|
The summary articles in the table below related to the strategic health
authority area are copied from the following pages, indicated in the table by
key numbers.
-
Charges
-
Construction projects
-
Resource shortfall Sources
-
Treatment approval or not
- Withdrawal of Local Facilities -
Sources
Other
| 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Summary articles |
| |
|
|
|
|
Ministers were furious last night that their efforts to rebuild public confidence in the NHS had been dented by disturbing photographs of bodies lying on the floor of a chapel at Bedford hospital.
Ken Williams, the hospital's chief executive, resigned after an internal NHS inquiry found that up to eight bodies at a time were stored on the floor of the chapel of rest, without refrigeration and wrapped only in sheets. Guardian, 16 January 2001 |
| |
|
|
|
|
The way the NHS prescribes toxic chemotherapy drugs is expected to be
reviewed after an inquest returned a verdict of neglect on a woman who was
accidentally given a fourfold overdose. James Meikle, health
correspondent
Tuesday February 4, 2003 The Guardian [Watford] |
| |
|
|
|
|
The government yesterday named and shamed hospital trusts where patients
were most at risk of catching one of the most feared superbugs as part of a
more aggressive campaign to reduce hospital-acquired infections in England.
James Meikle, health correspondent
Saturday December 6, 2003 The Guardian [Acute NHS trusts with the highest rates of MRSA per 1,000 bed days for 2002/03: Lewisham Hospital 0.24, Epsom & St Helier 0.24, Dartford & Gravesham 0.24, Queen Mary's Sidcup 0.25, Countess of Chester Hospital 0.26,
East & North Hertfordshire 0.26, West Middlesex University 0.27, Barnet & Chase Farm Hospitals 0.28, Ealing Hospital 0.29, North Middlesex Hospital 0.30, Weston Area Health 0.30
] |
| |
|
|
|
|
More than 700 hospital patients have been warned to look out for the
symptoms of tuberculosis after a healthcare worker was diagnosed with the
disease. The patients were treated on an orthopaedic ward at the Lister
hospital, Stevenage, between January and April this year when the health worker
was present. Debbie Andalo
Wednesday May 11, 2005
|
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Hospitals feel pain of funding problems. The FT says the Department of
Health's decision to review the St Bartholemew's and Royal London PFI project
"is a symptom of a deeper malaise affecting large-scale PFI hospital
projects". Patricia Hewitt has hinted that in future there will be more
reliance on "LIFT" (local infrastructure trusts) and fewer big PFI hospitals.
An NHS executive said: "My guess is that Birmingham, and Barts and the London,
will go ahead. But they will be the last of the mega-deals". Other PFI
projects that could be in doubt include the £700m rebuild of University of
Birmingham Hospitals. Minutes from a board meeting of financial regulator
Monitor show that the DoH asked Monitor to approve the scheme's affordability
- a request that was refused on the grounds that the guarantor, not the
regulator, should carry the commercial risk. Treasury officials are known to
be sceptical about four big projects in Liverpool worth £1bn. Schemes in
Bristol, Plymouth, Hertfordshire and Leicester could also be in question.
Summary by Keep our NHS
Public of Financial Times 27 December 2005 (subscription needed to
access FT articles) |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
Trusts demand
political support. John de Braux, chief executive of Bedfordshire and
Hertfordshire SHA, has said that PCTs and acute trusts in the area will never
reach financial balance without dramatic reconfiguration requiring political
support. The SHA has a predicted deficit of £100m. One PCT, Bedfordshire
Heartlands, has a historic debt of £20 but has no plans to addresss this. The
chief executive of East and North Hertfordshire trust blames the problems on
having two district hospitals that duplicate each other.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 26 January 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
London's health
authorities warn overspend of up to £400m likely. London's five strategic
health authorities, and the five that surround them, are currently projecting
an overspend of at least £378m based on December's figures, with some saying
the numbers could rise. This means the figure for the London area alone is
twice what the Department of Health ordered the entire NHS to reduce its
overspend to - £200m. Surrey and Sussex is projecting an £87m deficit, North
West London is projecting a £106m deficit (up almost £10m on the September
figure), South West London £30m and South East London more than £39m.
Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire predicts a £95m overspend, and while the
figures for other London and home counties authorities are lower, only one,
North Central London, expects to break even. None is forecasting a surplus.
Further afield, the Audit Commission has issued public interest reports on
Suffolk's PCTs, warning they are heading for a £33.6m overspend and that their
"immediate financial viability is placed in doubt". Meanwhile, Tony Blair has
met the NHS Partners Network, a new body representing 11 private sector
organisations that are supplying operations and diagnostic procedures to NHS
patients through IS-TCs. This has led to the effective collapse of the private
sector's trade body, the Independent Healthcare Forum, which included
insurance companies who called for tax breaks on private medical insurance. In
contrast the Partners Network has issued a document declaring that "we support
the NHS - in principle and in practice" and that they have a "commitment to
[its] future success". Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
Financial Times 17 February 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
One of Britain's leading charities for people with
severe learning
disabilities has been accused of
abusing some of the most vulnerable people
under its care, The Observer can reveal. An employee of United Response, which
runs more than 100 care homes across England looking after people with learning
disabilities, turned whistle-blower to report on 'appalling' events he alleges
he witnessed at the company's Gombards care home in Welwyn Garden City,
Hertfordshire. Two senior members of staff at the home have been suspended,
although the company claims this is unrelated to accusations of abuse.
Sunday
February 19, 2006 The Observer
|
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Mental health
unit facing closure. A
mental health ward at St Albans City Hospital in
Herts could be closed in a bid to cut its £1m annual running cost.
Watford and Three Rivers PCT is holding a public consultation over plans to
close the 22-bed St Julian's ward. The trust admitted that full psychiatric
services would no longer be available for all patients who currently
received them if the ward closed.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 7 April 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
NHS trust
cuts 500 jobs as it fails to resolve debt. Up to 500 hospital jobs are
to go at West
Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which is battling to reduce debts of
£28.6m. David Law, the chief executive, warned that services for outpatients
might not be sustainable.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 12 April 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Export fears over
N&N's patient notes. Fears have surfaced over
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital's proposed plan to move vital
clerical jobs to India. The hospital, which faces a £15m deficit and a possible
450 redundancies, is considering out-sourcing medical note administration
overseas. East and North
Herts NHS Trust also plans to cut 50 medical secretary jobs and move typing
of medical notes to India. Some have voiced fears that the move could lead to
dangerous errors. Small but possibly risky mistakes have already been noticed:
In one case hypertension (high blood pressure) was written as hypotension (low
blood pressure). Unison have pointed out that picking up these errors may be
almost as time consuming as typing them in the first place and, without enough
medical secretaries, the load may fall on medical staff. Unison representatives
have voiced concerns over the trend across the country towards over-seas
outsourcing of medical notes, and strike action is being talked of.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Eastern Daily Press 18 May 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Cutbacks
threat as NHS deficits hit £1.3bn. Nearly a third of the NHS trusts in
England overspent in the last financial year, racking up deficits worth
£1.3bn in spite of record growth in the health service budget, according to
accounts published yesterday by Patricia Hewitt. Hewitt said that some
hospitals and PCTs are in such financial difficulty this year that they may
not manage to balance the books month by month, let alone repay accumulated
debts. The accounts showed
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare trust notched up the biggest individual
deficit at £40.8m. Other big overspenders included St George's Healthcare
trust in south-west
London (£33.6m) and West
Hertfordshire hospitals (£28.3m). The government put a favourable gloss
on the accounts by focusing on the NHS's net deficit - a figure achieved by
subtracting the surpluses made by some trusts from the deficits made by
others. For the year to the end of March this came to £512m, 0.8% of the NHS
budget. The financial position of the overspending trusts was much worse
than forecast in December when a quarter of trusts warned they were heading
for a combined deficit of £948m. 174 trusts - nearly a third of NHS
organisations - ended the year with a combined gross deficit of £1,277m.
