Shropshire Star: Kind of PM to think of England

The following letter was published in tonight’s Shropshire Star. Unfortunately, whilst editing it they took out “in England” from the end of the first line which makes the whole letter ambiguous.

Kind of PM to think of England

How kind of Gordon Brown, the MP for Kikcaldy and Cowdenbeath in Scotland, to find some loose change down the back of the sofa to pay for free prescriptions for cancer patients.

I remember when my own mother was recovering from cancer the last thing she needed was the worry of how to pay for prescriptions when she was unable to work.

However, when considering Mr Brown’s generosity, it should be remembered that in Wales nobody has paid for a prescription for nearly two years now.

And any of Gordon Brown’s constituents in Scotland suffering from long-term of permanent illnesses haven’t paid for prescriptions for some time. Already 92 per cent of prescriptions dispensed in Scotland are free of charge.

Stuart Parr
Telford

English hospitals refuse to treat Welsh

A row has erupted over Welsh patients being treated in English hospitals thanks to North Bristol NHS Trust.

Back in July 2006 Oswestry Hospital threatened to stop accepting Welsh patients because Powys Local Health Board wasn't paying its bills. An agreement was reached to prevent it happening at Oswestry but now North Bristol is having the same problem only this time the situation hasn't been resolved amicably and Welsh patients are no longer being admitted to their hospitals.

The Western Mail (a Welsh newspaper) suggests that the "row over NHS access is frankly ridiculous" and that North Bristol should continue to treat Welsh patients that they're not being paid to treat despite having a statutory obligation to ensure that they remain financially viable. The example of Shrewsbury & Telford NHS Trust continuing to treat Welsh patients despite an annual cost of £2m to do so is cited as an example: "If it can be made to work in Mid Wales and Telford and Shrewsbury, North Bristol NHS Trust needs to provide a pretty compelling case as to why it can’t work there".

What happened in Shropshire clearly wasn't a one-off but the question now has to be how many times this has happened in the past and whether this is going to keep on happening in the future. The English taxpayer already subsidises the superior Welsh health service, English hospitals treat Welsh patients at a reduced cost to their Local Health Board and now it looks like English hospitals are treating Welsh patients for free because Welsh Local Health Boards aren't paying their bills.

I have phoned the reporter who wrote this story and explained that it's not fair that English NHS Trusts should be expected to make concessions when the English already subsidise the Welsh NHS and when English hospitals are providing services to Welsh patients at reduced prices. She said she hadn't thought about it in that way and agreed that it wasn't fair and that she would do some more investigation into cross-border health services.

Shropshire & Telford NHS Trust loses £2m per year treating Welsh patients

The following letter has been sent to the press in the West Midlands and Shropshire MPs:

Tom Taylor, Chief Executive of the Shrewsbury & Telford NHS Trust, has confirmed what the Shropshire branch of the Campaign for an English Parliament has been saying for the last couple of years – that treating Welsh patients in Shropshire hospitals is costing millions of pounds that could be spent treating English patients.

Mr Taylor says that treating Welsh patients in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford is costing the Trust £2m per year because of differences in funding and targets.

The Campaign for an English Parliament doesn’t have a problem with Welsh patients being treated in English hospitals but the NHS Trusts involved have a responsibility to ensure that in treating patients from another country they don’t compromise the treatment of patients living in England. It isn’t unreasonable to expect the Welsh government to pay the going rate for medical treatment in England, especially when in some cases they are entitled to medication in English hospitals that English patients aren’t allowed simply because they are Welsh. Who says the world had seen the end of apartheid when white rule ended in South Africa?

The differences in medical treatment are a result of the botched devolution settlement introduced by Labour in 1997 which gave Scotland and Wales their own governments to handle domestic affairs but left the same English affairs in the hands of British MPs representing all four home nations.

Mr Taylor said that it would be much easier for the Trust if the “English Parliament” made Wales pay the going rate and said “this can only be resolved through the financial allocations between the Government of England and the devolved Welsh Assembly”. The fact that Mr Taylor believes there is an “English Parliament” or a “Government in England” to represent English interests when England hasn’t had a government for over 300 years shows a disturbing lack of understanding of the reason why his hospitals are losing so much money every year. Like most of us in England, Mr Taylor and the Shropshire & Telford NHS Trust would be benefit enormously from the creation of an English Parliament to represent the interests of English people like the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly do for Scottish and Welsh people.

Stuart Parr
Shropshire Branch
Campaign for an English Parliament

Shropshire Star: Concern grows on 'health apartheid'

The following article appears in tonight's Shropshire Star:

Concern grows on 'health apartheid'

A member of a Shropshire political group has criticised the "health apartheid" of the NHS, which he claims is responsible for county patients receiving poorer services that those in Scotland and Wales.

Stuart Parr, of the Shropshire branch of the Campaign for an English Parliament, says people who live in the county are being discriminated against and claims that it is even tantamount to a form of racism.

He has written to all five Shropshire MP's asking for support for a fairer system.

It comes as Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski has written to the Health Minister asking for hospital trusts to be banned from charging Blue Badge holders.

Mr Parr's letter refers to the announcement by the Welsh Assembly Government that Welsh hospital parking charges will end, while patients in England will pay.

Letter to Shropshire MPs re Health Apartheid

Dear MP,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Campaign for an English Parliament’s members in Shropshire, some of whom are constituents of yours.

There have been three examples of NHS apartheid this week:

1. The Welsh Assembly has announced that it is abolishing parking charges at all Welsh hospitals. In Scotland hospital parking charges are capped at £3 per day but only 6% of hospitals charge. In Northern Ireland, only 20% of hospitals charge for parking. In England, 92% of hospitals charge for parking and a significant number of hospitals are netting in excess of £1m per year in parking charges.
   
   
2. An inhaler has been developed that is absorbed into the body much easier than current mainstream inhalers which will help the estimated three quarters of asthmatics who don’t have the lung capacity to take inhalers properly to get their medication more effectively. The Scottish Medical Consortium has approved the inhaler for use on the NHS free of charge. The inhaler is not available in England with the laughably named National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE – ironic isn’t it?) promising a decision some time later in the year.
   
   
3. Prescription charges are rising once again at around five times the rate of inflation. But only in England. In Wales all prescriptions are free of charge. In Scotland 93% are dispensed free of charge and prescription charges for the remaining 7% are capped at £5.

The superior health service experienced in Wales and Scotland is only possible because they have their own devolved government looking after their interests and ever-increasing multi-billion pound subsidies from the English taxpayer courtesy of successive Scottish Chancellors. Do you think that your constituents in England deserve the same health service that the rest of the UK experiences or do you think that they deserve to continue paying more and more for an inferior health service whilst continuing to subsidise the superior service enjoyed by the rest of the UK? What do you intend to do to highlight the racial discrimination in the provision of health services in the UK that discriminates against the English majority?

Stuart Parr
Campaign for an English Parliament
Shropshire Branch

No Mandate, No Foundation Hospitals

The Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust is applying for Foundation Hospital status.

Since their inception Foundation Hospitals have consistently underachived and failed to bring the benefits promised to patients.

It is worth remembering that the Foundation Hospitals Bill was rejected by a majority of MPs elected in England and was passed only with the votes of Labour MPs elected in Scotland. The Scottish Parliament subsequently rejected a bill that would have created Foundation Hospitals north of the border.