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The West Midlands Strategic Health Authority was formed on 1 July 2006.
Where possible reports will continue to be shown under:
Birmingham and The Black Country Strategic Health Authority
Shropshire and Staffordshire Strategic Health Authority
West Midlands South Strategic Health Authority
See also
Warwickshire and Coventry Local News
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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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Blair talks tough on hospital cuts. Tony Blair has warned hospital trusts
in the West Midlands that they must live
within their means and take "difficult decisions" in a changing NHS. Hospital
trusts across the region - including
Shrewsbury & Telford and
Worcestershire Acute - are planning cuts in staff and services to try to get
their books back into balance. The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust is
currently carrying debts of more than £31m and is cutting nearly 300 posts at
the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford. Blair
said: "It's absolutely true that where there are deficits it concentrates the
minds of people about what's wrong in their area. It focuses minds on changes
that need to happen. These difficult decisions are being replicated in every
walk of life, but the test is 'do you get a better service ?' Are we saying that
the NHS - uniquely of any other organisation - has to remain exactly as it is,
and if you change it, you are destroying the service ? That cannot be right, and
it does not happen in any other walk of life." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Shropshire
Star 19 October 2006
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NHS to restore health at Tribal. Mercury Health, the healthcare delivery
arm of struggling public sector outsourcing specialist Tribal, has won preferred
bidder status for a "substantial five-year contract" to provide a range of
surgical, orthodontic, rehabilitation, sexual health and family planning
services to NHS patients in
Essex. It is already contracted to design, build and manage five other NHS
centres for diagnostic procedures and surgery. Tribal said the Mercury deal was
for 29,000 procedures and appointments annually in Essex. Mercury Health chief
executive Peter Martin said: "This announcement extends our partnership with the
NHS and builds on recent success in being chosen as preferred bidder for a major
diagnostics contract treating NHS patients in the
West Midlands."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 14 December 2006
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Nurses leave for
Australia in thousands as NHS halts recruitment. Thousands of nurses are
leaving Britain to work abroad after being headhunted by international
recruitment teams. Hospitals and nursing agencies in Australia and other
countries are encouraging British health workers to emigrate in an attempt to
capitalise on a shortage of jobs in the NHS, the country's top nurse has said.
Many local NHS trusts have imposed a recruitment freeze as the health service
struggles to balance its books before the end of the financial year. An
estimated 20,000 nursing posts have been cut in hospitals and surgeries across
the country, leaving many newly qualified nurses out of work. Peter Carter, the
new general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, described the situation
as shambolic, saying that he knew of nearly 100 nurses from the
West Midlands alone who left to work in
Australia this week. This is despite an anticipated shortfall of 14,000 trained
nurses in the NHS by 2010, he said. Last year, about 3,000 nurses and midwives
left Britain to work in Australia - more than double the number making the same
trip ten years ago - making it the most popular destination for the 8,000 nurses
who emigrated to work abroad. Dr Carter said that Britain was facing a "massive
skills shortage" as a result of the Government's "yo-yo work-force planning" and
predicted that British hospitals would soon have to recruit nurses from abroad
to make up staff numbers. About 180,000 British nurses are due to retire over
the next ten years, according to a leaked government report last month.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Times
17 February 2007
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MRSA superbug strain kills two. A form of the superbug MRSA has killed
patients in a British hospital for the first time, public health officials said
today. Two people - a patient and a healthcare worker - died in September at a
West Midlands hospital after contracting the
aggressive strain of MRSA, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said. An
investigation by the HPA, which monitors infectious diseases, found eight people
tested positive for Panton-Valentine Leukocidin community-associated MRSA,
commonly known as PVL. Four of those people developed an infection, two of whom
subsequently died. David Batty and agencies
Monday
December 18, 2006 Guardian Unlimited
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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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Private centre
delay hits PCTs. PCTs face missing waiting list targets and will have to
find funds to commission alternative services after the Department of Health
delayed the opening of a new independent sector treatment centre. The centre,
in the
West Midlands, was due to start
providing an audiology service on 26 March, but primary care trust staff found
out on the Friday before that it would not be ready. The department said the
delay had been caused because health and safety guarantees had not been signed
off by the provider, Mercury Health. Now some PCTs are being forced to
recommission services from existing providers for fear that they may incur
delays and extra expense.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Pulse
20 April 2007
- Setback for NHS
on treatment centres. Nuffield Hospitals, the not-for-profit private
hospital operator, has pulled out of negotiations to provide operations for
NHS patients using mobile operating theatres in the
West Midlands. The move is a setback for the
Department of Health's drive to get up to an extra 250,000 patients a year
treated in private sector facilities through a second round of independent
sector treatment centres (ISTCs). Some 13 schemes have reached preferred
bidder stage but it is now nearly two years since they were first announced,
with none having yet reached financial close. Nuffield cited costs and delays
in concluding the deal as the reason behind its decision. A series of factors,
including negotiations between the department and the Treasury, have slowed
