Following a Parliamentary Question, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop, has today (15^th May 2012) found out that it has cost the public purse over £50,000 in legal fees for the Tory-led Governments appeals against publication of the NHS risk register surround the controversial NHS re-organisation.

The latest (March 2012) estimate of counsel’s fee for work undertaken is £50,359. This does not include the costs of directly employed departmental employees who have been engaged on the issue, or of departmental legal staff.

Tom said:
“It is scandalous that, when thousands of nurses have been axed since May 2010, the Government have racked up a bill of over £50,000 to suppress the risk register associated with Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s unwanted and unnecessary NHS reorganisation.

“Many of my constituents are concerned about what the Government have in store for the NHS and the on-going refusal to publish the risk register has done nothing to allay those fears. I feel that these huge legal fees are indicative that the Government has something to hide.

“Rather than spending taxpayer money on political cover-ups, this Government should be focusing on protecting frontline services.”

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, today (13th April 2012) warned that “an unprecedented backlash” by NHS and Department for Health managers against coalition plans to introduce regional pay could – in their words – “harm health care” and has to be heeded by the prime minister.

Civil Service Chiefs at the Department of Health today warned that “rapid introduction of local pay rates for about 1 million NHS workers in England could destabilise a health service undergoing huge organisational changes and having to make £20bn worth of efficiency savings by 2015″

In a stark warning that appears to undermine a wider government desire to speedily link public sector wages to the jobs market and private sector pay in different parts of the country, the department argues that any changes must be rethought. This call came from top Department of Health civil service managers to the NHS Pay Review Body.

They said: “We would need to consider carefully the wider system reform in the NHS and the resulting organisational changes for the workforce which are still taking place. Pace-of-change decisions would need careful consideration to balance a faster realisation of the benefits of market-facing pay against the potential risks around affordability, recruitment and retention.”

Tom said:
“These health civil service chiefs have got it spot on – and they have given this warning in the face of their Tory and Liberal Democrat Ministers.   This is a brave act on their part and needs to be recognised.

“Put simply, the introduction of regional pay would mean that doctors, nurses and medical specialists working in areas like Teesside would face wage cuts.  The impact on local hospitals and primary care services would be catastrophic and could lead to valuable health professionals quitting jobs on Teesside and heading off to the leafy – and more wealthy – south.  That would be devastating to areas like ours which already have an ill health legacy of serious illnesses like cancer and heart conditions.

“Prime Minister David Cameron has to act on this warning if his Health Minister, Andrew Lansley, will not react to this message from medical experts who know, above all, what these proposals could really mean for NHS patients and their families.”

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, today described the judgement of the Supreme Court that people exposed to asbestos could again make claims on insurers as ‘crucial for many older industrial workers on Teesside’.

The Supreme Court has today (March 28th 2012) made a ruling which could allow thousands of insurance claims by families of people who died after exposure to asbestos. The court placed insurance liability at the time an employee was exposed to asbestos, not when symptoms appeared. Relatives of workers who died of the cancer mesothelioma are now free again to make claims on policies dating from the 1940s.
The new ruling by a panel of five Supreme Court justices states that the disease can be said to have been “sustained” by an employee in the period when it was caused or initiated. This is seen by experts to be crucial in that asbestosis can take years to develop, and even though the material has been phased out, there are still many thousands of people who are risk of potentially developing asbestosis.
Tom said “For many years, the big insurance companies have been putting legal obstacle after legal obstacle in front of individuals and families who wanted to make claims against insurance companies who represented their former employers. Now this has been set aside. This was disgraceful and shameful behaviour.

This ruling now means people who are yet to be given the devastating news that they have the deadly illness, but knew they were exposed to asbestos in their working life can now be comforted by knowing that their families can get access to justice and receive the financial security they need. This is crucial for many on Teesside who, in their former working lives worked in industries like shipbuilding, steel and chemicals where asbestos was once widely used. This is one small victory for these workers, and I hope very much that we do not get any rogue insurers trying yet again to try and reverse this judgement on appeal.”

Tom Blenkinsop, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, is today (Wednesday 7th March 2012) set to formally present a 700 signature petition to Parliament, calling on the Government to abandon its unpopular, expensive and unnecessary Health and Social Care Bill.

Tom has joined Labour Party and trade union activists in collecting signatures for this petition over the past few weeks, talking to constituents throughout his constituency, from Saltburn to Coulby Newham and Marton.

Tom said “When I’ve been talking to local people about the Government’s proposed changes to the NHS, it has become very clear people do not want them.

