W&HKNPC

Blair /Brown & New Labour took up the Tory cudgels transforming the NHS into a business grotto with the concept of the NHS actually having to compete with private corporations for the ability to provide its own healthcare services !EH!

2003: Labour Government NHS bLueprint ‘inveStinG in Your health' SetS SeaL on qeii & Hemel Hempstead HOSPITal's & ALL UK’S NHS & HEALTH CARE SERVICES

The NEW Tory/Liberal Administration intend to obliterate the NHS under the guise of Liberating its services from bureaucratic interference.

Picking up the political agenda from where the Labour Party left off and turning the clock back 60 + years to before the NHS had to be invented to help save society from Poor Laws and Penury with the creation of the Welfare State.

The NHS however is NOT dead YET it is OUR health-service & NOT the politicians. Tory/Labour/Liberal should be now plainly seen for what they are, and quite frankly a POX on ALL their houses.
Only WE the People can save OUR NHS & WELFARE STATE.

JOIN our campaign and no it’s not too parochial whatever anyone might say; “Well I don’t live in Welwyn OR Hatfield so who gives a monkies?”

You WILL still be directly affected by health care restructuring if you reside anywhere in Hertfordshire. If you live in the area stretching through Hertford and St. Albans and Hemel Hempstead you will know from bitter experience what can happen, especially as many now have to rely on the QEII as their ‘Local’ hospital for many facilities.

St. Albans had a thriving General Hospital and campaigns raged over the years to save it from destruction only to see it decimated to its present status of a Cottage Hospital with pious promises of extra facilities in new rounds of 'Reconfigurations'.

Hemel Hempstead's General Hospital has had to fight off 30+ years of sustained attempts of its destruction, the present coming as part of West Herts & now NHS Hertfordshire PCT’s reconstruction of NHS services to downgrade it to a Cottage Hospital as its services are spread to Watford. Hemel's Dacorum Hospital has lost BOTH its A&E Department and Maternity Unit, A&E being replaced by an Urgent Care Centre.

The process of consolidating services from the QEII hospital in Welwyn Garden City to the Lister hospital in Stevenage rolls on.

The regions NHS Trusts including PCT made its decision of which hospital in East and North Herts was to be down graded to a cottage hospital in 2007 this went against the QEII and its effects are ongoing the first of which was felt in September 2008. The Herts PCT & NHS Trusts felt that after lying their way through their alleged consultation process at the cost of so much £’s that they had the Green Light to asset strip the QEII & Hemel Hempstead hospital.

It is ALL being done with no consideration for peoples actual health service needs and now the lights on with the £ signs in their eyes they feel they can do any thing that they dam well please and what the hell can we do to stop them

Whatever anyone says to the contrary Barnet is still in Hertfordshire and NOT North London. Chase Farm hospital has been in the self same position and IS directly affected by decisions made BOTH by Herts PCT & Councils Local & County, indeed ALL the decisions made as to its fate are rubber stamped at County Hall in Hertford.

Wimpey & Barrett homes have been vying for the hospital land.

The fight to save Chase Farm Hospital was joined by a campaign to save the neighbouring St. Annes Hospital. A local campaign group changed themselves into a political party so they could contest the local government elections, and got a number of members elected as local Councillors. Another local Group Campaigning to Save Chase Farm Hospital is the North London Council of Action, that continues to hold regular Campaign Pickets outside the hospital.

Welwyn & Hatfield Keep the NHS Public Campaign continues to work closely with these Campaigns in a mutually agreed and coordinated manner to provide assistance to each others struggle against the decimation of BOTH local and national healthcare provision.

Just prior to the General Election the then Shadow Health Minister Andrew Lansley appeared on the Chase Farm picket line to show his Tory Party support for the Chase Farm Hospital campaign gleefully taking the photo opportunity to oppose the 'Labour cuts in the NHS.

!NB! What follows is an update of the Primary

Care Trust, NHS Hertfordshire's PLANS for the

Destruction of the QEII General Hospital and the

Rebirth of Lister Hospital

£ APRIL 2008:

Stakeholder event took place to help decide the site for the new hospital.

£ July 2008:

The PCT board approved the QEII Hospital as the site for the new local general hospital.

£ 2009:

QEII Hospital Polyclinic opened; Run by the Ephedra consortium; led by Dr Shilliday

{local GP & Doctors for Reform
<Reform = Right wing think tank}

£ January 2009:

Lister Hospital; Surgicentre; Site clearance started.

£ March 2009:

Lister Hospital; Maternity Unit; PCT & NHS Trust approved full Business Case & passed it to Strategic Health Authority for approval.

