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Friday 19th March 2010

East London Advertiser

Northern Echo

  • Health Secretary announces new Wynyard Park development. Health Secretary Andy Burnham gave the go-ahead for a £464m hospital in the region. The long-awaited decision ended speculation that the Wynyard Park project, north of Stockton, might become a victim of the expected public spending cuts. The move will mark a significant break from the past, with many services moving out of a hospital environment and into local clinics. It could also be a sign of things to come in the NHS, with calls this week for a cut in the number of hospital beds in England and a shift to community-based services. The development is part of a wider programme of investment, which includes a range of improvements to local services. Other developments include three integrated care centres in Billingham, Hartlepool and Stockton, which will provide more services, including tests, scans, outpatient appointments and treatment. While people in Hartlepool and Stockton will have to travel far to reach the hospital, health bosses have promised to invest £10m to improve transport links.

    http:/ / www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/ news/ 5070252.Health_ Secretary_ approves_ _ _ 464m_ hospital_ for_ region/

Bunley Express

Pulse

  • Preferred provider policy could be 'illegal', former health minister warns. The Government's own lawyers think its policy of treating the NHS as the ‘preferred provider’ is illegal, a former health minister has claimed. Labour peer Lord Warner criticised health secretary Andy Burnham's pledge to prioritise the NHS over private or voluntary sector providers, saying DH legal experts thought it was ultra vires. Lord Warner highlighted the case in the east of England where 14 PCTs were prevented from putting their community services out to tender following Government intervention, and challenged ministers to prove the legality of the policy. His comments came amid rumours that senior Cabinet members have leant on the health secretary to urge him to tone down the policy, which critics say runs contrary to the Government's stated aim of encouraging plurality of provision by stimulating the primary care market. Mr Burnham insisted he stood behind the policy.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125435& c=2

  • PCTs gain right to unilaterally axe PMS deals. PCTs will be able to unilaterally terminate PMS contracts from next month under new powers handed to them by the Government. The Department of Health is creating a stand-alone clause in PMS contract regulations allowing ‘without grounds’ termination, to come into force on 1 April. The move comes as the DH admitted NHS managers had demanded the right to ‘hire and fire’ GPs. Pressure from managers appears to be paying off, with lawyers seeing PMS practices across the country caving in and accepting contracts on dramatically reduced terms. Daphne Robertson, principal partner at DR Solicitors, said: ‘It’s what we feared, but thought they wouldn’t dare make such a fundamental change.’ She said the move would give an extra weapon to PCTs who had already been using the ‘implicit threat’ of contract termination. Some GPs had threatened to take legal action against contracts being rewritten, but Ms Robertson said most feel they have little choice but to sign.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125437& c=2

  • NHS managers call for new GP contract. NHS bosses have called for the GP contract to be torn up and rewritten to include tougher contractual levers for dealing with poor performers, and incentives for GPs to work in federations. The NHS Confederation also wants GPs to be offered incentives for taking greater responsibility for out-of-hours care, aligning them closely with the Conservatives. The radical proposals are contained in Rising to the challenge, a new report outlining steps required to safeguard the health service against looming cuts. The report also calls on trusts to make ‘difficult commissioning decisions’ to eradicate spending variations that have arisen from the Government’s drive to increase capacity, which it blames for increasing demand from patients. This appears to pave the way for more services to be de-commissioned, just days after one of the Government’s flagship first-generation walk-in centres is to close after it was judged not to be delivering value for money.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=35& storycode=4125493& c=2

Thursday 18th March 2010

Healthcare republic
Healthcare republic
Healthcare Republic

  • Managers want GPs to lead scheme to slash hospital costs. NHS managers want GPs in England to play a key role in cost-cutting plans to reduce the length of time patients stay in hospital for operations. Primary care staff will be expected to lower the weight of obese patients awaiting an operation, stop them smoking, as well as stabilising and ‘correcting' long-term conditions such as asthma and diabetes.The plans are part of the Quality, Innovation Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) scheme the DoH hopes will slash billions from NHS costs in the next decade. GP leaders attacked the plans, arguing that GPs already do as much as they can to optimise patients' health. GPC chairman Dr Laurence Buckman called the enhanced recovery programme ‘ridiculous..It's an idea an accountant would have,' he said.‘Our whole profession is about optimising people's health anyway." But several English hospitals have already adopted the Enhanced Recovery Programme (ERP), pioneered in Denmark. It has been shown to cut length of stay from 16 to three days for colorectal surgery, according to the DoH. The schemes are due to be evaluated and applied in more areas this year, and discussions are underway as to how to involve primary care. NHS discussion papers suggest practice nurses will be heavily involved ‘pre- and post-op' and there will be greater communication between GPs and hospital staff about patients' condition.

    http:/ / www.healthcarerepublic.com/ news/ 990658/ Exclusive- Managers- want- GPs- lead- scheme- slash- hospital- costs/

Ilford Recorder

  • Protestors to meet officials over hospital axe threat. Campaigners determined to save King George Hospital services from the chop will meet health officials tonight. From 7.30pm at Somerville Hall, Somerville Road, Chadwell Heath clinical director Dr Mike Gill and NHS Redbridge managing director Conor Burke will face questions from members of the public. The meeting is the last one before Monday's deadline for the public consultation into the Health for North East London reconfiguration plans, that could see the A& E and maternity wards in Barley Lane, Goodmayes closed down. Organiser Wilson Chowdhry said: "It is imperative that we let them know how we feel about their diabolical proposals. "If successful the proposals could see the end to the A& E - despite major opposition and rapidly increasing populations. "Moreover, the loss of maternity services will create a loss of local identity to many Redbridge children born in Havering, in tandem with an increasing travel, financial and stress burden on potential mothers."

    http:/ / www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/ content/ redbridge/ recorder/ news/ story.aspx ?brand=RECOnline& category=newsIlford& tBrand=northlondon24& tCategory=newsilford& itemid=WeED18% 20Mar% 202010% 2014% 3A42% 3A12% 3A047

The Financial Times

  • Jobs figures show sector split. The striking contrast in employment trends between the public and private sectors was highlighted on Wednesday by official figures showing that businesses are continuing to shed jobs while numbers working in the National Health Service have jumped to a 60-year high. The figures showed public sector employment rose by 7,000 in the final quarter of last year to 6.1m while private sector employment tumbled by 61,000. Overall, the number of unemployed fell by 33,000 to 2.45m in the three months to January compared with the previous quarter – the lowest level for almost a year and the biggest quarterly fall for almost three years.

    http:/ / www.ft.com/ cms/ s/ 0/ b2e66232- 31ab- 11df- 9ef5- 00144feabdc0.html

HSJ
HSJ
HSJ
HSJ
HSJ

  • SHAs pressurising PCTs into vertical integration. Primary care trusts in at least four regions are under pressure from their strategic health authorities to vertically integrate their provider arms with acute or mental health trusts. The Department of Health has set a 31 March deadline for PCTs to gain “approval in principle” from SHAs for their Transforming Community Services proposals. HSJ understands at least four SHAs have told their PCTs vertical integration is effectively the only option.NHS Alliance chief officer Mike Sobanja said he believed vertical integration was the “most predominant” model being proposed, despite DH guidance allowing alternatives, “not because anyone thinks it’s the best model, but because it’s the model that can be implemented quickly”. Ms Bevan said there was a danger foundation trusts would “bolt on” community services rather than reform patient pathways, which was the only way savings of up to £1.5bn would be found.

    http:/ / www.hsj.co.uk/ news/ primary- care/ shas- pressurising- pcts- into- vertical- integration/ 5012695.article

