St George’s along with Epsom and St Helier Hospital have just agreed a five year contract with Fresenius Medical Services Limited, an international company that has virtually cornered the market in renal dialysis.
The contract worth over £47 million over five years is allegedly going to ‘potentially' save almost
£8million. Believe that and you’ll believe anything ? Private companies, from BT downwards have a notorious record of being unable to deliver when it comes to the NHS.
The short sighted approach by the board appears to be that as there is no capital outlay involved
this must be a good thing.
We will be paying for each therapy and Fresenius, who have obviously done their sums very well
see it as a ‘nice little earner’.
During the last financial quarter Fresenius recorded an increase in profits of 14%. Given the current economic climate that is not bad at all. Surprising then that those from St George’s
negotiating the contract didn’t ask Fresenius to lop at least 10% off their tender price.
I am sure that the good shareholders of the company wouldn’t want to make too much money out of others misfortune
How much more cost effective it would have been if St George’s and other neighbouring hospitals had all got together and purchased their own Renal Dialysis equipment. That way, not only would it be cheaper in the long run, but we wouldn’t be at the mercy of an international company that was described by the board as having a ‘quasi monopoly position’ on renal dialysis.
Monopolies can dictate prices. What happens when Frensesius decide to put their tariff up !
Thursday 26 March 2009
Monday 23 March 2009
Poor Old Bolingbroke Hospital -Sacrificed so that St George's Can Become A Foundation Trust
On Tuesday 27 January, 2009, the St George’s Healthcare Trust Board voted to make the long established Battersea hospital , the Bolingbroke, ‘surplus to requirements’. I say voted, that is rather a misnomer, there wasn’t a vote-there never is at St George’s Trust Board meetings. Everyone, as always was of one accord, and that was that the Bolingbroke must go. Despite the opposition of patients, the public ,and Wandsworth Council, the closure went ahead. Even a last minute plea at the meeting from a local councillor for a stay of execution failed to move the Trust Board.
The decision of course had much more to do with St George’s race to become a Foundation Trust Hospital than anything else. In order to gain FT status, St George’s must not only balance the books, but show a surplus-something that unless there is a last minute miracle they are unlikely to do.
So the Bolingbroke, like so much else of our family silver in the NHS, will be put up for sale.
What is particularly gruelling is that the decision was taken by a Board, who if St George’s does become a Foundation Trust ,won’t even be there in two years time. What is more, St George’s Trust Board, like all other NHS bodies, doesn’t even pretend to be democratic. It consists of full time employees, at director level, five non executive directors and a Chair. Both the non executive directors and the Chair are all appointed. There are no patient representatives, no staff representatives and no-one from the local authority on the governing body.
The decision to sell the Bolingbroke makes no sense whatsoever, economically. In case the Trust Board hadn’t noticed we are in a recession, and the property market is in the lead when it comes to plummeting prices. It’s what’s called a ‘buyers market’ and the Bolingbroke, like every other property, will have dropped in value.
For those with a good memory they will remember that is was only in 2004 that the Trust Board spent £2 million on renovating the Bolingbroke, only to discover, just after the work was completed, that the hospital was a fire risk. The hospital’s own internal inquiry into this embarrassing incident revealed that it had been known since 1989 that the Bolingbroke was a fire risk, and the hospital had been entered on the ‘at risk’ register in 2002. Apparently, this news hadn’t filtered through to those in charge and the net result was that because of the risk of fire the hospital had to be evacuated of elderly patients and services slowly withdrawn.
Two million pounds of tax payers money had been wasted ,plus the costs of finding room for other services, coupled with the money needed to find alternative accommodation for the Bolingbroke’s patients.
How much this little mishap cost it is impossible to say. What we do know is, from the internal report, no-body got so much as a hand slap. So two million plus pounds can be wasted but the message is ,’no-one is really to blame, and we can all carry on as before’.
So, St George’s Trust Board did exactly that. They carried on and almost five years later took the predictable decision to make the Bolingbroke, ‘surplus to requirements’
It is a sad end to one of Battersea’s old and dearly loved hospitals. Along with St James, St John’s, the Anti Vivisection hospital(Battersea General)it has been consigned to the scrap heap.
