Out Now
People's Inquiry -
Second Report
Since the first report was published we have seen a deepening divide between London's Clinical Commissioning Groups and the hospitals, mental health and community health service trusts which deliver frontline services.
This report shows that while almost all CCGs are running surpluses, almost all of the hospital trusts, which have no voice on health spending, face rapidly growing deficits.
While almost every politician and NHS manager talks about "integrating health and social care", we can see that the Health and Social Care Act 2012 has further fragmented London's health services, sets organisations in conflict and competition with each other, leaving patients caught in the middle ...
The People's Inquiry +1
One year later, we’re back to see what has changed
The People's Inquiry into London's NHS, which published a substantial report
London's NHS at the Crossroads in March of this year, after gathering written submissions and holding a series of well-attended public sessions, is back again to follow up.
For the first Inquiry seven public hearings and one closed session for staff were held during the autumn and early winter of 2013-14, and heard contributions from 95 people, including NHS commissioners, providers, hospital and primary care doctors and other NHS staff and their representative organisations, local politicians, academics, pensioners groups, campaigners and patients.
All of the details of the first Inquiry are available on this website. This follow-up Inquiry is again made possible by the generous sponsorship of Unite the union, which last time distinguished itself by its unselfish support, allowing the Panel to choose who to speak to, what to ask, and to shape our own recommendations.
An eventful year has now elapsed since that evidence was first gathered, and it is clear that on a number of fronts the situation we were exploring then has moved on.
For example there has been a substantial shift of attitude by all of the major parties to our first major recommendation: "Review the spending constraints that threaten the future of services".
There have also been important developments in government policy on mental health and its profile in the policies of all parties. And the financial and resource problems of delivering and sustaining GP services and primary care have repeatedly been in the headlines.
Our follow-up Inquiry will again be conducted with the same independent Panel, chaired by Roy Lilley (see
details). Our researcher once again is Dr John Lister.
However to fit in with time and publication constraints we will streamline the process this time and hold only two evidence-gathering sessions in December, in which those giving evidence appear only before the Panel. Transcripts will be taken and published.
We hope our report, to be published in early February, will help to put London's NHS, its strengths and weaknesses, firmly on the political agenda in advance of the unfolding pre-election period. We hope that by supplying us with your views and information you will help us to do this effectively.
Landmark report published
A landmark report on London's NHS has been published which highlights a cash strapped and fragmented health service – and proposes an 18-point plan to save the capital's NHS.
The report, London's NHS at the crossroads, outlines an unravelling of services as the NHS becomes more fragmented and financially squeezed. This is coupled with a management vacuum at the strategic level – with the public having no real voice in decisions that affect them.
Available for download:
As things get tough, it's even tougher if you go it alone and there is nobody to stand up for you. Unite is Britain's biggest union.