Monday 15th March 2010

Richmond and Twinckenham times

  • Leaked NHS plans confirm fears over future of Kingston Hospital's A&E. Further documents confirming the threat to Kingston Hospital have been leaked to two MPs leading campaign against the plans. Susan Kramer, MP for Richmond Park and Edward Davey, MP for Kingston and Surbiton, launched a pre-emptive campaign to save Kingston Hospital after NHS bosses told them the accident and emergency and maternity units were under threat. A new document released by the pair this week reiterated that threat, and Vince Cable, MP for Twickenham, said he has been told there will be a formal consultation on cuts in services and reorganisation – but not before the autumn. A document from a Healthcare for South West London presentation to a meeting of NHS Kingston was leaked this week, its front page stating its content should not be released under the Freedom of Information Act. The new document stated: “Options with four hot sites [as it is currently in south-west London] appear financially unsustainable.” It also stated plans are being drawn up for just two A& E and maternity units in the area, and savings must be found for the 2011-12 financial year.

    http:/ / www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/ news/ 5058296.Leaked_ NHS_ plans_ confirm_ hospital_ fears/

Healthcare Republic

  • PCTs commission 'cheap and quick' out-of-hours services over quality. PCTs put 'access and cost' before quality when commissioning out-of-hours services, according to oral evidence presented to parliament's Health Select Committee. GMC chief executive Niall Dixon said changes to the Medical Act 1983 should be made to ensure the GMC has the legal right to check the language skills of EU doctors wishing to work in the UK. The DoH is also looking at current legislation to ensure all doctors in the UK are covered by indemnity insurance.Dr Fay Wilson, chair of the BADGER out-of-hours co-operative and Mike Farrar, chief executive of NHS North-West, said PCTs had failed to assess the quality of out-of-hours providers. ‘Because of the way the internal market works, we have taken reliability for granted and looked for cheap and quick services,' said Dr Wilson. ‘Performance management is about cost and how quickly patients are seen,' she said.Mr Farrar said ‘PCTs still have some way to go' to ensure quality through out-of-hours providers' contracts.

    http:/ / www.healthcarerepublic.com/ news/ 989752/ PCTs- commission- cheap- quick- out- of- hours- services- quality/

BBC News

  • England's out-of-hours GP care 'is inadequate'. Too many people in England receive poor quality out-of-hours doctors' services, the Patients Association has warned. In some areas, a fifth of patients described the service as "poor" or "very poor". Some 1.1m patients responded to the government survey. Richmond and Twickenham and Hartlepool were among the poorest, with Central Lancashire and Plymouth among the best. Ministers have given trusts until the end of the year to follow strict new guidelines on out-of-hours care. And campaigners have described the current system of providing after-hours GP cover as "an accident waiting to happen". The survey follows the death, in 2008, of 70-year-old David Gray, who died after he was treated by a German doctor with no experience as an NHS GP. Dr Daniel Ubani, who spoke poor English and who was exhausted after commuting hundreds of miles from his home in Germany, had been employed by a private company to provide emergency out-of-hours cover.

    http:/ / news.bbc.co.uk/ 1/ hi/ health/ 8565508.stm

The Telegraph

  • The NHS has taken on the costs of competition without benefit. Welcome investment in the NHS has been accompanied by market-based policies, which have encouraged health-care organisations to compete rather than co-operate, diverted funding away from front-line care, and created unnecessary and undesirable new layers of bureaucracy. Yet, as the pro-market think-tank Civitas recently reported, improvements to patient care that have been achieved are "not clearly attributable to market-based reforms", and "the available research indicates that the NHS may have found itself in a lose-lose situation – taking on the extra costs of competition without experiencing the benefits". We should always be seeking to improve the NHS, but there is ample evidence that innovation and the ability to deliver services effectively are not the unique preserve of those employed by profit-making companies. Politicians should have faith in NHS staff – they want to do what is best for their patients and do not need the threat of competition to motivate them to provide high-quality care.- A letter written by Dr Hamish Meldrum Chairman of Council in the British Medical Association.

    http:/ / www.telegraph.co.uk/ comment/ letters/ 7430130/ The- NHS- has- taken- on- the- costs- of- competition- without- experiencing- its- benefits.html

Friday 12th March 2010

Pulse

  • Lower standards in out-of-hours care 'due to PCT cost-cutting'. A
    senior GP out-of-hours leader has revealed her co-operative was left
    with no choice but to lower its quality standards because of the
    financial demands being placed on contracts by PCTs. Dr Fay Wilson,
    medical director of BADGER Out-of-Hours Co-operative in Birmingham and
    a GP in the city, said the provider was forced to accept it could not
    meet its own rapid response targets without exceeding costs. It comes
    just weeks after a Pulse investigation showed almost two-thirds of
    primary care organisations that were renegotiating out-of-hours
    contracts and reducing the amount they paid providers. Dr Wilson told
    a health select committee inquiry trusts’ prioritisation of cost when
    contracting out-of-hours services was putting some GPs off from being
    involved, and that she was ‘fundamentally concerned’ about the current
    system.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=35& storycode=4125355& c=2

  • PCTs amend Darzi contracts. PCTs have begun remodelling Darzi centre
    contracts to toughen up performance targets or adapt to their use as
    walk-in facilities. Pressure is growing on managers to secure improved
    value for money amid evidence the centres are funded far more
    generously than GP practices. Pulse revealed last week a GP-led health
    centre in Suffolk had become the first to see its pay cut after the
    firm running it admitted it was being overfunded for walk-in
    consultations. Five trusts have now disclosed details of changes. NHS
    Sandwell has added ‘a suite of key performance indicators’ to bring
    its contract in line with neighbouring practices. NHS Barnsley has
    clarified that all referrals to hospital ‘should be urgent only’. NHS
    Dudley has ‘reprofiled activity levels because of higher than expected
    demand’.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125341& c=2

  • GP call to oppose A&E closures. GPs have been urged to oppose
    controversial plans to close A& E departments in East London, which
    according to one GP leader risk leaving patients to die ‘in the back
    of ambulances’. The controversial plans would remove the A& E
    department at King George Hospital in Redbridg,e with patients
    expected to be seen at other hospitals outside the borough, or at a
    local polyclinic. But Dr David Shubhaker, a GP in Redbridge and former
    secretary of Redbridge and Waltham Forest LMC, said the proposal would
    put patients' lives at risk by forcing them to travel further to
    Queen's Hospital, Romford, or Whipps Cross in Leytonstone.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125306& c=2

  • Trusts break the bank for polysystems managers. NHS trusts are
    spending up to £14,000 a month each on managers to advise on their
    controversial rollout of polysystems. The post of polysystems manager
    has become one of the most in demand roles in health, with the move to
    shift workload from hospitals to primary care, with NHS trusts in
    London spearheading the programme and trusts elsewhere considering
    similar major shifts in care. Trusts in the capital have been
    advertising for staff to take on the role, offering salaries of up to
    £700 a day, some of them on temporary contracts others taking on full
    time staff.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125269& c=2

Maidenhead Advertiser

  • Staff revolt against plans to axe hospital beds. Senior medical staff
    have revolted against plans to slash hospital beds by almost half -
    and expressed their 'gravest concerns' for health care in the region.
    The chairman of the medical staff committee of the Heatherwood and
    Wexham Park Hospitals Trust revealed that 82% of consultants are
    opposed to the bosses' 'turnaround' financial proposals. The staff
    claim that the planned beds axe raises 'serious concerns' for the
    future of patient care in East Berkshire and worry that cost cutting
    could have the detrimental effects that led to the recent Mid
    Staffordshire NHS scandal.

    http:/ / www.maidenhead- advertiser.co.uk/ news/ article- 15329- staff- revolt- against- plans- to- axe- hospital- beds/