The motto of the old Battersea Borough Council was, ‘not for you, not me , but for us’.
Public property, no less than any other type of property should be valued and preserved not sold off on the cheap to balance the books. The Bolingbroke belongs to ‘us’, it should not end its life as a plaything of property speculators .It should be kept and utilised for users of the NHS, maybe not in its present capacity but in some other.
Users of the Bolingbroke have been transferred to St John’s Therapy Centre on St Johns’ Hill, built on all that remains of the land once occupied by St John’s Hospital. It’s a new building and many are impressed by its structure and design. So they ought to be –it has cost us dear.
The Centre was built by a consortium of private companies who trade under the name of ‘Building Better Health’, the mainstay of the group appears to be the builders Wilmott Dixon, but they all get a slice of the cake. It was built under the notoriously expensive LIFT scheme, Local Improvement Finance Trust. Under this arrangement, very similar to the equally discredited Private Finance Initiative for building hospitals, private companies borrow the money and construct the building , and then lease it back, over a fixed period, to the NHS. In the case of the St John’s Therapy Centre the building cost £7 million to build, but the total repayments over the term of the contract will be in the region of £35 million Accurate judgements are difficult to make, because repayments are linked to the Retail Price Index. Schemes such as these have been described in the press as ‘honey pots’ for investors.
So the outlook for health services in the old Battersea area does not bode well. A valuable NHS site looks like it will be sold off to the highest bidder. And a new building on the site of an old hospital will cost the tax payer five times what it cost to build. Neither looks like good business practice.
The decision of course had much more to do with St George’s race to become a Foundation Trust Hospital than anything else. In order to gain FT status, St George’s must not only balance the books, but show a surplus-something that unless there is a last minute miracle they are unlikely to do.
So the Bolingbroke, like so much else of our family silver in the NHS, will be put up for sale.
What is particularly gruelling is that the decision was taken by a Board, who if St George’s does become a Foundation Trust ,won’t even be there in two years time. What is more, St George’s Trust Board, like all other NHS bodies, doesn’t even pretend to be democratic. It consists of full time employees, at director level, five non executive directors and a Chair. Both the non executive directors and the Chair are all appointed. There are no patient representatives, no staff representatives and no-one from the local authority on the governing body.
The decision to sell the Bolingbroke makes no sense whatsoever, economically. In case the Trust Board hadn’t noticed we are in a recession, and the property market is in the lead when it comes to plummeting prices. It’s what’s called a ‘buyers market’ and the Bolingbroke, like every other property, will have dropped in value.
For those with a good memory they will remember that is was only in 2004 that the Trust Board spent £2 million on renovating the Bolingbroke, only to discover, just after the work was completed, that the hospital was a fire risk. The hospital’s own internal inquiry into this embarrassing incident revealed that it had been known since 1989 that the Bolingbroke was a fire risk, and the hospital had been entered on the ‘at risk’ register in 2002. Apparently, this news hadn’t filtered through to those in charge and the net result was that because of the risk of fire the hospital had to be evacuated of elderly patients and services slowly withdrawn.
Two million pounds of tax payers money had been wasted ,plus the costs of finding room for other services, coupled with the money needed to find alternative accommodation for the Bolingbroke’s patients.
How much this little mishap cost it is impossible to say. What we do know is, from the internal report, no-body got so much as a hand slap. So two million plus pounds can be wasted but the message is ,’no-one is really to blame, and we can all carry on as before’.
So, St George’s Trust Board did exactly that. They carried on and almost five years later took the predictable decision to make the Bolingbroke, ‘surplus to requirements’
It is a sad end to one of Battersea’s old and dearly loved hospitals. Along with St James, St John’s, the Anti Vivisection hospital(Battersea General)it has been consigned to the scrap heap.
The motto of the old Battersea Borough Council was, ‘not for you, not me , but for us’.