Hewitt denied this was a deterioration in financial control. She said she
sent in turnaround teams of management consultants who made trusts focus
harder on financial problems. The National Audit Office said the 2005/
6 overspend would have serious consequences for NHS spending this
year. Trusts will be expected to make a double cut to pay back last year's
deficit as well as eliminating this year's overspending.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Guardian 8 June 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Deficit
forces cuts rethink. North and East
Hertfordshire trust is planning extensive changes to services to reach
break-even. The trust must strip out a total of £66m in costs over four
years- nearly 25 per cent of its annual income - to tackle its deficit. The
trust is consulting on service changes between its two main hospitals - the
Lister and the Queen Elizabeth II in Welwyn Garden City - which would
include centralising emergency services. Summary
by Keep our NHS
Public of
Health Service Journal 15 June 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Scrutiny
committee overruled. A health scrutiny committee has complained to the
health secretary after a mental health ward was closed despite its
objections. In May,
Hertfordshire's health scrutiny committee referred planned changes to
mental health and learning disability changes to Patricia Hewitt. There
was concern that the 5 per cent cuts Hertfordshire
Partnership trust was planning - under pressure from primary care trusts -
would affect patients. Since then the closure of St Julian's ward in St
Albans has gone ahead. The trust says it had made interim changes to prepare
for a ward closure, which included reducing the number of patients and
staff. It then made the decision to close the ward because the ability to
provide a safe and therapeutic environment had been affected. Summary
by Keep our NHS
Public of
Health Service Journal 15 June 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
Herts
consultation labelled a 'sham'. A
Hertfordshire trust has announced plans to
withdraw services from one of its sites to help tackle a £28m deficit -
just 12 days after a public board meeting at which the issue was not
discussed. Under the new proposals, acute services would be centralised at
Watford from next year using 'modular buildings' to increase capacity:
either St Albans or Hemel Hempstead Hospital would lose all trust-run
services, with the other keeping elective surgery going until a new
independent treatment centre is due to open in Hemel Hempstead in 2008.
Local councillors and MPs were incredulous at the way the trust announced
the proposals. Previously the trust proposed consulting on three options,
including one which would move acute services away from Watford: this was
dropped within days when it was met by scepticism from the council's health
scrutiny committee. Committee chair Michael Downing said: "The build-up of
services in the community that should have happened in advance of the
reconfiguration has not happened. People won't get services or will have to
travel further." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Health Service Journal 15 June 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Health trust
plans 500 job cuts. Up to 500 job cuts have been proposed at hospitals
in
Hertfordshire in order to help make £18m of savings. The East and North
Herts NHS Trust is looking to cut 10% of its staff. Managers are also
reviewing the number of beds needed at its Lister Hospital, Stevenage, and
the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City. The trust is looking to
close the equivalent of two to three wards by September 2006. Union bosses
have described the plan as a "devastating blow" to both staff and patients.
Geoff Reason from Unison said: "The loss of 500 jobs is a devastating blow
to patients and staff. This latest announcement comes on top of the trust's
decision to send typing services to India. They have issued redundancy
notices to all 160 medical secretaries, asking for 58 voluntary
redundancies. Unison will not take these cuts lying down. A lot of local
people will be angry about this announcement and we will be contacting
patient's groups, MPs and joining with other unions to build up support
against the cuts."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 28 June 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Twenty
cash-hit NHS trusts may axe consultants. At least 20 NHS trusts are
considering making consultants redundant as they struggle to contain
multi-million-pound deficits, according to the BMA. The BMA said it was in
crisis talks with health service managers to try to avert job losses.
Thousands of healthcare workers and nurses have been told they will be made
redundant, but for the first time doctors are being told they may lose their
jobs. Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the BMA consultants' committee, said: "We
have managed to avert some redundancies and we are working to avoid more.
Making consultants redundant is never the right way to deal with debts -
just ask patients. While this may not be the end of the NHS, you can see it
from here. The biggest problem now is that the NHS is no longer based around
the patient-doctor relationship but the manager-politician relationship."
The East and North
Herts NHS Trust became the latest to announce job losses, with 500 posts
- 10% of its staff - expected to go in an attempt to save £18m.
Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust also announced that it would
shed more than 500 jobs and close 140 beds as it fights to cut a £27m
deficit. Community nurses in
Waltham Forest
have also claimed that their budget is being cut by 45% because the local
NHS trust is under pressure to make £17.5m of savings. They warned that the
cuts could put vulnerable children under social services care at risk as
well as hinder the care of elderly people living in their own homes. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Independent
29 June 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
NHS trusts
slash hundreds of jobs. Two NHS trusts are to axe almost 1000 jobs
between them as they try to balance the books. East and North
Hertfordshire Trust is to axe 10% of its workforce, 500 posts, to save
£18m this year. Earlier, United
Lincolnshire Health
Trust announced 220 job cuts, making almost 400 over two years, in order to
tackle a deficit of £25m and a monthly overspend of £1.6m. Union leaders
described the cuts as a "devastating blow" which takes the total NHS job
losses to 17,000. One of the main reasons for the cuts is, according to East
and North Hertfordshire Trust, the decision by the local PCT under the
payment by results system to reduce the number of cases referred to the
hospital. The equivalent of two to three wards will be lost at the area's
two main hospitals, the Lister and QEII. Campaign group Health Emergency
commented that "A Labour Government that chooses to attack healthcare staff,
and the services they provide, in this callous fashion is not long for this
world." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Teesside
Evening Gazette 30 June 2006 |
| |
2 |
3 |
|
|
Herts and
minds: £100m hole that could defeat protesters. West
Hertfordshire Hospitals trust and East and North Hertfordshire trust are
launching consultations on the centralisation of some of their services.
With the local health economy more than £100m
overspent the talk is of reconfiguration. Both trusts have ambitious
plans for centralised facilities funded through the
private finance initiative. But
the affordability of those projects is in doubt. Both trusts are in deficit
and are cutting posts. But PFI projects come with a substantial yearly
payment - about 10 % of the cost - that trusts have to meet out of income.