Healthcare Republic

  • Nurses urge NHS to monitor private firm involvement. Nurse leaders
    have warned the NHS must monitor carefully how the involvement of
    large commercial firms in primary care affects patients and staff. A
    series of corporate takeovers this month saw the firms behind nearly
    one in 10 GP-led health centres change in a week. Sir Richard
    Branson's Virgin Group bought a 75.1% stake in Assura Group's GPCo
    medical services business last week. In an interim report last
    September, Assura said it owned 30 GPCos serving 3.1 million patients.
    Around half of these are GP-led health centres. Meanwhile, Care UK,
    which runs primary care services including 11 GP-led health centres,
    one GP practice and four GP out-of-hours services, has been acquired
    by private equity firm Bridgepoint. Both Care UK and Virgin said
    frontline provision and management of care would be unaffected.

    http:/ / www.healthcarerepublic.com/ news/ 989747/ Nurses- urge- NHS- monitor- private- firm- involvement/

Thursday 11th March 2010

HSJ

  • Out of hours GP contracts need greater transparency. A network of small out of hours providers has criticised primary care trusts for “trading off” contracts to other providers without retendering. Urgent Health UK, a federation of 12 social enterprise out of hours providers across England and Wales, called for more transparency in the transfer of contracts between providers during company takeovers. The group highlighted the probable sale of Take Care Now - which employed the German doctor who gave a Cambridgeshire patient an overdose while on his first NHS shift - to Harmoni. Take Care Now no longer provides cover in Cambridgeshire but has other contracts. Urgent Health UK also noted the takeover last week by Virgin Healthcare of Assura Medical, which has a contract for GP out of hours services in North Lancashire. Assura Medical operates 30 “GP Cos” - providers formed in partnership with GPs - which in turn operate 15 polyclinics. Virgin Group managing partner for health and wellness Patrick McCall said: “Healthcare is a sector that the Virgin Group has been extremely interested in entering for some time.”

    http:/ / www.hsj.co.uk/ news/ primary- care/ out- of- hours- gp- contracts- need- greater- transparency/ 5012376.article

  • NHS managers demand power to fire GPs. Managers are calling for the power to “fire” GPs and to get rid of small practices to make the huge spending cuts needed in coming years. A summary of discussions between the Department of Health and strategic health authority directorsreveals they are seeking controversial reform of primary care contracts. A summary of the talks about what is needed for the DH’s quality, innovation, productivity and prevention - QIPP - programme, includes the conclusion: “Can’t deliver the productivity improvements required with small practices.” Smaller, separate practices are considered less able to share administration, host additional services and take on commissioning functions. Much of the QIPP programme relies on reducing referrals to hospital, better care for long term conditions and moving services into the community: all dependent on primary care services. The summary says managers “want to be able to ‘hire and fire’ GPs, something commissioners say is very difficult to do. Commissioners “need transparency in managing primary care performance and need contractual levers to help address this”, they say. “GPs should not be paid for poor performance. There are huge variations in the performance of GPs.” However, as well as contract changes, the summary acknowledges there must be “better performance management of existing levers”. Last October HSJ revealed huge variation in the amount different PCTs were paying GPs for similar services.The DH said: “These are notes of informal discussions at a quality and productivity event - these are not official proposals and this is not DH policy.”

    http:/ / www.hsj.co.uk/ news/ primary- care/ nhs- managers- demand- power- to- fire- gps/ 5012428.article

Medical News Today

  • Virgin Plans To Coordinate GP Care Across Country. Last week Assura Medical Ltd gave Virgin control of 15 'GP-led health centres' and a total of 30 GP companies - believed to make it the biggest private provider of GP services in the country. the company - now a corporate partner of more than 1,500 GPs - revealed it wants to play a key role in running local health economies, by setting up collaborative networks of GPs called 'polysystems'. These could potentially involve thousands of GPs. Richard Burrell, chief executive of Assura and a member of the new Virgin Healthcare board, said the company's network of GP-led health centres had already begun to play a key role in restructuring services.But the rise of private firms has alarmed those who back the BMA's campaign to stop further privatisation. Pulse's Manifesto for General Practice also calls for politicians to put the brakes on expansion of the private sector in the NHS, after our survey of almost 900 GPs found 67% thought private provision was a threat to the quality of care.

    http:/ / www.medicalnewstoday.com/ articles/ 181815.php

The Telegraph

  • 'GP federations' are the future of the NHS. The NHS needs to be ready to rethink its strategy if it is to meet the challenges of the future and end postcode lotteries, says Dr Angelo Fernandes. There is no doubt that the additional NHS funding of recent years has brought major improvements in health services. But it is equally evident that opportunities to improve quality and productivity have not always been adequately exploited. Moreover, many of the successes in the NHS have been achieved because of national policies and initiatives, rather than by priority setting and implementation at the local level. Decentralisation of budgets and responsibility to local health bodies – Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) – has resulted in excessive localisation, with unacceptable variations in the range and quality of health services across the country. The postcode lottery exists for many services, and has been made obvious with the recent publicity about GPs’ out of hours services.

    http:/ / www.telegraph.co.uk/ health/ 7419510/ GP- federations- are- the- future- of- the- NHS.html

Daily Chronicle

  • Doctors warn of secret plans to cut NHS funds. Some of the country’s leading doctors today attacked the Government over what they claim are financial threats to the NHS. In the stinging rebuke they say:

    * NHS managers are secretly preparing plans to cut millions from the NHS;
    * The introduction of ‘competition’ based healthcare is a waste of valuable resources which should be used for patient care;
    * Hundreds of thousands of pounds is spent on private treatment centres in the North East, which can get up to three times the funding per patient as regular GP practices, and;
    * The Government backed Private Finance Initiative is a costly way of building new hospitals in the region, leaving a huge debt to pay over coming decades.

    According to them, initiatives such as walk in centres – like Battle Hill Health in North Tyneside and Ponteland Road in Newcastle – have cost a fortune to build but been a poor use of funds. The letter is signed by chairmen and secretaries from the British Medical Association North East Regional Council, local medical committees in Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland and Northumberland, chairmen from Northern Regional Consultants and Specialists Committee, Northern Regional Junior Doctors Committee and Northern Regional Staff and Associate Specialists Committee. One issue addressed is the use of controversial GP-led health centres masterminded by former Health Minister Lord Darzi, which offer walk-in access to a range of primary care and community health services. The letter says: “Not only are these new centres very costly to build, it’s been found in some areas that these centres are enjoying up to three times the funding per patient as opposed to regular GP practices.

    http:/ / www.chroniclelive.co.uk/ north- east- news/ todays- evening- chronicle/ 2010/ 03/ 10/ doctors- warn- of- secret- plans- to- cut- nhs- funds- 72703- 26002145/

Tuesday 9th March 2010

Guardian

  • Hospital patients routinely treated in storerooms, survey shows. Patients are routinely being treated in storerooms, mop cupboards and wards that are already full, a survey reveals. According to a poll of more than 900 nurses by Nursing Times, the trade magazine, nearly two-thirds said patients at their hospital were being treated in areas not designed for clinical care. The survey suggests the practice is rife in the NHS. Of the 63% of nurses who said they were aware of patients at their hospital being treated in areas not designated for care, nearly 60% said it happened more than once a week and could last for "days at a time".

    http:/ / www.guardian.co.uk/ society/ 2010/ mar/ 09/ hospital- nurses- survey- patients- storerooms

