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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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Health managers are blamed for a catalogue of serious failings in the quality of care at three NHS hospitals criticised in official reports published today.
An investigation into problems at the Oxford Heart centre, one of Britain's leading coronary units, discovered poor standards of clinical care and under-supervision of inexperienced doctors. North Lakeland NHS trust in Cumbria is criticised by health service standards watchdog, the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), for degrading and cruel practices, including the strapping of mentally-ill patients to their commodes.
Officials at Carmarthenshire NHS trust in Wales came under fire for failing to tighten procedures quickly enough in the wake of a blunder in which the wrong kidney was removed from a seriously ill patient. Guardian 15 November 2000.
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The trio of reports documenting serious failings in the health service yesterday is not entirely bad news. It signals more openness in what has too long been a stealth service. Each report is alarming reading: a
Carlisle hospital for elderly mentally-ill patients with "a shocking culture of cruelty"; a Welsh hospital where a man died after his one healthy kidney was removed; a heart unit in one of Britain's most famous hospitals, Oxford's John
Radcliffe, "on its knees and riven by internal conflict". Even the BMA did not try to gloss over their seriousness. "Today's reports paint a picture of an NHS in trouble and under pressure," it said. "It could leave the public seriously concerned about the ability of the health service to deliver quality patient care, to learn from mistakes and to act swiftly when problems and concerns have been identified."
Perverse though it may seem, yesterday's reports are an advance. Four years ago, five student nurses blew the whistle on Carlisle's unacceptable procedures including tying patients to commodes. There was an inquiry, but nothing happened. The students' complaints were "lost". Nothing emerged publicly. All that has changed. Even before yesterday's report, the trust chairman had been dismissed, the chief executive suspended pending disciplinary hearings, senior managers warned. Similarly, Oxford's warring heart surgeons only came to light because a senior clinical nurse complained. She suffered severe harassment and an unacceptable two-year wait, but she finally succeeded.
What does emerge is that whistleblowers still need more protection; that hospital authorities need to move more quickly (10 months on in Wales the action plan is still not in place); and less obviously, that care needs to be taken in deploying the new health watchdog, the commission for health improvement. Using it in Wales made sense. It looked at wider issues than a single death. It might have made sense to use it in Oxford too, but that did not happen. But the CHI should not have been sent to Carlisle, where there had already been an external review. This was a diversion to deflect any political heat from ministers. The CHI is not a hit squad. It is a crucial monitoring unit, with a remit to visit every hospital and GP practice within the next four years. To raise standards, it needs their trust. Set up a separate hit squad if necessary, but the CHI's prime purpose must be protected. Guardian Leader 16 November 2000. |
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The deaths of four women after botched operations by disgraced surgeon
Steven Walker are to be investigated by both the police and a coroner, it
was confirmed yesterday. Guardian
Society Monday November
5, 2001 [Blackpool Victoria Hospital] |
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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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A surgeon told a patient's family an operation on her liver had gone well
when she was barely alive and had lost 32 pints of blood during and after
surgery, a court was told yesterday. Steven Walker, also turned his back on
the patient during surgery to arrange for pictures to be taken of her liver,
the jury at London's Old Bailey heard. He lied about Dorothy McPhee's
condition and the 71-year-old died after the operation in December 1995,
Rebecca Poulet QC said. James Meikle, health correspondent
Thursday May 13, 2004 The Guardian [Blackpool Victoria] |
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Fifteen hospitals have been hit by outbreaks of the new strain of the
hospital superbug Clostridium difficile which has so far contributed to 25
deaths, ministers have admitted. So far there have been 75 cases confirmed by
scientists at the specialist laboratory in Cardiff - the only one in the UK
equipped to analysis the new strain - health minister Jane Kennedy said
yesterday. The statistics reveal the outbreak of the new strain, which last week
was confirmed at a second hospital in the UK, is much wider than originally
believed. Hospitals where the strain has appeared are in: Preston, Birmingham,
Winchester, Bristol, Romford, Southampton, Truro, Carshalton, High Wycombe,
South Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tees, Sunderland, Stoke Mandeville and Exeter.
