DEFEND THE WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL COALITION

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March 4th, 2021

e-mail, sent 27th October 2018

Also please see below, Disability Action in Islington are running a number of open meetings next week.

DAI Open Meetings October & November 2018

Date	Event Name & Description	Venue & Time	Joining Us:

Monday 29^th Oct	Talk About Access A walk around Finsbury Park area to look at the area from an access point of view. We will be joined by worker from Islington Council Traffic & Engineering Dept with a view to gathering opinions & developing an ongoing wider campaign to improve accessibility around roads and highways across the borough.	Outside Finsbury Park Station Main Entrance 2pm meet 3pm finish	Leanna Dinnegan Traffic & Engineering Islington Council

Tuesday 30^th Oct	Welfare Reforms in Islington – How can we respond? As PIP & Universal Credit are rolling out across Islington, disabled people are finding these and other welfare reforms are causing devastating hardship and distress. How can we respond? What actions can we take to support each other, capture what’s going on and fight back?	Disability Action in Islington Unit 3 Marquess Estate Saint Pauls Road Islington N1 2SY 7pm start 8:30 finish	Patrick Lynch Welfare Rights Volunteer Adviser DAI

Wednesday 31^st Oct	Housing – The demand for affordable, accessible housing Islington is the most densely populated borough in England & Wales, with around 3 times the national average of people per square kilometre. It has one of the highest numbers of disabled people per head of population. On average, about 1% of Council housing allocated each year is regarded as fully accessible. How do we address this crisis locally? What rights do we have around housing, housing services & how resources (money, the law and housing stock) are used?	Disability Action in Islington Unit 3 Marquess Estate Saint Pauls Road Islington N1 2SY 7pm start 8:30 finish	London Renters Union

Thursday 1^st Nov	Islington – What’s the issue? With Transport for London reducing over a dozen bus services, many affecting Islington residents; with the Council budget cut by 70%; with most than half of people who need Social Care not getting any – What are the important issues facing disabled people in Islington & how do we tackle these? How do we raise awareness and organise ourselves to take action?	Disability Action in Islington Unit 3 Marquess Estate Saint Pauls Road Islington N1 2SY 7pm start 8:30 finish	TBC

We welcome your feedback – do look at our website pages, Facebook and twitter.

www.dwhc.org.uk

@dwhcoalition

#SaveTheWhittington

e-mail, sent 26th October 2018

Hi Everyone,

This is to remind you that we are holding our planning meeting at 6.30 this Tuesday at Archway Methodist Hall . This is your opportunity to catch up on and contribute to our campaign. The Agenda is below and I have attached the minutes of the last meeting.

If you are unable to join us, but would like to raise issues, do let us know through this email address, our Facebook , Twitter or website – details below.

Planning Meeting

Tuesday 30th October 6.30-8.00

at Archway Methodist Hall

Agenda

Welcome and apologies
Minutes and matters arising
Update
Feedback from meeting with Whittington Health management
Estate Strategy
Get Rydon Out campaign – court case? Our activity
Integrated Care Providers’ Contract
Other National Issues – other campaigns
Date of next meeting
AOB

e-mail, sent 9th October 2018

Hi all

Im passing on this Justice4NHS request for donations to help thier appeakl against Integrated Care Providers

I t could be the last chance to stop these as they are planned for April 2019 and some are already on trial

Please join over 1600 people who have taken action to stop this. A donation will help fund a legal challenge to this contract in the Court of Appeal later this autumn. http://bit.ly/999CourtofAppeal

Details below . And I will send more later from KONP on this

Rod

The NHS is facing an onslaught of cuts. More and more people are unable to get the healthcare we are entitled to.Now NHS England wants to introduce a cost-cutting Accountable Care Organisation contract designed to

“manage demand” for NHS services.

Please join over 1600 people who have taken action to stop this. A donation will help fund a legal challenge to this contract in the Court of Appeal later this autumn. http://bit.ly/999CourtofAppeal

This legal challenge is the only way of stopping this conctract. We have to seize this chance.