the deals, with some in the private sector uncertain whether Gordon Brown will
promote the programme with the same vigour as Tony Blair, assuming the
chancellor succeeds him as prime minister. David Mobbs, Nuffield's chief
executive, said the scheme was originally due to go live this month. But
"delays have seen our costs and risks rise" to the point where already slim
margins on the contract were being rapidly eroded. With no firm contract in
sight, he said, the company had decided to draw a line under the deal. He
insisted that the decision did not imply a loss of interest in doing work for
the NHS. "We are still extremely excited about the NHS market and about the
increasing right of patients to choose a private hospital." In addition,
primary care trusts in the Midlands were still showing "a high degree of
interest" in the project, he said, and Nuffield still hoped to use the mobile
theatres for NHS patients under locally agreed arrangements. The Department of
Health now has the choice of dropping the deal or attempting to persuade its
reserve bidder, thought to be Netcare, to take it on. The move comes as most
of the companies bidding for the second wave of ISTCs now say privately that
they do not believe the programme will reach the government's original - and
repeatedly confirmed - target of spending £550m a year to treat 250,000
patients annually. Most now expect it to add up to only £350m. But the private
sector's faith in a continuing market for NHS care was demonstrated by the
completion yesterday of Care UK's deal to buy Mercury, which also runs
treatment centres and a range of other services for the NHS, from the Tribal
Group. The deal has cost Care UK £77m once debt repayments and debt assumed
are included. Mike Parish, Care UK's chief executive, said: "You don't get
that sort of money back from the residual period of Mercury's existing
contracts. This represents a substantial investment [in our belief] that there
will be life [in work for the NHS] after the existing contracts."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Financial
Times 21 April 2007
- Residents
targeted in ambulance shake-up. Midlands residents have been urged to look
at a document detailing plans to close two of the region's 999 call centres.
Over 1,000 copies are being provided to NHS organisations, patients' groups
and ambulance stations. West Midlands Ambulance
Service announced last month that it wished to move staff from Shrewsbury
and Bransford, near Worcester, to the region's three other centres as part of
a reconfiguration of services. Ambulance unions have claimed that the move
could lead to worse response times due to a lack of local knowledge of areas
such as the Malvern Hills, as well as redundancies. Unison is considering
balloting members after claiming that they had not been consulted o the plans.
Health bosses have countered claiming that "scaremongering statements" were
unduly worrying the public, and that there would be no job losses. Sir Graham
Meldrum, WMAS chairman, said: "While the trust recognises this is a difficult
time for staff, we have given a commitment that there will be no
redundancies." He added: "There have been a number of scaremongering
statements issued in relation to the proposed changes which are unhelpful and
misleading. Local knowledge will be protected and enhanced through the use of
new technology which is already saving lives with other services. We want to
create a world class emergency service, but to do so we have to make changes."
A number of meetings are to be held to discuss the proposals ahead of a
decision in October. Murray McGregor, a trust spokesman, added: "This is what
we think is the best option, but if people have other views, we want to hear
them. However the importance of local knowledge has been overstated. To say
operators in Worcester or Shrewsbury know everything is wrong, they don't, and
the occasions where such knowledge is needed are minimal." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Birmingham
Post 17 July 2007
- Three suspended in ambulance row.
Three West Midlands Ambulance Service staff in Shropshire have been suspended
over information passed to the BBC. The service said it was investigating a
possible breach of the Data Protection Act after control room logs were shown
to journalists at BBC Radio Shropshire. It comes amid concerns over plans to
close the ambulance control room in Shrewsbury and instead have two centres in
Stafford and the Black Country. Some staff believe that such a move would put
lives at risk. Control logs seen by BBC staff apparently showed ambulances
were sent from Shropshire to help in Birmingham and the Black Country,
reducing the number of emergency vehicles available in the county. Ambulance
bosses have written to the BBC asking reporters to reveal the source of the
documents passed to the corporation. The suspended members of staff have been
told that if allegations against them prove to be true they would be guilty of
gross misconduct.
BBC 31 July 2007
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Ambulance suspensions criticised. An MP has given his backing to three
ambulance staff suspended after information was passed to the BBC. Control
room logs suggested ambulances from Shropshire were being sent to help in
Birmingham and the Black Country. Three staff were then suspended by West
Midlands Ambulance Service as part of an investigation into a possible breech
of the Data Protection Act. Daniel Kawczinsky, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham,
said he was worried staff were being "intimidated". It comes amid concerns
over plans to close the ambulance control room in Shrewsbury and instead have
two centres in Stafford and the Black Country. He said: "These issues are of
fundamental importance to my constituents and the people of Shropshire and
they should be aired. I personally am deeply concerned that people are being
intimidated in this way. It is absolutely scandalous. I don't want to live in
a society where people who provide frontline services to my constituents [and]
who have genuine concerns or fears about safety issues cannot and... are not
allowed to speak out. That's not a democratic society and that's why I will
fight tooth and nail for their right to do this." He said he was writing to
Health Secretary Alan Johnson about his concerns. West Midlands Ambulance
Service has said it was concerned that patient confidentiality had been broken
by the leak but has refused to comment further until an investigation is
completed. It has written to the BBC asking reporters to reveal the source of
the documents passed to the corporation. The BBC has refused to do this,
saying it is not prepared to reveal confidential sources.
