Pride, anger and defiance on display at Exeter Library

There was standing room only at a public meeting organised by KONP South West and 38 Degrees in Exeter on Monday evening.   

The packed meeting heard from five keynote speakers who described the threats now faced by the NHS. They then suggested ways in which the fight to protect the NHS could be taken forward. These will involve action that individuals can take, as well as group activities. All the proposals were received enthusiastically.

The Exeter meeting was the third to be held in Devon, bringing together signatories of the 38 Degrees online petitions aimed at the new Clinical Commissioning Groups [CCGs] for the county area.  Earlier gatherings were in Sidmouth and Chudleigh, while a fourth had been arranged in Plymouth yesterday [30th October].  To date, over 4,700 signatures have been added to the Devon petition asking CCGs to preserve NHS principles and practices as they take responsibility for health provision. 

Geoff Barr began by outlining the main features of the so-called “reforms”, explaining the change from PCTs to CCGs and the role of National Commissioning Board and Monitor.  He also pointed out the disgraceful switch from Andrew Lansley’s promise not to compel CCGs to privatise, to his, and now Jeremy Hunt’s, instruction to commissioners to put various services out to tender immediately.  

A key speaker was Rosemary Whitbread, who had attended the Chudleigh meeting, which had attracted 60 people. She explained what she had discovered about the limited capacity for service users to be heard or involved in the new decision-making processes. She urged everybody to sign up to the Patients’ Participation Groups [PPGs] now set up in most GP practices.  “Make sure they are not just an e-mail exercise,” she stressed.

She also raised a concern that the Devon County Council may be considering tenders even now for the management of a Local Health Watch (LHW) scheme, a body she thought should be independent and very much informed by the Patient Voice. As only a handful of the 100 present had ever heard of LINK (LHW’s predecessor), real fears were expressed from the floor lest tendering for such an independent monitoring body might lead to outcomes like that of the outsourcing of Devon’s Children’s Services.

Plymouth GP, Richard Byng, explained his personal view. This was that the NHS was not perfect and that there may be possibilities for improvement and innovation under the new structures. For example, he declared his own interest as being involved in social-enterprise providers in Plymouth.  However, he remained strongly opposed to the mass takeover of provision by the big corporations which operated only on a profit basis.  

UNISON’s Chris Musgrave spoke powerfully about the threat posed by the South West Regional Pay Consortium, or cartel.  The proposals brought forward by them were “a massive attack on public sector workers”, not only in the NHS, but eventually throughout the sector.  By extension, they also threatened major economic impacts in the region as spending power was reduced.  He noted with pleasure that 3 of the region’s 20 NHS Trusts had already rejected the proposals, as had Plymouth, Exeter and Cornwall Councils, in addition to Ben Bradshaw MP and several Tory MPs in the region.  

He urged people to join in the continuing action against the proposals and this was warmly received as was the contribution from Jack Davies, a Public and Commercial Services Union official speaking as a patient, parent and citizen.  His reminder of the origins of the NHS and the Welfare State, both now under threat, was loudly applauded.  They were ours to be proud of and to defend.  

In open session, there were many strong points made and incisive questions posed.  There was intense anger over the threat that was seen and also at the lack of transparency in the whole process.  

Gordon Read, who chaired the meeting, noted that “there was a strong determination to defy the worst features of the changes. For example, there was considerable support for patients to hand to GPs a personal declaration that they wished only to receive NHS treatment [thus exercising the “choice” that is supposedly theirs under the Act].”

“A working group will examine best ways to introduce the CCG constitutional amendments to the Devon bodies.  And we will strive to watch to developments in Local Health Watch (LHW) and other new bodies. More meetings are bound to follow!”