Otherwise Clinical Commissioning Groups around the country will use the contract – now rebranded as the Integrated Care Provider contract – from April 2019.

If they do, a whole range of NHS services will be subject to the same kind of cuts and pressures as acute (serious)

mental health services.

Because the new contract is designed to “manage demand” for a WHOLE RANGE OF NHS SERVICES in a given area- in the same way as mental health services contracts already operate.

It is now normal for there to be NO hospital beds for acute mental health patients in their own area. They areroutinely taken by ambulance across the country to wherever there’s a hospital bed. And at times this year, therehave been NO acute mental health beds free ANYWHERE in the country.

This new 10 year contract would lock in such “demand management”, along with new “care models” that arebased on the USA’s Medicare/Medicaid system. This only provides limited health care for people who can’t afford

private health insurance.

A new government would be powerless to stop and reverse these measures, because the contracts would lockthem in for 10 years.

Act Local, Think National! Local NHS campaigns together with national 999 Call for the NHS are joining the dotsbetween the cuts that they’re fighting in their areas, and the Integrated Care Provider contract that 999 Call for

the NHS will challenge in the Court of Appeal.

Please help this last ditch attempt to stop this contract. Here’s the link again http://bit.ly/999CourtofAppeal

The petition STOP the plans to dismantle our NHS needs 800 more signatures to reach 30,000! Can you help spread the word by forwarding the link below to your friends?

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-plans-to-dismantle-our-nhs

Thanks for everything you do and apologies for the print changing sizes. I don’t know why.

Christine

https://www.facebook.com/999CallForTheNhs/photos/a.442686249155236/1877766842313829/?type=3&theater

Christine Hyde started this campaign on the 38 Degrees Campaigns by You website. If there’s an issue close to your heart that you’d like to campaign on, you can start your campaign here.

e-mail, sent 23rd June 2018

We got Rydon Out of Our Hospital!?! – Update + one FREE ticket to the Tolpuddle Festival!

Hi Everybody,

You might have heard by now that Steve Hitchins, Chair of the Board at Whittington Health has told a senior local labour figure that the Board would not sign the contract with Rydon. The Hospital will not confirm this, except to say that Rydon are likely to sue because the procurement process has started. However the actual ten year planning contracts have not been signed… Of course Rydon/Ryhurst could threaten legal action. If they do we will be calling for mass action to fill Holloway Road with protesters!

The Board, led by their Chair, Steve Hitchins and CEO Siobhan Harrington, have behaved incredibly irresponsibly unethically and unsafely. It has been a year since the dreadful Grenfell Tower tragedy where 72 people lost their lives due to appallingly unsafe renovations inside and outside the tower. And yet every single member of our Hospital Board voted to “procure” the company that did these unsafe renovations (detailed in our last email) to manage our Estate Strategy. The information as to Rydon’s unsafe practices was known prior to the fire because the Grenfell tenants had informed Kensington and Chelsea Council of their specific concerns about their non fire-proof building. The information is and was on the internet.

We immediately expressed our deep concerns when we knew of the decision to employ Ryhurst/Rydon in October 2017. They have ignored us. And yet we have been proved right.

We think that this appalling decision-taking means that it is time for the Board, and in particular the Chair of the Board, Steve Hitchins, to resign.

Recent Update

Last Thursday and Saturday we participated in the Silent March for Grenfell and the Justice For Grenfell demonstration. Again, people were horrified and sickened that our hospital should have any dealings with Rydon,

On Sunday night we sent the attached letter to the Board of Whittington Health identifying the unsafe practices of Rydon and calling on them to:

i) terminate all dealings with Rydon.

ii) manage the Estate Strategy in house

iii) be transparent in their contract details with any future building contracts, to demonstrate probity, soundness in good building practice, and good will to the community that it serves.