Public property, no less than any other type of property should be valued and preserved not sold off on the cheap to balance the books. The Bolingbroke belongs to ‘us’, it should not end its life as a plaything of property speculators .It should be kept and utilised for users of the NHS, maybe not in its present capacity but in some other.
Users of the Bolingbroke have been transferred to St John’s Therapy Centre on St Johns’ Hill, built on all that remains of the land once occupied by St John’s Hospital. It’s a new building and many are impressed by its structure and design. So they ought to be –it has cost us dear.
The Centre was built by a consortium of private companies who trade under the name of ‘Building Better Health’, the mainstay of the group appears to be the builders Wilmott Dixon, but they all get a slice of the cake. It was built under the notoriously expensive LIFT scheme, Local Improvement Finance Trust. Under this arrangement, very similar to the equally discredited Private Finance Initiative for building hospitals, private companies borrow the money and construct the building , and then lease it back, over a fixed period, to the NHS. In the case of the St John’s Therapy Centre the building cost £7 million to build, but the total repayments over the term of the contract will be in the region of £35 million Accurate judgements are difficult to make, because repayments are linked to the Retail Price Index. Schemes such as these have been described in the press as ‘honey pots’ for investors.
So the outlook for health services in the old Battersea area does not bode well. A valuable NHS site looks like it will be sold off to the highest bidder. And a new building on the site of an old hospital will cost the tax payer five times what it cost to build. Neither looks like good business practice.
What's Happening in Wandsworth Primary Care Trust ?
During 2008 Wandsworth Primary Care Trust(Now NHS Wandsworth) conducted a survey of what patients wanted for health services in Battersea and North Wandsworth. It was the usual tick box exercise with the minimum of information and no real opportunity for patients to either question the proposals, or even to put forward any of their own.
The outcome, predictably, was that the PCT could boast that it had consulted widely and that everyone was in complete agreement with its proposals.
The lynchpin of the PCT’s plans for Battersea is a new polyclinic to be built, preferably, in the Clapham Junction area. No costings were given for such a project and before you could say ‘privatisation’ the PCT had an ‘information day’ for possible tenders. No-one knows as yet who has been awarded the contract, but we do know that the new Vice President of the Patients Association Sir Richard Branson (no conflict of interest there) is very keen that his company Virgin should move into health care. Could the tax payers of Battersea be the lucky recipients of Branson’s bid, or could it be the US based United Healthcare- who have already scooped up GP surgeries in Camden, and could be looking to expand South of the river.
Despite requests under the Freedom of Information Act, Wandsworth PCT has refused to divulge just how much the new project will cost. What we do know, and here alarm bells should ring, is that the new polyclinic will be built under a Local Improvement Finance Trust scheme. This lovely little earner for the private sector entails a consortium of private companies getting together and building the new premises, and then leasing it back to NHS over the period of the contract, usually up to thirty years.
We have an example of a LIFT contract with the St John’s Therapy Centre on St John’s Hill. The Centre was built by a consortium called ‘Building Better Health’, and then leased back to the NHS over a twenty five year period. The Centre cost seven million pounds to build but is being leased back by the PCT at £945,000 a year-this is linked to the retail price index, which is currently 2.5% a year. With LIFT schemes, like their PFI counterparts, it is difficult to make final estimates of the cost- in the case of St John’s Therapy Centre it is likely to be about £32million. An example of the NHS paying a private consortium almost five times more than it would have cost to build the premises itself. Of course, included in the price is the cost of the building’s maintenance-hardly onerous.
At the same time patients in the Battersea area who need to will now visit St John’s, rather than their dearly loved Bolingbroke Hospital, which the Trust Board of St George’s has just declared, ‘surplus to requirements’.
Hopefully, Wandsworth PCT will intervene and make full use of this valuable NHS site.
The old Battersea Borough Council ,before its abolition in 1964, had as its motto-‘not for you, not for me, but for us’. This worthy principle is enshrined in the National Health Service, which celebrated its sixtieth anniversary last year. The idea that we have collective ownership of our health provision is something that the Borough Council would have approved. However, there are others that do not see it that way.