Debbie Andalo
Thursday
June 30, 2005 |
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A petition of more than 1000 names against the closure of Brampton
Hospital has been handed to the local PCT. The threat to the hospital came
with North Cumbria PCTs' proposal to close 118 beds at hospitals in Alston,
Brampton, Millom, Cockermouth, Keswick, Penrith and Maryport to save £2.4m.
Summary by Keep our NHS
Public of
North
West News and Star 21 December 2005 |
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Community beds
cuts will hit rural elderly, say GPs. Cumbrian GPs have warned that North
Cumbria PCT's proposed cut of 118 community hospital beds across six hospitals
will leave elderly people in rural areas vulnerable and isolated and will be
unlikely to save money due to the knock-on effects. The hospitals in question
include Cockermouth, Maryport, Keswick, and Wigton. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
North West News and Star 6 January 2006 |
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"You will all
have a say on future of hospitals." Cumbria and District PCT has committed
to send the consultation document on the future of threatened cottage
hospitals to every household in the county. Campaigners in defence of the
hospitals will be meeting on Monday in Wigton.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
North West News & Star
18 January 2006 |
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County Council
Opposes Hospital Bed Closure Plan. Cumbria County Councillors have vowed
to fight the threat to cut beds at Cumbria's cottage hospitals. There was
cross party support for opposition to plans to cut 118 beds at community
hospitals in Brampton, Alston, Keswick, Maryport, Cocker mouth and Millom.
Plans for a new hospital to replace the Cumberland Infirmary already mean
there will be a reduction in beds, but these were intended to be part of a
move to community care rather than acute hospital care. Councillors said the
plans were contradictory.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
North West News & Star 19 January 2006 |
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Health chiefs
defend ward closure. Morecambe Bay PCT proposes shutting two mental health
wards at Kendal's Westmoreland General Hospital in Cumbria. One of the wards
is for elderly patients, and the PCT claims it is seeking to move this care to
the community, but financial pressures dictate the closure of the other.
Morecambe Bay PCT chief executive Leigh Griffin said: "I've made it very clear
throughout consultation, that we would wish to proceed with changes for
service for older people regardless of our financial position. However, the
specific changes that would affect Kentmere Ware are much more explicitly
driven by our financial position." A march will take place in Kendal on
Saturday in support of local health services.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online
20 January 2006 |
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Ward closure
plan prompts protest. Hundreds of people marched in Cumbria on Saturday
against proposals to close two mental health wards at the Westmorland General
Hospital in Kendal.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online
23 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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Cumbria's
health trusts face £10m deficit. Morecambe Bay PCT reported a deficit of
£3.38m and has frozen recruitment and plans to cut two wards at Westmoreland
General Hospital. Morecambe Bay Hospital NHS Trust is looking to cut beds and
agency staff costs. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online
30 January 2006 |
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Hospitals fight
still on as trust remains silent. North Cumbria PCTs have refused to offer
any reassurances about the future of Cumbria's cottage hospitals, despite the
government's white paper being taken as an endorsement of such facilities.
Campaigners said the fight will go on, and said the government proposals
failed to take account of the necessity for overnight beds. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
North West News & Star 1 February 2006 |
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Let us run
cottage hospitals, say GPs. A group of doctors from the Mayport Medical
Centre are proposing to the Department of Health that they be allowed to take
over the running of Maryport's community hospital, currently threatened with
closure. The GPs' plan rests on them taking practice-based commissioning,
giving them control of the commissioning budget for the town. If successful
the method could be copied in Cockermouth and other Cumbrian towns with
threatened community hospitals. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of North West News & Star
3 February 2006 |
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Mass rally in
Maryport. A rally against bed closures is taking place in Maryport today.