Both trusts will also lose some income to
privately run
surgical centres which will be set up at Hemel Hempstead Hospital and at
the Lister in Stevenage. These will carry out much of the elective treatment
formerly done by the trusts - and will limit their ability to benefit from
patient choice. Some staff and
£15m of work will be transferred to the surgical centre.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal 6 July 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Impact of NHS
deficits 'deepens'. Dozens of hospitals are facing acute pressure and
social care services are being scaled back because of NHS deficits. The
Liberal Democrats said 16 NHS trusts, running 28 hospitals, were facing
"high pressure". They said services would be scaled back and hospitals might
even close. Nine of the 16 trusts were in London and the south east with
nearly a quarter of the hospital network in the capital facing "strong
pressure". The West
Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes St Albans City, Hemel
Hempstead and Watford hospitals, is facing the most problems, the research
said. The Lib Dems analysed how deficits combined with government reforms
introducing more competition in the hospital sector could affect 152 NHS
trusts in England in the coming years. Lib Dem health spokesman Steve Webb
said: "Despite ministerial denials, it will be patients who suffer from cuts
in frontline services."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 26
July 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
200 jobs axed
at hospital. Nurses were in tears after being told 200 jobs were to be
cut at their troubled hospital.
One in 10 staff at
Bedford Hospital NHS Trust is being made redundant as it struggles to
repay a £12million debt.
Job losses will affect all departments at all levels.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Mirror
4 August 2006 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Hospital projects
to receive Autumn announcement. 11 NHS hospital projects, which are
currently under review, will receive a decision in the autumn. They are:
Hillingdon Hospital redevelopment - £271m;
Leeds
Maternity and Childrens Hospital scheme - £204m; North
Bristol and South Gloucestershire scheme - £310m; North
Mersey Future Healthcare Project - £1bn;
Northwick Park
and St Marks redevelopment - £305m;
Papworth Hospital NHS Trust redevelopment - £148m; Royal National
Orthopaedic Hospital Stanmore scheme - £121m;
Sandwell and West Birmingham Acute Trust - £591m;
Southend
Hospital redevelopment - £100m;
Taunton Surgical Centre - £75m;
Watford and Hatfield Hospitals redevelopment - £880m.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of PFI.net 31
August 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Pathology
services tendered.
Bedford Hospital NHS Trust is
inviting bidders
for a £20m contract to provide a full range of pathology services - just
weeks after Lord Carter's pathology review urged caution over privatisation
of the sector. Prof Adrian Newland, president of the Royal College of
Pathologists, described the contract as 'the thin end of the wedge'. He
said: 'I agree very strongly with Lord Carter about the risk of
fragmentation if private companies take on pathology services. But I also
believe we will see far more services put out to tender in the future.' The
ten-year contract is seeking 'suitably qualified and experienced
organisations' to provide pathology services to a number of Bedfordshire and
Hertfordshire NHS trusts. This will include haematology, chemical pathology,
microbiology, virology, histopathology and cytology services. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hospital
Doctor 31 August 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
MPs scrutinise mental
health cuts. The Commons health select committee has promised to investigate
claims that more than £30m has been plundered from
mental health budgets to bail out deficits in
other sectors. The committee has taken evidence from mental health charity
Rethink which has been running a campaign highlighting areas where mental health
budgets are being slashed. Cuts are being reported across England from
Suffolk, Cambridgeshire,
Cornwall, Nottingham,
London and
Sussex.
Gloucestershire Partnerships trust has recently concluded a consultation on
proposals to make over £9.3m savings. Cheltenham town council has written to
Patricia Hewitt complaining about the package, which means reductions in older
people's services on 12 sites and at six sites for adult services.
Hertfordshire Partnership trust, which has run at a surplus for four years,
has been asked to contribute over £5m to help pay off debts in local acute
trusts. The trust is planning to achieve this by closing an acute ward, a day
unit, the early intervention team and making staff reductions across community
mental health teams, as well as in psychology, older people's services and
learning disabilities. In May, Hertfordshire county council's health overview
and scrutiny committee rejected the proposals and referred them to the secretary
of state for a decision. Three months on, staff are voting with their feet,
leaving at-risk posts. As a result, the trust has already been forced to
temporarily close a 22-bed acute admissions unit at St Albans City Hospital.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal 31 August 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Hospitals
'face closure' over NHS cash crisis. The full scale of the financial
crisis in the health service is laid bare today by a report that identifies
the 16 NHS trusts most at risk of closures and further job cuts. The trusts
involved run a total of 27 hospitals across England, from London and the
Home Counties to the North East. The list has been drawn up by the Liberal
Democrats after a team of researchers spent several months analysing the
financial health of more than 150 acute hospital trusts in England. Their
study discovered that one in 10 of the trusts were in such dire straits that
they could be forced to close departments or whole hospitals when ministers
start to squeeze funding next year. Among the trusts named in the report are
the
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs St Albans City, Hemel
Hempstead General and Watford General hospitals.
Ashford and St
Peter's NHS Trust, in Middlesex, has a £7.5 million deficit and has
called in a "turnaround director" to tackle its problems. It aims to save
£16 million in the next two years and has already replaced the accident and
emergency unit at Ashford Hospital with a walk-in centre for minor injuries.
East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust hopes to save £18 million by cutting
500 jobs and reviewing the number of beds at its hospitals. Its Queen
Elizabeth II Hospital in Welwyn Garden City has already lost its children's
ward and will lose its A& E and
maternity services.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Telegraph
14 September 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Swapping patients
for parliament. One doctor is so outraged by the government's reforms
that he is seriously considering
standing for
parliament to try to save his local hospital. Dr Barry Monk, a
dermatologist at
Bedford Hospital, has threatened to stand as an MP at the next election
under a Save Bedford Hospital banner. Bedford is one of 19 hospitals in the
East facing an uncertain future after the East of England Strategic Health
Authority said it was considering centralising some of its key services in
"super" hospitals. It could mean that Bedford, which serves 300,000 people,
loses some of its more high-profile services such as A&
E and intensive care. "The problem is that once you start taking
services, the rest just withers away. I can see a point where the hospital
just ceases to operate. Doctors are fed up with this constant meddling in
the health service and my message to politicians is that if they won't stop
interfering in the NHS, we will start interfering with the cosy world of
politics. Taking services away is not in the best interests of patients or
the local community. Doctors are not against change, in fact we have been at
the forefront of many, it is just that I don't see that this is a positive
move."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 19
September 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
'Hot and cold'
hospitals plan gets a chilly public reception. Six months ago, the Royal
College of Surgeons made a radical suggestion. The number of fully equipped
accident and emergency departments could be slashed by one half - from 200
to 100 - under the right kinds of reconfiguration, said its president
Professor Bernard Ribeiro. Then last month incoming NHS chief executive
David Nicholson sparked outrage after saying that each of England's 10
strategic health authorities should consult on about half a dozen
reconfigurations over the next year. The ante was upped further when the
British Medical Association and the Royal College of Physicians were quoted
apparently endorsing the plan. Almost immediately, the BMA issued a
statement pointing out that while it was signed up to changes to services
for clinical reasons, it had not endorsed any specific proposals. At the
same time, one of the government's favourite think tanks, the Institute for
Public Policy Research, set out some of the arguments in support of
reconfiguration. In an interim paper published following Mr Nicholson's
statement, it worked out what the recommendation from the Royal College of
Physicians - which amount to one major hospital, including A&
E, for every 300,000 people - would mean if it was modelled
nationally. Its report concluded that there were about 58 'excess' hospitals
which should be merged with peers in order to centralise critical care in
super-centres that provide the whole battery of backstage emergency
diagnostics, and surgical and intensive nursing skills. But any closures
will face political opposition. Consultant dermatologist Barry Monk wants to
'do a Kidderminster' in
Bedford and hopes to persuade another doctor to stand against Alan
Milburn in
Darlington, when the next general election comes.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Service Journal 5 October 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Private firms
extend primary care reach. Nearly 40 GP practices across England are
being managed by private companies, according to research carried out by
Doctor. The biggest cluster is in
Merseyside, where all the practices are run by a single company, while
the others stretch from
Brighton on the south coast to
County Durham in the North-east. But this is only the start, with 40% of
respondents to Doctor's survey last month saying they knew of private
companies bidding to run primary care services in their area. Chilvers
McCrea, a company formed in 2002, runs the largest number of GP practices in
England, with 21 on its books plus one walk-in centre. It recently signed a
'working agreement' with another company, Tribal Group, to give it more
financial muscle in the private healthcare market. The Government,
meanwhile, is pushing ahead with plans to broker its own deals with PCTs to
set up privately run GP services in 'underdoctored' areas. The first such
deal was signed in May with Care UK, a company based in Essex, and the
second three months later in London with Mercury Health. But private
companies are not limiting their interest to areas of deprivation, despite
the 2006 health white paper's assertion that it was these areas - in which
it has traditionally been hard to recruit - that the Government wanted to
open up to private providers. In
Bedfordshire, the local PCT has awarded two contracts to private
providers in the past 16 months. The county is not classed as deprived.