Since the nineties there has been an increasing drive to privatise our health care, embedded in new legislation and policy The dogma, that private necessarily means better, has however taken a severe beating over the past few months. Taxpayers have had to bail out the private sector to the tune of billions of pounds.
Hopefully, the lessons of the recent period will not be lost on those in high places, or our local NHS bodies, and the creeping privatisation of our health services will come to a stop.
Wandsworth Primary Care Trust though may need some convincing of the errors of trying to privatise health care. The Trust Board, that runs primary health care in the Borough is an unlikely mixture of full time directors, and paid non executive directors and a Chair, who are appointed by an appointments commission of the Department of Health. Under this arrangement ,soon to be abolished in other parts of the United Kingdom, neither patients, or the public, or staff members of Wandsworth PCT have any representation, and surprisingly neither is there any local authority voice on the Board. We may pay through our taxes for our health service, but unlike our council or our MP we have no say whatsoever in how our local health service is administered and governed.
According to Wandsworth PCT’s website, the Trust Chair has a background in, ‘sales and marketing’ and is also the chair of a plc, and on the board of another company.. One of the five non executive directors is a senior consultant for a number of venture capital companies, while another held senior executive positions at Lloyds’ of London, and a third is a fellow of the Institute of Directors. Non executive directors are suppose to be, amongst other things, representative of the local community. Hardly the case in Wandsworth.
As we move into 2009 the NHS is at a crossroads. Will it remain under democratic ownership and control or will it be privatised and broken up. The omens are not good, either here in Wandsworth or nationally. The midnight hour for those living in Battersea will come at the end of March when they will know just who has gained the contract for the new Clapham Junction Health Centre. Will it be a private company, or will it be a group of NHS doctors ? Watch this space.
Sunday 22 March 2009
The Great Wandsworth Health RipOff
Millions of pounds have been poured into the NHS over the past few years- but where has this money gone to?
In Wandsworth, like everywhere else, it’s gone straight into the pockets of the owners and shareholders of big companies.
Here are just three local examples of how your money has been wasted on privatisation.
St Georges Hospital
Atkinson Motley Wing
The Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon was part of St George’s Hospital in Tooting. It was sold off to Laguna Quays, a private development company, to help clear debts.
On the old Atkinson Morley site a private hospital is to be built. How many of us will be able to afford to be treated there?
In its place a new Atkinson Morley wing was built at St George’s Hospital under the infamous Private Finance Initiative (PFI), by a private consortium, Blackshaw Health- care Services.
The Wing cost £50 million to build, and yet it will cost the tax payer over £400 million in repayments over 35 years.
All Blackshaw Healthcare Services have to do is clean and maintain the building during the term of the contract.
In other words we are paying back eight times what it cost to build — not a bad little earner for Blackshaw Healthcare Services.
Plus it means that the hospital is tied into a long term contract that has over 30 years to run.
St John’s Therapy Centre
The new Centre on St John’s Hill in Battersea was built by Wilmott Dixon, a construction company, at an estimated cost of £7 million. The land was owned by Wandsworth Primary Care Trust and the building replaces one that was a mere 20 years old.
Wilmott Dixon are part of a consortium known as ‘Building Better Health’, headed by a former chief executive of Tower Hamlets.
The 25 year contract will mean that total repayments by the NHS to the companies that make up ‘Building Better Health’ will amount to over £32 million.
This rip off is known as a LIFT scheme, or Local Improvement Finance Trust. It’s like the Private Finance Initiative — we tax payers pay through the nose for the NHS to pour our money into the private sector.
Instead, all new NHS building should be government financed — it’s better value and better quality.
Queen Mary’s Hospital Roehampton
The redevelopment of Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton is yet another Private Finance Initiative. The contractors are Catalyst Healthcare made up primarily of the building company Bovis, and Halifax/Bank of Scotland
The Hospital cost £55 million to build and has a 30 year contract.
Wanted
A Company Secretary to run a South West London NHS Hospital.
Must be able to balance the books -and not be afraid to sack anyone.
Recent banking experience an advantage. No ex directors of Woolworth’s need apply
Send CV to David Astley or Naz Coker
Salary to be negotiated, but usually twice what a doctor gets.