It has been organised by the Maryport League of Friends and is part of a
series of demonstrations against possible closures of community hospitals in
Cumbria. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of North West News & Star
3 February 2006 |
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Chemist slams
firm in oxygen supply crisis. Patients in Cumbria with breathing
difficulties have been left without oxygen for up to three days after the
service supplying them was privatised. In the past doctors and pharmacists
worked together to provide oxygen supplies to patients. But the Department of
Health privatised the service nationally on February 1st, handing over the role
to big regional companies. In Cumbria Air Products have been unable to keep up
with the demand and supplies have not been delivered in time, with one Carlisle
patient arriving at a pharmacy blue in the face after being unable to contact
the company for three days. Another patient was told his supplies could take up
to six days to arrive, rather than the previous maximum of four hours. Peter
Walton of the North Cumbrian Pharmaceutical committee said patients were
suffering significant distress and that Air Products was operating according to
the terms of its contract rather than meeting patients' needs in any
circumstance. He said pharmacists were irritated at having to step in and cover
the company's failings. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of North West News & Star 16 February 2006 |
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Dead: after eight
hour wait for oxygen. The husband of Alice Broderick, the 63 year old woman
from Carlisle who died while waiting for oxygen to be delivered by private
company Air Products that has run the service since it was privatised at the
beginning of February, has said he feels let down. He said: "It was too late for
Alice. I can't say for definite whether she would have survived if she had got
the oxygen sooner but I'll never know now. The new system wants changing - why
couldn't they just have brought a bottle of oxygen over from the hospital
? It makes no sense." He also asked why the delivery man from Air
Products only set off from Lancaster - 70 miles away from Carlisle - at 8.30pm,
after the urgent need for oxygen was reported to the company at 1.45pm. Carlisle
MP Eric Martlew blamed the new system for Alice Broderick's death. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
North West News & Star 17 February 2006 |
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Thousands
threatened by oxygen shortage. A woman has died and thousands of people with
breathing difficulties are at risk after the breakdown of a newly privatised
system to provide oxygen supplies to patients at home. Previously local
pharmacists, working with GPs, arranged oxygen deliveries, but the service was
privatised from the start of February and put in the hands of four multinational
companies - Air Products, Allied Oxycare/
Medigas, Linde and BOC. Air Products and Allied Oxycare/
Medigas admit that they have been overwhelmed and have been unable to
deliver all emergency orders within the target of four hours. Since the
privatisation, which affects England and Wales, health trusts and boards have
been flooded with complaints that people have been unable to contact the private
suppliers. Patients have been told that the problem could continue for as long
as two months while the new system beds in. In Carlisle Alice Broderick died
while waiting for an emergency delivery of oxygen ordered by a doctor. The
oxygen took almost nine hours to arrive. At 1.45pm the doctor requested an
urgent oxygen delivery. The delivery was the responsibility of Air Products, an
American multinational that has the contract for Wales and large areas of
England. By 7.30pm, when Mrs Broderick stopped breathing, the oxygen had not yet
arrived. She was rushed to hospital by ambulance but died at 9.30pm. Mr
Broderick returned home at 10.30pm to find that a delivery of oxygen had just
been left. Although Mrs Broderick lived only 200 yards from Cumberland Hospital
in Carlisle, the oxygen had travelled from an Air Products depot 70 miles away.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Times 17 February 2006 |
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Oxygen contract:
crisis talks at DoH over failures. Companies responsible for supplying
oxygen to patients at home have been called into the Department of Health for
crisis talks. The private providers have been 'overwhelmed' by demand since
taking over the contract at the start of this month, a DoH spokesperson
admitted. North Cumbria primary care trusts have launched an investigation into
the death of Alice Broderick, 63, who died two weeks ago after waiting more than
six hours for oxygen ordered from Air Products. Another of the companies, Allied
Respiratory, said the poor handling of the transition had left its contract
'unserviceable'. It blamed the DoH for the way it handled the transition, in
cutting off supplies from the pharmacies which previously provided oxygen.