Medical News Today

  • Department of health pulls plug on investigation. The Department of Health has failed a key test to demonstrate its willingness to empower the independent sector according to ACEVO, the representative body for charity CEOs. The claim comes as the NHS panel responsible for upholding the rules of Co-operation and Competition for NHS-funded services has dropped a critical case brought to them by ACEVO and the NHS Partners Network. ACEVO understand the reason for the case being dismissed before completion of the enquiry is the result of a backroom deal within the Department of Health. ACEVO has good reason to believe the panel was confident it had sufficient evidence to take the complaint to the next and final level of investigations. ACEVO will be issuing several Freedom of Information requests within the next twenty four hours in order to shed light on this murky business, which is clearly the result of anticipated failure by the Department of Health. ACEVO and the NHS Partners Network first put their case to the panel in December last year after finding clear evidence to suggest that Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT had breached NHS procurement guidelines. The evidence came shortly after Andy Burnham's apparent U- turn in policy when he referred to the NHS as the "preferred provider" of health services. Shortly after the secretary of state made his statement, the PCT in question explicitly excluded private and third sector providers from bidding for a £25m a year contract to run its community services.

    http:/ / www.medicalnewstoday.com/ articles/ 181558.php

Evesham Journal

  • New out-of-hours health provider for county. National out-of-hours provider, Harmoni, will take over the running of Worcestershire’s out-of-hours service from Take Care Now. The firm will take over a five-year contract which was awarded to TCN in October 2008 and will increase the standard number of GPs working on overnight shifts from two to three. It will also set up a GP management board to monitor the quality service which will have powers to cancel an arrangement after six months if it does not reach performance standards.

    http:/ / www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/ news/ 5047925.New_ out_ of_ hours_ health_ provider_ for_ county/

Monday 8th March 2010

HealthCare Republic

  • NHS Tower Hamlets has withdrawn plans to hive off NHS services into a social enterprise following staff protests, according to Unite/CPHVA. The union says the trust's project board informed a staff meeting that it would be approaching the London SHA and DoH to request that the trust remains a direct provider for the next two years. Karen Reay, Unite national officer for health, said: ‘This is a victory for common sense and a tribute to the staff's united opposition to breaking up the provision of NHS services. We now wish to work constructively with the management to ensure that NHS-provided services continue to meet the health needs of the ethnically diverse population.'

    http:/ / www.healthcarerepublic.com/ news/ 988641/ Unite- defeats- social- enterprise- plans- London/

WalesOnline

  • Fears have been raised about the state of Wales’ network of ageing district general hospitals. They come as senior NHS officials reported a number of “significant infrastructure failures” – including the loss of power and a ceiling collapse – which have compromised patient safety. And a damning report by the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales last week highlighted the poor state of repair at Llandough Hospital, one of South Wales’ busiest. Dr Andrew Dearden, chairman of the British Medical Association’s Welsh Council, said: “There’s no doubt there has been an under-investment in the estate of the NHS in Wales. “We know, for example, that getting money to revamp surgeries is getting more difficult as there seems to be a lot more focus on things that can be opened with a flourish.

    http:/ / www.walesonline.co.uk/ news/ wales- news/ 2010/ 03/ 08/ poor- state- of- hospitals- affects- safety- of- patients- 91466- 25983293/

News and Star

  • Protest over closure of west Cumbrian respite centre. Frustrated parents, councillors and Copeland’s MP will be marching through Whitehaven town centre tomorrow to show their disgust at the closure of a respite centre for disabled children. The peaceful protest has been organised by campaigning mums Rachael Davies and Dawn Raynor as they do not feel that a new location for the St Bees centre in Workington is suitable. Parents are concerned about the closure of the respite centre which they say is vital for their children. Seacroft provides short breaks for disabled west Cumbrian youngsters but is said to be “no longer fit for purpose”. It will close its doors on March 31 after 23 years. Rachael, whose 11-year-old daughter Saskia has a rare brain disorder and attends Seacroft, said: “We do not see why Seacroft cannot stay open until The Elms will be ready or until at least our children are over the transitional period, which for some, can take from six to 12 months or perhaps even longer.”

    http:/ / www.newsandstar.co.uk/ news/ protest- over- closure- of- west- cumbrian- respite- centre- 1.680565 ?referrerPath=home/ 2.1962

Telegraph

  • The majority of hospitals have been incorrectly assessing their own performance. The Care Quality Commission, which is in charge of inspecting hospital trusts, found that 17 of the 28 it inspected last year had assessed themselves wrongly. The figures come as mounting evidence suggests some hospitals are drawing up plans to cut more than 10 per cent from their budget in an effort to save the NHS as much as £20 billion over the next three years. Hospitals in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, London, Leicestershire and parts of the South West have already started consulting staff about which wards and services will need to be axed. Barnsley Hospital in South Yorkshire is understood to be planning to close three wards and three operating theatres, while there are proposals to close 200 beds at Gloucester Royal and Cheltenham General hospitals. Leicester Hospitals has warned NHS staff that 700 jobs are likely to go, the equivalent of nearly 10 per cent of the workforce.

    http:/ / www.telegraph.co.uk/ health/ healthnews/ 7392498/ NHS- trusts- give- wrong- hospital- performance- data- to- public.html

Guardian

  • NHS patients losing out as life-saving drugs are sold abroad. Life-saving medicines meant only for sale in the UK are being sold for export at huge mark-ups, causing an acute shortage of drugs that is putting patients' lives at risk. A "shopping list" from would-be buyers sent to UK pharmacies and wholesalers reveals they are being encouraged to sell on some medicines for up to 30% more than they would get from theNHS. According to the Department of Health's pharmaceutical services negotiating committee, 41 medicines including Zyprexa, which is used to treat people with schizophrenia, Actonel, for osteoporosis sufferers, and Cipralex, an antidepressant, are in short supply in some areas of the country. However, some pharmacies privately blame drugs manufacturers for not putting enough medicines into the UK, a claim denied by the pharmaceutical giants.

    http:/ / www.guardian.co.uk/ society/ 2010/ mar/ 07/ life- saving- drugs- sold- abroad

Friday 5th March 2010

Pulse

  • £281m takeover of Care UK signals private sector intent. City investors bargaining on a huge shift of NHS services to private companies signalled their intent today with a £281m takeover deal for the provider Care UK. Leading private equity group Bridgepoint offered a 9.2% premium on the company’s share price to Care UK’s investors and with the deal recommended to go through by management, the takeover looks set to spark a massive increase in private sector strategic activity. Care UK, whose management team will stay on after the takeover, is among private providers expected to pick up major contracts from NHS trusts shifting services out of hospital.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125252& c=2

  • Virgin snaps up Assura GP companies to become leading Darzi centre provider. Virgin tycoon Richard Branson has dramatically signalled his arrival as a major player in UK general practice after a buyout of the leading private provider of Darzi centres. Virgin Healthcare Holdings has acquired a majority shareholding in Assura Medical Limited, which provides a raft of services in partnership with GPs, including a string of GP-led health centres and polyclinics across the country. The deal comes with Virgin poised to take advantage of the massive looming shift in NHS care to private providers.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125253& c=2

  • NHS competition funds wasted, report warns. The NHS has absorbed all the costs of competition without yet realising the benefits, according to a report by thinktank Civitas. The Impact Of The NHS Market says that although market forces have contributed to improved access for patients, reduced waiting times, and increased efficiency, progress is being held back by all-powerful providers and weak commissioners. The report says the problems are also arising from a lack of innovation in the service, and claims payment systems encourage providers to be 'average'. It concludes that practice-based commissioning is being hampered because many involved are more interested in self-provision than commissioning new services, as well as citing the lack of quality of financial infrastructure and information, and poor governance.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125262& c=2

  • Darzi centre becomes first to agree pay cut. A Darzi centre in Suffolk has become the first in the country to agree to a reduction in the terms of its contract after the private firm running it accepted it was hugely overpaid for walk-in consultations. The pioneering agreement with NHS managers will put pressure on PCTs across England to claw back money from GP-led health centres, as they draw up plans to make millions of pounds of efficiency savings. Some GPs running the centres have also called for contracts to be rewritten, claiming it would be impossible for them to hit patient registration targets, but that they were popular as walk-in facilities. The Practice plc, which holds APMS contracts with 12 PCTs across the country, has now agreed to a dramatic two-thirds reduction in its PCT payments for walk-in consultations, after conducting many more than expected. Its terms for registered patients remain the same.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125242& c=2

