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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.
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Charges
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Construction projects
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Resource shortfall Sources
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Treatment approval or not
- Withdrawal of Local Facilities -
Sources
Other
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Summary articles |
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David Todhunter, chief executive of Mersey regional ambulance service, has resigned after being criticised in a report into the handling of an emergency helicopter transfer of a patient who later died. The report found the transfer had been delayed by three hours because of a row between Mr Todhunter and a staff member at the helicopter operating company. Health Service Journal round-up
Publication date: May 31
Guardian Society
Friday June 1, 2001 |
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David Wheable tells how his dying wife was denied the latest 'wonder'
drug. Guardian
Thursday March 21, 2002 [Cheshire] |
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Virus danger shuts down hospital labs. Inspectors act to prevent deadly
germ leaks after safety lapses. Antony Barnett, public affairs editor
Sunday
June 1, 2003 The Observer [Royal Brompton, Hammersmith, Truro and
Warrington] |
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A nursing sister appeared before magistrates yesterday charged with the
attempted murder of five elderly patients. Helen Carter
Wednesday June 18, 2003 The Guardian [Leighton Hospital, Crewe] |
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Where the treatment centres will be. The health secretary, John Reid, today
announced details of the government's controversial programme of privately run
fast-track diagnostic and treatment centres, and a number of new mobile
ophthalmology units. This guide explains where they will be.
Friday September 12, 2003 [South-west peninsula (Mercury Health Ltd),
Lincolnshire (Mercury Health Ltd), Horton hospital, north Oxford (Mercury Health
Ltd), North-east Yorks (Mercury Health Ltd), Southampton (Mercury Health Ltd),
Northumberland (Mercury Health Ltd), East Berkshire (Slough, Bracknell,
Maidenhead and Windsor/Ascot) (Mercury Health Ltd), Didcot, Oxfordshire (Mercury
Health Ltd), Ashford, Surrey (Mercury Health Ltd), Maidstone (Care UK Afrox),
Barlborough Links, Nottinghamshire (Care UK Afrox), Derriford, Plymouth (Care UK
Afrox), Chase Farm, Barnet, London (Anglo Canadian), King George hospital,
Redbridge (Anglo Canadian), Royal National throat nose and ear hospital, Kings
Cross, London (Anglo Canadian), Bradford (Nations Healthcare), Burton (Nations
Healthcare), Daventry (Birkdale Clinic), Trafford, Greater Manchester (Netcare
UK), Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore (New York Presbyterian),
Shepton Mallet, Somerset (New York Presbyterian).
Two mobile units will offer ophthalmology services in the following areas:
Cheshire and Merseyside (Netcare UK), Cumbria and Lancashire (Netcare
UK), Horton, Oxfordshire (Netcare UK), Wycombe, Bucks (Netcare UK), North
Tyneside (Netcare UK), South-west Oxfordshire (Netcare UK), North-west peninsula
(Netcare UK), Dorset/Somerset (Netcare UK), Kent/Medway (Netcare UK), Hants and
Isle of Wight (Netcare UK), Surrey and Sussex (Netcare UK), Thames Valley
(Netcare UK)] |
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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
] |
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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) |
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Hospital
campaign to lobby meeting. There are fears for the future of Macclesfield
Hospital after Eastern Cheshire PCT launched a review that includes
children's' in-patient, maternity and neo-natal services. Campaigners are
worried that the hospital may be downgraded to cottage hospital status, and
that the A & E will be closed.
40,000 people already support the Hands Off Our Hospital campaign and locals
are being encouraged to attend a PCT consultation meeting at Macclesfield Town
Hall between 2 and 4pm on Wednesday, January 11.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Stoke Sentinel 10 January 2006 |
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Billion-pound
hospitals plan faces collapse. Ministers are considering scaling back or
cancelling about ten PFI hospital building schemes, including projects in
Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle, due to concerns over cost. Under payment by
results, hospitals do not have a guaranteed income and due to patient choice
they could potentially close, leaving the Department of Health worried about
the viability of the PFI. 24 PFI schemes with a total capital spend of £2.1bn
have been completed. 14 more schemes, worth £3bn, have been approved. A
further £12.1bn worth of projects are awaiting approval. A DoH source told the
Times "Ministers are considering how to make it clearer that PFI schemes have
to make financial sense. They are looking at how we got into this position and
how to avoid it happening again." Patricia Hewitt ordered a last minute review
of the St Barts and Royal London PFI project in December. If a decision is not
made by the end of January the contract with private partner Skanska will
lapse and the consortium will be entitled to walk away with costs of £100m
paid, or to continue and be paid more.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Times
16 January 2006 |
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Closing ward may
stop NHS merger. The closure of a ward at Ormskirk Hospital is being sold as
a way to avoid the merger of Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust with
Liverpool Hospital Trusts. West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper said: "This is a
difficult decision for the hospital, but the best way that they can help
safeguard the future of Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals is to stop it
haemorrhaging money." The closure would mean the loss of 14 beds.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Ormskirk Advertiser 20 January 2006 |
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Nine in ten say
NHS will not break even next year. Only 13% of NHS chief executives
surveyed by HSJ expect the NHS to break even by April 2007, as Patricia Hewitt
has demanded. 32% forecast their own trust would still be in debt. King's Fund
chief economist John Appleby said: "'There has got to be much better costing
of current policies. What impact is patient choice going to have on demand
? We have no idea. I do not think they have thought it through. The
major policy this government has pursued since Labour came to power has been
to improve access to hospitals by cutting waiting times, but we have never
seen a figure on how much this has cost the NHS." The full 18 trusts named by
Hewitt as being the worst performing are: Acute - Hammersmith Hospitals;
Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals; Mid Yorkshire Hospitals; The Royal West
Sussex; Surrey and Sussex Healthcare; Brighton and Sussex University
Hospitals; University Hospital of North Staffordshire; Shrewsbury and Telford
Hospitals; George Eliot Hospital (Nuneaton). Primary Care Trusts - Hillingdon
(London); Selby and York; Cheshire West; West Wiltshire; Kennet and North
Wiltshire; Sheffield PCTs (four organisations).
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 26 January 2006 |
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Primary care
opened up to commercial operators. The health white paper will announce six
pilot schemes to open up the primary care market to companies such as United
Health and Care UK. The projects will be centrally procured "to get economies of
scale and to tempt new providers with significant capital backing". PCTs will
then decide which services they want, including services in high streets and
supermarkets, nurse-led practices and diagnostic centres that combine health and
social care. The pilots will operate in London, Liverpool, Bradford, Plymouth
and Ribble Valley, with ten more areas lined-up. Hewitt will also launch a
"social enterprise unit" to aid professionals in setting up not-for-profit
businesses. The FT says: "This is aimed, over time, at creating a purchaser/
provider split under which PCTs will chiefly purchase from a growing
range of independent providers." Department of Health sources say the shift from
hospitals to community care will move 5% of activity out of hospitals over a
decade, about £2.5bn a year. This would force reconfiguration and in some cases
closures. Meanwhile the increase in payment for treatments will only be 1.5%
next year. This below inflation rise is intended to save £3bn in order to
eliminate trusts' structural deficits and overspends and increase efficiency. It
has been described by John Appleby, Kings Fund chief economist, as "very
challenging if not impossible".