Meanwhile pharmacists, who supplied oxygen before the contract was privatised,
have slammed the handling of the transfer. Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating
Committee chief executive Sue Sharpe said that in many areas the transfer had
been "utterly chaotic". Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 23 February 2006 |
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Investigation
into oxygen tragedy. The case of a 63-year-old Carlisle grandmother who died
after waiting eight hours for an emergency oxygen supply is to be investigated
by north Cumbria's coroner. In a highly unusual move, the coroner has opened an
inquest into the tragedy after initially believing it was a straightforward
natural death. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of North
West News & Star 23 February 2006 |
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600 march to
save our hospitals. Hundreds of people turned out for a march in defence
of community hospitals in Wigton at the weekend. 45,000 people have now signed
a petition to protect north and west Cumbria's nine cottage hospitals.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
North West News & Star 6 March 2006 |
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Widdecombe backs
battle over hospitals. Ann Widdecombe will speak at an elaborate
demonstration on April 1 against the threatened closure of community
hospitals in Cumbria. The event will stretch across nine towns and will
involve a gyrocopter and a Lord of the Rings theme.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
North West News & Star 16 March 2006 |
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Community Hospitals at risk in Cumbria and
Lancashire SHA according to
Public Finance 17 March 2006:
Alston Cottage Hospital
Cockermouth Hospital
Millom Hospital
Brampton War Memorial Community Hospital
Keswick Community Hospital
Maryport Hospital
Penrith Hospital
Workington Community Hospital
Pendle Community Hospital, Nelson |
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Campaigners urging the retention of cottage hospitals in Cumbria are
lobbying MPs in London over the issue. They were handing a petition in at
Westminster urging ministers to ensure the future of community hospitals
threatened with closure in the county. An NHS review cast doubt over
community hospitals at Brampton, Keswick, Millom, Maryport, Cockermouth and
Alston. Despite an £18m lifeline announced last week campaigners have said
they are not convinced services will remain intact. The Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority (NDA) revealed last week that it was to hand over
the money over three years as a stop gap measure until a new acute hospital
was built in west Cumbria.
BBC
Online 28 March 2006 |
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Hospital cuts
protesters take to the roads and waterways. Protesters in Cumbria turned
out at the weekend for an innovative demonstration across nine towns. The
event was in defence of community hospitals at Wigton, Brampton, Alston,
Penrith, Keswick, Cockermouth, Maryport, Workington and Millom.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
North West News & Star 3 April 2006 |
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Sellafield
clean-up cash for NHS. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is giving
£18m to North Cumbria PCT to help it save up to nine community hospitals
from closure. In an unprecedented move, the NDA, which owns the Sellafield
reprocessing plant in Cumbria and is headquartered near Sellafield, has
stepped into the breach created by the deficits crisis, giving £4m this year
and £7m in 2007 and in 2008. The NDA claims this is part of its support for
the community arising from a memorandum of understanding signed when
supporting the West Cumbria Strategic Partnership.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Independent 2 April 2006 |
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Secret plan to
ration patient care. Patients are being denied appointments with
consultants in a systematic attempt to ration care and save the NHS money. The
leaked document - 'Pan
London Demand Management Arrangements 06-07' produced by the London
Transition Team, led by John Bacon, a senior NHS manager - shows that while
ministers promise patients choice, a series of barriers are being erected
limiting GPs' rights to refer people to consultants. Health trusts across
London have drawn up plans to establish panels that will monitor how many
patients are referred to hospital by GPs. Trusts have been told that they must
cut GP referral rates to those of the lowest 10%, saving £25m a year.
Consultant-to-consultant referrals are also being limited, in many cases
denying patients a second opinion. A&
E departments are being told to "redirect" 40-70% of patients back to
GPs or walk-in centres. Hospitals that treat people who ought to have been
sent to their GPs will not be paid. The bureaucracy needed to screen all the
referrals will itself cost £1.6m. The Times says: "The language of the
document makes no pretence that this will improve care, and emphasises cost
savings throughout. 'It is imperative that London balances its books overall,'
the first paragraph says." The BMA says similar schemes are running in
Kent,
Oxfordshire,
Dorset,
Wiltshire,
Surrey, Sussex,
Cornwall,
Shropshire,
Suffolk,
Lancashire and
Yorkshire, as well as London. Jonathan Fielden, deputy chairman
of the BMA consultants committee, said: "It's clear that clinicians don't know
how these referral management systems aid improvements in clinical care. To
them they are purely cost-saving. The way they work is not transparent or
clear. If clinicians don't know, patients cannot know either. That certainly
flies in the face of the Government's Patient Choice agenda." Myfanwy Davies
and Glyn Elwyn, of the Centre for Health Services Research at Cardiff, said
the centres had "appeared overnight in an evidence-free zone".
