Join national KONP
Hackney is one of KONP's 80 local campaign groups of volunteer campaigners. National KONP has a small office (in Hackney) with part time staff who support our national work and local groups. National KONP relies on subscriptions from thousands of individuals to keep the office and campaign running. It costs only £7.50 low/unwaged or £20 waged for one year to join KONP (extra one-off or regular donations are of course very welcome!) You will receive regular newsletters and can attend national KONP meetings. Please join to support our campaign!  keepournhspublic.com/support-page/#join

The National KONP website carries up to date news and analysis of what's happening to the NHS and how we are campaigning - click here to visit the national website for information.
Hackney KONP
We are not meeting regularly during the corona lockdown - but are organising virtual meetings. 
Next meeting by Zoom, Tuesday 26th October 2021 6:30pm.
​For invite contact: marion.macalpine@blueyonder.co.uk

​Usual meetings 
6: 30pm fourth Tuesday of each month 
Well St Surgery, 28 Shore Rd, E9 7TA. ​
New campaigners welcome!

Hackney Patients not Passport (PNP) event
Sat 23rd October 2021
12:00 start
Stall with music, poetry, important information 
outside the Farmers’ Market,
St. Paul’s Church. N16 7UY
For detailed information about the Health and Care Bill, visit the KONP national website
Sign KONP's petition opposing the Health and Care Bill
NOTE the Health and Care Bill 2021 deals with the reorganisation of the NHS into 42 separate Integrated Care Systems covering all England. There has been almost no coverage of this Bill in national media. 
Not to be confused with a completely separate Bill - the Health and Care Levy Bill 2021-22. This Bill which made headline news and sparked much debate in the national media -
​deals with funding, proposing an increase in NI contributions.
The Health and Care Bill 2021
The 2021 Health and Care Bill does nothing to solve the crises in funding, staffing shortages, mental health, and social care services, crumbling estate and other major problems facing the NHS. Instead, it enables increased involvement of the private sector. The Bill:
  • allows private companies (including many multi-national corporations accredited by NHS England) to sit on local ‘Integrated Care System’ (ICS) boards and their committees
  • includes ‘discharge to assess’, a controversial policy placing increased demand on community services which are currently woefully inadequate.
  • replaces the unacceptable market in healthcare with an, even worse, unregulated market 
  • grants massive powers to the Government to override local decision-makers
  • puts a strict cap on funding. Already, the UK spends far less on healthcare than other comparable countries like France or Germany.
  • greatly limits local democratic input and accountability for NHS provision
  • promotes a ‘digital first’ approach to patient care, representing a major barrier for many because of lack of digital access or literacy, language barriers, learning disability etc. 
  • confirm NHS Digital’s power to share patients’ data with third parties, including a wide range of private companies, raising concerns for patients’ privacy.
  • represents a threat to professional staffing and patient care, allowing greater use of less skilled staff and replacing professional expertise with digital applications.
  • workforce 'flexibilities' will mean staff could be required to work at any other location within the ICS area.
The Bill was rushed through its second reading in parliament in July 2021. The Labour Party, Greens and SNP voted against, but it was passed with a big majority. The bill is now in its committee stage, where opposition MPs have tabled amendments.   
THURSDAY 22 APRIL 2021