  • Brutal truth of primary care cuts finally emerges. Editorial: When the banks first crashed, and the UK economy teetered on the brink of collapse, the NHS remained an island of eerie, artificial calm. It seemed primary care would be insulated for at least a while from the financial chaos swirling around it. It doesn’t feel like that any more. When the Department of Health unveiled plans to make up to £20bn of efficiency savings by 2014, they sounded rather like a code for NHS cuts, but GPs were perhaps slow to realise the degree to which they had been placed in the financial firing line. Over the past couple of weeks, the brutal reality has crystallised. And at last week’s BMA rally, doctors’ leaders spelled them out in uncomfortable detail, with predictions the NHS is facing its most savage cuts since the early days of Margaret Thatcher. Given the state of Britain’s public finances, it is probably not worth railing against the cuts per se – even though they do make a mockery of the Government’s pledge to protect the NHS. Deep cuts are now inevitable whichever party leader steps through the doors of Downing Street in May or June. But there are cuts and there are cuts. The battle over the NHS will mirror the political debate more widely, and centre around how compassionate, sensible and evidence-based are the cuts proposed. You have made it clear, as we demand in the Pulse Manifesto for General Practice, that cuts should focus on Darzi contracts, managers and external consultants – not frontline services.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=20& storycode=4125236& c=2

Financial Times

  • Tories move to stall new IT contracts. Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet secretary, has been urged by the Conservatives to ensure that no big IT contracts are signed in the run-up to the general election. Francis Maude, the shadow Cabinet Office minister in charge of plans for a transition to government should the Tories win, has told Sir Gus that “there is no conceivable reason why these contracts need to be signed now”. In recent weeks, the Department for Work and Pensions has signed some big IT deals which, it is claimed, will result in sizeable savings over the current deals. This week, the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority has announced a preferred bidder to run the new personal pension accounts from 2012 – although that deal has a specific break clause at seven months that would allow an incoming government to scrap it. At the Department of Health, ministers aim to complete negotiations this month on a revamp of the big local supplier contracts for the NHS electronic patient record. The renegotiation is aimed at cutting £600m out of the contracts’ present value. But the Conservatives say they fear the price for that may be even bigger cancellation penalties than the large penalties that already exist. Mr Maude said that if that happened, “then the cost to the taxpayer of terminating these contracts – signed only weeks before – could be literally billions of pounds. This would be scarce taxpayers’ money completely wasted”.

    http:/ / www.ft.com/ cms/ s/ 0/ c71f0886- 27b4- 11df- 863d- 00144feabdc0.html

Leicester Mercury

Islington Tribune

  • Health chiefs face fresh grilling but give no guarantee consultation will save A & E. Patients celebrating the success of the Save The Whittington Hospital march were brought down to earth when key administrators warned that widespread opposition might not be enough to stop accident and emergency services being axed. At a meeting organised by Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone, neither Rachel Tyndall, Chairwoman of the North Central London (NCL) review panel or Richard Sumray, chairman of the Haringey Primary Care Trust, could offer any assurance that the facility would be protected should a negative public response be confirmed in official consultation survey. Mr Sumray would not go stronger than saying the views gathered in the upcoming survey would be "hugely important". Members of the 300 strong audience in the Greig Academy school hall had wanted a pledge that if there was no support for an overhaul of hospitals in north London, the plans would be abandoned. The accident and emergency department and the maternity unit face the act in a wave of £500m cuts and a re-organisation which will see patients treated in new, smaller GP surgeries. The Defend Whittington Hospital coalition organised one of the biggest marches in recent memory in north London, with help from unions.

    http:/ / www.islingtontribune.com/ news/ 2010/ mar/ save- our- whittington- health- chiefs- face- fresh- grilling- give- no- guarantee- consultation-

Morning Star

  • Concerns grow over GP 'back-door privatisation' plans. The government has launched a 12-week consultation into its "back-door privatisation" plans to allow patients to choose their NHS GP. Last year, Health Secretary Andy Burnham announced he wanted to abolish catchment areas that would allow patients to pick any practice, such as one nearer their workplace. A "small minority" of patients were believed to want the right to choose a different GP or to remain with their existing doctor when they moved house. But questions remained over how to protect services such as home visits, although Mr Burnham has given assurances that they would be. Health Emergency spokesman John Lister highlighted that the proposals would offer little benefit for those most dependent on primary care services. He also warned the plan would involve scrapping the legal obligation of GPs to offer home visits, which he argued would pave the way for privatisation. "It seems certain that this would involve the privatisation of home visiting services, creating even more problems of ensuring quality and public scrutiny," said Mr Lister. 'We believe this policy is yet another example of back-door privatisation by new Labour.' The government wants to abolish practice boundaries by October 2010 and the Conservatives have criticised Labour for not doing so sooner. The BMA highlighted that the total abolition of practice boundaries could have a number of unintended consequences including unfair funding arrangements for surgeries and popular practices being oversubscribed.

    http:/ / www.morningstaronline.co.uk/ index.php/ news/ content/ view/ full/ 87579

Thursday 4th March 2010

HSJ

  • Nottingham trust criticised over waiting time irregularities. One of England's busiest accident and emergency departments failed to report breaches of the four hour treatment targets for at least four years, an independent report has said. An audit covering just 17 months in that period has found 1,889 undeclared breaches of the target, but the total number of patients affected at Nottingham University Hospital Trust is still unknown. The report says there was "considerable pressure in the trust to hit the four hour target which led to the bending of the rules". However, Dearden Consulting, which carried out the investigation, found the majority of staff interviewed believed they were following the rules.

    http:/ / www.hsj.co.uk/ news/ acute- care/ emergency/ nottingham- trust- criticised- over- waiting- time- irregularities/ 5012201.article

  • Sir Richard Branson's empire (Virgin) has bought a controlling stake in an NHS walk-in centre operator. The tycoon's Virgin Group bought a 75.1 per cent holding in the medical division of Assura Group, which is one of the largest owners of doctors' surgeries in the UK and also runs pharmacies within clinics. Assura operates 30 so-called GPCos, which provide healthcare in partnership with groups of GPs. They represent associations with more than 1,500 GPs, employ around 150 staff and provide services to more than three million patients in England.

    http:/ / www.hsj.co.uk/ news/ primary- care/ virgin- buys- into- gp- healthcare/ 5012234.article

News and Star

  • Family doctors in Copeland are to be given more responsibility over the future of county NHS services. From next month, local GPs will be given the chance to run their own community health services based around a single town or a wider area.An increasing share of Cumbria's annual £800 million health budget will be directly managed by GP-led boards representing the six county boroughs. This is the latest step to ensure decisions are made about local people closer to where they live. Cumbrian family doctors deliver three million consultations with patients in GP practices every year, accounting for 90 per cent of the public's contact with the NHS - making them the most consistently used part of the health service.

    http:/ / www.newsandstar.co.uk/ gps- given- more- say- over- nhs- services- 1.679192 ?referrerPath=home/ 2.1962

Watford Observer

  • PCTs in Hertfordshire announce merger. The two primary care trusts (PCTs) in Hertfordshire will merge, it was announced today. The decision came after a consultation by the NHS East of England, and was confirmed by Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, last week. NHS West Hertfordshire, and NHS East and North Hertfordshire, will join together as NHS Hertfordshire from April 1 this year. Since their establishment in October 2006, both PCTs have shared a management team, chief executive and set of directors, while many staff work for both organisations.