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Times 7 April 2006 |
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Hospitals
facing £6m cash crisis. The NHS trust responsible for North
Lancashire and Cumbria is in a "very severe" financial position. The
finance director of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust said the body ended the
financial year nearly £6.4m in debt despite making £6.5m savings. No
redundancies are planned.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 24 April 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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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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Mortuary-delay
family 'in the dark'. Relatives of a man whose body was left on a
hospital ward for eight hours have not been told because bosses said it
would "distress" them. The admission came after the revelation that staff
shortages at cash-strapped East
Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust had resulted in overnight porters being
told to ask if bodies could be left until morning before they are taken to
the mortuary. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Lancashire Evening Telegraph 5 July 2006 |
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Job cuts
ordered by email. The chief executive of North
Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS trust, Marie Burnham, has ordered fourteen
departmental heads to cut one job each to tackle the trust's £4m funding
shortfall. The trust, which runs the Cumberland Infirmary and West
Cumberland Hospital, has already planned an overtime ban for September and
warned of job cuts, particularly among nursing staff. The chief executive's
language indicates the pressure the trust is under - in the email Ms Burnham
demanded the nominations from department heads "before I really have to lose
it" and added "I do not wish to discuss any of the above with you, I simply
want action." Unison secretary at the West Cumberland Hospital, Christin
Wharrier, expressed her worries over the overtime ban stating that the
current understaffing of the NHS was its cause, not staff greed, and that
the only way to ensure overtime isn't needed is to employ more full-time
staff. She added that currently many staff contracted for only twenty-five
hours end up working a full week. Dave Armstrong, Unison's Cumbria official
said: "They are under pressure financially and it seems they'll do almost
anything to get the deficit down." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of North
West News & Star 10 July 2006 |
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Hospital injuries
unit to close.
Cockermouth Cottage Hospital's minor injuries unit will close because of
a shortage of nurses. The West Cumbria Primary Care Trust says it has made
'successful efforts' to recruit qualified nurses, but is struggling because
staff sickness levels are so high. This is the latest blow to Cockermouth
Cottage Hospital which has been earmarked for closure be North Cumbria PCT
along with eight others. The closure plans were proposed by the PCTs to
offset mounting debts. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of North
West News & Star 3 August 2006 |
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Closure of injury
unit is thin end of wedge. Campaigners fighting to save
Cumbria's cottage hospitals say the closure of Cockermouth's minor
injuries unit is 'shortsighted' and an excuse to get rid of services bit by
bit. Penrith and the Border MP David Maclean, who has been campaigning to
save the hospitals since it emerged they were under threat, claims this is
just an excuse to gradually close hospital services. He said: 'I am very
worried that closure in Cockermouth is the start of things to come in other
community hospitals. They used the same excuse in Alston to close maternity
units. 'Couldn't get enough staff' is the usual excuse.' 'I suspect the PCT
is closing them off, a little bit here and there until there are no services
left and we're left with something that's not worth fighting for
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of North
West News & Star 4 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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One in five ambulance trusts systematically misreported response times,
making it look as if they reached serious life-threatening emergencies
within government
targets,
the Department of Health disclosed yesterday. An audit of 31 ambulance
services in England found six did not follow official guidance about how
response times should be recorded. Some did not start the clock as soon as a
999 call was received. Others did not synchronise the clocks on the
emergency switchboard with those used by paramedics. In some cases,
ambulance trusts recategorised the urgency of the call after the job was
done to make it fit the response time achieved rather than the priority
given when the original call was made. This would have allowed staff to
downgrade an emergency if the ambulance arrived late. The department said
the six trusts were
