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The South Central Strategic Health Authority was formed on 1 July 2006.
Where possible reports will continue to be shown under:
Hampshire and Isle Of Wight Strategic Health Authority
Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority
- NHS criticised over naming and shaming of endangered health trusts.
The government was criticised today for drawing up a hit list of 77 NHS trusts
at risk of closure, cuts in services and significant debt. The list, released
today by the Department of Health (DoH), also highlights which trusts are
likely to come under the most media scrutiny - prompting accusations from
doctors' leaders and opposition MPs that NHS reform is being driven by
political priorities rather than clinical need. The so-called "heat maps"
assessed whether individual NHS trusts would face national, regional or local
media attention and when this coverage was most likely to occur. It also
identified where NHS closures or cuts could affect Labour MPs. The list was
released by the DoH following a request by the Conservative party under the
Freedom of Information Act. Under the plans to reform the NHS, more patients
would be treated in the community rather than at their local hospital, and
specialist services would be taken away from local hospitals to create
regional centres of excellence. The impact was expected to be greatest on
acute and community hospitals. The list showed that NHS trusts in
London were most at risk, with eight of the 12 identified likely to
attract national media attention. he list also included 10 trusts from the
east of England, and nine each in the
north-west, south
central and south-east coast. David Batty
and agencies
Wednesday November 8, 2006 Guardian Unlimited
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Jobs to go in local
NHS. A new wave of local NHS jobs are to disappear following the closure
of the
Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority. The strategic health authority
has merged with strategic health authorities in Hampshire and the Isle of
Wight, as part of a reorganisation of the NHS in the South-East. But it
emerged this week that the 250 staff employed by the 3 health authorities is
to be cut to 123. The former Thames Valley SHA had employed 112. Now with
staff in the process of having to apply for jobs with the new
South Central Strategic authority in
Newbury, it is feared Oxfordshire employees will be badly hit. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Oxford
Times 8 December 2006
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SHA pays £2m for firm
to size up PCT commissioning. South Central
strategic health authority has called in turnaround specialists
PricewaterhouseCoopers to assess whether its nine primary care trusts should
contract out their commissioning functions to the private sector. The contract,
worth approximately £2m, will run until July and will see PwC analysing the
'strengths and weaknesses' of each PCT's commissioning role. PwC will be charged
with a number of tasks including: creating a strategic plan for each PCT to
measure success and long-term goals; creating an operating plan which will
develop the local delivery plan on a year-on-year basis; creating a capability
and capacity plan which will identify areas for improvement so that strategic
and operating plans can be successfully executed; understanding the detail of
the commissioning function so that PCTs can individually and collectively assess
their own particular strengths and weaknesses; specifically identifying areas
for building, buying or sharing capacity and capability. South Central SHA's
project director for reform Diane Hedges said that the work with PwC would put
them in a position to judge which areas of work they outsource to the private
sector under the DoH commissioning framework. The DoH list of approved
commissioning support suppliers is due to be published soon.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Service Journal 8 February 2007
-
Commissioning is going private. Signs that PCTs are taking the first steps
towards outsourcing commissioning have led to renewed fears for GPs' role in the
process. South Central Strategic Health Authority
(SHA) announced it had commissioned the consultancy PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC)
to work with its nine PCTs to identify the 'strengths and weaknesses' of their
commissioning role. A spokesman for the SHA said PWC would be paid £2m over five
months to develop a strategic plan for each PCT and 'specifically identify areas
for building, buying or sharing capacity and capability'. The spokesman added:
'It's possible that, in the future, the commissioning function of PCTs could be
outsourced. But that decision will be made by PCTs themselves further down the
line.' Alex Nunns, of pressure group Keep Our NHS Public, described the move as
'pernicious'. He added: 'It looks pretty clear that South Central has decided
that its PCTs should be outsourcing commissioning, but it's got the management
consultants in to tell them what to do and how to do it. We see this as a big
step on the road to privatisation. Pressure is coming from above - from the
Department of Health and the SHA - to force the local NHS to hand over its
responsibilities to the private sector.' In June 2006, the DoH was forced to
withdraw an advertisement inviting companies to bid for commissioning services
after claims of privatisation by stealth. However, two weeks later, a
watered-down version of the advert reappeared in the Official Journal of the
European Union. The DoH is due to publish a list of companies that would be
eligible to bid for commissioning services. In London, Hillingdon PCT has said
it wants to hand over most of its core functions to the private sector,
including commissioning. Dr Michael Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, said:
'Private commissioners could open up a competitive market that's harmful to
local services, while people offering good continuity and personal care get
thrown out.'