    http:/ / www.watfordobserver.co.uk/ news/ 5038986.PCTs_ announce_ merger/

BBC

  • Managers at Leicester's three hospitals are planning to close nine wards over the next few months. The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said the closures were planned for the General Hospital, Royal Infirmary and Glenfield sites. It is part of a plan to care for patients in the local community rather than in hospitals. The trust said any posts that were cut would be through natural wastage not compulsory redundancies.

    http:/ / news.bbc.co.uk/ 1/ hi/ england/ leicestershire/ 8549229.stm

Islington Gazette

Tuesday 2nd March 2010

BBC News

  • NHS IT deal 'stitch up' claim by Conservatives. The government is trying to fix a quick deal with suppliers for its controversial £12.7bn NHS IT programme ahead of the next General Election, the BBC has been told. Industry insiders and the Conservative Party allege the deals, which would be in place by the end of March, would "tie the hands" of whoever forms the next government. Tory policy would seek to halt the two main contracts and dismantle its central infrastructure. The Liberal Democrats would like to scrap the programme.

    http:/ / news.bbc.co.uk/ 1/ hi/ health/ 8543328.stm

Bolton News

  • £14m health cuts on track. A health trust which needs to claw back £14m this financial year says it is on track to achieve the savings. NHS Bolton, the primary care trust which oversees local health services, was forced to make cuts because of extra financial pressures. They included a rise in the people being treated in hospital — due to a cut in waiting lists — while prices for things such as specialist services and medicines also increased. The organisation revealed early last year that it needed to save £13.9m by the end of this month to balance its £460m budget.

    http:/ / www.theboltonnews.co.uk/ news/ 5036006._ _ 14m_ health_ cuts_ on_ track/

Wandsworth Borough Guardian

  • Battersea super surgery plans criticised. NHS Wandsworth has been criticised by the borough’s health watchdog after it watered down-plans for health services in Battersea. Plans for a new super surgery, which would have contained several GPs and out-patient services under one roof, have been scrapped as budgets across the NHS have been frozen. Instead, NHS Wandsworth’s will offer services on two separate sites, while new investment remains “on hold”.

    http:/ / www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/ news/ 5034894.Battersea_ super_ surgery_ plans_ criticised/

Monday 1st March 2010

Haringey Independent

  • North London residents protest against hospital closures. Hundreds of people, residents young and old, health activists, politicians, and unionists marched through the streets of north London this afternoon demanding an end to proposed cuts in hospital services. The protest's main focus was the future of the Whittington Hospital, where A& E, maternity and childrens' services are believed to be under threat of being cut according to leaked plans put together by health chiefs. With A& E services already set to be down graded at Chase Farm Hospital, there are fears plans are being formulated for further reduction of services at either Barnet Hospital or North Middlesex Hospital.

    http:/ / www.haringeyindependent.co.uk/ news/ 5032781.North_ London_ residents_ protest_ against_ hospital_ closures/

The independent

  • Private medical insurance companies are paying corporate client employees up to £200 a night to use the NHS. The bizarre situation has emerged as a response to the escalating costs of private healthcare. Staff at the BBC are encouraged to think twice before choosing private care over their local NHS service. At a maximum £200 a night, the NHS payment is well below the £1,000 cost of a night in a typical private hospital. Senior staff at the BBC, a Bupa client, received a letter warning that there had been a surge in claims for private treatment, and the BBC was struggling to cope with demand. It reminded staff that there was a £200-a-night payment for those opting to use an NHS hospital.

    http:/ / www.independent.co.uk/ life- style/ health- and- families/ health- news/ bbc- staff- with- private- health- cover- get- 163200- to- use- nhs- 1913012.html

BMJ

  • First quality accounts show wide range of priorities among foundation trusts. A review of foundation trusts' experiences, shows that only a few managed to fully engage with patients and other stakeholders to develop priorities in the first year. he review, carried out by the Foundation Trust Network, states that the bundle of priorities selected by individual trusts is extremely diverse with over 200 metrics used to measure quality improvement. It notes that across the country there are several metrics in use by only one trust. Greater commonality, however, is seen in the areas most often selected for quality improvements in 2009-10.

    http:/ / www.bmj.com/ cgi/ content/ full/ 340/ feb26_ 2/ c1164

Healthcare Republic

  • Doctors and patients oppose 'disastrous' plans for London's health services. Due to a £5bn funding shortfall, NHS London is planning to close a third of London hospital beds, move 55% of hospital work into 'polysystems' and could close 13 district hospitals.John Lister, of campaigning group London Health Emergency, described the plans as 'cranky, weird proposals that will not stand up to scrutiny' and called for NHS London to release a report by consultants McKinsey on which the proposals are based. Dr Kambiz Boomla, a GP in Tower Hamlets and chairman of City and East London LMC, said the rapid shift of hospital services into the community would be realised as million pound contracts for private providers.'These will be multi-million pound competitive tenders. The average GP practice will not be able to manage that risk and the likes of United Health and Atos origin will move in.' Bronwen Handyside, from campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, proposed a working coalition of all the organisations present to defend the NHS from such drastic cuts.'Let's use our collective strength to tell our politicians, we will not allow you to destroy our National Health Service.'

    http:/ / www.healthcarerepublic.com/ news/ 986683/ Doctors- patients- oppose- disastrous- plans- Londons- health- services/

Friday 26th February 2010

Public Finance

  • Trusts fear effects of NHS tariff changes. Hospital trusts fear they could lose 7% of their income because of changes to the NHS treatments tariff. The delayed tariff for 2010/ 11 was published by the Department of Health on February 22. It freezes the standard prices acute trusts will receive for treatments. It also includes the expected measures aimed at reducing demand for hospital operations. Acute trusts will receive just 30% of tariff rates for any unplanned activity above a set baseline. The DoH’s aim is to unofficially cap activity levels by making it uneconomic to provide extra operations. But Sue Slipman, director of the Foundation Trust Network, said other elements of the new tariff would hit hospital income, even before the activity cap came into play. ‘There’s a possibility of losing up to 7% because of the other changes to day-case rates and other stuff.’ Trusts were ‘doing the sums’ now that the complex tariff documentation had been published, she said. Slipman also noted the ‘big issue’ of the baseline for the activity cap. Under the new tariff, the 30% ‘marginal rate’ will be paid for emergency admissions to hospital above a baseline set at the value of contracted activity in 2008/ 09, not 2009/ 10. Slipman said this had effectively turned back the clock to activity levels before the past year’s growth. ‘Clearly the DoH is putting all the risks on to providers.’

    http:/ / www.publicfinance.co.uk/ news/ 2010/ 02/ trusts- fear- effects- of- nhs- tariff- changes/

Telegraph

  • Capita sees contract boost after election. "There's a complete imbalance between the amount of money the country is spending and generating," said Paul Pindar, Capita's chief executive. The only thing which will stop this happening is a hung parliament, he said. "Local governments are already looking to outsourcing companies to help them cut costs to cope with flat and reduced budgets, and central government will start making similar decisions after the election," he said. Capita's pretax profit rose to £258.1m from £226.6m last year, while revenue climbed 10pc to £2.29bn. Geoff Allum, an analyst at Arden, said: "There will be fewer contracts around to mop that up than people expected." But he emphasised the potential for future contract wins: "There's going to be huge outsourcing in the next few years - in areas we've not seen before like the NHS."

    http:/ / www.telegraph.co.uk/ finance/ newsbysector/ supportservices/ 7318230/ Capita- sees- contract- boost- after- election.html

Scotsman

  • Petition given on bed cut fears. A petition with more than 6,000 signatures has been presented to health secretary Nicola Sturgeon, urging her to protect a specialist rheumatology unit in the Highlands. NHS Highland is reviewing the Dingwall-based service and there are fears beds could be cut or the unit could close at weekends.