West
Yorkshire,
South
Yorkshire,
Cumbria,
West Midlands,
Staffordshire and the
West Country ambulance service. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Tuesday August 15, 2006 The Guardian |
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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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5 |
Mental health a
low priority. In a letter to the Times, Tim Loughton, shadow minister
for health, writes: "Ticking the box by calling
mental health a priority does not deliver. Judging its effectiveness on
the basis of falling suicide rates ignores record numbers of people,
especially schoolchildren, developing mental illness. Whereas mental health
accounted for 14 per cent of NHS spending in 1997, that has dropped to 11
per cent - hardly suggesting a "priority". From
Westmoreland to
Sussex, acute mental health beds are being cut and day centres are
closing. In Sussex every hospital is in the spotlight for downgrading or
even closure as the strategic health authority wrestles with huge
deficits. We are told that the prospect of losing
our A& E department at Sussex's
largest town, Worthing, and dicing with congested roads to reach Brighton is
part of the clinical modernisation process."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Times
17 August 2006 |
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At least 10 major hospitals are facing closure or cut-backs, with some facing
the end of emergency care, the BBC said. The sites in
London,
Surrey,
Sussex,
Lancashire and
Cornwall will either close or have their facilities downgraded to handle
basic care in order to get back into financial health, after an unprecedented
level of NHS debt was revealed earlier in the summer. Nearly a third of NHS
trusts ended the year with a combined gross deficit of pounds £1.27bn. Hélène
Mulholland and agencies
Friday
August 18, 2006 Guardian Unlimited |
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Future of 10
hospitals 'in doubt'. At least 10 major hospitals in England face potential
closure or a downgraded role, according to a BBC investigation. Talks are under
way about removing emergency care from hospitals in
London,
Surrey,
Sussex,
Greater
Manchester,
Lancashire and
Cornwall. The sites will either close or be left to handle basic care, with
"super" regional centres seeing the most ill. There are concerns people will
have to travel miles for life-saving treatment. Over 30 hospitals could be
affected by the reviews - including those losing services and others left to
bear the brunt of that work. NHS bosses involved in the reviews have said the
measures are part of a push to provide more care in the community, either with
hospital doctors setting up local clinics, GPs providing extra specialist
services or medics treating patients in their own homes. However, they also
acknowledge deficits and new European working time restrictions are forcing them
to reconsider how services are provided. Dr Jonathan Fielden, deputy chairman of
the BMA consultants' committee, said: "In some of these cases we have to ask
whether this is being driven by financial reasons. If this is the case, it is
likely not to be in the best interests of patients." The areas under review are:
London - Talks under way over Harrow's Northwick Park and the nearby Central
Middlesex hospitals. Project board set up to review services across the four
north central trusts - Barnet and Chase Farm, Royal Free, Whittington and North
Middlesex Surrey and Sussex - Widespread discussions have been followed by the
creation of focus groups to discuss future of the 15 hospitals run by nine NHS
trusts. Formal consultation to start in the autumn. Greater Manchester -
Committee set up to decide the future of four hospitals run by the Pennine Acute
Hospitals NHS Trust. Decision due end of September. Lancashire - Changes to the
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust's three centres - spread across
Cumbria and Lancashire, planned, with the Westmorland threatened with losing its
acute facilities. Cornwall - Two proposals have been discussed by Royal Cornwall
Hospitals NHS Trust, one of which involves withdrawing services from two of its
three hospitals.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 18 August 2006 |
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NHS trust welcomes plan for independent centre. A second
independent sector
treatment centre in West
Lancashire was welcomed as "great news" by health chiefs. The Ormskirk
centre will be run by private health provider Netcare, which has yet to
announce where the centre will be placed. The treatment centre will perform
assessments and diagnostics after referral and handle minor surgery;
elective surgery will be handled by NHS hospitals or other private centres.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Liverpool Daily Post 22 August 2006 |
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Top consultants
back cottage hospital fight.
Cumbrian cottage hospital campaigners say they are now ready to fight
any plans to close beds or cut services if health chiefs do not back down.