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Financial Times 28 January 2006 |
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North West
trusts face cash crisis. North West NHS trusts have a collective deficit
of £86m. Cheshire accounts for more than half of that, with the most indebted
being Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHSA Trust, in Merseyside, which has a
current budget deficit of £15m and Cheshire West PCT, which has an overall
financial deficit of £14.9m.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 30
January 2006 |
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NHS trust
predicts £17m deficit. Cheshire West PCT faces a deficit of £17m, despite
previously stating the total would be £14.9m. The new figure comes from a
report by PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the Audit Commission, which said
the trust might not be able to pay off its creditors without financial
support. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 2
February 2006 |
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'Stalinist'
health chiefs attacked. Labour MP Helen Jones has attacked plans to merge
Warrington and Whiston hospitals, which would force her constituents to make a
20-mile round trip for treatment. She said neither she now her constituents
had confidence in Cheshire and Merseyside SHA, which she described as
"Stalinist and out of touch". Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 2
February 2006 |
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NHS trust faces
cuts in services over £17m debt. Cheshire West PCT has warned that
services could be cut after an Audit Commission report revealed it is heading
for a £17m deficit. Trust chief executive Jacqui Harvey said: "This year's
deficit and the need to repay financial support made available previously by
the Strategic Health Authority leaves us no choice - we have to find
significant savings and this will mean, in some cases, reducing the level of
services we provide whilst maintaining patient safety." The trust has already
implemented a series of measures designed to reduce expenditure, including
vacancy controls. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 6
February 2006 |
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MRSA "hit squads" are to be sent into 20 hospital trusts that are failing to
reduce the number of patients infected by the potentially lethal superbug, the
government announced today. The move came as new figures showed the NHS is
failing to halt MRSA infections, with 3,580 cases of the most serious type of
MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) recorded between April and
September last year. There were a total of 7,269 cases of bloodstream MRSA
infection between October 2004 and September 2005. David Batty, health
correspondent
Monday
February 6, 2006
[worst are Sandwell, Northumbria and Aintree] |
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PCT deficit
blamed on targets. An Audit Commission report says that Cheshire West PCT
is forecasting a massive debt of £17.6m because it implemented government
targets without considering the financial consequences. Jacqui Harvey, chief
executive of the trust, which has been allocated a turnaround team, said "we
must reduce our overall spending significantly," which means "reducing the
level of services we provide". Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 9
February 2006 |
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Wards under
threat in Halton North Cheshire Hospitals Trust is proposing to close five
acute medical wards at Halton Hospital. Services will be transferred to
Warrington Hospital with the consequence that Halton Hospital will only be
able to take day cases. Local residents and unions have set up a 'Hang on to
Halton' campaign. There will be a march from Halton Hospital to Runcorn Town
Hall on the 21st March at 5.00 pm. For more information and messages of
support contact Pauline Warrener at
paulinewarrener@yahoo.co.uk.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
10 February 2006 |
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Isn't this
where A&E was before? Management consultants looking for efficiency
savings in Lancashire and Merseyside have proposed moving Southport Hospital's
A& E department to Omskirk - less
than a year since it was swapped the other way. The move from Ormskirk to
Southport of its accident and emergency department, intensive care and all
acute surgical beds, and of the children's A&
E services from Southport to Ormskirk, was only completed last July as
part of a cost-cutting operation involving different management consultants.
The move was met with protests then, but now consultants McKinsey think money
can be saved by reversing the move. McKinsey has so far been paid £460,000 for
its investigation into Merseyside NHS Trusts. Councillor David Swiffen, whose
ward covers Ormskirk hospital, said: "This talk of changing it back makes me
very cross. We told them the current facilities at each of the hospitals was
fine as it was and it didn't need changing. They spent a lot of money on
consultants back then." Other proposed changes include a single NHS trust for
Aintree, Royal Liverpool, and Southport and Ormskirk; shifting elective
out-patient surgery to Southport and shutting down Ormskirk hospital
altogether; and merging the running of four more hospitals, Warrington,
Halton, Whiston and Leighton, in Crewe. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Echo 10 February 2006 |
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Families turn
out to have their say on future of wards. Plans to shut a children's ward
and a maternity ward at Macclesfield District General Hospital were opposed
with a high level of public involvement in the consultation exercise.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 21 February 2006 |
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Save our
services. Hundreds of demonstrators braved the wind and rain on Tuesday
evening to protest against controversial proposals to remove emergency
services from Halton Hospital. Under the proposals, emergency cancer missions
and critical care will be concentrated at the Trust's 650-bed Warrington
Hospital site. Staff at Halton have collected a petition signed by 20,000
residents against the proposed changes, which have not been consulted on. The
trust is struggling with a £6m cash crisis.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Cheshire Online 23 February 2006 |
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Hang On to
Halton Hospital march. Local residents, patient groups, health unions, and
medical staff - totalling around 300 people - marched through Runcorn on a
cold wet evening on February 21 protesting against ward closures and other
proposals for Halton Hospital. They then lobbied councillors meeting with the
chief executive of North Cheshire Hospitals Trust. Campaigners say that at the
same time as services at the hospital are being reduced, Interhealth Care UK
are building an independent sector treatment centre under a £120 m contract
with the Department of Health to provide orthopaedic surgery for the region on
the Halton site. Keep our NHS Public
23 February 2006 |
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Trust must save
money. Wirral's cash strapped hospital trust is to make cuts to save £5m
next financial year. The trust is planning to close a medical ward at Arrowe
Park and a dermatology ward at Clatterbridge Hospital at weekends.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 8 March 2006 |
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Axe hangs over
ward. The Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust has proposed axing inpatient
services at Northwich's Victoria Infirmary. It would mean the loss of 31 beds
and has been condemned by campaigners and community leaders.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 8 March 2006 |
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Hospital jobs on
the line. Leighton Hospital is making shock job cuts in a bid to balance
its books. It is rumoured that up to 200 jobs could go at the hospital,
which is £1.3m in deficit.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Crewe Chronicle 14 March 2006 |
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No confidence
vote in NHS trust. A local council has issued a vote of no confidence in
the NHS trust which runs mental health services in its area. St Helens
Council is concerned by modernisation plans drawn up by the Five Boroughs
NHS Trust that could lead to cuts and a mental health ward being closed.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 17 March 2006 |
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Victory in merger
fight. West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper has claimed victory and revealed
that proposals to join Southport &
Ormskirk trust with Aintree and Royal Liverpool
& Broadgreen have been dropped.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 17 March 2006 |
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NHS debt could
leave town with no A&E department. Southport Hospital's A&
E department faces being moved to Ormskirk because of Southport and
Ormskirk NHS Trust's £15m debt. The choices suggested by consultants,
McKinsey, follow the transfer of Southport's children's A&
E to Ormskirk, which caused outrage amongst parents three years ago.
