3600 letters to Monitor handed in 12 March to Lewisham CCG
At the CCG meeting Dr Brian Fisher and Dr Louise Irvine explained that each letter represented a conversation that a campaign member had had with a Lewisham patient. They explained that by signing the letters people were saying that they did not want Lewisham health services put out to tender – and that Monitor, the government quango is putting pressure on CCGs in different areas or London and the UK to do so. Thousands of people in Lewisham do not want this to happen.
Privatisation leads to fragmentation of services, poorer services, a lack of accountability, and a rise in costs ultimately, including vital services having to be taken back into the NHS as private companies fail.
To read the covering letter for the Monitor letters click here
More photos of the event
SLH CAMPAIGN HANDS IN OVER 2000 LETTERS FROM LEWISHAM RESIDENTS TO MONITOR
On Tuesday 24 June more than 2000 letters opposing any privatisation of our local health services were handed in to Monitor Tuesday 24 June at Monitor HQ. We were joined by members of Unite and the Save Our Surgeries campaign.
Click here for pictures
Click here and here for videos of speeches from Brian Fisher and Lucy Reynolds
It’s not too late to write a letter – see below
DOWNLOAD MONITOR LETTER HERE – USE IT YOUR CAMPAIGN!
GET LOCAL PEOPLE TO OPPOSE THE PRIVATISATION AGENDA!
Read more in press release
Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign has been concerned about the wider forces in the NHS that gave rise to the threats to the hospital. One of these forces is competition and privatisation which is now in the DNA of the NHS, run and organised by Monitor.
Privatisation means that parts of the NHS can get sold off to the private sector – companies like Virgin or G4S. Private companies take NHS profits for their shareholders. They often cut corners by paying less to staff and can deliver worse services. Plus, the whole process of tendering and privatisation costs time and money – money for private companies and time for the NHS.
- Monitor told us that there is little evidence that the whole process of competition has any benefit for patients and their health.
- Monitor told us that they do not know the costs of the process of competition and privatisation to the NHS.
- They also told us that the Guidance they have developed for the NHS seems often to be misunderstood by Clinical Commissioning Groups who are meant to use it. So Monitor needs to guide them through the Guidance.
Read more in press release sent to South London Press and the News Shopper about this meeting.
WRITE A LETTER TO MONITOR AND SAY NO TO PRIVATISATION OF OUR HEALTH SERVICES
Monitor is an organisation whose job it is to regulate competition and markets in the NHS. Monitor assumes that competition and markets are good for patients and the NHS.
The Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign and other groups don’t agree with this: health is not shopping, and care is not improved by making it a commercial process.
We want to show Monitor that the people of Lewisham see that markets and competition are NOT in our interests. We will also inform the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) and, if you agree, your own doctor of your support for this view.
Please sign the letter, and complete with your doctor’s name and address if you wish.
You can do the letter in two ways:
Download and send in the letter
Click here to download the letter. When you have completed it please hand it to a member of the campaign at our regular Lewisham stall on Saturday (11-4pm) or send to:
SLH, c/o Lewisham Pensioners’ Forum, The Saville Centre, 436 Lewisham High Street, London SE13 5LJ
Submit a letter electronically
You can do this by entering your name, email, address, doctor’s name and practice in the form below. Please copy and past the following text into the box marked ‘Text of letter’. These will be collected and set in at the appropriate time.
Text to be copied and pasted
Dear Monitor,
As a patient of the Lewisham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), I want to record my choice of NHS provider for your future reference.
I do not believe that it is in my best interests, as a patient, for my CCG to undertake contracts with outsourcing companies when a traditional public sector alternative is available.
This is because:
1. Services supplied by such companies have shown problems with understaffing and inadequate data when claiming payments from the NHS.
2. I do not believe such services can approach the standard of safety offered by public sector alternatives. (In many other sectors including care homes, the quality and safety of privatised services have gone down and costs have increased.)
3. Since they need to make a profit, commercial operators are likely to be competitive on price only if they cut corners on services.
I do not agree that competition is in my best interests; I am a patient not a customer. It is only in the interests of commercial operators and will prejudice the necessary integration of NHS services.
Two other problems will occur as a result of competition. Total NHS costs will rise: commercial competition tends to lead to supplier-induced demand and unnecessary treatment. Secondly, if traditional NHS providers lose their funding to commercial operators, those NHS providers may end up dismantled unit by unit as core services are outsourced, and the NHS providers ultimately collapse. This will remove any alleged competitive benefit.
If new private providers challenge a CCG commissioning decision in Lewisham, please take this letter into consideration as my express wish on how my best interests should be protected.
Yours faithfully,