This letter was copied to MPs, councillors, NHS Improvement, local Health Scrutiny committees, the press, etc.etc.

On Tuesday 14th June, local MPS Jeremy Corbyn, Emily Thornberry and Catherine West sent the attached letter to Martin Klute, Chair of the Islington Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee.

It looks as if we actually have succeeded in getting Rydon out of our hospital.

Of course the decision to even contemplate the appointment of this disgraced and disgraceful company was utterly reprehensible. This mess has gone on for a year, during which we lost Simon Pleydell, the best possible Chief Executive of our Hospital.

Great Report in this week’s IslingtonTribune http://islingtontribune.com/article/whittington-set-to-axe-deal-with-grenfell-firm

What’s Next

We await confirmation from the Whittington Health as to decisions taken
We campaign to Get Hitchins Out of Our Hospital, and for the Board to resign
We attend the #OurNHS70 Demo – Free for all Forever! Celebrate and Demonstrate on Saturday 30th June, 12.00, Portland Place, W1A (see https://www.healthcampaignstogether.com)
We attend the Whittington Big7 Tea Party and open day 5 July 2018 2:00pm – 7:00pm The Whittington Hospital, Magdala Avenue London,
Planning Meeting and Celebration 6.30, 26 July 2018 at the Archway Methodist Centre

PLUS! – if you’d like to go to this year’s Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival there is one free ticket going to anyone who would like to help carry the DWHC banner on the traditional procession through the village on Sunday 22nd July, marching alongside union banners to celebrate unity, strength and solidarity. More info to be found at www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/festival. If you’d like to join this fun + solidarity day out then send an email to defendwhittington@gmail.com for more information.

We would like to thank you all for your support – we could not have done it without you.

Shirley Franklin

Chair

Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition

We welcome your feedback – do look at our website pages, Facebook and twitter.

www.dwhc.org.uk

@dwhcoalition

#SaveTheWhittington

e-mail, sent 18th July 2018

UPDATE

We celebrated the 70th birthday of our NHS at the Whittington Hospital, where there were interesting displays of some of the integrated health care work and research going on in the hospital and the community. We are so proud of this work and so impressed with the special personalised health care and warmth from the staff of the hospital. Big thanks to all of you.

We also marched, for our NHS on 30th June, along with Unison and 40,000 other people. It was great to meet up with Adam Kay, author of This May Hurt, an hysterical and moving and informative account of his experience as a Junior Doctor.

Jackie Taylor

We have terribly sad news about Whittington Hospital Unison rep and founder member of our coalition, Jackie Taylor, who sadly passed away peacefully last Wednesday. Jackie was always such a warm person, and a real fighter for the Hospital, its workers and the NHS. She will be deeply missed.

Her funeral will take place at 11am on Wednesday July 25^th at Islington Crematorium, 278 High Road N2 9AG. The funeral cortege will be stopping outside the Whittington, Highgate Hill side, at approximately 10.30am.

There will be a celebration of her life after the funeral at the Whittington Stone from 1pm.

All are welcome.

Next Planning Meeting

Our next planning meeting is on Thursday 26th July, 6.30pm, at Archway Methodist Hall (Minutes and agenda attached).

The main item on our agenda will relate to our future plans.

We have now resumed contact with Management at the Hospital but are unable to bring ourselves to talk with either the CEO or Chair of the Board after the recent appalling decision to employ Rydon. So we meet with the Strategy Director. We were horrified at our first meeting when he suggested the possibility of Whittington providing private health care, to supplement its income. We are so proud of our hospital that currently has not one private bed!

So we anticipate discussions about stopping this sort of privatisation as well as the other private companies that are working there eg Sodexo, the IT company and the Pharmacy. If they can manage their new Estate Strategy in-house, then all services should be in-house!