The new plan was presented to Cheshire and Merseyside SHA. Local politicians
and even the trust itself are against the changes.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 30 March 2006 |
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Nursing jobs
axed. Aintree trust has revealed 10 frontline healthcare jobs have been
cut as the financial crisis bites. Hundreds more jobs are in the balance
with other hospitals warning more cuts are needed. Southport and Ormskirk
Hospitals Trust confirmed it would cut jobs to meet its £4m savings target.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Echo 30 March 2006 |
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Rap over closure
of hospital ward. Liverpool's health bosses have been accused of
"deception" to conceal the closure of a 28-bed ward at Garston's Sir Alfred
Jones memorial hospital. Patients were 'temporarily' moved out of the unit
in December, but it will now close.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Echo 30 March 2006 |
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Funding switch
could spark NHS cash crisis. Four north west Labour MPs - Rosie Cooper,
Helen Jones, Angela Eagle and Andrew Miller - have joined forces to protest that
payment by results will penalise newly built hospitals
that currently receive bigger grants because they face higher depreciation
costs. Rosie Cooper said: "Hospitals should not be penalised by a mathematical
formula simply because they are new facilities. Unless changes are made, debts
will continue to rise and draconian measures will result which could have dire
consequences." Southport and Ormskirk and North Cheshire trusts are heading for
combined debts of £43m next year, partly because of payment by results,
according to
Cheshire and Merseyside SHA. Already, plans have been drawn up to end
emergency admissions at Halton Hospital, in Runcorn, and transfer them to
Warrington. The SHA's study also warned that Ormskirk Hospital - currently
running a £6.5m loss - would not be able to cover its overhead costs under the
new system. Cooper suggested that Royal Liverpool
& Broadgreen University Hospitals, the
Walton Centre for Neurology and the Countess of Chester Hospital would also lose
out, and called on Patricia Hewitt to alter the system.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 5 April 2006 |
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Casualty is not
on the move. Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust has scotched suggestions
that it should move its A& E
department to save money. The proposal was made by management consultants on
behalf of the SHA. The hospital trust said the proposal would not "provide a
sustainable clinical service or financial solution… Patients and staff will
be confused to read of the possibility of further clinical reconfiguration
so soon after the relocation of clinical services over the last six years
has finally finished."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Ormskirk Advertiser 5 April 2006 |
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Government has
'moved the goalposts'. More than 100 extra posts could go at Leighton
Hospital. The Crewe hospital last month unveiled a major service and
financial recovery plan to claw its way into the black by axing up to 150
positions. But now Mid Cheshire Hospitals Trust says extra savings are
needed because the government "moved the goalposts" by reducing the tariff
for payment by results. Chief executive Stephen Eames said: "There's a large
amount of change, the tariff was a mistake. It now presents us with further
problems of £2.6m." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 5 April 2006 |
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Hospital denied
baby cash. Europe's biggest maternity hospital will lose out on at least
£500,000 a year under payment by results, which apportions just £400 for
each 'normal' childbirth. Louise Shepherd, chief executive of
Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Hospital wants the Government to
increase the tariff price for delivering a baby by at least £200. She said
maternity hospitals were facing a huge challenge to balance their books
under the new payment by results scheme. Under the system, trusts are paid
£900 for a 'normal' delivery, £500 of which is eaten up in standard
insurance costs. If the tariff were increased to £1,100, one-to-one midwife
care could be provided.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 11 April 2006 |
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Go-ahead for £1bn
hospital schemes. Ministers have given the green light to two
redevelopments of hospitals in
Birmingham and St Helens costing £1bn. A new acute hospital and mental
health facilities will open to patients under the £690m Birmingham scheme,
which will provide 1,231 beds, as well as accident and emergency, specialist
burns and transplant wards, a decontamination suite and operating theatres.
The £338m St Helens scheme would see the development of St Helens and
Whiston hospitals in
Merseyside, including a new diagnostic treatment centre and a 963-bed
hospital.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Financial Times 13 April 2006 |
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Our £300m
hospital's a tonic. A new 823-bed general hospital is to be built using
the PFI in
Whiston. A diagnostic treatment centre in St Helens is also to be
developed. NewHospitals, the consortium which will build the new hospitals,
is made up of companies including Taylor Woodrow Construction, Medirest, GE
Medical Systems, and Health Care Projects.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Echo 14 April 2006 |
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Four
children's hospitals have warned health ministers they will have to cut
specialist services because of miscalculations in the new
payments-by-results system championed by Tony Blair as part of his NHS
reforms. The threat to specialist services for children was revealed by the
Liberal Democrats, who released papers showing children's trusts have told
ministers they will have to cut services because they claim they are facing
a £22m shortfall in the new financial year. The letter was sent by the
chairs and chief executives of
Great Ormond Street,
Alder Hey,
Birmingham and
Sheffield hospitals. Together the four hospitals form the National
Children's Health Alliance, and they claim the proposed funding will damage
the provision of cardiac surgery, neurosurgery and spinal surgery.
Patrick Wintour, political editor
Tuesday April 18, 2006 The Guardian |
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Children's hospitals 'at risk' from
tariff system. Four
children's hospitals have warned health ministers they will have to cut
specialist services because of miscalculations in the new payments by
results system that will see them face a £22m shortfall in this financial
year. The letter to ministers was sent by the chairs and chief executives of
Great Ormond Street,
Alder Hey,
Birmingham and
Sheffield hospitals, who together form the National Children's Health
Alliance. It says: "We are extremely concerned that vital specialist
paediatric capacity, particularly in surgical specialities, will be lost at
regional and national level this year, which will lead to public concern.
The new opportunities presented by choice and through payment-by-results
should be benefiting young people and children, but quite the reverse seems
to be the case. Our trusts are increasingly the only place of choice for
parents whose children need specialist paediatric care." The trusts blame
the "inaccurate and highly insensitive tariff" under payments by results. To
make ends meet, they say, they will have to identify those services on which
they stand to lose most money and stop providing them. Obvious candidates
include heart, brain and spinal surgery. "We are extremely concerned that
vital specialist paediatric capacity, particularly in surgical specialties,
will be lost at regional and national levels this year, which will lead to
public concern."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Times
18 April 2006 |
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Alder Hay
jobs fears.
Alder Hay children's hospital has announced it may cut jobs to tackle an
£11m debt. An Alder Hey spokesman said: "The trust is consulting with its
staff how best to address this shortfall. Reduction in jobs cannot be ruled
out, together with any further efficiencies the trust is able to identify."
Officials blame payment by results for almost half the hospital's debts.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Echo 19 April 2006 |
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Walton hospital
set to close. Walton hospital will be closed by the end of the year.
Aintree Hospitals Trust said the move is part of NHS policy to concentrate
acute services at one location. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Echo 19 April 2006 |
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Alder Hay is
spared £11m spending cuts.
