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The South West Strategic Health Authority was formed on 1 July 2006.
Where possible reports will continue to be shown under:
Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority
Dorset and Somerset Strategic Health Authority
South West Peninsula Strategic Health Authority
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Hospitals 'opt out'
of IT system. Some NHS trusts are opting out of offering patients a choice
of hospital under a new IT system being rolled out, according to family
doctors. GPs said they are unable to book appointments using the online
system, Choose and Book, for
hospitals with long waiting lists. They said hospitals did not want to exceed
the 13-week diagnosis target, and it was interfering with choice. From the
beginning of this year, patients have been given the choice of at least four
local hospitals for treatment. This has been subsequently expanded to include
foundation hospitals and a range of private clinics. In some of the places it
has been introduced, such as
Yorkshire, the Midlands and the
south west, family doctors said hospitals with
waits exceeding 13 weeks for diagnostic tests are not being put on the system.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 9
August 2006
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NHS plc: a dire diagnosis. Private Eye says: "No sooner had a cross-party
committee of MPs heavily criticised the government's use of
independent sector
treatment centres (ISTCs) than the Department of Health defiantly announced
that these private sector companies would be given £lbn worth of contracts to
run a series of "diagnostic centres". The identities of the lucky firms show how
commercial the business of healthcare has become. The
London and east England contract goes
to Amicus InHealth… owned by a consortium of South African private health outfit
Netcare, which botched a contract to provide cataract operations in
Oxfordshire; Apax, a private equity group set up by New Labour favourite Sir
Ronald Cohen; and Inhealth, a company chaired by serial private health director
Tim Chessells and owned by a mysterious Luxembourg fund called Pegasus.
Doubtless this bunch has nothing but the nation's health in mind as it makes
crucial diagnoses and won't be unduly inclined to push people to independent
treatment centres of the sort run by, er, Netcare. Meanwhile in the
South West the record of the (management)
consultants at Atos Origin in providing the over-priced and unpopular
choose-and-book system for hospital referrals was no bar to their success. Nor
in the South East were there too many concerns
about the conflicts of interest presented by handing the diagnosis deal to the
country's biggest private hospital operator, the taxdodging BUPA.
West Midlands patients will be able to benefit
from the services of Mercury Healthcare, the company that has already been paid
millions for work it hasn't done and whose "group strategy director" is one Mark
Smith, the former chief executive of
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS trust who resigned after the trust received zero
stars. From there he became head of health at PFI firm Amey working closely with
Ken Anderson... who now just happens to be doling out the diagnostic centre
contracts as "commercial director" of the NHS. Appropriately enough in the
North East the diagnostics contract has gone to
Alliance Medical, the company owned by yet another private equity group,
Bridgepoint - former employer of Geordie New Labour man and ex-Health Secretary
Alan Milburn. The company's previous forays into the health service include a
£95m contract to run MRI scans which were so poor they had to be checked by the
NHS anyway, leading the British Medical Association to describe the firm's
performance as "a complete disaster". So depending on where you live, your next
illness could well be diagnosed by an incompetent or a profiteer - or more
likely a combination of the two."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Private Eye 16 August 2006
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NHS day surgeries are 'ill thought out'. Six new private day surgeries
across the West are "ill thought out", will cost taxpayers more money and are
blatant "privatisation of the NHS", health workers claim. The leader of industry
union Unison slammed the plans for six new private operating theatres in the
region. Unison claimed privately run surgeries, or
Independent Sector
Treatment Centres (ISTCs), cost the NHS more than if the work was done
'in-house'. Questions about the kind of contracts UK Specialist Hospitals will
sign with the NHS in the West have gone unanswered. A spokesman for UKSH said
that the details of the financial arrangements between the firm and the NHS were
yet to be resolved. The West's Strategic Health
Authority launched a robust defence of ISTCs, claiming they would be
carrying out only four per cent of the total operations in the region every year
- which was "hardly privatisation". A spokeswoman admitted local primary care
trusts would have to sign contracts promising a minimum number of patients be