Join Keep Our NHS Public local groups to protest the take over of many NHS GP surgeries by Operose Health, owned by Centene, a US health company. 
NATIONAL event: Demonstration outside Centene headquarters
Where: Operose Health HQ, 77 New Cavendish St, W1 6XB  3-4pm
When: 3-4pm Thursday 22 April 2021
HACKNEY local event
Protest against Operose take-over of Trowbridge Surgery, Hackney  
​When: 3-4pm Thursday 22 April 2021
Where: Trowbridge Surgery, 18 Merriam Avenue, London, E9 5NE
US takeover of Hackney GP practice Feb 2021 
Trowbridge GP Surgery in Hackney Wick is one of 39 surgeries that have been taken over by Operose, a subsidiary of the US healthcare giant Centene. Over 500,000 patients are now in practices owned by Centene. Services will suffer as part of the NHS funding to pay for care of these patients will now be syphoned off into private profit.  See also Hackney Citizen.
KONP NHS Staff Voices
As well as local campaign groups (like Hackney KONP), KONP has a national group - NHS Staff Voices - specifically for NHS staff. See their Facebook page here. 
Hackney KONP 
This is the website for Hackney Keep Our NHS Public (KONP Hackney). We are one of around 80 local NHS campaign groups across England that are affiliated to national KONP. Hackney KONP campaigns on national and local issues and is also part of North East London Save Our NHS (NELSON), an umbrella group bringing together local NHS campaigns from Hackney & City, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge, the area covered by East London Health and Care Partnership (ELHCP) (our local STP). Note: we only report very limited and local information on this Hackney website. For up to date and national coverage, see KONP's national website. 
KONP national campaign
Each local affiliated group (like Hackney KONP) can send a delegate to KONP's national Steering Group (SG), which is the policy-making body for KONP. The SG meets bi-monthly, with lively and informative on-line discussions between meetings. KONP also has an executive committee, elected from the SG, that meets monthly to take forward SG policy decisions and manage the organisation. KONP has a small office based in Hackney with two part-time staff based there to support local and national campaigning. KONP's website includes masses of information about national campaigns and important current issues.  KONPs national website is linked here. 
Integrated Care Systems - set to be given a legal footing through the Health and Care Bill 
The 2020 Government White Paper proposed legislation that will provide a legal basis for the ongoing reorganisation of the NHS in England into 42 new Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). Despite Government spin, ICSs are not 'integrated' - they will include private providers of clinical services and most will include corporates at the heart of their management. Local authorities will be bound into NHS priorities - and this will have a major impact on social care. KONP was founded to oppose the market in healthcare. ICSs will encourage and accelerate privatisation of any part of the NHS where profits can be made. The proposals in the White Paper will allow new contracts to be handed out without even following procurement rules - echoing Government practice over the disastrous crony Covid contract awards for PPE and Test and Trace. City and Hackney will be part of the new North East London Integrated Care System - along with Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Havering and Barking and Dagenham. 
​KONP has developed a range of campaign material opposing the roll-out of ICSs. ICS campaign materials can be seen here.
coronavirus
See the Covid People's Inquiry: 8 sessions Feb - June 2021: Chaired by Michael Mansfield QC with expert panel and witnesses. A devastating critique of Government action in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic. Free to watch. Register here.

KONP calls on the Government to take the following steps:
NHS and social care staff  Recognise that many NHS and social care staff, including many staff in outsourced and privatised care, cleaning, catering, portering etc services, have no entitlement to Statutory or other sick pay. Ensure these staff receive full financial compensation for time off when they are sick or ‘self-isolating’ to avoid the risk that these staff may feel they have no alternative but to report for work.
NHS migrant workforce: Recognise that the acute level of staff shortages throughout the NHS requires all restrictions, both residential and financial, on non-resident health and care workers to be immediately lifted in order to urgently fill the almost 100,000 NHS vacancies (including some 44 000 nurses) in the NHS, and many more in social care. This includes the entire ‘points based’ system for migrant workers from EU and non-EU countries, namely the minimum pay/salary threshold, the so-called ‘reduced’ visa of £464 for medical professionals and the annual £400 compulsory health insurance charge for each family member using the NHS.
NHS charges for migrants: Coronavirus makes it essential that everyone who may have been exposed has access to the NHS if medically appropriate. Charges on patients unable to prove their entitlement to free NHS care are known to have a major deterrent effect. These patients may avoid contact with the healthcare system for fear of debt or adverse impact on their immigration status even if their treatment is in fact free. The government must suspend the charging regime immediately, pending a full independent review of its impact on public health, human rights, healthworkers professional ethics and the functioning of the NHS.
​
Government's Sept 2019 hospital building programme is smoke and mirrors
The headlines announcing 40 new hospitals are a mix of projects already in line; capital funding that had been frozen and unfunded future promises. Read KONP analysis here.
No to any US Trade Treaty that includes the NHS
Trump managed to make unwelcome headlines for the Government by revealing that the NHS would be a target for a US-UK trade deal.  KONP has responded to this with a petition demanding the Government excludes the NHS from any trade treaty. 

