CCGs. Cost Effectiveness? Effectiveness?

To the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary:
For Clarity - Attempt 564:

564) CCGs. Cost Effectiveness? Effectiveness?

Dear Mr Clark,

The charity Parkinson's UK (Continuing to care?) and an individual, Fleur Perry (disabledgo) made freedom of information act requests to all the CCGs in England. Many of those CCGs either didn't bother to respond to their requests or sent back doctored information.

Thanks to Fleur Perry's efforts we now know that CCGs apparently have, "finite resources" and are planning, "cost effective packages of care." 

However, this fiscal responsibility does not extend to their chief executives' remuneration packages:
"E-reward, an online pay research service, analysed the pay of more than 2.500 managers at 211 CCGs in England in 2015. They reported that 56% of 225 top executives - chief officers and chief finance officers - were paying themselves more than the salary range recommended by NHS England of £95.000 and £125.000 a year."

Belt slackening for those at the top but belt tightening for the rest of us. The shared society in practice.

Top executives' generosity to themselves knows no limits - certainly not those recommended by NHS England. Recommendations are only that - recommendations to be ignored like those freedom of information act requests made by concerned members of the public.

I now know why my data protection act request to Livewell Southwest Ltd wasn't fully complied with - certain healthcare professionals and the organisations they run refuse to be held accountable.

An Act of Parliament? Just ignore it.

Are these people actually healthcare professionals or simply functionaries of a secretive and unaccountable part of a newly rigged market in health? And is the English taxpayer getting value for money? NHS England has a statutory duty under the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 to conduct annual assessments of every CCG in England. They rate CCGs on 6 categories. This is how NHS South Devon and Torbay and NHS NEW Devon performed in 2015 -2016:
- NHS South Devon and Torbay CCG;
Inadequate / Inadequate / Good / Inadequate / Inadequate / Requires improvement.
- NHS NEW Devon CCG;
Inadequate / Requires improvement / Good / Requires improvement / Inadequate / Requires imp.

Ipsos MORI didn't ask CCGs questions relating to NHS funded nursing care.

The largest group sampled by Ipsos MORI in this annual statutory assessment were doctors and their confidence in CCGs has declined each year over a three year period.

We don't know how CCGs arrive at their decisions regarding NHS funded nursing care because they won't say. We don't even know if they collect data on those decisions but we do know that they often refuse to share what information they do have. We do know CCGs will be, "cost effective" due to, "finite resources." Finite resources that have been drastically depleted by the annual burden of having to meet top executives' excessive pay demands.

212 shiny new troughs all big enough to accommodate those hundreds of rooting snouts.

Meanwhile care workers have to get by on the minimum wage. One care worker told me they have to pay for their own petrol to get from one patient to the next, pay for their own mobile phone bills to stay in touch with high command  and pay for their own parking fines should they incur one whilst in the course of their professional health caring duties. He also didn't know how many hours work he would get from one week to the next.

In 4.2 Views of governance, Ipsos Mori report;
"... the proportion who think these arrangements are effective has fallen significantly since 2015 and 2014. ... GP member practices are less likely to feel that their suggestions are listened to or taken on board by the CCG then they have been in previous years."

Governance?

Unite The Union surveyed the 3.392 CCG board members in 2015 and reported that 513 were directors of private healthcare companies: 140 owned such businesses and 105 carried out external work for them. More than 400 board members were shareholders in such companies.

Does the "CC" in CCG stand for cosy club or crony capitalism?

In short:
Excessive pay + a refusal to be held accountable for the ludicrous decisions made in determining NHS funded nursing care cases + questionable governance + conflicts of interest = a national scandal in the newly rigged market in so-called healthcare.

Q. Mr Clark, why isn't each and every decision regarding NHS funded nursing care fully explained, fully documented and made available for public scrutiny?

Yours sincerely,
Steve Gilbert.

The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign is at: www.blogger.com