of pride in the local area.

 

London Mayoral Debate Wednesday April 21st 6pm

Book here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3760955803309245197

Preston Community Library re-opening Wednesdays and Saturdays from April 21st

 

£1000 available for Kensal to Kilburn community project ideas

 FROM TRANSITION TOWN KENSAL TO KILBURN

Transition Town Kensal to Kilburn (TTKK) is inviting local residents to take part in a competition this spring. 

 

 

Our volunteer organisation has created three grants - one £500 grant and two £250 grants.

 

 

To enter the competition, participants need to fulfill the following criteria :

 

-       live in the Kensal to Kilburn area,

-       submit an idea for a community project that would benefit residents living in the area,

-       be ready to turn the project into action this year.

 

 

The projects submitted need to bring people together and protect the environment. The grants will finance the material costs of the successful bids.

 

 

TTTKK, a local volunteer group created in 2009 and advocating a transition to an environmentally friendly way of life, is particularly keen to get some young people enter the competition. One of the £250 grants will be allocated to a resident under 25 years old. 

 

 

However, the group is generally looking for new people of all ages and origins to create a more resilient local community in the face of climate change. 

 

 

Inject new energy into the group by submitting project ideas

Over the last decade, TTKK volunteers have made a positive impact in the Kensal to Kilburn area by setting up community gardens, harvesting fruit every summer, planting trees and organising regular electric and electronic repair events etc.

 

 

Some TTKK members have also created their own separate organisations to take their project further. For example, Brent Pure Energy is a community benefit society that has been funding solar panels for local schools since 2016. 

 

 

Fruit tree harvesting in Kilburn last summer

 

 

 

“As we are coming out of lockdown, we would like to inject some new energy into our group of dedicated volunteers”, says Janey McAllester, one of the fruit picking group leaders. “Making the most of our local community and environment has brought us a lot of satisfaction and joy. We want to create more opportunities for fellow residents to enjoy the benefits of a life deeply rooted in our local area”, adds Amandine Alexandre, another TTKK volunteer. 

 

 

People attend our online Zoom meeting on Thursday April 22nd at 7pm (link here) and by submitting their idea by email before Monday June 7th  mail@ttkensaltokilburn.ning.com

 

 

Please apply with up to 100 words about your idea, yourself, the road you live in, how it would work, what help you would need or like and how long you think it will take for you to complete the project.

 

 

Projects that meet the criteria will be shortlisted by local people voting at a meeting on June 23rd in the evening and then Transition Town Kensal to Kilburn will select the three best projects. 

 

 

 

Restart party at The Library in Willesden in 2015

 

 

TTKK can help people find others interested in making their idea happen and help with advice. “We are happy to provide feedback and help develop and present the project”, underlines Michael Stuart, a founding member of TTKK. 

 

Expenses are reimbursed against receipts or we can pay for items directly so prize winners are not out of pocket. If your project costs less than the full amount the money will be reallocated to extra projects.  

 

Unfortunately, you can't apply if you are:

 

-       an organisation - individuals or small groups of individuals only please,

-       if your idea should be covered by statutory funding (as in health care and social care funded by the government and local authorities),

-       If you are promoting religion.

 

TTKK can be contacted via Michael Stuart. You can email him at: michael.stuart6@googlemail.com

 

You can visit our website here.

 

 

A chance to hear from your GLA candidates at Mencap Hustings tonight 6pm

 

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87086823773