AGENDA DWHC Planning Meeting, 26th July 2018 6.30-8.00pm,

at Archway Methodist Hall

1. Welcome and Apologies for Absence

2. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising

3. Update – Resurrection of discussions at Whittington

4. Final Update on Rydon/Ryhurst Campaign

5. Discussion on future activities

6. AOB

Coverage of Get Rydon Out Campaign in Islington Tribune

Initial Reaction to Ryhurst

http://islingtontribune.com/article/sell-offs-will-spark-protest-hospital-told?sp=2&sq=ryhurst http://islingtontribune.com/article/whittington-deal-protesters-tell-board-keep-private-hands-off-our-hospital?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520frankli

http://islingtontribune.com/article/sell-offs-will-spark-protest-hospital-told?sp=2&sq=ryhurst

Jeremy Corbyn comments plus open letter

http://islingtontribune.com/article/protest-inside-whittington-hospital-board-meeting-over-property-deal-with-grenfell-tower-contractor?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

http://islingtontribune.com/article/corbyn-nhs-having-to-sell-off-land-to-survive?sp=2&sq=ryhurst

Protest and lobby of the Board

http://islingtontribune.com/article/protest-inside-whittington-hospital-board-meeting-over-property-deal-with-grenfell-tower-contractor?sp=2&sq=ryhurst

Hitchins says Hospital will close if deal fails

http://islingtontribune.com/article/hospital-will-close-if-deal-fails?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

Update on campaign

http://islingtontribune.com/article/protesters-ramp-up-pressure-over-hospital-contract

Letter to Tribune

http://camdennewjournal.com/article/whittington-hospital-must-axe-this-contract

Private patients on the plans

http://islingtontribune.com/article/hospitals-plans-create-space-for-private-patients?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

Letter re threatened closure

http://islingtontribune.com/article/is-whittington-boss-scaremongering-by-saying-hospital-will-close?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

Justice for Grenfell comments

http://islingtontribune.com/article/whittington-hospital-link-to-grenfell-tower-firm-is-disgusting?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

Cheshire hospitals ditch deals with Rydon

http://islingtontribune.com/article/deals-with-grenfell-contractor-are-ditched-up-north?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

Public Meeting

http://islingtontribune.com/article/coalition-well-fight-nhs-sell-off-on-streets?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

Letter re Rydon/Ryhurst

http://islingtontribune.com/article/we-say-get-rydon-out-of-whittington-hospital-deal-now?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

Delay to Contract

http://islingtontribune.com/article/whittington-partnership-with-grenfell-contractor-still-delayed?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

Open Letter

http://islingtontribune.com/article/protest-inside-whittington-hospital-board-meeting-over-property-deal-with-grenfell-tower-contractor?sp=2&sq=ryhurst

Victory

http://islingtontribune.com/article/whittington-set-to-axe-deal-with-grenfell-firm?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

Victory Confirmed!

http://islingtontribune.com/article/official-hospital-to-scrap-its-deal-with-grenfell-firm?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

Letter to Tribune after the victory http://islingtontribune.com/article/whittington-hospital-estate-u-turn-is-welcome?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

With Jeremy Corbyn At 30th June NHS Demonstration http://islingtontribune.com/article/corbyn-praise-for-whittington-campaign-victory?sp=1&sq=Shirley%2520franklin

With thanks for all your support this year.

We look forward to seeing you again!

Shirley Franklin
Chair
Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition

Comments are closed.

WHAT WE STAND FOR:
* We are opposed to the rundown, closure or privatisation of all hospitals and hospital departments and any other key health services.
* We want to stop the sell-off of our NHS, or bits of it, to private corporations.
* We call for the repeal of the Health and Social Care Act - the government measure which opened the way for big private companies to take over our hospitals and health services and shut them down if they don't make enough profit.
* We call for full funding of our NHS to meet our health needs, free at the point of delivery.
* We want to see a fully funded mental health service that meets the varying mental health needs of our community, in residential or community-based settings.
* We are proud of our caring staff at the Hospital, and welcome the diversity of the staff.