    http:/ / news.scotsman.com/ health/ Petition- given- on- bed- cut.6106836.jp

Pulse

  • Harmoni set to strengthen dominance of OOH services. A private firm looks set to strengthen its dominance of GP out-of-hours services by taking over scandal-rocked provider Take Care Now. Harmoni has announced that ‘heads of agreement’ have been signed with the company, whose services came under fire from the Government and the Care Quality Commission after the death of a Cambridgeshire patient. The deal would continue a major expansion by Harmoni, which is the biggest out-of-hours private provider in England and now provides cover for 23 PCTs. It also recently won the contract to cover services in Suffolk and last year merged with Thamesdoc, expanding its operation into Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125167& c=2

  • Express LIFT fails to take off as just one PCT signs up. A Government scheme aimed at massively speeding up funding of new GP premises has so far been taken up by just a single PCT, Pulse can reveal. No new premises are yet being built through the Express LIFT scheme, launched in March last year, the Department of Health has admitted. Express LIFT was supposed to create a national list of firms who could be procured for projects in as little as two months, rather than the nearly two years typical of LIFT public-private partnerships. So far just one Express LIFT company has been set up, by Cumbria PCT, said the DH.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125166& c=2

  • GP leader: 'All practices will be part of polysystems'. A GP leader has predicted that all GPs will eventually be forced to work in polysystems, as NHS bosses scramble to make huge savings by shifting greater volumes of work into primary care. The forecast from Dr Michelle Drage, joint chief executive of Londonwide LMCs, came on the eve of the BMA’s crisis rally of doctors – called in protest against dramatic cuts proposed by NHS managers in the capital. The meeting is aiming to co-ordinate protests at controversial proposals that include closing hospitals, shifting large volumes of work to primary care, and reducing the length of GP consultations by a third. It comes just days after Pulse revealed that NHS managers across England plan to dramatically ramp up the shift of work from hospitals to primary care, with plans for GPs to take on new services as part of London-style ‘polysystems’.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=35& storycode=4125185& c=2

Thursday 25th February 2010

Healthcare Republic

  • Acute trusts could 'take over' general practice, warns Londonwide LMCs. Dr Michelle Drage, joint chief executive of Londonwide LMCs, believes all practices in the capital will be expected to become part of a polysystem and acute trusts will shape what services they provide. After a two-month investigation by Londonwide LMCs, Dr Drage believes PCTs in the capital are under particular SHA pressure to shift hospital work towards GPs working in 'polysystems' and 'vertically integrate' community services with the acute sector. Dr Drage predicts the 31 PCTs in London will be formally merged into five commissioning 'sectors' next year, leading to a 'further blurring of primary care'. Foundations trusts and the acute sector are now a greater threat to general practice than the commercial sector, said Dr Drage. She urged practices to 'pull together in networks and federate' to protect themselves against the threat.

    http:/ / www.healthcarerepublic.com/ news/ 986258/ Acute- trusts- take- over- general- practice- warns- Londonwide- LMCs/

Manchester Evening News

  • Scale of health cuts is frightening'. Patient groups have described the proposed £1billion cuts in NHS spending plans for Greater Manchester as 'frightening.' They say that although the local health service could and should be more efficient, cuts on such a scale would damage patient care. Paul Mainwaring from the independent Patients Council said: "The scale of these cuts is frightening - we are very concerned this will lead to job cuts and cuts in services - it is impossible for it not to. "There are definitely efficiencies and savings to be made in the NHS but we do not see how cuts can be made on this scale without putting services in jeopardy."

    http:/ / www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ news/ health/ s/ 1193815_ scale_ of_ health_ cuts_ is_ frightening

Morning Star

  • Cuts trust left patients to die. Health union Unison has demanded immediate action to recruit staff at a cuts-obsessed NHS foundation trust castigated by an inquiry for routinely neglecting its patients. The Francis report released on Tuesday judged that the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust had lost sight of its responsibility to provide safe care in its rush to slash budgets. The probe was launched after a catalogue of failings at the trust was unearthed in a separate HC report last March. It said that between 400 and 1,200 more patients had died than would have been expected from 2005 to 2008 due to appalling standards of care at the trust. Unison head of health Karen Jennings said: Mid Staffordshire's over-riding desire to become a foundation trust had led managers to focus on finances rather than patients.

    http:/ / www.morningstaronline.co.uk/ index.php/ news/ content/ view/ full/ 87257

HSJ

  • Clinical staff 'not to blame' for majority of Mid Staffordshire's failings. Robert Francis's report says that while some of poor care was due to unprofessional behaviour, "the overwhelmingly prevalent factors were a lack of staff, both in terms of absolute numbers and appropriate skills, and a lack of good leadership". Although staff did raise concerns with trust management, both individually and collectively, the poor response they received dissuaded more from reporting concerns. Nurses told the inquiry of pressure to meet the A& E four-hour waiting target, with patients being moved out of the department to beat the breach without being fully assessed, and of subsequently being told to "lie" to make sure target breaches were not recorded. One A& E doctor said: "The nurses were so under-resourced they were working extra hours. They were desperately moving from place to place to try to give adequate care to patients. If you are in that environment for long enough, what happens is you become immune to the sound of pain."

    http:/ / www.hsj.co.uk/ news/ acute- care/ clinical- staff- not- to- blame- for- majority- of- mid- staffs- failings/ 5011867.article

Guardian

  • Robert Francis QC's damning report paints detailed picture of failure at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. Many people who went into Stafford hospital expecting to be well looked-after instead "suffered horrific experiences that will haunt them and their loved ones for the rest of their lives", Francis said. He reported: Uncaring staff rejecting requests from patients and relatives for help. Lamentable hygiene standards. Family members having to clean, feed or help their loved ones get to the toilet. Too few doctors generally, especially in A& E. Reluctance among patients to ask hard-pressed staff to provide proper care, and fear among staff about the consequences of not meeting targets. Staff were critical about the hospital's management, and described bosses who bred "an atmosphere of fear of adverse repercussions", stressed NHS targets were the top priority and were secretive when things went wrong.

    http:/ / www.guardian.co.uk/ society/ 2010/ feb/ 25/ mid- staffordshire- nhs- trust

Tuesday 23rd February 2010

Kingston Guardian

  • Extraordinary meeting over Kingston Hospital A+E threat. An extraordinary meeting has been called to discuss the threat of closure or downgrading of accident and emergency and maternity units at Kingston Hospital. Kingston will lose at least one major service in 16 out of 18 options being looked at by a review of south-west London, according to a document leaked to Edward Davey, Kingston and Surbiton's Liberal Democrat MP. Kingston's influential health overview and scrutiny panel of councillors will interrogate senior figures from the NHS. Mr Davey and Susan Kramer, MP for Richmond Park, will be able to ask questions to the NHS publicly for the first time since they launched their Save Kingston Hospital campaign.

    http:/ / www.kingstonguardian.co.uk/ news/ 5021040.Extraordinary_ meeting_ over_ Kingston_ A_ E_ threat/

Stroud News and Journal

Guardian

  • Dr Crippen: Grandpa will have to suffer at home. In the "old days" the hospital would have started necessary treatment of the elderly automatically. Now, in the faux internal NHS economy, medical problems are circumscribed and priced. Doctors are instructed to complete one task and get the patient out as quickly as possible. If the patient does not have a definable, circumscribable problem, best not to let him into hospital in the first place. Older people tend to have overlapping medical problems. The exasperated family doctor re-admits the patient but the patient is home long before anyone has addressed the co-existing problems. The ever more specialised specialists will look at their part of your body but are not allowed to cross boundaries. The medicine of old age is no longer seen as something that needs to be done in hospitals. "People aged over 65 could be given up to six weeks' support to enable them to remain in their own homes after a stay in hospital or residential care or a fall or an illness," said Gordon Brown this month. Family doctors know only too well what this means. When we ask the hospital to admit someone, the first question will be "how old is the patient ?" If the answer is any number over 64, the admission will be put on hold for six weeks and, instead, a "health care professional" will be sent to "assess" and "care" for the patient at home. This will not be a doctor. It will be an automaton with a clipboard and a tick-sheet, who will pop in briefly and depart suggesting that you call your GP if there are any problems. To earn a place in hospital, Grandpa will first have to endure six weeks of inadequate home care. This is a cost-cutting exercise. It is a thinly disguised way of further limiting elderly NHS patients' access to hospital treatment.