Merseyside SHA has stepped in to financially support Alder Hay hospital
while payment by results in
introduced, following pressure from government. The hospital's management
say it will lose almost 20% of its income under PbR, resulting in a funding
shortfall of £11m. A spokesman for the SHA said: "We have reserves to cover
that amount. But it is critical that we continue to work with them and the
Department of Health to find a way to resolve the problems with PbR for the
future." The Government has admitted the pricing structure does not
adequately differentiate between routine work and more specialist care
carried out by children's hospitals like Alder Hay. The DoH has agreed to
find a way to change the new payment method to prevent the hospital being
plunged into debt next year.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 4 May 2006 |
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Ministers' anger
derails Blair bid to relaunch government. Jane Kennedy, a long-standing
loyalist who was thought to have been sacked from the government in Blair's
dramatic reshuffle, disclosed that she left the Department of Health on
grounds of conscience following fears about the impact on children's
hospitals of changes to NHS finances. She said: "For some time I have had
disagreements with the way in which certain aspects of health reforms were
being dealt with: and it obviously led to some disputes with fellow
ministers and some at Number 10. I had been asked to do a job and bring
political judgment to the job. When you try to apply that judgment and you
are told you shouldn't be expressing your opinions you realise the
government needs to get somebody else." Kennedy's
Liverpool constituency includes Alder Hey hospital, one of several
children's hospitals which had warned that the new NHS system of
payment by results could damage
their ability to provide treatment. Kennedy said she had struggled with the
"uncomfortable question" about why payment by results had been applied if
hospitals were not ready and had also objected to an appointment to her
local health authority.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Observer 7 May 2006 |
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Health reforms
'wasted millions'. Some key government health reforms have been
criticised for costing millions of pounds but bringing few benefits. Schemes
to build NHS hospitals with the
private sector will leave companies with windfall profits of £3.3bn,
pressure group Health Emergency claims. firms involved with NHS PFI projects
are "bleeding" millions of pounds in profits. According to a Health
Emergency report three recently approved PFI schemes in
London,
St Helens and
Birmingham would net the companies £440 million in profits.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 10 May 2006 |
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Affordability of
23 PFI hospitals put under scrutiny. The affordability of 23 PFI
hospital schemes with a capital value of £6bn will come under scrutiny as
plans to move care out of hospitals press ahead. A Department of Health
study which could lead to a reduction in the size of the schemes will take
"no longer than four to five months" to complete. It is the next stage in
the review into PFI hospital projects announced earlier this year. The new
study will look at the viability of big projects in
Liverpool, the Home Counties,
Leeds
and the
Midlands that have not yet gone to market. Lord Warner, the health
minister, said it was not possible to say in advance whether the review
would alter the overall value of £7 - £9bn of PFI projects in the pipeline,
but he said the experience of the cancelled
Paddington Basin
project showed that business cases needed to be looked at "with a lot more
rigour" in their earlier stages. He said "the party is not over" for PFI
hospital building. But there was a new realism.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Financial Times 12 May 2006 |
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NHS Direct, the nurse-led
health helpline, will today axe more than 1,000 staff in a comprehensive
restructuring of branches and business objectives, the Guardian has learned.
Proposals will be presented for consultation with staff unions to close 12
call centres across England and shed more than a quarter of the workforce to
avert a forecast £15m deficit for 2006-07. The move follows an announcement
yesterday by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust that it plans to shed
1,200 jobs to avoid a deficit of £60m - caused partly by a new
payment-by-results system introduced last month. The Nottingham cuts - like
most of the 13,000 hospital job losses over the past few months - will be
achieved largely through staff turnover, with few compulsory redundancies.
But NHS Direct said up to 114 of its nurses may be sacked, along with
managers and administrators. NHS Direct was founded in 1997 to provide a
24-hour telephone helpline advising patients on how to deal with symptoms
and where to go in an emergency. It handles about 6.5m calls a year and its
website attracts 1m visits a month. This side of its business is likely to
grow, but a report to staff today admits the organisation has failed to meet
targets for expanding into new areas. It expected to get the lion's share of
contracts for call centres for patients wanting to see a GP outside working
hours - but got only 20% of the business. It also runs an appointments line
to support the choose and book system that enables patients to fix an
outpatient appointment at a convenient time at the hospital of their choice.
Delays in installing necessary IT equipment in hospitals and GP surgeries
slowed this income stream. It says it can no longer afford to run many of
the smaller call centres. The proposals call for the closure of centres in
Doncaster,
Scunthorpe, York,
Chester,
Bolton,
Preston, Chorley,
Southport,
Cambridge,
Croydon,
Brighton and
Kensington, London. They will shut over the next 18 months and staff
will be made redundant unless they can be redeployed. Eighteen call centres
will be expanded.John Carvel, social affairs editor
Tuesday May 16, 2006 The Guardian |
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Hopes dashed.
A leaked report has revealed the first
private management
take-over of an NHS hospital left the trust in dire financial straits,
threatening the local health economy. The draft Audit Commission report on
the deal between
Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust and Secta Group Ltd describes a costly
shambles. While the key clinical targets were met under the franchise, more
than £1m was spent on "interventions". These were deemed an unacceptable use
of public monies. The franchise agreement under which Secta ran Good Hope
lasted from 2003 until it was terminated at the end of 2005. Inadequate
provision within the contract meant the trust itself could not terminate the
contract early or enforce penalty clauses. The deal ended prematurely after
Anne Heast, the Secta employee appointed to the chief executive role, left
for another position within Secta's parent company Tribal Group. Before she
left, a paper was presented to the trust board assessing her performance -
authored by Anne Heast. Former health secretary Frank Dobson, who has backed
the Keep Our NHS Public campaign, said: "This report yet again exposes the
myth that the private sector has management geniuses who can sort out the
NHS -there isn't a single example of them doing it." Meanwhile, trusts
across the country are using management consultants to help rid them of
their deficits.
Leeds
Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is reportedly paying PwC £100,000 a month,
while
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has paid KPMG almost £700,000 to
date.
Cheshire West and Ellesmere Port and Neston PCTs are paying KPMG £10,000
per day, according to the Chester Chronicle.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Hospital Doctor 18 May 2006 |
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DoH throws down
gauntlet on APMS. The pace of private sector involvement in primary care has
accelerated, with ministers trumpeting the first in a series of
Government-backed private provider deals, allowing a private company to run a
traditional GP practice in east
London. Health
Minister Lord Warner said private provider Care UK would run a new 7,000-patient
practice and walk-in centre in Barking and Dagenham. The DoH said similar
contracts that would "challenge the existing monopoly of independent GPs" were
close to agreement in Hackney,
Liverpool,
Lancashire,
Plymouth and
Yorkshire. PCTs have also begun planning to put directly managed practices
out to tender to avoid the cost of running them.
Sunderland PCT has opted to put out to tender a practice run by two GPs for
the past two years. Dr Ashley Liston and Dr Tracey Lucas, who transformed the
struggling practice, had hoped to take it over. He said: "We are disappointed
but not surprised by the outcome. We're keen to continue the work we've started
here, so we will be putting in a bid. We recognise the challenges of competing
with large multinational companies, but we will give it our best shot." GPC
Medical Practitioners Union representative Dr Ron Singer said: "PCTs will get
Brownie points from the Government by involving the private sector. They are
beginning to realise that they don't want salaried practices." Dr Chaand Nagpaul,
a member of the GPC sessional GPs subcommittee, called on the Government to make
it a legal requirement that salaried GPs keep their NHS contracts when APMS
providers take over a practice: "We need to ensure the private sector is not
seen as a cheap option with doctors on lower rates. The worry is we will see a
downward trend in employer and employee terms." Dr Richard Fieldhouse, chief
executive of the National Association of Sessional GPs, told salaried doctors
not to sign alternative contracts if their practice is taken over: "It's like a
civil servant moving to become part of McDonald's."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Doctor Update 30 May 2006 |
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Doctor warns
of sex disease danger. Spending cuts in the NHS could lead to
more
cases of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, in
Cheshire and Merseyside, a leading consultant has warned. Dr Colm
O'Mahony, consultant in genito-urinary medicine at the Countess of Chester
Hospital, said cuts in financing for his clinic
were being replicated across the region. He said: "It's a national issue and
the whole of Merseyside is affected, but there are no weeping children or
politicians jumping up and down about this." He said he had been told none
of the £200,000 earmarked for his GUM clinic would be available, and there
were no funds for chlamydia screening, contraception, abortion and
performance management, despite the government saying they were priorities.