The campaigners are now waiting for the PCTs to finish a review of
facilities and set out their plans. They hope that initial proposals to
close more than 118 beds across nine north Cumbrian hospitals will have been
scrapped, following widespread local opposition. However, if that is not the
case, members of the Joint League of Friends say they now have the
ammunition they need to fight off such plans, in the form of a report
compiled by two of the country's top medical consultants.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of North
West News & Star 1September 2006 |
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Health chiefs
jeered in services battle. Health chiefs have decided to move forward
with plans which could put extra pressure on the Royal
Lancaster Infirmary - despite opposition from thousands. Campaigners
jeered as the board of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay agreed to
move ahead with an option which could see the transfer of acute medical
services from Kendal to Lancaster. Concerns have been raised by various
public bodies, patients and members of staff about the additional travelling
time it would take for Kendal patients to travel to the RLI. Morecambe
councillor David Kerr, who is a member of the Cumbria and Lancashire joint
health overview and scrutiny committee and who attended the meeting, said:
"The trust has not listened to either the overview and scrutiny committee or
the general public. People's feelings have not been taken into account and
they are now looking at an option which nobody wanted." A petition
containing 25,000 signatures along with thousands of public consultation
response forms, had been sent to the trust opposing the changes. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Lancaster
Guardian 28 September 2006 |
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Health trust's
set-up "has been shambolic". Outgoing health bosses overseeing the
amalgamation of their trusts into the county-wide
Cumbria Primary Care Trust have slammed the transition process. The new
trust has only an executive director and none of the other posts have been
announced leaving many of those involved in the transition completely unsure
whether they will have jobs after the shake-up. A number of non-executive
directors used their last public meeting to vent their anger at the way they
feel management has been treated. Carole Ferguson, chair of Carlisle PCT,
said: "We deplore the way this has happened but it is important to minute
how our executive directors have managed this challenge in increasingly
difficult circumstances…We have to hope lessons are learned at a higher
level." The new PCT will have a range of challenges to contend with
including the future of the county's community hospitals and a mounting £30m
deficit.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of North
West News & Star 2 October 2006 |
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5 |
First responders freeze 'will not affect patients.
Ambulance bosses say their decision to freeze the county's first responders
scheme for 4 months will not affect patients. They say the voluntary groups
will continue to run as normal while they carry out an extensive review, but
no new teams will be set up.
South Lakes MP Tim Farron has hit out at the decision to put the scheme
'on ice', saying it will affect emergency services in the area.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of North
West News & Star 23 November 2006 |
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Cumbria and Lancashire CATS contract goes to consultation.
A contract to allow healthcare company Netcare to provide clinical
assessment and treatment services (CATS) across
Cumbria and Lancashire has been delayed after local primary care trusts
decided to consult on some details. The decision comes following pressure
from Unison, which had been calling for a judicial review of the way Netcare
was chosen as preferred bidder for the £30m CATS contract by the Department
of Health's commercial directorate in July. The union said it had not been
subject to consultation by the region's five PCTs and NHS North West. Unison
decided against the move after lawyers for the DoH said that any such action
would fail on the grounds that public consultation was not obligatory as the
contract was procured nationally on behalf of the health secretary. But this
week Ian Cumming, North Lancashire PCT chief executive and lead for
independent sector commissioning across Cumbria and Lancashire, said the
PCTs had 'decided to take the opportunity to revisit [CATS procurement] and
are planning an engagement and consultation phase'. 'We will look again at
the actual activity level we require now from the CATS service 18 months on
from the original modelling, and we will be asking if the original
assumptions are still valid before we sign any contractual agreement with
anybody,' he added. The contract has been dogged by criticism from local
stakeholders after concerns were raised that awarding the contract to
Netcare would be anti-competitive as the company could refer patients to its
own Greater Manchester surgical centre. However, Mr Cumming said the
decision to offer the services to Netcare would not be part of the
consultation. In January, private providers were invited to bid for the work
to provide CATS in general surgery; musculoskeletal; ear, nose and throat;
gynaecology; and urology. If Netcare secures the contract it is set to
provide 222,000 procedures in outpatient, diagnostic and surgical services
in Carlisle, Preston, Fylde Coast, Ulverston, Pendle, Ormskirk and
Workington. Unison North West regional representative Tim Ellis said that
the union had 'grave concerns' about patients who would be 'left in the
lurch' if they were not referred through a CATS centre. 'What will happen to
the diagnostic scanners and the expertise of the NHS clinical teams who will
disappear ?' he asked. 'Who will act as the gatekeeper on where patients go
[for treatment] ? This will either fall to the NHS as the employers or to
Netcare itself,' he warned. Netcare director of operations Julia Eadie said
the company was not concerned about the delay. 'As far as we are concerned
it is all still going ahead,' she said.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 23 November 2006 |
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Legal challenge
to private triage. Public service union Unison is mounting a legal
challenge to a decision to set up a privately-run triage and treatment
service for NHS patients in
Cumbria and Lancashire. Unison wants a judicial review, as it claims
that the scheme would remove patient choice and destabilise acute hospitals
by removing their outpatient work. It says the DoH and the NHS North West
Strategic Health Authority have failed to consult before putting in place
plans for the 'capture, assess and treat service' (CATS), which it claims
would substantially change the way NHS services are provided in the area.