£ April 2009:

Lister Hospital; Surgicentre; Contract signed with private contractor Clinicenta & Construction started.

£ July 2009: Lister hospital Maternity Unit; Stevenage Borough Council approved

the master site planning application.

£ August 2009: Lister hospital; NHS East of England {formerly Strategic Health Authority} gave final approval for Final Business Case.

£ 7th September 2009: Lister Hospital; Maternity Unit; Building work started.

£ October 2009: Lister Hospital; East & North Herts NHS Trust's Outline Business Case modified by PCT to meet their future years commissioning intentions.

£ 2010: £15.5 Million Lister Hospital; Maternity Unit;

Due to open and for QEII’s Maternity unit to have closed # BUT NEW PCT Promise

£ May 2010: Lister Hospital; A&E; Major changes to Therepy Services. Number of services moved offsite to give enough space to construct larger Emergency Dept. & new ward block.

£ September 2010: QEII HOSPITAL Outline Business Case approved and passed to the Government's Department of Health and Treasury for final approval before preparation of a planning application to be submitted to Welwyn and Hatfield Borough Council.

£ December 2010: Lister Hospital; Maternity Unit;
1st Phase now to open <?>

£ 2010: Lister Surgicentre Stevenage; Due to open,
BUT changed to APRIL 2011.

£ April 2011: Lister Surgicentre Stevenage;
NEW date for opening. # <?>

£ Wednesday 13th July 7.30pm: PCT Present Planning Application for QEII Hospital Destruction; Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council Development Forum.

PICKET PLANNED

£ October 2011: Lister Hospital; Maternity Unit; 2nd & Final Phase now due to open & QEII Hospital Birthing Unit due to move to Lister Hospital<?>

£ 2011: Lister hospital Stevenage; Centralised A&E and Emergency Services; Due to be open and for those at the QEII hospital’s to have closed.

BUT ALL CHANGE # NO Longer happening on this timescale

£ Winter 2011: QEII Hospital;Construction of the new Local General Hospital is expected to commence, to ultimately entirely replace the QEII General Hospital.

NB! NOT SET TO Happen Until February 2012

£ Summer 2013: New Urgent Care Centres; For Lister Hospital & QEII HospitalDue to be open #

£ Early Summer 2013: Lister Hospital; NEW A&E Department; Meant to open to the public.

And able provide A&E Services for the whole of East & North Hertfordshire & parts of Bedfordshire. <?>

£ Late Summer 2013: Lister Hospital; New Theatre
& Endoscopy Block to open to patients <?>

£ Winter 2013: QEII Hospital & Lister Hospital; ALL remaining inpatient services due to be moved from QEII Hospital to Lister Hospital.

£ 2013/14: QEII Hospital; New Local General Hospital expected to open subject to planning permission and finalising of other arrangements. QEII General Hospital will thus be DEAD & BURIED & Only A Memory.

£ 2015: Lister’s £Multi Million New hospital block;
Due to be complete, planning supposedly now underway with procurement process.

£ QEII: £30 Million Local General Hospital; ie QEII downgrade from General to Cottage Hospital. East & North Herts Trusts earmmarked amount and they claim planning still on track. This was the money originally quoted for the project and the same figure is now being presented as if it's a wonderfull NEW amount {November 2010}

<NB!! SEE BELOW>

£ UCC: Urgent Care Centre’s: Herts Pact’s planning underway to open four at QEII; Lister; Hertford County; Cheshunt Community hospitals.

QEII Hospital: The New Tory Reconfiguration Guidlines have caused the PCT NHS Hertfordshire to submit their Plans for the Destruction of the QEII Hospital & the Renewal of the Lister Hospital to the Government for consideration.

Grant Shapps heils this as living proof of his own divinity as the sole SAVIOUR of the QEII Hospital Essential Services.

MEANWHILE In the REAL World: The PCT consider that their PLANS more than meet ALL of the Tory Reconfiguration requirements and do not need to be changed.

The PCT also contend that ANY further delay to the Demolition of QEII General Hospital can only hinder Lister Hospital's rebirth.

Grant Shapps claims that after his back door 'diplomacy' that aspects of the QEII Hospital are now SAFE namely the Maternity Unit; A&E Department and Intermediate Care beds.

The PCT after publically saying one thing different to Shapps now say they were in discussions, BUT and here follows the rub.

1>Maternity Unit: The Strategic Health Authority is due to hold a study into the viability of a Midwife led unit for the QEII, in February 2011

2> Intermediate Care Beds at QEII Hospital: There will be some BUT there is no guarentee of how many and even where they will be located, ie in OR out of the new QEII building.