Berkshire
West PCT, recently advertised a contract in the Official Journal of the
European Union for a practice, yet to be built, in another area that is not
deprived but is experiencing huge population growth. GPC negotiator Dr Peter
Holden, who practises in
Derbyshire, where
UnitedHealth Europe is seeking a foothold, said: 'Nationally, everyone who
thinks should be worried. GPs will be very aggrieved if the goodwill and the
livelihoods they've built up are taken away from them by private
corporations who've never worked hand-to-mouth for the health service.' Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Doctor
Update 10 October 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Investigated firm in NHS pilot.
Bedford Hospital is planning to
outsource
transcription services to a company which is being sued for billing fraud
and is under investigation by
US
authorities. The hospital is running a pilot using transcription service
MedQuist. If the pilot is successful, the hospital's pool of medical
secretaries will be reduced from 60 to 22. MedQuist is currently facing a
class action from US governmental hospitals and medical centres, which
allege the company overcharged for transcription services. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hospital
Doctor 19 October 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Thousands of patients are being denied access to hospital consultants
because the NHS has set up money-saving management
schemes which block GPs' referrals. In direct contradiction to the
government's claims to be
encouraging more choice in healthcare, patients with rheumatoid
arthritis, knee problems and eye and skin conditions are being targeted by
managers who intercept referral letters and send them back to GPs or into
physiotherapy clinics rather than allowing them to be seen by the
appropriate specialist. The scale of the interference has led some GPs to
use extraordinary subterfuges to get their patients to a surgeon. One
practice in
Merseyside has decided to send letters marked 'private and confidential'
to the surgeons when they need a referral, rather than using the usual
computer system which would automatically block the request. Another doctor
told The Observer that he uses handwritten letters to hospitals outside his
area which he knows will not be blocked from taking patients. As the NHS
struggles to deal with £620m of debt, administrators are using referral
management schemes to curb hospital admissions and to cut waiting lists. The
schemes start to operate once a GP sends an electronic letter to a hospital
consultant, requesting an appointment for the patient. The letter is scanned
by administrators who decide whether it constitutes an 'appropriate'
referral. If they deem it unnecessary, the patient is 'bounced' back to a
clinic within the primary care trust, or to a nurse manager or a
physiotherapy clinic if it is an orthopaedic problem. The British Medical
Association has warned ministers that the plans are threatening the
relationship between a GP and patients, and that this goes against the
choice agenda even though the government is adamant that the schemes can
save millions of pounds. Angry GPs in Merseyside are faxing referrals
directly to a consultant to stop managers intercepting them. They are also
posting letters marked 'private and confidential' to prevent hospital staff
from opening them, and pushing patients back into the GP clinics. Doctors at
a practice in St Helens said they were forced to take the action after
patients they had referred for orthopaedic, rheumatology and physiotherapy
were being diverted away from Whiston Hospital in Prescot to a physiotherapy
clinic. A family doctor in
Hertfordshire said that he had started to send orthopaedic patients to a
hospital outside their local area, so that he knows they will see a surgeon.
Dr Gerry Bulger is upset that his local body, Dacorum primary care trust,
set up a system which means that patients with rheumatoid arthritis or
orthopaedic problems cannot get an appointment with a consultant; instead
they are sent to see a physiotherapist or another GP, who then decides what
to do. Dr Bulger said: 'Sometimes I write a hand-written letter to a
hospital which I know will accept them, to get round the diktat. How can the
government talk about giving patients choice when they are not allowed in at
the front door?' Evidence from almost 100 PCTs found huge variations in the
way GP referrals are being handled, with some trusts using the centres to
cut up to 15 per cent of referrals. Orthopaedics, dermatology and
physiotherapy were the disciplines where referral management was most
prevalent. As a result, almost half the country's dermatology departments
are suffering from a huge loss of workload and some may have to close, as
patients are siphoned back into GP clinics. Dr Jonathan Field, consultant
leader for the BMA, said: 'Some of the referrals from one consultant to
another in the same hospital are now being blocked, which is dangerous
because it introduces really long delays.' In north
London, all
outpatient follow-up appointments are being stopped unless the patient has
cancer and GPs will be expected to check on patients. All referrals for skin
conditions are being banned unless GPs stress it is urgent. Jo Revill,
health editor
Sunday November 5, 2006 The Observer |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
Pre-budget appeal
over NHS deficits. Unison has called on the government to give more
money to the NHS as fresh protests go ahead this weekend over plans to cut
services. Ahead of demonstrations in places such as Chertsey in
Surrey and Hatfield and Stevenage in
Hertfordshire, the union has called on the Chancellor to use next week's
budget report to help out NHS trusts. Karen Jennings, head of health at
Unison, is to address the rally in Chertsey with the words: "The pace of
change is frighteningly fast. The public are fearful of their health
services and staff are frightened and worried about losing their jobs. Next
week Gordon Brown is giving his pre-budget report - he could use the
opportunity to signal additional funds to assist NHS Trusts with deficits
and put a stop to knee jerk cuts that are damaging long term delivery of
better health care." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool
Daily Post 2 December 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
'Closures are not about saving money, but saving lives'. The
closure of accident and emergency services at some hospitals is in the
interests of patients, the Government has said. If that were true, Andrew
Lansley retorted, it could have been done before, not after, financial deficits
in the NHS had come to light. The Government fears that it is losing the
argument over NHS reconfigurations, which involve A&
E and maternity services, among others. The reports, published yesterday,
are designed to present the issue more positively, by showing that change might
not mean worse care. But the argument assumes that the money saved by closing
some A& Es is devoted to building
others into specialised centres. That is not guaranteed. Geoff Martin, of the
campaign group Health Emergency, said: "Claiming that closing local A&
E departments, trauma units and intensive-care facilities will improve
services turns all logic on its head. People are fighting these closures in
their tens of thousands up and down the country because they know that closing
local services and increasing journey times puts lives at risk." The Government
has not produced a list of trusts where A&
E departments have closed or are threatened. But the Tories say they have
identified hospitals in 29 NHS trusts:
Ashford and St Peter's
Hospitals; Barking, Havering and Redbridge; Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals;
Buckinghamshire Hospitals;
Calderdale
and Huddersfield; East and North
Hertfordshire; East
Sussex
