THE STP IS NO GOOD FOR ME

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2016 :: RMTnews 25 The Tory trashing and smashing of our NHS is moving up a gear. Management Consultants are being paid tens of millions to devise mega cuts to services. Spin doctors are paid millions as real doctors are squeezed and even driven out of the profession or the country. The spin doctors are pretending that our hospitals are unaffordable; too many of us are using acute services, too many dying in hospital instead of at home. Instead of going to hospital, go to your GP. Instead of going to the GP use Google, or your pharmacist. They are promoting glossy ‘healthy living’ programmes as a cover for service closures The latest vehicles for making the cuts are called Sustainability and Transformation Plans, or STPs and the way they will work is absolutely shocking. England is divided into 44 huge areas with a top bureaucrat in charge of each. Funding for NHS and local authority social care for adults is being lumped together and each of these areas instructed to make huge cuts and tender out services. All the local Councils, NHS trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups are told they must comply. Democracy is out of the window. Local people have little effective input anyway as these huge areas are far bigger than local communities. Local authority democracy, elections and voting are bypassed, along with the arrangements for public scrutiny of local NHS services. Nor was any of this voted on in Parliament by the way – it’s a dictat from Health Minister Jeremy Hunt’s Department which plans to cut £22 billion pounds by 2020 - our money and our vital services. If these brutal plans don’t work, there is no fall back. If A&Es can’t cope or bed and staff shortages mean the elderly people access services, it seems that’s too bad. In North West London, where an early version of these plans has been partly implemented, two A&Es have been closed and the outcome has been a disaster. As a result two Labour Councils have refused to endorse their local STPs, but in most cases, Councils have signed up without even getting the opportunity to see the Plans. As with other cuts, they seem to be keener on Government instructions than standing up for local people. Despite all this the STPs are in trouble and the groundswell of rage is getting bigger and bigger. Nervous Tory MPs have even started to question the cuts. Grass roots campaigns to defend services are springing up everywhere, as well as national organisations like Health Campaigns Together and Keep Our NHS Public, which both have excellent websites. A massive demonstration is being planned for the spring. All these politicians would do well to remember that Thatcher was defeated not by a general strike but by a nationwide community uprising against the poll tax. Anger about NHS cuts may have that same potential. So far Labour has been very weak around this issue and it would be great to see more forceful campaigning from there. I believe that if communities and the Labour Movement unite, we can defeat the government on this issue. Well-known RMT member Alan Rogerson received his 40-year continuous membership award from Newcastle Rail & Catering branch secretary Alan Andros recently NEWCASTLE AWARD THE STP IS NO GOOD FOR ME Retired RMT member Oliver New warns of new Tory attacks on the National Health Service NOTIFICATION OF CONTRIBUTION RATES FOR 2017 Like most things, the cost of providing you with the benefits of RMT membership increases every year and contribution rates increase to help us to maintain and improve those benefits and our services to members. From the 1st January 2017 individuals whose basic salary or equivalent earnings are above £21,100 per annum will pay £4.77 per week Individuals whose basic salary or equivalent earnings are below £21,100 per annum will pay £2.05 per week Direct debit payments will be amended accordingly as will contributions collected by employers under paybill deduction arrangements. Members who pay contributions to cash collectors will receive a new contribution card from the collector. Those sending cheques or postal orders direct will need to adjust the amounts sent in accordingly. PERIOD FULL RATE LOW RATE Weekly £4.77 £2.05 4 Weekly £19.08 £8.20 Monthly £20.67 £8.88 We maintain a tight control of our costs and continually re-examine them to ensure that we make best use of our resources to deliver improved services to you. I am sure you will agree that RMT membership continues to provide excellent value for money.