East Midlands Strategic Health Authority

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The East Midlands Strategic Health Authority was formed on 1 July 2006.  Where possible reports will continue to be shown under:

Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland Strategic Health Authority
Trent Strategic Health Authority

  • Health unions unite to campaign against cuts. Healthcare unions have launched a campaign to tackle cuts to NHS services and jobs. Leicestershire primary care trusts are facing cost-cutting programmes to save over £60 million between them. The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust is also trying to save £22 million this year. The picture is worse in other parts of the East Midlands. Nottingham University Hospitals has a total deficit of £60 million. Up to 1,200 posts are believed to be at risk. A group of unions, including the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Unison, Amicus, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists and the Society of Radiographers, is taking action. Andy Belfield, Unison's head of health for the East Midlands, said: "We will be working together, representing all NHS staff, alongside trusts, patients, community groups and the public to defend services." The unions will be asking people to sign petitions at events across the region during the summer. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Leicester Mercury 11 August 2006
  • Union hits out at 'back-door' privatisation. A new NHS procurement agency has been accused of attempting a "back-door privatisation" of East Midlands Ambulance Service trust. The GMB union says the East Midlands collaborative procurement hub, a new agency set up to buy services and supplies for NHS trusts, threatens to dismantle the service by putting out a tender to privatise non-urgent patient transport services (PTS) in the east midlands. GMB regional organiser Andy Fletcher said: "NHS trusts are effectively trying to downgrade a service which is at present driven by quality performance and patient needs to a service which is not based on clinical need but driven by money." The union says that PTS should remain within the ambulance service, "not a bolt-on inferior product". East Midlands Ambulance Service confirmed that the hub would shortly be inviting tenders for the provision of non-emergency patient transport services, adding that the trust "will be competing for this tender". Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Health Service Journal 17 August 2006
  • NHS cuts protest. Thousands of people took part in a march in Nottingham on Saturday against cuts to the East Midlands NHS. The march was organised by Unison and the Royal College of Nursing. Karen Jennings, Unison's head of health, said the turnout was "a real demonstration of the concern felt by the public about the future of health services." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Leicester Mercury 25 September 2006
  • £4.5m payoff for 46 health staff. Almost £4.5m of NHS funds were spent on 46 redundancy payouts for directors, managers and other office staff after a reorganisation designed to save money for Derbyshire's NHS. Unions are today saying the money could have been saved with better planning. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the extent of the redundancy payouts caused by the merger. A spokesman for the county health trust, which paid a total of £405,000 to two former chief executives, said the reorganisation had saved the trust £2.7m. "The trust will be able to reinvest these longer-term savings in front-line services of benefit to the people of Derbyshire," he said. The incorporation of neighbouring services saw East Midlands Ambulance Service fund nine redundancies to a cost of £1.5m, it also spent £13,670 on new vehicle livery and signs. Director of human resources David Farrelly said: "Although some short-term costs would be incurred, these would be more than offset by long-term savings. With EMAS, this is achieved by reducing from three boards of directors to one." NHS East Midlands, which replaced the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland and Trent strategic health authorities, spent £2.5m on redundancies for 35 staff and hopes the reorganisation will save £3m in administrative costs. Charlie Carruth, East Midlands Unison organiser, said reorganisations had been rushed through. "In Derbyshire there were six primary care trusts going into one in very little time," he said. "What are you going to do with all the chief executives, assistant directors, heads of finance, human resources ? Instead of doing it in a managed and structured way where you can minimise redundancies as far as you can, they just went for another big merger." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Derbyshire Evening Telegraph 7 June 2007
  • NHS job losses cost £2.5m in payouts. An NHS trust has forked out £2.5m in redundancy payments as part of a Government shake-up of services in the East Midlands. Thirty-five staff were laid off from the region's strategic health authority, in Sandiacre, which oversees primary care trusts, hospitals and the East Midlands Ambulance Service. The job losses stemmed from the merger of health trusts throughout the country last year - aimed at saving cash and cutting bureaucracy in the health service. Trusts, including the strategic health authority, were reconfigured. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Nottingham Evening Post 19 June 2007
  • Midwives struggle in labour ward crisis. The crisis on labour wards has been laid bare by figures that show some midwives are dealing with 25% more births than six years ago. A critical shortage of staff and a rise in the number of births has increased pressure on midwives to breaking point. In some areas, half of new mothers questioned in the largest midwifery study said they had been left alone and worried during labour, even though guidelines say women should have one-to-one care throughout their contractions and birth. Government figures given to the Liberal Democrats show that the number of births per midwife per year has risen overall in England by 6.5% since 2001. However, that figure masks regional variations and in some areas workloads have increased dramatically - in the East Midlands midwives are dealing with 25% more births. On average, a midwife in England will now handle 33 births over a year. In the past six years the birthrate has increased by 12.5%. However, midwife numbers have risen by just 4.5% since Labour came to power. Fewer midwives are also being trained by the NHS. In 2004/ 05, there were 2,374 NHS midwifery training places. This dropped to 2,220 in 2005/ 06 and again to 1,990 the following year. The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) found in a recent survey that half of existing midwives were planning to retire before 2017. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Telegraph 10 January 2008
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Heat Map East Midlands
SHA forecasts 2006 07 East Midlands

Annual Health Check 2006

Healthcare organisations weak for quality of services

East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Healthcare organisations weak for use of resources

Charnwood and North West Leicestershire Primary Care Trust
Daventry and South Northamptonshire Primary Care Trust
Derbyshire Dales and South Derbyshire Primary Care Trust
East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust
Gedling Primary Care Trust
High Peak and Dales Primary Care Trust
Hinckley and Bosworth Primary Care Trust
Leicester City West Primary Care Trust
Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust
Northampton Primary Care Trust
Northamptonshire Heartlands Primary Care Trust
Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust
South Leicestershire Primary Care Trust
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust

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Heat Map East Midlands ] SHA forecasts 2006 07 East Midlands ]

Sheila Porter-Williams
Campaign for Health Service Democracy
Green Haven, Halfway Lane
Dunchurch
Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 6RD
sheilaCHSD@porter-williams.freeserve.co.uk