OPEN MEETING 28 JANUARY: NHS – FIT FOR THE FUTURE?
8pm Thursday 28 January 2016: venue TBC
Maureen Donnelly, Chair of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group

The NHS in England is in crisis and both hospital and community services in Cambridge are suffering the consequences.

Despite the hard work of Addenbrooke’s staff, the hospital has recently been placed in special measures after the Care Quality Commission pointed to short-staffing in critical care, serious concerns about maternity services and severe financial difficulties. Addenbrooke’s, like other hospitals across the country, has been struggling to operate safely in the face of frozen budgets and increasing demand from an aging population. Meanwhile, the Coalition government spent millions on an unnecessary top down reorganisation of the NHS and Tory Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, is now locked in acrimonious negotiations with junior hospital doctors about controversial changes to their working conditions.

In 2014, Newnham Labour campaigned strongly against the putting out to tender of care services for older people in Cambridgeshire. Despite this, the expensive tendering process went ahead but, after only eight months, the successful consortium has pulled out of the contract.

Maureen Donnelly, chair of our local Clinical Commissioning Group, will be speaking about the huge challenges currently facing both our hospital and community services.