referred.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Western Daily Press 18 August 2006
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14 private firms win place on choice menu in £200m deal. The Department
of Health has signed a deal worth £200m with 14 independent healthcare companies
to carry out thousands of additional elective care procedures. The contracts,
signed last week, are intended to deliver an additional 150,000 procedures per
year, on an 'ad hoc' basis, as part of the DoH's second wave of
elective care private
sector procurement. The 14 companies will be added immediately to the
central extended choice menu, which currently consists of all foundation trusts
and some independent treatment centres. Under the policy, patients awaiting
elective care can choose from this list, as well as from at least four local
providers. Seven of the big name private healthcare companies have won a large
chunk of the work. BMI Healthcare, part of the Netcare group, is the biggest
winner, securing 44 contracts across the country. Other contract winners include
Bupa, Nuffield, Capio, Centres for Clinical Excellence, Mercury Health, and
Nations Healthcare. Several small private companies are also understood to have
won small contracts to provide local services to NHS patients. Each contract
will run for five years and the private companies will provide NHS patients with
a range of elective care services including general surgery, endoscopy,
ophthalmology, plastic surgery and neurology. Unlike the first-wave elective
care contracts, where PCTs had to pay for the number of procedures contracted -
even if they did not use the capacity - the latest deals will [not] operate
under a 'take or pay' arrangement, which means PCTs only pay for work carried
out. Earlier this month, the DoH named Netcare and Partnership Health Group, in
partnership with Alliance Medical, as preferred bidders for its controversial
integrated assessment and treatment services in
Manchester. At the same time the DoH also signed a deal with UK Specialist
Hospitals, formerly part of the New York Presbyterian Hospitals group, to act as
preferred bidder for a second-wave elective independent treatment centre in the
South West. Last month Bupa was named preferred
bidder for two elective independent treatment centre schemes in the
North East and
Cheshire and Merseyside as part of its wave-two elective care procurement
programme.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal 31 August 2006
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Fury at £1.7m
hospital art. Furious campaigners and politicians have hit out after it
emerged that more than £1.7million has been spent on art in the
West's cash-strapped hospitals. The revelation
comes as struggling health trusts in the region are slashing hundreds of jobs
and closing hospitals in a desperate attempt to reduce their mammoth debts.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press September 2006
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Private firms put squeeze on pay. As doctors at the end of their training
struggle to find work, private
companies are offering them jobs at salaries below those of the NHS. Private
companies with
independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) contracts are offering jobs at
salaries below NHS rates. A surgical SpR in the north of England is understood
to have been offered a job by an ISTC provider, handling just outpatient work,
at a salary of around only £50,000. ATOS Origin, which is the preferred bidder
in the South West and
North West of England under the independent sector diagnostics procurement,
is advertising for consultant radiologists in these areas at salaries no higher
than £65,000. The posts require a specialist diploma and help is being offered
in applying for full GMC registration, suggesting that the company is targeting
doctors from outside the UK. It is also advertising for 'lead radiologists' with
previous UK work experience and prior management responsibility. These posts,
advertised at only £75,000 plus a car, will involve a requirement to set up a
'training structure' for NHS trainees. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hospital
Doctor 19 October 2006
- DoH orders
review into £257m diagnosis contract. A massive diagnostics contract with
the private sector has been delayed because of concerns about quality and
administrative procedures. The Department of Health has ordered an independent
review into work done by Atos Origin for primary care trusts in the NHS North
West region. Atos has been working with eight PCTs since December but a much
wider contract for the NHS North West region
and the NHS South West region was due to start
on Monday. The £257m five-year contract was meant to provide 450,000 tests a
year from 60 fixed sites and 17 mobile test centres. But it has been delayed
until the results of the independent review are released. The move has left
PCTs struggling to find alternative providers. NHS North West said patients
are being offered alternative appointments, either in the NHS or with another
