This case affects us all

The NHS must continue to provide comprehensive healthcare to everyone who needs it

But this is under threat from plans for new local NHS and Social Care organisations to operate with a contract based on fixed, pre-set budgets that cover an area’s population. 

Since this contract does not link payment to the number of patients treated and/or the complexity of the medical treatment provided,  it fails to ensure that there would be sufficient money to meet the cost of delivering NHS services to the required quality standard.

In early August, NHS England published a model contract for these new local NHS and social care organisations (known as Accountable Care Organisations). 

We believe that this contract is unlawful under current NHS legislation.

Standards of NHS care are already under pressure, and all of us will have begun to see restricted access  to a  full range of high quality health care in our local areas 

The Accountable Care Organisation Contract would make this situation worse. 

We have to challenge this. We are opening Stage TWO of this appeal because we are now asking the court for permission to bring the judicial review. 

Please help us.

Who we are

Like many others, we’re ordinary people with a passion to protect the NHS as a high quality comprehensive public service,  free at the point of use for all who need it.

In 2014, with support from the public, local press and media, 999 Call for the NHS marched 300 miles from Jarrow to London to save the NHS. Over 20,000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square to support this urgent call.

We’ve carried on campaigning ever since.

What we are doing

Stage ONE of our appeal raised funds to pay for public law firm Leigh Day to investigate grounds for a judicial review. That work has led to Stage TWO.

Find out about Stage ONE here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/challenge-stp/

We are now bringing a claim for judicial review against NHS England, on the grounds that it is unlawful for new local NHS and Social Care organisations called Accountable Care Organisations to operate fixed, pre-set budgets that will cover an area’s population.  This type of contract is not allowed under existing Health and Social Care legislation.

This is urgent. 

NHS England’s publication of this new contract is timed to enable eight Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships to become Accountable Care Systems from next April -  an example many others will soon follow. At the same time, the NHS hospitals regulator, NHS Improvement, is working out how to licence non-NHS organisations as Accountable Care Organisation contract holders.

We want to bring this judicial review because we are clear that under this new form of contract, our NHS would no longer provide high quality health care for all of us. 

The NHS must continue to provide comprehensive healthcare to everyone who needs it

Like most people, we manage to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table - but if patient safety and access to the full range of NHS care were threatened by this Accountable Care Organisation contract, we certainly could not afford to pay for private healthcare. 

The key asset of the NHS, when doctors and nurses treat you, is that you are a patient in need of care - not a money machine to generate profits for their organisation. For those of us who work in the NHS, this is at the heart of our sense of vocation and purpose.

This Judicial Review may be one of few chances to save the NHS as the source of good quality comprehensive healthcare that puts the patient first.  

This is why we are bringing the Judicial Review against NHS England, with a local Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Improvement as proposed interested parties

What We Need

Our Stage TWO fundraising target is £9,682. Added to our existing funds, this is enough to bring the judicial review, which will cost £25,000 

The exact figures: Thanks to a tremendous response from 463 backers, ourStage One Crowd Justice appeal raised £11,318.09,after administrative costs were deducted. 999 Call for the NHS also has approximately £4,000 reserved for the judicial review . Altogether, this adds up to around £15,318.09.

This is the breakdown of the £25,000 judicial review costs.

A £4,000 discounted fee agreement with solicitors Leigh Day and counsel. (The amount they will claim from us if the judicial review claim fails.) 

£1,000 court fees. 

We will ask the Court to cap our costs at £15,000, since this case is in the public interest. This limits what we’d have to pay if we were to lose the case.  

£5,000 to pay for general campaign costs - travel, publicity etc - we are all volunteers.

Fighting Locally, Thinking Nationally

We initially investigated one particular Sustainability and Transformation Plan - West Yorkshire and Harrogate - on the grounds that anything unlawful in one would be unlawful in all 44 Sustainability and Transformation Plans. 

We then realised that NHS England was advising the West Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group we were investigating that its plans were lawful; then in August came NHS England’s Accountable Care Organisation Contract...

This is why we are bringing the Judicial Review against NHS England.

Now the threats to our NHS mean that we must continue marching. 

To the law courts.

Join the fight to save our NHS

This Judicial Review is a big step for us - we need your help. 

Please:

• give what you can, every penny helps
• share this page with friends, family and social media networks
• consider working this legal challenge into your campaign group’s actions, if you’re part of one

This is a vital matter of public interest. The more we stand together, the better our chance of protecting our NHS.