Hospitals; Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals; North
Bristol;
George
Eliot Hospital;
Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield;
Hinchingbrooke Health Care; North West London Hospitals; Oxford Radcliffe
Hospitals;
Pennine
Acute Hospitals; Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath; Queen Mary's Sidcup;
Royal Free Hampstead; Royal Surrey Hospital, Guildford; Royal West Sussex;
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals; South
Tees Hospitals; South Warwickshire General Hospitals; United
Lincolnshire Hospitals;
West Hertfordshire Hospitals; Whipps Cross University Hospital; Whittington
Hospital; Worthing and Southlands Hospitals.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Times
6 December 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Revealed: the 13 bankrupt NHS trusts. 'Alice in Wonderland' rules leave
hospitals facing £1.6bn deficit. At least a dozen NHS hospital trusts are
technically bankrupt, with no chance of meeting a legal obligation to balance
their books, a Guardian investigation has revealed. Data provided by the
Department of Health under the Freedom of Information Act showed 103 hospital
trusts across England expect to end the year with accumulated deficits of
£1.6bn, caused by overspending since 2001. Many are taking corrective action,
including laying off staff, closing wards and reducing the time patients spend
in hospital. But the Guardian has identified a group of trusts that have passed
the point of no return. Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, is expected to
announce changes in the NHS's accounting rules today. If they do not address the
problem of accumulating deficits, the trusts will ruin her chances of restoring
financial equilibrium. The group in greatest difficulty includes Queen Elizabeth
hospital in Woolwich, south-east
London, which is on
course to overspend by £37.1m this year after racking up deficits totalling
£28.3m over the previous two years. This would bring its cumulative deficit by
the end of March to £65.3m, equivalent to 56.9% of its turnover. Like every
other hospital and mental health trust, the Queen Elizabeth has a legal
obligation to balance the books over three years, stretching in exceptional
circumstances to five. But to do so it would have to generate surpluses of
£65.3m. Its senior executives have convinced the DoH that they have absolutely
no chance of doing so. Other trusts with irrecoverable positions include
Surrey
and Sussex Healthcare,
Hinchingbrooke in Huntingdonshire, Ipswich, North West London and West
Hertfordshire. Their financial difficulties became impossible to manage due
to a mistake made by the DoH and the Treasury in 2001, when they put NHS trusts
under a financial regime known as Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB). The
Guardian's analysis used information from thousands of spreadsheets supplied
under the Freedom of Information Act. The new system was designed to regulate
spending by Whitehall departments, but had a devastating effect when it was
applied to overspending hospital trusts. If a trust spent £105m, but had an
income of only £100m, it would end the year with a deficit of £5m. The new rules
sliced £5m from its income in the following year and obliged it to make a £5m
surplus. That required the trust to cut its spending from £105m to £90m. Trusts
faced with this triple whammy could not achieve the target without damaging
patient care and so their deficits escalated. The rules were described last
night by one NHS finance director as "a nightmare from Alice in Wonderland". Ms
Hewitt asked the Audit Commission to investigate the problem. It told her in
July: "We consider the RAB regime should not be applied to NHS trusts." She is
expected to change the accounting rules today when she announces the financial
objectives for the NHS in 2007/8. Her officials debated with the Treasury last
week how to eliminate the worst features of the system without giving the
impression that the government has gone soft on NHS deficits. Ms Hewitt has been
under strong pressure from trusts to scrap the accounting rules. Nigel Edwards,
policy director of the NHS Confederation, said the trusts identified by the
Guardian as being under extreme financial pressure were being pushed by the
accounting system "into a position where recovery looks extremely difficult, if
not impossible". He added: "Financial recovery would imply such damage to
patients that no sensible person would go for it. They would not compromise the
survival of the people they serve." Click
here for a table of NHS trusts financial returns 2006-2007. John
Carvel, social affairs editor
Monday
December 11, 2006 The Guardian |
| |
2 |
3 |
|
5 |
I live in an area which your report identifies as one of those hardest
hit by NHS deficits - west
Hertfordshire. I see what is actually happening on the ground. In the
area served by Hemel Hempstead hospital all we get are reductions in
services. We are to have a centralised "trauma unit" which will just be one
full A&E unit instead of two units, housed in a condemned building, in a
very congested area, next to Watford football club without any investment in
either staff or state-of-the-art equipment. There will certainly not be any
angioplasty done there. Also around 160 hospital beds will be lost. The
so-called "super hospital" promised at Hatfield has been axed and we expect
the purpose-built surgicentres with single rooms will go the same way.
Community services are reducing not expanding - for example there is a 50%
cut in health visitors. Edith Glatter Former community health council chair
and hospital trust PPI chair. Letters
Wednesday December 13, 2006 The Guardian |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
NHS trusts force
patients to wait longer for operations. Patients in some parts of the
National Health Service are for the first time facing minimum waits to be
seen and treated as managers attempt to balance their books.
Suffolk,
Hertfordshire,
North Yorkshire and
Kingston are all
imposing various forms of minimum wait, with some primary care trust chiefs
saying their organisations may follow suit as the NHS battles to recover
from last year's £500m-plus overspend. Hospitals treating patients from
north, east and west Hertfordshire have been told not to book them in for
non-urgent operations until the start of the new financial year in April.
Similar restrictions will apply to new outpatient appointments from the end
of January. Patients in Suffolk are having to wait a minimum of 14 weeks for
routine surgery and York NHS Trust has been told by its local primary care
trust not to operate on non-urgent cases until they have waited a minimum of
20 weeks - six weeks short of the government's guarantee that patients will
not wait more than six months for an operation. Kingston primary care trust
is operating a standard 10-week wait for outpatient appointments - three
weeks short of the13-week maximum wait. Patricia Hewitt, the health
secretary, has acknowledged that a slight rise in overall waiting times
earlier this financial year was due to some parts of the NHS setting minimum
waits on "patient referrals, diagnostic tests and treatment" to "negate the
financial deficit". Michael Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, which
represents primary care trusts, said: "This is a direct effect of payment by
results. In the old days of cost and volume contracts it wasn't an issue
because hospitals didn't get paid any more if they treated more patients
than planned." Now that they are paid for each patient they treat, "if a
hospital brings its waiting list down rapidly it will do an awful lot of
extra work and blow the primary care trusts' budget", he said.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Financial
Times 2 January 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Health hijack.