independent sector provider. Atos was meant to provide CT and MRI scanning,
ultrasounds, x-rays, audiology and other diagnostic tests to boost capacity
and help PCTs hit next year's 18-week referral to treatment target. Atos would
handle the entire process from appointment booking to test interpretation and
report delivery. The deal has been halted because ultrasound and MRI scan
patients at PCTs in the North West already contracted with the company ahead
of the main Department of Health-negotiated contract have had to be recalled
for repeat tests. As part of the review, each scan or ultrasound is being
re-examined and it is possible more patients will be recalled. No new patients
are being referred to the interim service and the DoH has said the main
contracts will only go ahead when it is certain patient safety will not be
affected. The DoH said the start date of the main contract would have had to
be delayed regardless of the problems in the North West. 'There are conditions
in all our contracts which providers have to meet before we will allow
services to commence,' said a spokesman. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Service Journal 29 March 2007
- PCTs delayed on
audiology contract. An audiology contract has been delayed indefinitely
because the provider has not been able to sign off quality and safety
guarantees with the Department of Health. The DoH had awarded Mercury Health
preferred bidder status to provide diagnostics services to NHS patients across
the West Midlands, on behalf of the region's
17 primary care trusts. However the delay in the audiology contract has left
PCTs fearful that they may miss next year's 18-week maximum wait target. A DoH
spokesman said Mercury Health had not yet shown that it could 'ensure patient
safety and high-quality healthcare for NHS patients'. The contract would only
proceed when this had been guaranteed, he said. The DoH's contract with
Mercury Health to provide other types of diagnostics services to patients in
the West Midlands will start at the end of May, two months after the
government's original deadline. In February, HSJ revealed that BUPA had pulled
out of a contract with the DoH to provide diagnostic services across the
South East. Amicus InHealth, a joint venture
between Amicus Healthcare and InHealth Group, has won preferred bidder status
on two of the diagnostics contracts in
London and the East of England. Atos
Origin will provide diagnostic services to patients in the
South West, and Alliance Medical has won
preferred bidder status for the North East.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Service Journal 5 April 2007
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NHS booking system
delay. PCTs in the West are not meeting targets for choose and book, the
system which offers patients the choice of where to be treated. The
South West Strategic Health Authority is
referring only 46 per cent of patient's through the system, though this is the
second best rate for any authority. The target is for 90% of referrals to be
made through the system, most authorities are barely half way to this target.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Western
Daily Press 10 April 2007
- Johnson blocks new wave of private clinics. The health secretary,
Alan Johnson, yesterday vetoed plans for a third wave of independent-sector
treatment centres to compete with NHS hospitals. In a break with Tony Blair's
drive to expose the health service to the challenge of market forces, Mr Johnson
said local NHS commissioners should adopt a more pragmatic approach to treating
patients on the waiting list for tests and operations in England. He will allow
them to buy extra capacity from the private sector if they need it to meet
targets on waiting times, and can show it provides value for the taxpayer. But
he told the Commons health committee: "There will be no need for another
national independent-sector procurement ... There will not be a third wave." The
government had been committed to spending about £4bn on the first two waves of
treatment centres - fast-track clinics that were to carry out 2m routine medical
procedures on NHS patients. Mr Johnson was presented with plans for a third wave
when he became health secretary last month, but he refused to endorse them. To
underline the change, he scrapped contracts with Atos Origin in the
north-west and south-east [actually
south west]of England,
accusing the company of failing to deliver in time. Mr Johnson said: "Where
independent sector providers are not offering good value for money or
high-quality patient care ... we will terminate [their contracts]." John Carvel,
social affairs editor
Thursday
July 26, 2007 The Guardian
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Health group fired
over contracts failure. Atos Healthcare has been fired by the Department of
Health for failing to deliver multi-million pound contracts for diagnostic
services in the north-west and
south-west of England. Health secretary Alan
Johnson also announced that the third of the second wave of independent surgical