3>A&E Department OR Urgent Care Centre: Grant Shapps continues to claim it will be an A&E as it will handle 85% of the QEII hospital A&E Department's capacity.

BUT the PCT still maintain it wil be an UCC because the public still have not swallowed their propeganda and do not understand the difference between an Accident & Emergency Department and an Urgent Care Centre.

Painfull as it is for me to say this I am inclined to believe it will be more of an Urgent Care Centre and NOT an A&E Department. When its complete Shapps will continue to claim victory and call it an A&E Department while the PCT will claim victory as it's an Urgent Care Centre. As Jacquie Bunce PCT exec put it "The difference is merely a matter of semantics"

WELL TOUGH FRIGGIN SHIT !!!

Who's hospital is it? NOT Grant Shapps NOR the Tory Cabinet! NO! It is OUR Hospital WE use it WE must value it and FIGHT for its retention.

As we speak, hark the sound of fluttering wings as the vultures hover to pick the bones of Chase Farm & the QEII & Dacorum hospitals.

Person the Ack Ack guns and let’s blast the # fckrs to Hades before they know what’s hit em.

This ongoing process in Hertfordshire has not been a little local difficulty as the PCT was simply carrying out the previous Labour government’s national policy of their brave new Blairite visionary legacy for the NHS or Phase 1 of same. That of a handful of ‘Super hospitals’ and a smattering of ‘Cottage hospitals’ for the whole country. The ‘Super’ ones were to be offered to areas in return for retention of New Labour acolytes to disappear when they fail to be re-elected.

For the ‘Cottage’ ones health care could become a ‘Cottage industry’ or ‘Virtual Health Service’ a D.I.Y. concoction where a ‘Health Questionnaire’ is completed by phone to NHS Direct.

And depending on ‘Answers’ the patients state of health is determined and the remedies prescribed from Placebos to Dope including Plasters, Bandages, 1st Aid kits, and Benylin.

The apparent ideological differences between the Labour and Tory parties of old ie prior to the Thatcher era, have been layed bare by the 13 years of the 'New Labour social experiment'.

Conspiracy or no each subsequent political administration's legacy has merely paved the way for the next chapter.

There were elements of the Labour Party eg the 'Gang of 4 Shirley Williams/David Owen etc who publically defected merging their brand of Social Democracy with the Liberal Party to form the LibDems, who have now gone to bed with the Tories. These along with Blair/Brown & co had wanted to be able to carry out Thatcherism but could not be seen to publically advocate it.

Thatcher proved a virtual Godsend for these political revisionists, carrying out a Social Revolution, taking the 'Moral High Ground' of the Old English Middle & Upper Classes against the plebs. Bringing in American Capitalist measures courtesy of Ian MacGregor to spearhead a direct assault on the working class. The damage inflicted on the country especially on its psyche is still apparent.

Tony Blair accepted this legacy with alacrity with no qualms at all he felt able to fully embrace Thatcher's political dogma replete with economic and social policies, happy in the knowledge that he may feel no reprisals from a working class simply glad to see the back of their traditional class enemy. While they eagerly gulped down The Medicine their own previous ministers had declared toxins.

Now in 2010 the Political Wheel has simply completed a further cycle. OUT with OLD & IN with the NEW? HARDLY! Simply a matter of politicians re-cycling Stale Urin in NEWLY labelled wine bottles.

What effect will this NEW TORY shower have on our NHS?

They will simply carry on regardless no time has after all been lost in the interim and they can complete the process that has been carefully set in train. The Americanisation of Great Britain PLC.

They may as well re-instate the ‘Traveling Medicine Show of the Quack Doctor and indeed in this country the Barber as the only one in a locality with a sharp implement the cut throat razor. After all that’s where the striped pole outside barbers originated, of course not to forget the ‘Blood Letting’ where ‘surgical incisions’ were made in the area of pain in the erroneous assumption that the toxins causing the discomfort would then be removed with the blood.

Only to replaced with the quantum leap in medicinal advance with the introduction of leaches.

Who can you rely on for information?

The Hospital SOS Campaign or your local political parties and assorted councilors and politicos?

Hospital SoS is now defunct having served its purpose that of providing Grant Shapps with street cred in the Tory party, and its also helped Mike Hobday towards the same end. They have been ALL busily working with the PCT to help carve up our health care provisions.

Whichever major party you voted for in the local elections the Main 3 agree with the privatization of the NHS.

We are the only people locally who will NEVER lie about their motives and can always be relied upon to tell the truth about what’s being done to OUR: NHS; Hospital & Welfare State.

Y Gwerin Index Earth Film Club Gweriniaeth Draig QEII Campaign Public