64 GUM units across the UK have abandoned their plans to improve services
because of lack of finance.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 6 June 2006 |
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Help health
workers stop the sell off of NHS Logistics. NHS Logistics has been
targeted for privatisation by the New Labour government under the guise of
an "arms length body". But Unison's
Maidstone
branch, along with four other small Unison branches, in
Alfreton,
Normanton,
Runcorn and
Bury St Edmunds, are fighting the plans and are consulting their members
for strike action. A recent consultative ballot saw 92% vote in favour. Over
2,000 people have signed a petition against the sell off, and now first
rally in Maidstone for over ten years has been organised, under the banner
of the national organisation Keep Our NHS Public. The rally is set to take
place on Saturday 1 July, in Maidstone's Brenchley Gardens next to Maidstone
East railway station. The rally will be joined by those fighting over 300
jobs losses in the Maidstone Hospital Trust and 160 at Medway.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Socialist Worker 7 June 2006 |
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Trust unveils
cost savings plan.
Wirral Hospitals NHS Trust wants to close four wards, redeploy 150 staff
and centralise elderly care services on one site at Arrowe Park Hospital.
there will be no compulsory redundancies.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 7 June 2006 |
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Health chiefs
go on attack aver embarrassing debts.
Merseyside and Cheshire SHA has launched an attack on the Department of
Health's bookkeeping over the inclusion of money from the authority given to
three PCTs; a piece of accounting that gave the appearance of balanced
books. The handout, totalling £29.5m, was given to bail out the trusts after
they ended the financial year with large deficits. SHA bosses have argued
that the money should not have been included in the calculation and Steve
Webb, Lib-Dem spokesperson, accused the Department of Health of presenting
figures that are "at best misleading."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 8 June 2006 |
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Private GPs
surgery plan for Merseyside.
Merseyside's first
privately run GP surgery will be one more "nail in the coffin" of the
NHS as we know it, critics have warned. Health managers are vetting tenders
from companies to run a new general practice in South Sefton that will treat
around 4,000 patients in the Maghull area. It will be the first in the North
West to be run by an independent firm under a new scheme accused of
privatising the "frontline of the NHS" by the back door. The revelation has
angered campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, which warned putting the focus
on profit would turn patients into "commodities". Alex Scott-Samuel, senior
lecturer in public health at the University of Liverpool and part of Keep
Our NHS Public's Merseyside branch, said: "I'm deeply concerned about the
damage this is doing to the NHS through introducing the private sector
initially into hospital services and now into primary care. This is one more
nail in the coffin of front line care. Firstly companies are doing this work
primarily to make a profit, secondly they have no experience of primary
care. Not only will it draw doctors and financial resources away from the
NHS, it will inevitably be a poorer quality of care that is provided. It's
also about changing the whole quality of the NHS from being part of the
Welfare State providing services that we all feel part of, to reducing
people and their health to commodities. It's the commercialisation of the
welfare state and it's carrying on the damage that the Thatcher government
started." Other doctors warned encouraging private firms into the GP market
would lead to the "fragmentation of the NHS". Care UK has already come in
for some heavy criticism from Keep Our NHS Public chairman and lecturer at
Edinburgh University, Allyson Pollock. She accused the company of having
"very little experience" of providing direct services for patients. It is
not known if Care UK or United Health Europe have tendered for the Sefton
contract. The names of all companies involved are being kept under wraps.
Keep Our NHS Public's national spokesman, John Lister, referred to a deal
for Canadian-owned Interhealth Care Services to operate a £146m orthopaedic
Independent Sector
Treatment Centre, in Runcorn. He said: "The private sector are coming in
and they are picking and choosing what areas they want to go into. They
don't want anything messy like emergency care, they want fast admissions,
treatment and discharge like a factory production line. Initially, it
appears it's a great way to increase capacity, but in the end all it is
doing is taking capacity away from the NHS. Gradually it means the private
sector is going to have quite a large controlling stake in the NHS and you
lose the focus on patient care being the driving force."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 28 June 2006 |
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Visitors will pay to park at hospitals. Parking charges for patients are
to be introduced for the first time next week at
Wirral's two main hospitals. People parking at Arrowe Park and
Clatterbridge will have to pay £2 for most of the spaces during the daytime.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 28 June 2006 |
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Bupa preferred in health deal. Bupa Hospitals has been given
preferred provider status for one of the second wave of
Independent Sector
Treatment Centres. It will be contracted to provide 6,000 surgical
procedures in
Cheshire and Merseyside on top of the recent contract it secured to
provide similar services in the north-east. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Financial
Times 3 July 2006 |
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Hospitals cut
80 jobs to save £2.5m.
Southport and Ormskirk PCT will tell 33 staff they have lost their jobs
over the next few days; and another 50 will be given the push in the coming
months as the two hospitals try to tackle a £15m deficit. The trust had
tried to slash 200 jobs through vacancy freezes and encouraging voluntary
redundancy but has now no choice but to enforce compulsory redundancies. The
trust is also considering proposals from consultants McKinsey including
moving Southport's A& E department
to Ormskirk, leaving only a walk-in medical centre for emergency cases. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 7 July 2006 |
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Trust to shed
80 jobs as Bupa moves in. A National Health Service trust that is to be
the site of an
independent treatment centre run by Bupa has announced up to 80 job
cuts as part of a drive to cut its workforce by
250, or 10%.
Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust has announced 33 compulsory
redundancies and says that it may need 50 more as it tries to save £14m over
the next two years to cope with a financial deficit. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Financial Times 8 July 2006
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Parry: We are
not proud of 83 job losses. Staff at
Southport and Ormskirk hospitals have been thrown on the scrap-heap,
union leaders claimed after it was announced 83 jobs face the axe. In total,
33 posts have been made compulsory redundant in a bid to save money, and
bosses at the debt-ridden Southport and Ormskirk
NHS Trust have also revealed that a further 50 posts will follow over the
coming months. Staff affected have also been told they cannot apply for new
positions at the controversial soon-to-be-open
Independent Sector
Treatment Centre (ISTC), run by private health providers, BUPA,
announced last week. The news comes after a vacancy freeze and the
opportunity of applying for voluntary early retirement or voluntary
redundancy came into operation to save money. However, hospital chiefs say
although this saved £750k, more needed to be done to achieve the overall
total of £2.5m on staff savings. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Sefton
& West Lancashire Champion 13 July 2006 |
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Key NHS reform
plans put on ice. The expansion of a key NHS reform has been put on ice
after specialist services started to suffer.
