The Campaign group 999 Call for the NHS took the case against Integrated Care Providers, in particular how they were funded first to Leeds High Court and then to the Appeal Court. They felt that in neither hearing were their concerns about this model properly considered so now they are going to be taking the case to the Supreme Court.
The following was taken from their website:-
We are waiting to hear about permission to appeal at the Supreme Court challenging the lawfulness of the Integrated Care Provider contract that NHS England is now steaming ahead with – planning to introduce it from April 1st.
NHS England Board assumes our application will fail. Paper 9 for their meeting on 31.1.2019 says “…the Supreme Court is unlikely to grant permission to appeal…”
Despite the fact that we are still challenging the lawfulness of it, NHS England, in their NHS Long Term Plan, announced that it will make the Integrated Care Provider contract available for use in 2019.
Making regulatory changes that bypass MPs’ scrutiny and debate
On February 13th the Department of Health QUIETLY “laid down” Statutory Instrument 2019 No. 248 – Amendments Relating to the Provision of Integrated Care Regulations 2019.
Statutory Instrument 2019 No. 248 makes major changes to way in which GPs work, in order to make it possible for Integrated Care Providers (formerly called Accountable Care Organisations) to run a whole range of hospital, primary care and community health services for a given area and its population.
The Statutory Instrument would enable new Integrated Care Providers to directly employ GPs to deliver a model of primary, mental health and community health care that would radically change patients’ (and GPs’) experience of the NHS.
Recent reports by the National Audit Office and the Nuffield Trust say there is no evidence that this new model would meet the intended aims of reducing costs and improving quality of patient care. And the Chair of the BMA has told GP members they ‘should not feel pressured into entering an Integrated Care Provider contract as to do so could leave their patients worse off.’
We must take this seriously. We feel strongly that these major changes should not slide through Parliament in secondary legislation without any oversight by MPs.
Statutory instruments were first designed to allow ministers, through small committees, to make minor amendments to existing laws. But this recent Statutory Instrument is NOT a minor issue and should not be hidden away where the vast majority of MPs won’t even know the change has been made.
Luckily...
there is a way of stopping this statutory instrument, by something called a Prayer Motion – a special type of Early Day Motion.
Jeremy Corbyn and 23 other MPs have called for a Prayer Motion and now we need as many as possible to support in order to get SI 2019 No.248 it annulled.
Please ask your MP to support this National Health Service Early Day Motion #2103.
This is an URGENT call. Time is short. The deadline for the Prayer Motion is 24 March. The Statutory Instrument is due to take effect on 1 April.
On this page you can download an MP Letter Template to personalise and send to your MP.
Prayer motions have worked in the past. The last was in 2000. If it was successful then it can be successful now.
We will keep you posted about news from the courts.
Thanks so much for your continued support for #Justice4NHS.
Jenny, Jo and Steve
And all the 999 Call for the NHS Team