So long as NHS services are traded on the market no one can exclude any providers from bidding or protect the NHS from takeover by US healthcare and insurance multinationals. The proposed new NHS Integrated Care Provider (ICPs) organisations, which are set tobe procured through £multi-billion long-term Integrated Care Provider Contracts are designed to be particularly attractive to these healthcare giant predators.  Please add your name to the KONP/Change petition demanding the Government excludes the NHS from Trade Treaties.
Restricting access to treatment- consultation
East London Health and Care Partnership is proposing to align commissioning policies across North East London. In some cases, this is not in line with NICE or Royal College recommendations and will mean restricting access to treatment. For instance proposals for cataract operations propose a visual acuity restriction - something NICE and the RCO oppose.
​Proposals remove GPs own clinical judgement and discretion - something specifically required by NICE.
They also make no allowance for disabled, vulnerable and elderly patients who may not be able to self-care.
Patients Not Passports campaign  
Hackney KONP supports the national campaign against the Government's hostile environment and against charges for migrants. We are horrified that NHS staff may be expected to contact the Home Office to confirm whether people are eligible for NHS care, that many people living in the UK are being denied access to free healthcare, and others are not seeking treatment they are entitled to because of concerns about Home Office action. The hostile environment policy has led to immense hardship and injustice across many sectors, including the NHS, which would collapse without its migrant doctors, nurses and other staff! 
Click here to link to ELHCP's page on Estates. Scroll to the bottom of the page to download the Octoebr 2018 Estate Strategy.
Alert over potential changes for Hackney's NHS  
In late October 2018, East London Health & Care Partnership (ELHCP) quietly released a Strategic Estates Plan covering all NE London. This could involve huge changes in Hackney's NHS.   including:
  • proposals to develop Homerton as a planned surgical centre could affect its future as a comprehensive District General Hospital (DGH)
  • move all Mental Health beds from Homerton Hospital out of Hackney to Mile End
  • provide NHS 'care of older people' services in a remote outer-London hospital
  • sell off part of the land at St Leonards for housing - rather than use it all for much needed Hackney services - eg NHS step-down and rehabilitation services that could free up acute beds; long-term care of older people, Mental Health services
Hackney Council and City & Hackney CCG are keen to retain local services - but there are massive financial pressures and decisions about services will be taken at Transformation Boards, unaccountable bodies covering all North East London, not locally in Hackney. Plans were submitted to NHSE without any local consultation  - despite clear legal obligations for wide consultation. 
Hackney KONP demands full consultation engagement with the local community and involvement in any re-design of NHS services for Hackney people. 
​
Does the UK spend too much on healthcare?
The government tells us it's becoming too expensive to fund our healthcare. But here is an OECD comparison (using latest figures from November 2017) of how UK spending on health (per head of population, in US$)  compares with some other countries.