Payment by Results has caused
cash problems in specialist children's hospitals due to the complex nature
of their work. Ministers said they would get extra money to plug the
shortfall and said there was now no timetable to
extend it into other services not covered. It was originally envisaged that
adult critical care would be incorporated this year. Mental health and other
community services were also due to be covered by the funding system by
2008. But Lord Warner said the system would not be expanded at all next
year. And he added: "We will not be specific about what comes after that."
His announcement comes after the government was criticised for the way the
tariff for this year was introduced. A government-commissioned report by
John Lawlor, chief executive of the Harrogate and District NHS Foundation
Trust, on the handling of the announcement said in the future ministers must
publish it earlier, employ more staff to calculate it and even consider
contracting out the process. He also agreed it should not be rolled out
further in 2007-8 to give the system chance to "bed down". It comes after
children's hospitals started to lobby government, warning services may have
to be but because they were not receiving enough money under Payment by
Results. The Department of Health has agreed to give the
Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital £4.9m this year,
London's Great
Ormond Street Hospital £3.4m and
Sheffield's children hospital £900,000. The payments are likely to be
repeated next year, Lord Warner said. The NHS system of Payment by Results
has attracted controversy because it goes much further than its
continental
equivalents which tend to only cover elective operations. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 18
July 2006 |
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Angry
hospital staff stage protest over redundancies. Hospital staff from
Southport and Ormskirk hospitals have held a protest outside Southport's
hospital in anger over the 83 job losses the hospital's trust has announced
to tackle its £7m deficit. A second protest will take place outside the
Orskirk site on Friday. Union official Debbie Brannan said: "Our members and
patients shouldn't be left in the dark about such vital decisions which
unions say will have a devastating blow on staff and patients in both
hospitals."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 18 July 2006 |
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DoH admits PbR
hits care and is costly. The Department of Health has admitted that its
payment by results hospital
funding scheme has led to a deterioration in care for older people, has 'not
worked' for specialist children's hospitals and involves currently unfunded
administration costs. the DoH national director for older people, Professor
Ian Philp, said it was 'essential' the PbR tariff was reformed. At present,
it acts as a 'perverse incentive' for hospitals to discharge patients early
to make savings on rehabilitation times, he said. 'There is anecdotal
evidence that some rehabilitation services are being scaled back. Certainly,
acute hospital provision of rehabilitation services have been. There has
been some disinvestment.' The latest DoH statistics reveal that emergency
readmission rates have increased by almost a third, from 5.5% of all
admissions in April 2003 to 7.1% of all admissions in April 2006. Philp
admitted that part of that increase could be due to hospitals attempting to
discharge elderly patients too early. Under the current PbR tariff,
hospitals receive a lump sum for each procedure which includes funding for
both classic 'acute' services, such as operations, and post-operative
rehabilitation. Philp said that the DoH was now exploring ways to 'unbundle'
the tariffs, so as to ensure that hospitals could 'concentrate on what they
are good at - acute care' - and be reimbursed fairly for that work. A
proportion of the tariff price would be separated and made available for
community services to provide rehabilitative services through care homes and
domiciliary care. New 'unbundled' tariffs for four types of common procedure
- including elective hip replacements - will be in place from April 2007,
said Philp, and would be a 'key driver' in achieving the 5% shift of the
hospital budget (£2.4bn) to social care. Philp's comments came as health
minister Lord Warner admitted that the tariff had also created problems for
children's hospitals, whose specialisms were not fully covered. Three
hospitals in
Liverpool,
London and
Sheffield would now receive a supplementary £9m between them this year
and next, he said. Warner also said he now accepted that PbR meant extra
administration costs for hospitals and primary care trusts. This followed
the DoH's publication of an independent study, which found additional costs
of between £100,000 and £180,000 for an individual hospital and £90,000 and
£190,000 for a PCT. That could add up to between £55.1m and £107.7m in new
administration costs per year across England's 279 hospital trusts and 303
old-size PCTs. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Public
Finance 21 July 2006 |
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Call for rethink
over hospital changes. A furious opposition has demanded the borough
council performs a U-turn on its support for the proposed changes to
services at
Halton Hospital. On Monday Liberal Democrats demanded a "call-in" of the
decision by the executive board to back the plans. Lib Dem leader Cllr Linda
Redhead said: "We have never felt the need to call in a decision before, but
it's clear that the vast majority of local people are deeply opposed to the
proposals to close wards at Halton Hospital and move critical care services
to Warrington. Instead of supporting the hospital trust, they should be
putting pressure on them to provide much more detail on the parts of their
plan which are not fully worked out, and to look at alternative solutions
that keep the fullest possible range of services at both hospital sites."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Chester Chronicle 20 July 2006 |
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Public asked
about health service.
Liverpool's health professionals are
asking the public how best to spend an extra £70m earmarked to improve
the city's local services. The government money is to be spent on services
for people not receiving hospital-based care. Members of the public are
asked to join the Big Health Debate by commenting on a specially set up
website. The primary care trust has posed a series of questions to test what
people think about current services. This includes such questions as how
easily they can get appointments, how far they travel and the journey they
go through in the treatment process if they are referred for tests. Other
questions designed to explore ideas for future improvements, include GP
opening hours.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 26 July 2006 |
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23,000 fight
wards closure. Proposals to axe five wards at Halton Hospital in Runcorn
have been met with huge local opposition culminating in 23,000 signatures
being handed to parliament by Weaver Vale MP Mike Hall. North
Cheshire's NHS deficit was expected to grow
from a mere £700,000 to £6.8m by the end of the financial year, a hike which
has been blamed upon the NHS's new funding formula 'payment-by-results'.
The Department of Health has already admitted that the formula ended up
short changing Alder Hay Children's Hospital and has bailed the trust out.
The closure of the five wards at Halton will
move all acute services from the hospital to Warrington General, leaving
the Runcorn site to treat only day patients.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Chester
Chronicle 31 July 2006 |
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Health trust
accused of dirty tricks. Campaigners have slammed a health trust for
depriving them of vital information in their fight to save services at
Northwich's Victoria Infirmary (VIN). Central
Cheshire Primary Care Trust has launched an investigation after it was
five weeks late in delivering a consultation document on the proposed
closure of VIN's inpatient ward. The Trust promised to deliver the document
to consultees by the end of June. More than a month later, it was finally
expected to be delivered at a meeting between the Trust and representatives
of Northwich Town Council and the Save Our Northwich Inpatient Campaign
(SONIC) - when the 12-week consultation period actually began.SONIC
spokesman Liam Byrne said: 'The universal view is that it was yet another
piece of devious behaviour by the authorities in their apparent mission to
deprive Northwich of its precious in-patient ward.' Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Northwich
Chronicle 3 August 2006 |
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NHS watchdog 'has
no bite'. A leading health campaigner says the Government wants an NHS
watchdog with no teeth. Geoff Ryall-Harvey, who runs the administration of
Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Forums
in this area, says a decision to abolish PPIs represents a further
erosion of public engagement in decision-making. The plan is to replace PPIs
with Local Involvement Networks from next summer. He said: 'Whatever they
say about wanting to involve the public, they don't want to involve the
public who know something about the health service. Under the new regime
rights to access information and make unannounced visits to inspect NHS
premises would go.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Ellesmere
Port Pioneer 4 August 2006 |
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FIFTY staff at the Countess of
Chester Hospital face an uncertain future after bosses decided to reduce
the number of beds. They face an anxious wait to find out where they will be
redeployed following the hospital's decision to dispense with 53 beds..