Must wear a suit.
Must be able to balance the books -and not be afraid to sack anyone.
Recent banking experience an advantage. No ex directors of Woolworth’s need apply
Send CV to David Astley or Naz Coker
Salary to be negotiated, but usually twice what a doctor gets.
Must wear a suit.
St George's Hospital Atkinson Morley Wing - Great, But At What A Price !
The Atkinson Morley Wing of St George’s Hospital opened in 2003 is a positive bonus.
It takes its name from the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon which St George’s sold off a few years ago to stave off a financial crisis-what’s new !
Anyone who has visited the new wing can’t be but impressed by its state of the art interior and superb facilities. Its cardiac services have led to St George’s becoming a heart and trauma centre for the surrounding area. These are all welcome developments-but at what a price !
St George’s Annual Accounts 2007/08 reveal just what the costs are of having the wing built under a Private Finance Iniative Scheme.
St George’s signed a contract with Blackshaw Healthcare services in 2000. The lease is to last for 35 years and the first payment made was in 2003. So it is not until 2038/39 that St George’s will be clear of its repayments to Blackshaw Healthcare Services.
The fist payment of over £8million was made in 2003. Payments are linked to the Retail Price Index, which has been rising by over 2% a year. So payments are not fixed and increase according to the RPI
To date St George’s have paid the PFI Consortium over £50 million. That’s right-we have already paid what it cost to build the Atkinson Morley wing -but we have to go on paying at, today's prices, almost £9 million a year until 2038/39.
Nobody knows what the Retail Price Index will be in 2039 but at todays prices we will have
paid well in excess of £300 million for a £50 million building.
No wonder PFI is considered one of the greatest rip offs of all time.
No wonder not one member of the Trust Board spoke in its favour at a recent Trust Board
meeting.
It takes its name from the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon which St George’s sold off a few years ago to stave off a financial crisis-what’s new !
Anyone who has visited the new wing can’t be but impressed by its state of the art interior and superb facilities. Its cardiac services have led to St George’s becoming a heart and trauma centre for the surrounding area. These are all welcome developments-but at what a price !
St George’s Annual Accounts 2007/08 reveal just what the costs are of having the wing built under a Private Finance Iniative Scheme.
St George’s signed a contract with Blackshaw Healthcare services in 2000. The lease is to last for 35 years and the first payment made was in 2003. So it is not until 2038/39 that St George’s will be clear of its repayments to Blackshaw Healthcare Services.
The fist payment of over £8million was made in 2003. Payments are linked to the Retail Price Index, which has been rising by over 2% a year. So payments are not fixed and increase according to the RPI
To date St George’s have paid the PFI Consortium over £50 million. That’s right-we have already paid what it cost to build the Atkinson Morley wing -but we have to go on paying at, today's prices, almost £9 million a year until 2038/39.
Nobody knows what the Retail Price Index will be in 2039 but at todays prices we will have
paid well in excess of £300 million for a £50 million building.
No wonder PFI is considered one of the greatest rip offs of all time.
No wonder not one member of the Trust Board spoke in its favour at a recent Trust Board
meeting.
St George's Hospital Trust Board-A Secret Society ?
Do you know how your hospital is governed ? You pay for it out of your taxes and the hospital
spends nearly £400 million of your money. Do you have any say in how this money is spent ? You bet your life you don’t.
St George’s is governed by an unelected Trust Board consisting of full time employees and appointed directors. Even the Chair of the Hospital Trust is appointed. There is not one patient or member of the public on St George’s Trust Board-and neither is there any staff epresentation.
The Trust Board is a bit like a secret society.There are five appointed Non Executive directors who supposedly ‘represent’ the public although we have no say in choosing them. The rest of the board is made up of directors of varying departments, Finance, Nursing, Human Resources,
Strategy, Estates and Facilities etc.
As is the latest fashion the job titles are constantly changing, although the job remains pretty much the same. If you want to find out anything about the Trust Board management-don’t
bother. Information about the various non executive directors, your representatives, use to be available on St George’s website but that has been taken off, ’pending an update’ we are told.