    http:/ / www.guardian.co.uk/ society/ 2010/ feb/ 23/ dr- crippen- denying- grandpa- care

Monday 22nd February 2010

Morning Star

  • Hinchingbrooke in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, lost its only NHS bidder earlier this week in the Cambridge University Hospitals Trust. The withdrawal has opened the way for one of five private health providers to take control and become a private operator of the general hospital. Once the contract is awarded by the East of England health authority, Hinchingbrooke will become the first NHS hospital of its kind in Britain to be operated by a private firm. The hospital has been labelled as "debt-ridden" with a deficit of around £40 million, but Unison head of health Karen Jennings claimed the debt is "no worse than many other trusts" which are bogged down in private contracts. She described plans to hand over the running of the hospital to a private company as a "dangerous experiment" which flew in the face of the government's insistence that the NHS is its preferred provider. Ms Jennings said: "Most private-sector companies don't know how to run a hospital with intensive care, maternity and emergency services in particular. The experience in Britain is that when you have an emergency in a private sector hospital it is transferred to the NHS." Broken promises from Cambridgeshire PCT to refer patients to Hinchingbrooke's "£22 million" treatment centre, which was funded through the private finance initiative at an eventual cost of £93 million, left the hospital with an underused facility and a long-term bill. Professor Allyson Pollock of the University of Edinburgh added that privatisation had been the very reason behind deficits in the first place. "Private contracts, capital charges and abortive PFI deals are often behind a hospital's deficit"

    http:/ / www.morningstaronline.co.uk/ index.php/ news/ content/ view/ full/ 87064

East London Advertiser

Health Care Republic

  • Details are emerging of PCT plans to cut millions of pounds from primary care contracts this year, despite DoH insistence that trusts must not 'slash and burn' to make savings. Documents from PCTs that have finalised financial plans for beyond 2010/ 11 reveal trusts are looking to recover millions from PMS and GMS practices. An SHA source also told GP newspaper that the DoH expects to save £42 million from primary care contracts if the DoH's proposals for GP pay are accepted by the Review Body in March. PCTs have been told by health minister Mike O'Brien to use this year's 5.5 per cent growth to invest in efficient, innovative services and reduce hospital costs rather than 'slash and burn'. But across the East Midlands SHA area, PCTs have calculated that up to £37 million can be saved this year by 'reducing the cost of primary care contracts'. By applying efficiency gains identified by management consultants McKinsey, the trust says it could save £5.26 million from GP practices and community services over the next three years. Bassetlaw PCT, in Nottinghamshire, is planning to recover £400,000 from 11 practices over the next three years.

    http:/ / www.healthcarerepublic.com/ search/ GP/ news/ 984081/ PCTs- plan- deep- cuts- primary- care/ ?DCMP=ILC- SEARCH

Friday 19th February 2010

West End Extra

  • Private firm ‘risk to NHS patients’ - Clinicenta agency has contract suspended following death of patient in St John's Wood-based hospital. A private health firm based in Westminster put NHS patients “at risk”, an official report has found. An investigation is under way into the Clinicenta health agency after its contract was suspended following concerns over the death of a patient. The company, based in St John’s and Elizabeth Hospital in St John’s Wood, won a £150m contract with the NHS last July to provide outpatient services usually based in hospitals closer to home. A report from the Care Quality Commission found a series of failings ranging from staff training to medicine management, concluding the firm provided a “zero-star service” to patients.

    http:/ / www.westendextra.com/ news/ 2010/ feb/ private- firm- % E2% 80% 98risk- nhs- patients% E2% 80% 99- clinicenta- agency- has- contract- suspended- following- de

Guardian

  • Government must halt tendering process that will lead to NHS privatisation, say unions. Health service unions have called on the government to suspend the tendering process that will lead to the virtual privatisation of an entire NHS trust and its £40m debt. Hinchingbrooke hospital in Huntingdon is set to become the first NHS general hospital to be operated by a private company after the only wholly NHS bidder for the contract dropped out this week. Under the formula set out by the health secretary, Andy Burnham, last autumn, internal NHS organisations should be the "preferred provider" of services within the NHS. But as Hinchingbrooke is deemed to be a failing trust due to its massive accumulated debt, the regional health authority was able to put the management contract out to tender. Five private health companies - Care UK, Circle Health, Interhealth Canada (UK), Ramsay Health Care UK and Serco Health - are now competing to run the 27-year-old, 369-bed hospital. Both the trust's assets and staff at Hinchibrooke will remain within the NHS. The move has, nonetheless, been condemned by both the public service union Unison and the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors. The contract, due to start in April 2011, marks a significant opening up of the NHS's internal market and has stirred up ideological controversy. Karen Jennings, head of health at Unison, said that the only NHS bidder, Cambridge University hospitals foundation trust, had been forced out "by the huge cost, both in time and money, of this bidding process and we are left with an all-private shortlist." Mark Porter, chair of the BMA's consultants' committee, told the Guardian: "This is franchising out part of the NHS where the trust board's responsibility will be to shareholders and not to the local population. This hospital trust was destabilised in the first place by having its more 'profitable' services sent out to a private independent sector treatment centre (ISTC). We are opposed to part of the NHS being effectively privatised."

    http:/ / www.guardian.co.uk/ society/ 2010/ feb/ 19/ hinchingbrooke- huntington- hospital- nhs- private

Pulse

  • GPs deliver 10 demands to rescue primary care. GPs are demanding the end of patient survey pay targets, swingeing cuts to Darzi centre contracts and a halt to the creeping fragmentation of primary care, in the biggest test of the profession’s opinion in the run-up to the general election. Overwhelming numbers of GPs responding to Pulse’s election survey also wanted to see opportunities thrown open to women and young doctors, and a new deal struck with the Government to ensure the profession is properly resourced for its ever-expanding role. Pulse is launching a 10-point Manifesto for General Practice demanding an end to medicine as a popularity contest, pledging to fight threats to GPs’ clinical autonomy and calling for cuts to focus on waste rather than front-line services. Pulse will use the manifesto to highlight the concerns of GPs to key politicians and policy-makers in the run-up to the general election. The strength of feeling among GPs is laid bare by our survey – with 82% supporting cuts to Darzi centre contracts, and a similar number wanting reductions in spend on management, to protect patient services. There is also disquiet at the convenience culture in the NHS, with 78% of GPs calling for the patient survey to be scrapped as a means of payment, and almost two-thirds believing increased use of community specialists is fragmenting primary care. And GPs are alarmed by the slew of hospital work heading their way, with 79% saying the Government and BMA should agree a reiteration of the principles of the GMS contract, including no new work without new resources.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125101& c=2

  • Managers use consultants to 'cover their backs', claims minister. Health minister Mike O’Brien has criticised senior NHS managers for ‘covering their backs’ by employing expensive management consultants to make difficult decisions. The assault on PCT use of management consultants– made during an evidence session with the House of Common’s Health Committee earlier this month – comes after the NHS Confederation warned that PCT spending on management consultants would have to be halved to meet the requirements of the Government’s operating framework. PCT spending on management consultants has more than tripled in the past two years, with PCTs now spending an average of £1.217m each year.

    http:/ / www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ story.asp ?sectioncode=23& storycode=4125124& c=2

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