In a comment piece, John Lister writs: "A brand new hospital in the
New Forest, to be paid for by the NHS, is handed over to the management
of a private company before it even opens: in
Oxfordshire a long-standing NHS orthopaedic hospital, which has just
spent millions on rebuilding work, faces the threat of closure or merger as
private sector treatment centres hijack the simplest routine cases. Two
Essex NHS trusts
scrap plans for new hospitals because they face massive losses under the new
system of payment by results: west
Hertfordshire residents fight the "centralisation" of A&
E services on the condemned crumbling site of Watford General, now
plans for a £550m super-hospital have been binned. In
Bolton 132 medical and nursing staff face the axe as a strategic health
suthority opts to divert work to a private treatment centre. Like the
sorcerer's apprentice, Tony Blair's "modernising" reforms of the NHS now
threaten to lurch out of control: they have conjured up a booming new,
costly, private sector in health care provision, while the core public
sector hospitals and health services are sent reeling from one cash squeeze
and reorganisation to the next. A new pamphlet outlining the dynamics and
the implications of what it terms the "patchwork privatisation" of the NHS
has just been published after months of research by the Keep Our NHS Public
campaign. It shows that while Thatcher's privatisation of state-owned
utilities were high profile campaigns with mass sales of shares, the
piecemeal process of hiving off key NHS services to private providers has
been an obscure process, largely conducted behind a cloak of
"confidentiality" with minimal public involvement or debate. Especially
tight security has shrouded the contracts for Independent Sector Treatment
Centres (ISTCs) with all future decision-making now in the hands of
Strategic Health Authorities with no local accountability to patients or
public. The Healthcare Commission this week underlined the lack of data on
the clinical quality of ISTC services: but the general public is equally in
the dark on the real cost of these controversial new units. Ministers admit
that the ISTCs get paid an average 11.2% more than the NHS for each
operation they do: but no details are published on the profits pocketed by
ISTC companies at the expense of the NHS. Similarly, the details of the £8bn
worth of new hospitals to be built through the controversial Private Finance
Initiative (PFI) remain under wraps, with deals signed behind closed doors
and not a single unexpurgated full business case having been published.
Government figures now show the long-term cost of borrowing the £8bn capital
in this way will be a staggering £53bn - £37bn in "rent" for use of the new
buildings over 30-35 years, almost five times the initial cost. Had trusts
been allowed to borrow as a conventional repayment mortgage at 6% they would
pay back twice the cost of the initial investment - over just 25 years. The
extra cost above this (equivalent to paying a massive 18% interest) is the
premium that the NHS is set to pay for this one-sided, extravagant
"partnership" with the private sector - without taking any account of
further windfall profits from refinancing their loans on the money markets
once the construction phase is complete. It seems the secrecy surrounding
these deals is because there is plenty that ministers are understandably
eager to hide. But while every million extracted from the NHS in profit is a
million less in resources for patient care, the real cost of private sector
involvement is far higher than its profits and bureaucracy… All of the
constraints have fallen on the public sector: all the growth is in the
private sector. That's why NHS trusts like Ipswich, which once sweated to
reduce waiting lists and waiting times, are now being forced to drive them
back up again, or face fines and penalties from indebted primary care
trusts. It's all gone horribly wrong, leaving a dozen ministers - and dozens
more local communities - supporting local campaigns against "reforms"
endorsed by Tony Blair. In 2005 New Labour were reinventing failure in
health policy: now with their own Starship Enterprise they are exploring new
dimensions in failure, with patchwork privatisation at the centre of
policies that have managed to be both more expensive and more unpopular than
ever before."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Guardian
20 January 2007 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Trust tells
its nurses to save £2.50 a day. Staff at a cash-strapped NHS trust have
been ordered to make an extraordinary series of penny-pinching cutbacks.
Doctors and nurses have been told they each must save £2.50 a day by
measures such as prescribing cheaper medicines, reducing the number of
sterile packs used, cutting hospital tests and asking patients to bring
drugs in from home. The astonishing edict was sent by e-mail to around 3,600
staff working in the West
Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust by chief executive David Law. The
leaked e-mail, entitled Saving £2.50, contains 13 suggestions to cut costs.
Other measures include switching off lights and asking patients to pay for a
taxi home instead of using ambulances. West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS
Trust, which serves around half a million people, posted a £27m deficit last
year - bringing its total debt to £41m. One of its flagship hospitals, Hemel
Hempstead General, is facing closure and 750 job cuts have already been
announced in the area. Mr Law's email says: "If everybody in the trust saves
£2.50 a day until the end of March, we will achieve our financial target for
the year." NHS trusts across the country are facing the threat of hospital
closures, job losses and cutbacks to services after the Health Service
finished the year more than £500m in debt.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Mail
26 January 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
Searching
questions at hospital meeting. A protest meeting against the closure of
both the QE2 and Lister hospitals attracted almost 100 people.
Welwyn Hatfield's Keep the NHS Public Campaign held its first meeting on
Thursday. Questions from the lively audience kept the gathered politicians
and primary care trust representatives on their toes. One asked: "Apart from
the politics, what are we going to do about the closure of the QE2
Hospital", and another wondered: "Why can there be only one general hospital
in the East and North Herts PCT area ?"
Speeches were heard from MP Grant Shapps, Labour parliamentary hopeful Mike
Hobday and union reps, who all reiterated their stances. The group's next
meeting will take place at 8pm on Thursday, February 8, at Ludwick Family
Centre, Hall Grove, WGC.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Welwyn
& Hatfield Times 2 February 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Choose and Book?
Choose another one! GPs should not commission services from hospitals
that insist referrals are made through
Choose and Book, the GPC has
advised. When hospitals refuse to accept a booking through alternative
means, GPs should instead give the work to other providers. The advice
follows moves in some areas to send back referrals made not using the Choose
and Book software. In recent weeks,
Milton
Keynes PCT has signalled that it would be ceasing managing referrals,
and that referral letters faxed or sent directly to Milton Keynes district
general hospital would be sent back. The only exceptions would be a small
number of specialties where referrals cannot currently be made using Choose
and Book.
Bedford Hospital also confirmed that it is rejecting referrals not made
using Choose and Book for ENT. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Pulse
15 February 2007 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
NHS crisis is
forcing cuts to maternity care, charity warns. Support for pregnant
women is being cut because of the NHS's financial troubles, a healthcare
charity has warned. The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) says it is receiving
"increasing reports" that NHS antenatal classes, breastfeeding services and
postnatal visits are being cancelled. NHS antenatal classes have been cut or
suspended in at least 10 areas in England and Wales, according to the NCT.