BBC 2
August 2007
- Ambulance call took six minutes. An ambulance trust
has admitted call centre staff took six minutes to answer a telephone call. A
trust spokesman said the call to the West Midlands Ambulance centre in
Brierley Hill, Dudley, was made during a busy period on the evening of 18 May.
He said: "Clearly, this is something we are concerned about." West Midlands
Ambulance Service NHS Trust has since taken on 32 new call centre staff and
June figures show 98% of calls were answered in five seconds. The delay in
answering the call had no repercussions for the patient, he said.
BBC
7 August 2007
- Two ambulance workers re-instated. Two West Midlands Ambulance
Service workers who were suspended over an alleged breach of the Data
Protection Act will be allowed to return to work. The service said the pair
had been re-instated, pending the results of an inquiry, after holding
interviews with them and Unison officials on Tuesday. Talks are planned next
week with a third worker who was also suspended. The staff, who are based in
Shropshire, were sent home last week after control room logs were obtained by
the BBC.
BBC 7
August 2007
- Ambulance staff management vote. West Midlands Ambulance Service
staff are being balloted to see if they have confidence in their management.
The move, by Unison, follows concerns about the suspension of three ambulance
staff in Shropshire. Two workers have now had their suspensions lifted, and a
third will meet for talks next week. Some staff said they are also concerned
about proposals to close the Shrewsbury call centre and move to Brierley Hill
in the Black Country. The workers, who were suspended over an alleged breach
of the Data Protection Act, were sent home last week after control room logs
were obtained by the BBC. The logs suggested ambulances from the county were
being sent to help in Birmingham and the Black Country.
BBC 8
August 2007
- Seven private NHS clinics to be dropped. Gordon Brown was yesterday
accused of cooling on the public services reform programme championed by Tony
Blair, as the health department announced it was slashing plans for more
private sector treatment in the NHS. The Confederation of British Industry
accused ministers of handing "an early Christmas present to opponents of
reform". But the health secretary, Alan Johnson, defended the scrapping of
seven planned independent treatment schemes, saying the decision was not
ideological but taken on the grounds of value for money. Johnson announced
that the second wave of independent-sector treatment centres would involve
only three new schemes worth £200m, a third of the previously estimated £600m
in contracts. He also announced that one of the first-wave centres, a
diagnostic service run by Care UK in the West
Midlands, would be closed after it achieved just 5% takeup. Patrick
Wintour, political editor
The
Guardian Friday November 16 2007
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Junior doctors fear
life on the dole. More than 4,000 junior doctors in the
West Midlands fear unemployment due to
increased competition for jobs. Experts predict that less than a third will
achieve the posts they trained for in the region. The British Medical
Association has blamed the government for failing to manage staffing
effectively. A spokesman said: "They have increased medical school places
while reducing actual medical posts which can be taken up at the end. It's
ridiculous. Taxpayers' money is being wasted and junior doctors who want to
put their training to good use are being forced to make huge sacrifices." Some
medics have described how the training fiasco has effectively split their
families by forcing them to take posts far from home. Dr Masood Ahmed, from
the West Midlands Junior Doctors Committee, said: "There are currently about
4,000 in the West Midlands facing an employment lottery when it comes for them
to find posts to continue their training. Families are being split up over
this." A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "There are many
lessons to be learned from problems with junior doctors' recruitment last
year. We are determined to listen to the voices of doctors and make changes to
the process in 2008 and subsequent years. However, the scope for change in
2008 is limited. Major changes would need more time for development and
piloting will be considered for 2009." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Sunday
Mercury 13 January 2008
Heat Map for West Midlands
SHA forecasts
2006 07 West Midlands
Healthcare organisations weak for quality of services
Oldbury and Smethwick Primary Care Trust
Rowley Regis and Tipton Primary Care Trust
Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Wednesbury and West Bromwich Primary Care Trust
West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Healthcare organisations weak for use of resources
Burntwood, Lichfield and Tamworth Primary Care Trust
Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust
Dudley South Primary Care Trust
George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust
Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust
Newcastle-Under-Lyme Primary Care Trust
North Birmingham Primary Care Trust
North Stoke Primary Care Trust
Oldbury and Smethwick Primary Care Trust
Rowley Regis and Tipton Primary Care Trust
Rugby Primary Care Trust
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust
South Warwickshire General Hospitals NHS Trust
South Western Staffordshire Primary Care Trust
South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust
Staffordshire Moorlands Primary Care Trust
The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust
University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust
West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Wyre Forest Primary Care Trust
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