How Come We Didn't Know?  
Hackney KONP's NHS privatisation exhibition shown in House of Commons, 13th March 2019, with speakers Eleanor Smith MP (picture), Peter Roderick, co-author of the NHS Bill, and DrTony O'Sullivan, Co-Chair of KONP. (Sadly, the event clashed with Brexit votes, and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP wasn't able to speak). (more: ​see 'Artists' tab).
Whistleblowing
NHS managers have spent more than £700,000 in legal costs trying to silence an NHS whistleblower who exposed dangerous under-staffing - they have argued that junior doctors do not have whistleblowing protection!  Dr Chris Day continues to battle on behalf of all junior doctors and is seeking funding for yet another round of legal battles. Info here.
PFI:   How Come We're still Paying for This?  
Launch of Marion Macalpine & Helen Mercer's photographic exhibition & PFI booklet
at Portcullis House, Parliament. 20th March 2018
John McDonnell, Labour Shadow Chancellor Helen Mercer from People vs PFI
Government proposals for the NHS: Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) which are set to 'evolve into' Integrated Care Organisations (ICOs). 
Government proposals will replace the publicly provided NHS with Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and Integrated Care Organisations (ICOs). 'Integrated' is simply the new (cosier-sounding) name for 'Accountable' Care Organisations (ACOs). These are US-style commercial, non-NHS bodies, which are set to run health and social services without proper public consultation and without Parliamentary scrutiny. ICOs can be given full responsibility for running NHS and social care services, and will be governed solely by company and contract law, not by parliament. No one doubts the need for improved co-ordination of health and social care. But we want to see it delivered through directly provided state services - not by for profit companies. 
Click here to hear what Dr Graham Winyard, former Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director, NHS England has to say about ACOs.  (scroll down to below Chris Ham's presentation).
 In Spring of 2018, ACOs will be the subject of a legal challenge through judicial review - with Allyson Pollock, Sue Richards and Graham Winyard amongst the claimants.
The Tories want to destroy our NHS. NHS England is driving the NHS towards a privatised and insurance-based system, leaving a defunded rump NHS for those who can't pay.
Since 2015, the NHS has been completely reorganised, and this has occurred completely under the radar, with no new legislation (and, arguably, illegally), no parliamentary scrutiny and no consultation with staff or local communities.

​The 44 new Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) across England are required to cut NHS spending by £22 billion by 2020 compared with 2015 spending levels.  
The NE London STP is called the East London Health and Care Partnership (ELHCP). It covers Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, City of London, Waltham Forest, Barking, Havering and Redbridge. The population of this area is set to grow by 18% - numbers equivalent to the City of Leicester, yet health bosses are tasked with making cuts of £850 million from a local health service which is on it's knees. The Royal London Hospital, built through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), has saddled NE London NHS with massive debts, while social care has suffered up to 25% cuts since 2010. The A&E at King George's Hospital Romford, and 200 acute beds are set to close. This will have a major impact on the local community and put further pressure on other NE London services.

ELHCP proposals for Hackney could mean: Homerton Hospital downgraded from a District General Hospital (DGH) that currently offers a full range of  treatment to an Elective (ie planned) Care Centre specialising in just one type of medicine - with Hackney residents having to travel to other parts of the ELHCP area for other routine treatments. Homerton's A&E could also be downgraded. Under current proposals, Hackney's mental health beds would be moved out of Homerton and out of Hackney to Mile End, meaning patients lose vital community contacts. ELHCP proposals could also see important NHS property and sites sold off to plug revenue gaps and used for housing rather than the NHS and social care services we need. Hackney KONP is calling for full community engagement and consultation over these plans.

Since 2017, NHS England requires STPs to move towards procuring huge 10-15yr £multi-billion commercial contracts for Integrated Care Providers (ICPs). These are single organisations combining all the health (and, often, social care) services across a  Whilst we all want to see better integration of services, the Health & Social Care Act (2012) remains in place, requiring services to be put out to tender. The size and configuration of ACOs will be particularly attractive to giant healthcare corporates that run similar health organisations in the USA, so we risk wholesale takeover of the NHS by multinational corporates.

Meanwhile, following publication of the Naylor Report, NHS England has launched Project Phoenix, a joint venture with major corporations that involves the greatest firesale ever of hundreds of valuable NHS sites, and up to £5bn of private capital investment for new NHS developments - the 2017 version of the scandal that is PFI. 

Many hospital trusts are transferring staff to wholly managed but private Subsidiary Companies ('SubCos') where wages, pension rights and other terms and conditions of employment can be cut.

Other initiatives including the private GP At Hand are offering a cut-down app-based GP service for patients and creating huge problems from traditional GPs by cherry-picking younger, fitter, and therefore less costly patients leaving traditional GPs managing patient with higher needs.