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Doctor
Update 21 February 2007
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Locals fail to win
practice. The
Derbyshire practice at the centre of a legal battle over who should run it
has been handed to a UK-based private company by its PCT. ChilversMcCrea, which
manages more than 20 practices and walk-in centres in the UK, was awarded the
tender to run the Creswell and Langwith practice last week. It is now in
contract negotiations with Derbyshire County PCT, which ran into trouble last
year after initially giving the contract to UnitedHealth Europe (UHE), part of a
US-based firm. In a High Court ruling in August, Mr Justice Collins said the
consultation process had been flawed, and the contract was re-advertised. UHE
did not reapply. Derbyshire GP Dr Peter Holden said he was 'surprised' that the
practice, which is split over two sites, had gone to ChilversMcCrea. 'I've
spoken to GPs in Nottinghamshire [where the firm runs practices], and there are
concerns as to whether even essential services are being delivered,' he said.
Derbyshire LMC secretary Dr John Grenville said he would be seeking data under
the Freedom of Information Act about the bids, which included three from local
GPs.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Doctor
Update 21 February 2007
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PCT commissioning
privatised. The first private contract for commissioning support has been
awarded to an accountancy firm, setting a new milestone in the increasing role
of the independent sector in the NHS. South
Central strategic health authority has signed up PriceWaterhouseCoopers to
provide commissioning skills for its nine PCTs. The firm, whose contract is
worth £2m over five months, or 0.5 per cent of the commissioning budget, will be
tasked with creating strategic and operating plans for each PCT, and identifying
areas where capacity can be bought, built or shared. But the SHA has assured GPs
that the initiative will not clash with practice-based commissioning. Rebecca
Clegg, programme manager at South Central SHA's system reform team, said the
scheme would be a 'process of engagement' between PCTs, practice-based
commissioners, SHAs and PriceWaterhouse- Coopers. She said: 'The approach we are
taking is not one where the SHA and PriceWaterhouseCoopers is going to come in
and say this is the right way to do it. The idea is that we're all working in
partnership on this. We don't want to get into a situation where
PriceWaterhouseCoopers will be dictating what's right or wrong.' She said the
SHA had wanted to access 'international experience and best practice', looking
to firms which had worked on commissioning in Europe and the US.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers is also bringing its own clinical expertise, including an
Oxfordshire-based GP. Dr David Jenner, commissioning lead at the NHS Alliance,
said he was concerned that the move showed a lack of confidence. 'You can't do
commissioning in a top-down fashion. It's frontline clinicians who actually make
the decisions that commit budget,' he said. The management consultants will:
create a strategic plan for each PCT to 'measure success and set long-term
goals'; create an operating plan to develop the Local Delivery Plan year by
year; create a people, capability and capacity plan to identify areas for
improvement; understand the detail of the commissioning function and cycle so
that the PCTs can assess their strengths and weakness and explore the benefits
of working together; identify areas for building, buying or sharing capacity and
capability from the NHS and independent sector.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Pulse
22 February 2007
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Laid-off NHS man gets
cash - but keeps job. The new director of finance for
Kingston's Primary Care Trust (PCT) is reputed to have received a huge
redundancy package from his last post, despite continuing to work in the NHS.
The pay-out to Rob Yeomans, rumoured to be in excess of £100,000, has caused
outrage among some of his NHS colleagues, particularly when many PCTs, including
Kingston, are making service cuts to get back into the black. Under NHS rules,
if a worker is made redundant and then re-employed by the NHS within four weeks,
they are not liable for a pay-out. But since leaving
South Coast Strategic Health Authority (SHA)
on March 31, Mr Yeomans has been working without a break for Kingston PCT.
Legally, his redundancy payment looks secure as he has been employed on a
three-month contract through an external agency, so therefore is not technically
an NHS employee, despite being the man who has been running Kingston PCT's
finances. He begins his permanent contract on July 1. A Kingston PCT spokeswoman
said Mr Yeomans' terms of employment were being looked at by its remuneration
and conditions of service committee, but refused to confirm how much he was paid
in redundancy. The Surrey Comet became aware of the row after an insider wrote
to us anonymously about Mr Yeomans' redundancy payment. "In a time when Kingston
PCT is reporting a £20million overspend and the whole NHS is struggling to make
ends meet, I find this to be morally unacceptable," they said. Michael Walker,
the Unison representative for the PCT, said: "They would never allow any of our
staff to work on an agency basis - we have had problems where people lose their
jobs and then can't work. Staff have been talking about this and at a time of
redundancies the PCT needs to be careful to be completely transparent."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Surrey
Comet 23 May 2007
Heat Map South Central
SHA forecasts 2006
07 South Central
Healthcare organisations weak for quality of services
Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Trust
New Forest Primary Care Trust
Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust
Healthcare organisations weak for use of resources
Blackwater Valley and Hart Primary Care Trust
Bracknell Forest Primary Care Trust
Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Trust
Cherwell Vale Primary Care Trust
Chiltern and South Bucks Primary Care Trust
Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Trust
Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Trust
Isle of Wight Primary Care Trust
Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust
Newbury and Community Primary Care Trust
North East Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust
North Hampshire Primary Care Trust
Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust
Slough Primary Care Trust
South West Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust
Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust
Vale of Aylesbury Primary Care Trust
Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust
Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead Primary Care Trust
Wokingham Primary Care Trust
Wycombe Primary Care Trust
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