These are Romsey in
Hampshire;
Worcestershire; Newham in
London;
Watford; Gwent in south Wales; south-west
Kent;
Nottinghamshire;
Gloucestershire; Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire; and Wiltshire. The
NCT said it also understood that postnatal home visits have been stopped or
are facing cuts in Wiltshire and in east and north Hertfordshire, which
would mean new mothers have to travel to a clinic in order to receive
after-birth care. Press Association
Monday March 26, 2007 SocietyGuardian.co.uk
|
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Care for new
mothers being cut 'to save money'. Valuable support for pregnant women
is being cut because of the NHS's financial troubles, a healthcare charity
has warned. The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) says it is receiving
"increasing reports" that NHS antenatal classes, breast-feeding services and
post-natal visits are being cancelled. NHS antenatal classes have been cut
or "temporarily suspended" in at least 10 areas in England and Wales,
according to the NCT. The NCT said it also understood that postnatal home
visits have been stopped or are facing cuts in
Wiltshire and in east and north
Hertfordshire. This would mean new mothers having to travel to a clinic
in order to receive after-birth care. An NCT spokeswoman said: "These cuts
in maternity services may reflect a more widespread pattern. The NCT is
concerned that these short-term measures to ease financial deficits are
having a negative effect on new parents and parents-to-be, preventing them
from getting the information and support they need at this important stage
in their lives." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Mail
26 March 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
A&E nursing jobs
face axe. A nurse from
Watford General Hospital has slammed plans to slash the number of staff
in accident and emergency (A& E).
The nurse, who currently works in the department, claims hospital bosses
have told staff that West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust will halve the number of
nurses in A& E. The nurse has
revealed staff in A& E are already
over-worked and that when emergency services at Hemel Hempstead close, the
hospital will be dangerously under-staffed. The nurse said: "I believe they
are about to put patient care in A&
E at a big risk. To reduce the staff by this number will increase the
time to be seen and to be treated and also compromise the care given to
patients. Many members of staff have already said that they think patients
will die because of these cut backs." Currently every shift at Watford A&
E is staffed by ten nurses during the day, and eight at night. NHS
bosses are thought to be looking to reduce this to five nurses during the
day and four at night and relocate 22 nurses to other areas of the trust.
However, under a major reorganisation of health care in Hertfordshire, A&
E services at Hemel Hempstead Hospital are due to be transferred to
Watford, meaning tens of thousands more people will soon rely on the
service. A trust spokesman said a final decision on the number of nurses
employed in Watford A& E has not
yet been made, but did confirm that hundreds of agency staff would be lost.
The cuts are part of huge cost cutting measures, which will see the
equivalent of 135 full-time nurses and midwives axed across the trust. The
move aims to save the trust millions of pounds.
Summary by Keep
our NHS Public of Watford
Observer 22 July 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Mental health
bodies awarded foundation status. The NHS foundation trust sector grew
further this week as regulator Monitor authorised three new foundations. The
addition of the three - all involved in mental health - means there are now 73
foundation trusts in England, 13 of which specialise in mental health and
learning disabilities. The 73 have around 750,000 members and are forecast to
have a combined income of £15.1bn this financial year. The three are:
Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust;
Leeds
Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust; and
Rotherham,
Doncaster and
South Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. Monitor also announced that
it had deferred Royal Liverpool Children's Trust's application and rejected the
bid submitted by St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals Trust. While it would not
reveal the reasons for its decisions, Monitor said it expected the issues at the
Royal Liverpool to be resolved within 12 months.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Public
Finance 3 August 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
GP tendering
could herald new era of competition for practises. The Department of
Health's scheme to get GPs into under-doctored areas, named Fairness in
Primary Care procurement, is set to be the "tip of the iceberg" in opening
up family doctors to competition. The scheme will see the provision of care
under an alternative provider medical services (APMS) contract which will
allow PCTs to specify obligations such as longer opening hours. Contracts
are open to independent and third sector bidders, as well as incumbent
practices.
County Durham;
Great Yarmouth; Hartlepool; and
Nottinghamshire
County PCTs are in the first group of the schemes.
Ashton, Leigh and Wigan; Bolton; East
Lancashire;
Luton; and Manchester PCTs are in the second. A second wave scheme is
also set to open up family planning and sexual health services. Independent
providers Care UK, ChilversMcCrea and Clinovia have all confirmed their
intention to tender for at least one of the contracts. ChilversMcCrea chair
Rory McCrea said the contracts could be fitted to the populations, while
forcing other practises to compete to similar standards. He admitted that
some practices could see the plans as a threat. "But once they get over that
they will look at what they can do to compete," he said. "Small practices
can do it but it takes resources. Big companies have the financial and
managerial support but small practices have know-how and local knowledge."
NHS Alliance chair Rory McCrea said he was concerned that the scheme would
be the "tip of the iceberg" and that there would be "creep" of such
contracts into areas where there was no problem with provision. "Some
competition would be good but PCTs need to be extremely subtle and
sophisticated. If they try to use APMS to put a bomb under local GPs it
could be counter-productive when trying to get them to sign up to
practice-based commissioning." British Medical Association GPs committee
chair Dr Laurence Buckman said: "While we have concerns about introducing
private providers into general practice we recognise there is a need where
there are no practices to do the work. We would be concerned if PCTs used
this to get private providers in areas where NHS services are provided."
Only two of the six pilot schemes in the Department of Health's previous
drive to tackle under-doctored areas went ahead. Care UK's managing
director, Mark Hunt, said the new system was better as there was a promise
of more patients to sustain a practise, there is attention to local
knowledge and the whole process is more efficient.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Service Journal 9 August 2007
|
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Call for hospital
debt write off. Alistair Burt, MP for North East Beds has called for
Bedford Hospital NHS Trust's 11m debt to be dropped after he revealed
that North and East Herts NHS Trust has been told it does not have to repay
its debts. NHS in the East said the trust had not recieved special treatment
but Mr Burt has been told by the trust that, due to accountancy changes and
success in cutting costs, "no further repayment was required to the
Treasury" Mr Burt said: "I was very surprised to learn that, quietly, the
debt of £22m, which East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust had last summer,
had been wiped out. Good for them. But Bedford confirmed it was still
repaying theirs. Why ?" He said he
has written to the East of England Strategic Health Authority (EESHA)
requesting the same treatment. In a statement EESHA said: "Bedford Hospital
has been treated the same as hospitals in Hertfordshire. "Bedford Hospital
is now in financial balance and ended 2006-07 with a small surplus. The
trust is now on a sound financial footing and is making surpluses, which is
in line with good financial practices. These surpluses will be available to
the trust for reinvestment in patient services." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of BBC
20 September 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Watchdog fails third of NHS trusts on value. Almost
a third of NHS trusts in England failed to provide adequate value for money in
the last financial year, the government's spending watchdog warns today. The
Audit Commission said the NHS as a whole achieved a £515m surplus in 2006-07
after a £547m deficit in the previous year. But 104 hospitals, ambulance
services and primary care trusts failed to meet the minimum requirements of
sound financial management. Steve Bundred, the commission's chief executive,
said 31% of trusts scored bottom marks for meeting financial targets, managing
assets and providing value for money, against 39% last year. He named 27 trusts
that failed every financial test and warned: "There appears little hope that
they can get out of trouble by themselves." The 27 were:
Barking, Havering and
Redbridge hospitals, Bexley Care Trust,
Hinchingbrooke Health Care, Royal
Cornwall Hospitals,
Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare,
Surrey
and Sussex Healthcare,
Trafford
Healthcare, United
Lincolnshire Hospitals, Great Western ambulance service, and the primary
care trusts for
Bedfordshire,
Berkshire
West, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire,
Cumbria, East and North Hertfordshire, East Sussex Downs and Weald, Great
Yarmouth and Waveney, Norfolk,
North Somerset, North
Staffordshire, Surrey,
Warwickshire, West Hertfordshire and the London boroughs of Enfield,
Hillingdon, Hounslow and Kingston. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Tuesday
October 23, 2007 The Guardian
|
| |
2 |
|
|
|
West Herts stands
by its hospital PFI. The West
Hertfordshire NHS Trust has emphatically denied suggestions it will
abandon a planned £320m private finance initiative hospital because of
financial problems. Kyle McClelland, the PFI project manager said, "Our
financial position has improved dramatically ... the project is moving on."
