Keep Our NHS Public has created this letter for you to invite fellow campaigners to respond to NHS England’s consultation on Integrating Care. You can find more about the consultation on our Integrating Care landing page.
Dear —-
Integrating Care: Why NHS England is getting it wrong
NHS England (NHSE) is consulting on their latest plans for ‘integrating care’, including changes to legislation.
The proposals include a top-down re-organisation of the NHS in England abolishing CCGs, replacing them with 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), statutory bodies under tight financial control from the centre and with even less public accountability. The result will be massive new opportunities for the private sector through the ‘Health Systems Support Framework’ (HSSF). While ICSs will find it difficult to work in real partnership with others such as local authorities in addressing health inequalities, proposals will allow private companies representation on an ICS Board.
Despite the short notice we hope you can respond to the consultation, which has a deadline of 8th January.
We attach a template response to the consultation giving a range of possible answers for you to adapt.
We also attach background papers from Keep Our NHS Public:
* Our summary of what lies behind the “Integrating Care” proposals
ICSs are an organisational form adapted from the US health insurance market, and the HSSF is central to their development. This Framework has 83 NHSE-accredited companies, 22 of which are US-based. We expect legislation will result in a flood of contracts, much as the government has dished out thousands of Covid contracts, bypassing proper procurement.
* Keep Our NHS Public’s response to the legislative proposals
These include a deregulated market economy in healthcare where even the existing, limited safeguards to protect social, environmental and labour standards are removed, and where a bidder’s track record is not taken into account.
Further detailed critiques of Integrating Care are available on the KONP website. These include a critique of the proposed structure and management of ICSs as revealed in NHSE’s Health Service Support Framework; critique of and proposal to bring social care under NHS management; and proposals for real democratic accountability in the planning and oversight of NHS services as well as links to recent articles on ICSs in OurNHS/Open Democracy and The Lowdown (see https://keepournhspublic.com).
The Government has yet to publish a Bill. Once it has, we look forward to your involvement in resisting this drive to disintegrate the NHS through financial mechanisms and increased corporate influence.
To reiterate, the deadline for the response is 8th January, and the link to the consultation is https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/survey/building-a-strong-integrated-care-system/
In solidarity,
Keep Our NHS Public
For those who prefer, we have a copy of the letter available to download as a Word document.