Daily Post 5 August 2006 |
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NHS user
worry over cuts. Plans to close one in five beds across
Cheshire and Wirral NHS
mental health trust have raised concern from locals. Colin Creagh,
chairman of the Chester branch of MIND, is concerned that, in the process of
making 2.5% (or £2.1million) of efficiency cuts required by the government,
patient care will be hit. The trust prefers closing unused beds to cutting
community services but Mr Creagh is particularly concerned that "people in
the community with mental health problems have not a chance of getting
anything". Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Cheshire
Chronicle 7 August 2006 |
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We can't treat
your son. A frantic family rushed their badly injured son to a
Merseyside casualty ward after a motorbike crash - and were given a map
to another hospital. Joshua Brindle, aged nine, was screaming in pain and
covered in blood from a mini-motor-bike crash when he was taken to Southport
hospital. But his parents say staff insisted he had to be treated at
Ormskirk Hospital's accident and emergency department seven miles away, and
gave them a map to get there. Joshua's treatment will reignite the row over
children's services in the resort after the children's accident and
emergency department was moved from Southport Hospital to Ormskirk Hospital
in 2003. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Echo 10 August 2006 |
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NHS life-blood
'consumed by clinics'. Health authorities are
spending millions of pounds of taxpayers' money on private operations in
the North West which could be provided more cheaply by the NHS and may
eventually destroy the service, say critics. Hospital consultants, health
unions and politicians in the region are protesting at the block contracts
being awarded to
Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTCs) to carry out thousands of
operations, regardless of whether they reach targets set for them. Health
trusts in the North West have paid £1.7m to
Greater Manchester Surgical Centre, run by South African company
Netcare, for operations that never took place. These were mainly minor
surgical procedures, including hip operations, ear, nose and throat
treatment and cataract removal. This week doctors, nurses and Unison members
condemned the "breakneck" pace of privatisation within the NHS. Protest
groups have been set up in Manchester and
Liverpool under the "Keep Our NHS Public" banner. At least a further
five new ISTCs are being planned, without public consultation, for the
region. These include: Ormskirk and District General Hospital, where BUPA
will provide up to 1,000 operations a year for Southport and Ormskirk
Hospital NHS Trust, which recently announced that it is to axe 83 NHS jobs
due to a £15m deficit; a centre in
Cumbria or Lancashire; two further ISTCs in Greater Manchester; and a
second ISTC in either Cheshire or Merseyside (there is already one at
Runcorn). Deputy chairman of the BMA's consultants' committee and consultant
gynaecologist at Fairfield Hospital, Bury, said: "Ultimately, this could
lead to total disruption of NHS care and the closure of NHS orthopaedic
wards. I'm worried about the quality of surgery and the risk of
complications. A recent study by a surgeon at Bolton Hospital found there
were six times more infections with eye cataract operations in ISTCs than in
NHS treatment centres." Netcare is also likely to win a £30m contract to
provide clinical assessment services in Manchester, which would allow it to
refer patients to its own Greater Manchester Surgical Centre, based at
Trafford General Hospital. In addition, Netcare subsidiary Amicus InHealth
is bidding for the North West's diagnostics contract, which would involve
carrying out blood tests, MRI scans, ultrasounds, X Rays and endoscopies.
The Department of Health refused to comment on how much the five-year
regional diagnostics contract will cost, but seven contracts nationally are
worth £1 billion. The Greater Manchester Surgical Centre costs the NHS £10m
a year.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of North
West Enquirer 11 August 2006 |
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Choice of
hospital exposed as a sham. Patients are being denied treatment at their
chosen hospital to ensure Government waiting targets are not breached. A
Pulse inquiry has uncovered numerous examples of PCTs deleting popular
hospitals from the menu of choices available to GPs using Choose and Book to
ensure no patient waits longer than 13 weeks. The move has left GPs
increasingly unable to book slots at patients' preferred hospital, forcing
people to travel long distances to less popular clinics even when they would
prefer to wait longer. The clinician in charge of
Choose and Book has even
revealed PCT chief executives could be at risk of the sack if they allowed
patients to book slots past 13 weeks. Dr Mark Davies, clinical lead for
Choose and Book at Connecting for Health, said the system allowed slots to
be booked up to 180 days ahead - but commissioners had the power to take
hospitals off menus if they could not offer a booking inside the 13-week
target. He said: "It would be unusual for any chief executive that wants to
remain in post to release slots that can be booked past 13 weeks." Areas and
specialities where choice is being restricted include orthopaedics in
Bristol and
Exeter; ENT and cardiology in
Cornwall; foot and ankle surgery in
Leeds;
ENT and orthopaedics in
Liverpool and
Swanage; and various specialities in
Milton
Keynes. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Pulse 11 August 2006. [This seems to force patients to accept an
offer involving long travelling even if they would prefer to wait slightly
longer for the local hospital]
Reply from
Liverpool PCTs denying the report. |
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Trusts facing
£32m debts must cut costs.
Mersyside and Cheshire's health services are heading for a massive
deficit for the first time. Department of Health figures have shown that
most trusts in the area are expected to report worse finances than at the
end of last year, a turnaround that would mean an overall £23m surplus will
become a £32m deficit. North Cheshire Hospital Trust is likely to face the
grimmest year where a surplus of £83,000 is predicted to become an £11m
deficit by next March. Southport and Ormskirk hospitals predict going from
breaking-even to a £7m deficit and Wirral Hospitals NHS Trust is
anticipating being £3.4m in the red despite recently announced savings. Only
North Liverpool, South Liverpool and Central Liverpool expect to have
surpluses going into the new financial year, and all expect them to be
massively reduced.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 14 August 2006 |
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Netcare lead bidder for ICATS. The Department of Health has named
Netcare and Partnership Health Group - in partnership with Alliance Medical
- as preferred bidders for its controversial
integrated
clinical assessment and treatment services in
Manchester. The proposed contract has been dogged by criticism from
local stakeholders in recent months as concerns were raised that awarding
Netcare the contract would be anti-competitive. If Netcare wins the
five-year deal to provide ICATS it would be in a position to assess patients
for surgery and then refer them to its own Greater Manchester surgical
centre for treatment. The deal will see Netcare providing 220,000
outpatient, diagnostic and surgical services in seven locations including
Carlisle, Preston, Fylde Coast, Ulverston, Pendle, Ormskirk and Workington.
In response to local concerns the DoH has decided to ensure that preferred
bidder status for the two parts of the contract are awarded to different
providers. The DoH has also named UK Specialist Hospitals - formerly part of
the New York Presbyterian Hospitals group - as preferred bidder for a
second-wave elective independent treatment centre in the South West. UKSH
will operate an ITC based in North
Bristol that will carry out 25,000 procedures a year over five years.