The deal had been held up by NHS reviews, he admitted. But the hospital was
now preparing its business case for inspection next year, and was confident
it could afford the new building. The Audit Commission recently reported
that West Hertfordshire had one of the largest deficits in the NHS. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Public
Private Finance 30 October 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
Fact or fiction
leaflet fails to allay hospital closure fears. An NHS leaflet intended to
clarify the future of
Hemel Hempstead Hospital has caused confusion. Entitled Fact or Fiction the
pamphlet states: 'Fiction: The hospital is not closing'. It then goes on: 'Fact
and fiction: an Urgent Care Centre will open on the site'. Then it states: 'Fact
and fiction: The plans enable better healthcare to be provided and saves money'.
The leaflet was produced by West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust in the face of public
outcry that full A& E services and
planned surgery would close in Hemel Hempstead. The town would be left with a
minor injuries unit, also called an Urgent Care Centre and run by family
doctors, outpatients department and diagnostic facilities. However, there are
indications that these services could be provided in another location in the
town. About 250 handouts were printed and distributed around Hemel Hempstead
Hospital. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Hemel
Gazette 28 November 2007 |
| 1 |
|
|
|
|
Trust made
£200,000 from car park fees. A hospital trust, which has proposed
applying car parking charges to blue badge holders, made £200,000 profit in
2006/ 07 through charging staff
and the public parking fees, it has been revealed. According to the East and
North
Hertfordshire NHS Trust, the income generated from parking fees in 2006/
07 was £910,063, and the cost of providing car parking was £711,989. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Comet24
29 November 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
QE2 gets the vote
over Lister. The QE2 Hospital should be kept open as a major general
hospital - that was the overwhelming result of an official public
consultation. Almost 60% 'valid responses' from people quizzed backed the
WGC hospital over the Lister Hospital in Stevenage. The statistics also
showed the people of Welwyn Hatfield were much more motivated to respond to
the questionnaire. The findings were unveiled at a meeting of hospital
bosses, workers, doctors, councillors and other 'stakeholders' held to
discuss the findings of the consultation which closed last month. In Welwyn
Hatfield, 16 in every 100 people were likely to respond, whereas only 10 in
every 100 would respond if they lived near the Lister. But the experts who
compiled the survey said this could be because the QE2 was considered under
the most threat of closure. More than 6,000 people responded to the
questionnaire and another 6,000 visited the consultation website. The
questionnaire asked which hospital should be chosen to house this part of
Hertfordshire's main acute services, the Lister or the QE2. The Lister
received 1,656 votes and the QE2 was backed by 2,357. A spokesman for the
trust which runs both hospitals said: "This is not a vote, consultation is
about getting people's ideas, and what matters is the quality not quantity."
The WHT is now calling on hospital chiefs to listen to the people and save
the QE2. Campaigners fighting to save the QE2 Hospital have taken their
battle to the top. Three members of the Keep the NHS Public campaign met
Nick Carver, chief executive of the East and North
Herts NHS Trust. Ben Callan, Barry Cross and Jill Weston told him
residents wanted the WGC hospital to remain as it is. They also told him it
was not "logical" to make a cut in bed provision, when the population of
Hertfordshire was predicted to grow in coming years. December 19 is D-Day
when the fate of the QE2 Hospital could be known. A spokesman for the East
and North Herts NHS Trust, which runs the hospitals, denied a date had been
confirmed. But it was hoped a decision would be reached by mid-December. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Welwyn
& Hatfield Times 11 December 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Opposition calls for
rethink on data storage. The debate over healthcare data security took a
political turn as the opposition called on the government to change its plans
for central data storage in favour of local, interoperable services. Shadow
health secretary, Andrew Lansley, told said that plans for the national database
in England holding around 50m records should be replaced by storage on 'local
servers with interoperability between them.' Encryption was fine, he said, but
there was a risk if many people had the passwords to get into the system. The
Department of Health defended the centralised approach currently being rolled
out and responded to Lansley's comments saying that the planned central system
had particularly strong data protection rules and the highest standards of
security control. Lansley's comments came as review of NHS trusts security
showed nine reporting data losses. The trusts are:
City and Hackney
Primary Care Trust ;
Maidstone and
Tunbridge Wells;
Bolton
Royal Hospital; Sutton and Merton PCT;
Sefton PCT; Mid-Essex
Care Trust; East and North
Hertfordshire;
Norfolk and Norwich and
Gloucester Partnership Foundation Trust. Ross Anderson, professor of
security engineering at Cambridge University, commented on one of the incidents
at City and Hackney PCT where 160,000 children's records were lost. Professor
Anderson asked: "How is it that somebody had access to 160,000 children's
records? Surely that's not right." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of E-Health
Insider 9 January 2008 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
Hospital
emergency unit to close. The accident and emergency unit at a hospital
in
Hertfordshire is to close, it has been announced. Emergency services at
QEII Hospital in Welwyn Garden City will shut next year, West Hertfordshire
Primary Care Trust has decided. Acute services will be concentrated at
Stevenage's Lister and Watford General hospitals, which opponents said the
move would put lives at risk. About 1,000 people took part in a protest in
the summer to save the QEII. In 2003 it was decided that there would be a
new super hospital at Hatfield and the QEII in Welwyn Garden City would
close and the Lister Hospital would be downgraded. The super hospital was
then scrapped on the grounds it was too expensive. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of BBC
9 January 2008 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Heat Map East of
England
Community Hospitals under threat. Map and index
Telegraph 8 February 2007
|
Closed |
Threat of closure/loss of service |
Under review |
| Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire
former Strategic Health Authority |
| |
Harpenden |
Potter's Bar |
|
|
|
PETITIONS
See Save Bedford Hospital party: A political party
registered with the Electoral Commission campaigning against the cuts threatened
by the current NHS reforms. See Barry Monk's blog at:
http://vote4barry.blogspot.com/.
(updated 1 June 2007)
|