Even the Trust Board meetings, which take place every two months, are secretive.
There are two parts, a closed session, to which the public are excluded, and an open session
In the good old days you at least use to know what was being discussed in the secret session, now you don’t even know that.
Some months ago, after questions from the public at a Trust Board meeting about why some issues were included in the secret session-the Trust Board responded by making
the contents of the secret session –secret.
That is one way of doing it.Wouldn’t it be better to just be more open
spends nearly £400 million of your money. Do you have any say in how this money is spent ? You bet your life you don’t.
St George’s is governed by an unelected Trust Board consisting of full time employees and appointed directors. Even the Chair of the Hospital Trust is appointed. There is not one patient or member of the public on St George’s Trust Board-and neither is there any staff epresentation.
The Trust Board is a bit like a secret society.There are five appointed Non Executive directors who supposedly ‘represent’ the public although we have no say in choosing them. The rest of the board is made up of directors of varying departments, Finance, Nursing, Human Resources,
Strategy, Estates and Facilities etc.
As is the latest fashion the job titles are constantly changing, although the job remains pretty much the same. If you want to find out anything about the Trust Board management-don’t
bother. Information about the various non executive directors, your representatives, use to be available on St George’s website but that has been taken off, ’pending an update’ we are told.
Even the Trust Board meetings, which take place every two months, are secretive.
There are two parts, a closed session, to which the public are excluded, and an open session
In the good old days you at least use to know what was being discussed in the secret session, now you don’t even know that.
Some months ago, after questions from the public at a Trust Board meeting about why some issues were included in the secret session-the Trust Board responded by making
the contents of the secret session –secret.
That is one way of doing it.Wouldn’t it be better to just be more open
Bolingbroke Hospital Gets The Chop
At the January meeting of St George’s Trust Board came the expected announcement that the ‘Bolingbroke Hospital was, ‘surplus to requirements’. No mention was made of the £2 million of taxpayers money that had been spent on the hospital only a few years before to renovate two wards. No sooner had the money been spent, when it was discovered that the wards were a fire risk, something that had been know, according to an internal report carried out into the travesty,
for some 18 years. Needless to say no heads rolled and no-one received even a slapped wrist.
As always, at the January meeting no-one on the Trust Board questioned the decision, and without even a discussion it all went through on the nod.
Some-one there you might have thought would have said, ‘is this a good time to sell-what with house prices plummeting’ ? Or even, ’could we utilize the space’-given that St George’s faces a daily crisis over lack of beds ? No-one on the Trust Board raised a single objection and there was not even a vote.
The decision to sell the Bolingbroke had of course much more to do with St George’s financial situation than anything else. St George’s finances are in a mess, and one way to get out of that mess is to sell off even more of the family silver. Something similar is happening on a grander scale with Springfield Hospital.
It’s the same story all over the NHS. Cash strapped Hospitals and Primary Care Trusts are
selling off ‘our property’ for short term gain. It must be stopped.
We need a properly funded integrated NHS that plans for the long term future.
An NHS that is publically owned and democratically controlled
for some 18 years. Needless to say no heads rolled and no-one received even a slapped wrist.
As always, at the January meeting no-one on the Trust Board questioned the decision, and without even a discussion it all went through on the nod.
Some-one there you might have thought would have said, ‘is this a good time to sell-what with house prices plummeting’ ? Or even, ’could we utilize the space’-given that St George’s faces a daily crisis over lack of beds ? No-one on the Trust Board raised a single objection and there was not even a vote.
The decision to sell the Bolingbroke had of course much more to do with St George’s financial situation than anything else. St George’s finances are in a mess, and one way to get out of that mess is to sell off even more of the family silver. Something similar is happening on a grander scale with Springfield Hospital.
It’s the same story all over the NHS. Cash strapped Hospitals and Primary Care Trusts are
selling off ‘our property’ for short term gain. It must be stopped.
We need a properly funded integrated NHS that plans for the long term future.
An NHS that is publically owned and democratically controlled
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