View from the Sticks

There's a point in time when what appear to be small local issues, become more controversial as you dig deeper into them. One example surrounds my local Louth County Hospital in Lincolnshire, (not the one in Ireland). Louth is a market town of 16,000 people and rising. The area the hospital covers has a population of 25,000. Louth itself is growing, with numerous housing projects underway. As well as the hospital, the town has just TWO GP Surgeries. In it's heyday, (with a town population of 11,000), Louth County Hospital held 200 inpatient beds. It also had theatres and an A & E, that served the town and surrounding villages. The larger towns of Horncastle and Alford, now served by Louth, had their own hospitals. Louth had onsite accommodation for doctors and nurses who moved to the town from outside. Louth even had a second "maternity" hospital. This has long been closed. Fighting 4 Louth Hospital campaigner  Keiran Speed, with Artist Jayne Cooper Angel (2017) B...

Louth/Horncastle MP Victoria (Vicky) Atkins has been appointed Health Secretary by Rishi Sunak as he tries desperately to hang onto power. Atkins, who famously stated that she was "leading the fight" to save services at Louth County Hospital, only weeks before then HS, (H)unt oversaw the closure of the facility. Promising when it opened, it would be in the same capacity as when it abruptly shut, it was opened 18 months later with the 54 beds reduced to 18. Tensions came to a head, when in 2018, the Community Group, "Fighting 4 Louth Hospital", forced Atkins to hastily arrange a public meeting in the town, to thrash out any fears the local population had. Speakers, including the Founders of F4LH, Hospital Staff and members of the public, continually argued with Atkins that services were being constantly cut.  She is infamously remembered for her continued bleating of "Trust the Experts" (meaning the Trusts, the CCG's and the Health Department(. The flus...

Cygnet Health Care is a private provider of mental health services. It  operates over 150 centres with more than 2,500 beds across the UK. Cygnet also  has 15 rehabilitation sites nationwide, comprising 25 wards and 338 beds. Some clients pay for private services, but the majority are funded by the NHS . It is this NHS funded service that we are looking at here, but first, some corporate information. In 2014, the business was acquired by Universal Health Services , an American Corporate Healthcare giant, for £205,000,000. In 2016, Cygnet purchased the Cambian Group , Adult Services business for £377,000,000. Cygnet does not appear to pay any dividends to UHS, but it does send large chunks of "interest" to it's American parent annually. In 2022, the "interest" (on internally funded loans), amounted to £48,000,000. This is where we get interested. We cannot work out why the UK Government would pay an American corporate beast (via it's UK business, Cygnet), hug...