BUT WE AIM TO STOP THIS
  • Campaigners across England and locally in NE London aim to stop this. Join our campaign groups
  • Lobby your local councillors and MP. Demand that they oppose all cuts in services 
  • Demand an end to the market in NHS services; reverse privatisation
  • No to the closure of King Georges A&E and closure of further beds at the hospital​

The Labour Party Conference of September 2017 unanimously passed a motion pledging to campaign to reverse NHS cuts and privatisation and bring the NHS back into public ownership. We intend to hold them to that, including through demands on councils to oppose local cuts and plans for ACOs or ACSs. Labour Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell also pledged to abolish PFIs.​

​This is the website for Hackney and City Keep Our NHS Public (Hackney KONP).
It includes information about:
NHS privatisation
how much of the NHS has been privatised? What services are privatised and what are the main corporations involved in privatisation? Detailed information via the link above. Photo courtesy of Marion Macalpine 
The market in NHS services from New Labour governments to 2017  
Plans to privatise the NHS have been developed over decades and successive governments have worked hand in glove with corporates to achieve this.  Here is a link to information a brief history of privatisation in the NHS.
Naylor Report and Sell-off of NHS property and estates.
The Naylor Report of 2017 sets out proposals to sell off NHS property that is 'underused'.
Naylor uses the Carter Review to decide what counts as 'inefficient use' - based on a crude measure of space used for clinical activities. So other use - like play rooms for children or facilities for visitors are 'inefficient'!.  

​
December 2017: Virgin threats net £2m settlement from NHS in Surrey
When Virgin Care failed to win an £82m contract for children's services in Surrey, they sued the six Community Commissioning Groups (CCGs). Although the CCGs initially said they were satisfied that the procurement had been run fairly, the legal costs of fighting Virgin in court would have been immense. The settlement paid to Virgin is understood to be in excess of £2m - money desperately needed for NHS clinical services in Surrey. 
North East London Sustainability & Transformation Plan (STP) (aka Slash, Trash & Privatise plan). 
The local NE London plan is one of 44 covering all England. It is secret, by order of NHS England. The NE London plan involves three parts: 
The NHS Bill (aka NHS Reinstatement Bill) has been presented to Parliament in previous years by Caroline Lucas (Green Party) MP and by Margaret Greenwood MP. In 2018 it is due to be reintroduced by Eleanor Smith Labour MP for Wolverhampton. The Bill is supported by Diane Abbott, Hackney North MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Health. Click for more information. 
Don't privatise Homerton Hospital's pathology lab 
Contractors building a new pathology lab at the Homerton have gone bust, leaving the Homerton with massive debts. There are huge questions to be answered about the contract with the builders - but most urgently, managers are now considering proposals to privatise the pathology services. Homerton pathology provides an excellent responsive and high quality service. Privatisation is a huge concern.  Don't let them destroy our excellent local service.
Sign the petition at the link.
Govt NHS policy has one aim and one aim only: bring system to its knees so sell-off to friends can be sold as answer
Govt imposing £22 bn 'efficiency savings' (cuts) on NHS on top of £20 bn cuts of past 5 years. 
click above for Twitter link to National Health Action Party
WHAT'S HAPPENING TO OUR NHS?
The government is tearing the NHS apart through funding cuts and privatisation, putting private profits ahead of patients. We urgently need new legislation to restore our NHS.

NHS POLITICAL HISTORY
Click here for an excellent account by Professor Ray Tallis of the development of the NHS and the political attacks that threaten its very existence. (TLS article, September 2016) 

SPENDING ON NHS
Government claims the NHS is 'unaffordable' and 'unsustainable'.  Think-tanks funded by vested interests regularly make proposals for NHS payments - £10 for GP or A&E visits,  £75 'hotel costs' for an overnight hospital stay and so on.  Yet England spends far less on healthcare than France or Germany.  And billions of NHS cash is wasted through costs of the NHS market, PFI schemes and private profit. 