People in East Cleveland and Teesside love the NHS, and the last thing we need right now from this government is privatisation and wasting billions on unnecessary bureaucratic changes.

The Government has no mandate to implement these changes. Neither the Lib Dems nor the Tories had this Bill in their manifesto, and it did not form part of the Coalition agreement.

These are changes that it seems no one outside the Government and private medical industry wants. Doctors oppose them; nurses oppose them; the public opposes them; and patients oppose them. They are so unpopular that thousands of people are set to protest against them in London this afternoon.

I hope Health Secretary Andrew Lansley and David Cameron will listen to my constituents’ concerns, and drop this disastrous policy.”

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom BLenkinsop, today (January 19th 2012) slammed what he called the ‘utter indifference’ and ‘abdication of responsibility’ by Health Minister, Andrew Lansley over plans by the South Tees Hospitals Trust to close a ward at Guisborough Hospital.

The Truest plan to shut the Chaloner ward with a loss of a number of beds, a move that, according to Tom ‘could presage the total closure of the site over time’.

Tom said “I have vowed to try and halt the closure of this hospital ward which specialises in recuperation, respite care and care for the frail elderly, as I fear that the loss of the whole ward would raise costs and thereby give a reason for the total closure of the hospital at a later date.

Only a week or so ago I asked Mr Lansley how he valued such local hospital facilities and I got a honeyed reply saying that issues like local care and local recuperation were essential for a fully responsive health service. Given this, I then tackled him on why he could not put a block on the plans to shut the Chaloner Ward. He ducked an open answer, saying he would write to me.

I now have his letter, and it is clear that he is going to make no move whatsoever to take action on this local issue. He says that patients will not suffer and ‘he has been told that there are no current plans to shut the hospital’. Evasive language like that fools no-one. What does ‘current plans’ mean? It is the language of bureaucrats not wishing to make a full honest commitment to the maintenance of services on the site. It shows the utter indifference on the part of Andrew Lansley towards the patients and staff at Guisborough, and is an abdication of his ministerial responsibility to maintain a local NHS hospital presence in East Cleveland.”

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, today (November 22nd) demanded that NHS chiefs on Teesside seek a way of blocking new bedside TV advertising from Coalition Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, which is now being piped into hospital patient TV systems.

Andrew Lansley has today launched a so called ‘welcome message’ which is played on a continuous loop in English hospitals and in which he tells patients their care “really matters to me”. His face appears on bedside screens every few minutes, asking people to thank staff looking after them.

Tom said “this is utterly grotesque, and reminds me of George Orwell’s novel ’1984′ where every citizen had to have a compulsory viewing screen in their rooms so that Big Brother could watch them at all times.”

“But this is not only grotesque, but potentially harmful. After all, the last thing anyone recovering from surgery or illness needs is seeing the health secretary’s mugshot on a permanent loop. Hospital TV’s are useful as they can give information about a hospital and its services. If people end up – as I believe they will – turning these sets off to escape Big Brother Lansley, they may well also miss vital information from the hospital itself.”

“I want to know from Hospital Trust chiefs across Teesside if these messages will be appearing on screens at James Cook University Hospital, North Tees Hospital and local community hospital units, and if there are ways in which their senior managers can try to bar Lansley’s propagandising at the taxpayer’s expense.”

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, today (November 7th 2011) revealed that GP’s and health professionals are now being asked to sign up to educational modules on ‘how to make cuts to services’ following any implementation of the Coalition Government’s Health and Social Care Bill which seeks to make GP’s direct commissioners of medical care.

Tom said “The respected medical magazine ‘Pulse’ is now advertising these courses, which, in their words, will advise GP’s and local practice managers on ‘a step-by-step guide to decommissioning – boosting productivity and helping keep budgets under control’.”

“Pulse says the objectives are to give ‘GP-focused advice on decommissioning’, including:

* Understanding what you are currently commissioning, and patient needs
* Identifying services that may not be providing value for money
* Holding a contract review meeting with provider
* Ensuring robust stakeholder engagement
* Ensuring that you comply with competition rules

In other words – how to make cuts, deal with the new private outside competitors who are emerging and how to deal with the resulting patient criticism!”

“I need to say that I am not blaming Pulse Magazine for doing this. They are merely having to deal with what will come from this ill-advised and damaging Bill when or if its provisions are enacted. The fact that courses like this for your local GP’s are even having to considered, is an indictment of the Government’s claim that this Bill was in the public interest. Clearly, this shows it is not.”