Last month Bupa was named preferred bidder for two elective ITC schemes in
the North East and
Cheshire and Merseyside.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal 17 August 2006 |
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Health plans
put debts above patients. A health watchdog has described a
consultation over local NHS cuts as "'unsatisfactory". Members of
Cheshire County Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) said
there were concerns that proposals to redesign the local health service were
not based on the health needs and risks within the population. There was an
emphasis on "cuts in service" compared with
essential reinvestment in certain areas. OSC chairman Cllr Brendan Doyle
said it was ironic the turnaround team imposed by the Government to sort out
the funding problems costs £10,000 a day from a hard-pressed budget. In his
conclusions, he said: "There is little evidence the proposals are based on
need and risk or that they offer a vision for the area."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Chester Chronicle 18 August 2006 |
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Patient care
'not affected by cuts.' The chief executive of the Countess of
Chester Hospital has said that a decision to lose 53 beds is in response
to a cash squeeze. But Peter Herring said patient care would not be affected
by the closure of a surgical ward and cardiology ward from September. He was
responding to concerns by an anonymous nurse claiming the hospital was often
full and needed more beds not less. About 50 posts are expected to be shed
as a result of the changes from areas such as nursing, administration and
possibly corporate support. There may also be a reduction in cleaning staff.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Chester Chronicle 18 August 2006 |
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Hospitals press
on with private finance plans. Two of
Liverpool's leading hospitals, the Royal Liverpool and Alder Hey's
children's hospital, have reasserted their commitment to controversial PFI
rebuilding plans. The affirmation comes as PFI faces accusations of being a
"money-making racket" for private companies and the Government announced six
new PFI hospitals to cost a total of £1.5bn. Senior national officer at
Unison, Mike Jackson, said: "PFI schemes are expensive, inflexible and are
adding to the current financial burdens of many hospital trusts."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool
Daily Post 21 August 2006 |
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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 |
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Monitor in target
warning. The independent foundation trust regulator has warned that progress
towards the 18-week
target
could be slowed down by primary care trusts attempting to cut spending. summary
of findings from foundation trusts' annual plans warns that foundation trust
financial and operational planning will become 'increasingly uncertain' and that
'the progress towards 18-week waiting targets may be slowed'. 'Operational and
financial planning is complicated as foundation trusts balance waiting list
targets with commissioners' desire to minimise activity,' it says. The regulator
also says the 'priority to achieve financial balance is leading some
commissioners to demonstrate behaviour which conflicts with payment by results
reform'. Seven foundation trusts have forecast a deficit for the end of the
current financial year. University College
London Hospitals is
predicting the biggest deficit - £10m by year-end. Countess of
Chester Hospital,
Gloucestershire Hospitals,
Barnsley
Hospital, Doncaster and
Bassetlaw Hospitals, City Hospitals
Sunderland, and Homerton University Hospital foundation trusts are
forecasting deficits ranging from £1m-£3m.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal 31 August 2006 |
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14 private firms win place on choice menu in £200m deal. The
Department of Health has signed a deal worth £200m with 14 independent
healthcare companies to carry out thousands of additional elective care
procedures. The contracts, signed last week, are intended to deliver an
additional 150,000 procedures per year, on an 'ad hoc' basis, as part of the
DoH's second wave of
elective care
private sector procurement. The 14 companies will be added immediately
to the central extended choice menu, which currently consists of all
foundation trusts and some independent treatment centres. Under the policy,
patients awaiting elective care can choose from this list, as well as from
at least four local providers. Seven of the big name private healthcare
companies have won a large chunk of the work. BMI Healthcare, part of the
Netcare group, is the biggest winner, securing 44 contracts across the
country. Other contract winners include Bupa, Nuffield, Capio, Centres for
Clinical Excellence, Mercury Health, and Nations Healthcare. Several small
private companies are also understood to have won small contracts to provide
local services to NHS patients. Each contract will run for five years and
the private companies will provide NHS patients with a range of elective
care services including general surgery, endoscopy, ophthalmology, plastic
surgery and neurology. Unlike the first-wave elective care contracts, where
PCTs had to pay for the number of procedures contracted - even if they did
not use the capacity - the latest deals will [not] operate under a 'take or
pay' arrangement, which means PCTs only pay for work carried out. Earlier
this month, the DoH named Netcare and Partnership Health Group, in
partnership with Alliance Medical, as preferred bidders for its
controversial integrated assessment and treatment services in
Manchester. At the same time the DoH also signed a deal with UK
Specialist Hospitals, formerly part of the New York Presbyterian Hospitals
group, to act as preferred bidder for a second-wave elective independent
treatment centre in the South West.
Last month Bupa was named preferred bidder for two elective independent
treatment centre schemes in the North
East and
Cheshire and Merseyside as part of its wave-two elective care
procurement programme.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal 31 August 2006 |
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Health chiefs
defend boss's £130k deal. A debt-ridden health
body has justified paying its
new chairman nearly £130,000. The newly-created Western
Cheshire PCT, which is trying to recoup losses of up to £42m, will pay
businessman John Church £32,500 a year for his services over the next four
years. Church is chairman of Group Tyre (UK) Ltd which has a turnover of
nearly £200m. He also runs a management consultancy. His part-time
appointment has proved unpopular with one member of the local health service
who said: 'The NHS is in turmoil and the new PCT has appointed the chairman
of Group Tyre (UK) Ltd for a four-year term earning £130,000. You have to
ask what is his knowledge of the NHS ?
To me, this appointment beggars belief.'
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Ellesmere Port Pioneer 1September 2006 |
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Public will get a
say on future of inpatient care. Campaign leaders will meet hospital
chiefs for the first in a series of meetings aimed at securing hundreds of
thousands of pounds to save infirmary services. Action group Save Our
Northwich Inpatients Campaign (SONIC) has been fighting the closure of
the inpatients ward at Northwich's Victoria Infirmary (VIN) since health
chiefs announced plans to shut it down earlier this year. After amassing
nearly 14,000 signatures, the Central Cheshire PCT bowed to public pressure
and is now working with SONIC to negotiate extra funding for VIN following
the Government's promised £750m cash injection for community hospitals.
SONIC leader June Chapman said residents already had cause for celebration
following the PCT's turnaround. She said: 'The result is a real tribute to
people power.'
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Northwich Chronicle 7 September 2006 |
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Hospital job
fear over £11m. Jobs could be cut and patient stays shortened as
hospitals battle an £11m shortfall. Managers at
Warrington and Halton are putting together a dramatic cost-cutting
programme to tackle their crippling deficit. They said job cuts could not be
ruled out and promised full proposals would be released by November. The
Department of Health has ordered Halton general and Warrington hospitals to
make huge savings by the end of March. The financial recovery plan is
certain to include cutting "unnecessary" days spent in bed by patients.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 8 September 2006 |
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Two wards close
to save £21m. Two
Merseyside hospital wards are closing to save £21.5m. A general ward in
Arrowe Park will go, and an elderly care ward at Clatterbridge, both in
Wirral. Two other elderly care wards at Clatterbridge will move to Arrowe
Park in a shake-up starting in February. Wirral Hospital NHS trust said
there would be no redundancies, but staff may have to move or take new jobs.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Liverpool Echo 14 September 2006 |
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£50m Alder Hey
cuts. The bid to rebuild
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