COSTS OF MANAGING A MARKET IN HEALTHCARE
Before the NHS market was introduced, just 5% of the budget went on administration. The introduction of the market meant splitting the NHS into separate 'purchaser' and 'provider' arms and huge additional legal and administrative costs of buying and selling services, tendering and managing contracts. By 2010 administration stood at 14% of the NHS budget.  Since the Health & Social Care Act of 2012 has forced more services to be marketised.   Abolishing the NHS market and returning to pre-market administration cost levels would save between £4.5bn- £10bn every year!  

PRIVATE FINANCE INITIATIVE (PFI)
Billions of NHS funding is squandered on extortionate PFI contracts.  The Department of Health has 118 PFI schemes with a capital value of £11.6bn. But repayments on these schemes will amount to a staggering £79.1bn. PFI repayments are already bankrupting some NHS trusts and the costs are rising steeply. 

PRIVATISATION OF NHS SERVICES
More than £12bn worth of NHS contracts have been awarded to the private sector, siphoning NHS funds into private profits.  The EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and CETA trade treaties will force all NHS services to be tendered. Sustainability & Transformation Plans will force a huge new wave of privatisation from 2017.

SUSTAINABILITY & TRANSFORMATION PLANS (STPs) - aka Slash Trash & Privatise plans
New STP plans will slash £millions from local budgets through cuts and closures and impose new models of care with fewer hospital beds, less doctors and professional staff, privatised services and risks to patient care and safety. 

FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH NHS
These policies are wrecking the NHS.  Government is on course to replace our healthcare system with  US-style, hugely expensive, privatised and insurance-based healthcare.  The NHS will remain, but only as a residual and greatly underfunded service of last resort, and caring for unprofitable cases.  Our aim is to stop this!

INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS
Until recently the NHS has provided outstanding and very cost-effective healthcare.  We've paid less for our healthcare, enjoyed better health outcomes and better satisfaction rates than almost every other country.  Click link above for details of the 2014 Commonwealth Fund study, with NHS data up to 2010.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SUPPORT THE NHS
Click here to support the Pollock-Roderick NHS Bill that will reinstate the NHS and to email MPs and parliamentary candidates asking them to support this bill. 
MODEL MOTION SUPPORTING THE NHS BILL -
for trades unions, political parties, mumsnet, tweeting. Ask your friends and family to promote this Bill too.
We are the Hackney and City branch of the national campaign Keep Our NHS Public (KONP). We are campaigning for a publicly funded, publicly provided and publicly accountable National Health Service, both locally and nationally.  We campaign against UK government measures to undermine the NHS by promoting marketisation, privatisation, and fragmentation and against cuts and reductions in NHS services. We aim to highlight and oppose the impact of these UK government policies on our local NHS services. More info.
Hackney Keep Our NHS Public (KONPH)
Next meeting 
Tuesday 26th October 2021 - by zoom
contact marion.macalpine@blueyonder.co.uk
new campaigners welcome
KONP national demands:
  • End privatisation of the NHS and bring back government responsibility, ownership and accountability.
  • Repeal the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and enact the Pollock-Roderick NHS Bill;
  • End expensive and compulsory competition, reject the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) and reverse all foundation trust plans. 
  • Commit to 4% real terms annual increase in funding from taxation to provide a comprehensive, publicly provided, top quality NHS for all, safe staffing levels and fair conditions for staff.
  • Halt harmful cost-driven NHS cuts and closures. Any service reconfigurations must be driven by evidence-based clinical need, not cost, and be subject to meaningful public consultation;
  • Halt all new private finance initiatives (PFIs). Independent review of PFI deals with effective action to reduce unfair PFI debts.

CAMPAIGNING WITH (among many others)

What can we do to save the NHS?
Join our campaigns to save the NHS and protect our rights to comprehensive, high quality health services, free at the point of delivery:
  • follow other links on the website to campaigns in your own area, or specific issues
More info here...