Support the “Keep Our NHS Public” Lobby of County Councillors!

Please bring your support, banners, placards, voices etc. to lobby this crucial meeting!

Oxfordshire’s Keep Our NHS Public group has sent the letter below to the members of the county’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which is due to discuss the NHS Oxon Transformation Programme Phase I at its meeting on Monday 7 August. 

The letter is signed by Gus Fagan, acting chair, Oxon Keep Our NHS Public, who said: ‘The HOSC has a statutory duty to oversee changes to health services. The Clinical Commissioning Group, by giving them just one day to read crucial documents, makes it impossible to carry out that function by Monday. This shows little respect for our elected councilors or the public.”

 Read the letter below, and find out more here:

http://keepournhspublicoxfordshire.org.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/konpoxon/

Contact: Gus Fagan, vice chair of Oxfordshire Keep Our NHS Public, 01865 433713  or Joan Stewart 07903 434 662

Letter:

“We wish to raise a number of issues of immediate concern to patients and the public in Oxfordshire.

“OCCG has delayed publishing the results of the Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) until Thursday 3 August. Other documents, including the all-important business case, with recommendations for the Board’s approval, will also not be published until then. This allows HOSC one working day in which to subject all documents to close scrutiny, understand the implications of OCCG’s proposals, and evaluate their potential impact on health and social care services in the county, in preparation for its 7 August meeting. 

“Mott MacDonald, the consultancy that carried out the IIA, claims that their assessment process ‘encourages informed public debate’.  Given OCCG’s decision to allow the public only four days to analyse the published documents, decisions on which have the potential to severely affect the quality, availability and location of services, four working days is totally inadequate. With even fewer days available if they wish to submit written questions to the Board meeting. It is all too apparent that OCCG has failed to comply with one of the four tests that NHSE requires before any major reconfiguration is approved: strong engagement of the public. 

“Both the OTP consultation process and the OTP proposals have been heavily criticized by the county council, local MPs, GPs, patients, and members of the public. This latest threat to local democracy must be challenged by those who represent us. Therefore, we would urge HOSC to:

 a)    call on the Board of Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group at its meeting on 10th August to make a decision NOT to go ahead with Phase 1 of the Oxfordshire Transformation Programme (OTP), given the inadequate time allowed for responding to OCCG’s final proposals;

b)    to refer Phase 1 of the OTP to the Secretary of State for Health on the grounds that given the current funding crisis in health and social care and the severe and enduring workforce shortages, it is undeliverable."