treatment centres will proceed with Swedish owned Capio in
Lancashire and Cumbria. However, he also told the Commons health select
committee that only "some" of this wave would be going ahead. Andrew Lansley,
Conservative health spokesman, said that this marked "a clear break from Blair's
public service reforms", while the CBI said the independent sector "will be
alarmed by this apparent shift into neutral" on the ISTC programme. Neil
Bentley, the CBI's director of public services, said: "The government's
commitment to driving [the ISTCs] forward seems in doubt." Atos Healthcare was
widely known to be struggling on the contracts which were meant to take effect
form April. The Department of Health said it would not re-tender the Atos deals,
but rather would let strategic health authorities and primary care trusts decide
how to fill the hole. The NHS Partners' Network, which represents independent
providers, said the work had to be put to competitive tender open to the private
sector. Mr Johnson said that where the independent sector could provide good
value, adequate capacity and more choice, "we will bring them in. Where they are
inefficient, we will terminate". Reform, the pro-market think-tank, said Gordon
Brown's government was now "in retreat" over Blairite reforms to health,
schools, housing and university finance. Summary by Keep
our NHS Public of Financial
Times 26 July 2007
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Johnson takes
tougher line over ISTCs. Business leaders have warned that the private
sector is receiving mixed signals from the Department of Health over the
future role it can play in the NHS. The criticism came as Health Secretary
Alan Johnson announced that the DoH had terminated its £257m contract with
Atos Healthcare, a subsidiary of the US IT firm Atos Origin, for diagnostic
services in the Northwest and
Southwest. The contracts were due to start in
April 2007 and run until April 2012, but were suspended following concerns
about the quality of Atos' performance on separate smaller contracts in the
Northwest, which led to a number of patients needing to be re-scanned. But the
termination of one troubled contract is unlikely to be the source of the
independent sector's concerns. These are more likely to stem from Johnson's
comments on the ISTC programme as a whole. The new health secretary told the
committee: 'The NHS doesn't have a monopoly on public service, nor does the
independent sector have a monopoly on efficiency, and where an independent
sector provider is not offering good value for money or high-quality patient
care we won't [accommodate] them in the NHS.' Although Johnson said that ISTCs
had been an important part of attempts to reduce waiting lists and spread good
practice in the NHS, he added that introducing Patient Choice did not mean the
government sought to introduce surplus capacity. Johnson confirmed that,
despite criticism of the ISTC programme from the health committee itself, he
would not be 'revisiting' decisions made by his predecessor health
secretaries. He went on to announce that Capio Healthcare had won a new
contract for seven separate ISTCs in the Northwest, which would be expected to
perform 11,000 procedures a year over a period of five years. The Capio
contract forms one of 15 ISTC schemes expected to be commissioned under phase
two of the programme, which had initially planned to result in 32 new private
treatment and diagnostic schemes. Johnson said he expected to approve more
schemes in the coming months, but added that any proposals would be subject to
'rigorous process… whether it has always been a rigorous process I am not
sure.'
Summary by Keep
our NHS Public of Public
Finance 27 July 2007
Heat Map South
West
SHA forecasts 2006 07
South West
Healthcare organisations weak for quality of services
Avon Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Bristol North Primary Care Trust
Bristol South and West Primary Care Trust
Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust
Gloucestershire Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust
North Somerset Primary Care Trust
Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust
Westcountry Ambulance Services NHS Trust
Weston Area Health NHS Trust
Healthcare organisations weak for use of resources
Avon Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust
Devon Partnership NHS Trust
Gloucestershire Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Trust
Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust
Mid Devon Primary Care Trust
North and East Cornwall Primary Care Trust
North Bristol NHS Trust
North Somerset Primary Care Trust
Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust
Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust
South Wiltshire Primary Care Trust
Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust
West Dorset General Hospitals NHS Trust
West Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust
West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust
Weston Area Health NHS Trust
Wiltshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust
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