The DoH is now finalising the five-year contract with Netcare, its preferred
bidder. The SHA's solicitors, Addle-shaw Goddard, argue that the scheme
cannot be challenged because primary care trusts (PCTs) are not legally
obliged to use it. In a letter to Unison, the lawyers said: 'There will be
no binding legal obligation upon the PCTs to use [Netcare's] services. When
the contract is in place, it will be open for the PCTs, operating under the
auspices of the SHA, to make decisions how services should be provided.'
PCTs would consult, as they are legally obliged to do, before deciding which
services would be provided by Netcare, the lawyers added. Unison may argue
that PCTs will not, in practice, be able to refuse to use the CATs. A local
GP said the idea that a PCT could boycott the scheme was 'utterly
disingenuous', adding: 'The SHA and PCTs are under pressure from the DoH to
set up the scheme and use it.' DoH contract documents sent to potential
bidders said that more than 131,000 referrals to CATS are expected each
year. Hospital Doctor also understands that the DoH has agreed to guarantee
Netcare a level of income for part of the contract. The SHA's argument that
PCTs would consult before deciding whether to use the scheme also conflicts
with claims made by Janet Butterworth, assistant director of the SHA, in an
email to local medical committees on 23 October. She said: 'PCTs submitted
an invitation to negotiate which included a large proportion of referrals
going to CATS.' In an earlier email, she said that all ENT, urology and
general surgery patients would be referred through the scheme except certain
cancer patients. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hospital
Doctor 26 November 2006 |
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Unions join
forces to fight health cutbacks. Trade Unions in
Cumbria, including Unison and GMB, have joined forces to fight proposed
cutbacks in the area's acute and cottage hospitals, ambulance control and
mental health service. They are also concerned by the government's plans to
bring in private companies to perform NHS work. The unions, already working
together nationally under the banner NHS Together, have now decided to unite
at the local level starting with a Save Our Services march in Whitehaven on
the 9th December. The event is to protest against the potential loss of
services at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, including the
possible downgrading of the maternity ward to a mid-wife led birthing unit.
Further targeted marches are set to follow. Organising officer for the GMB
union, Kevin Young, said that Cumbria could be one of the worst hit by the
national NHS crisis and wants to make an impact through a combination of
public campaigns and formal negotiations with politicians and health
leaders. He said: "I would like to think they will listen to us and rethink
their plans but we know that is not usually the case." He was also
encouraged to see "that old fashioned solidarity coming back." Dave
Armstrong, full-time officer for Unison, agrees that the united unions will
pack more of a punch but added that something needs to be done because
"morale is going though the floor". The march takes place on Saturday
December 9th, leaving Whitehaven's Castle Park at 10am and ending with a
public address at West Strand. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of North
West News and Star 28 November 2006 |
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MP attacks
private health centre plan. A one-stop health centre planned for Preston
may threaten the future of NHS hospitals in the area, a
Lancashire MP has warned. The Capture, Assess, Treat and Support Centre
would be at the Preston Health Court development on the former Sharoe Green
Hospital site. The centre, funded by Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust,
will be a middle tier between GPs and hospitals, providing services such as
orthopaedics, general surgery and gynaecology. It will be run by private
company Netcare UK and, according to NHS North West, will see around 26,000
patients a year. But critics have blasted the idea, saying it will take
facilities and cash away from local hospitals and could lead to job cuts and
slashed services. Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle is urging the public to strongly
object to the idea. He said: "We have very good hospitals at Preston and
Chorley and I do not think we should put their quality and standard of
service at risk by taking work away from them and giving it to the private
sector. Private companies running these centres will not be doing it for the
benefit of patients, they will be doing it for profit. I hope people object
to these plans." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Lancashire
Evening Post 30 November 2006 |
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Health scheme
fear 'groundless'. Attempts to block a controversial private health
scheme which hospital bosses warn could damage NHS services are
"ground-less", Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has said. She said a union
would not be able to stop a plan she put in place to have a private
healthcare firm treat East
Lancashire patients using taxpayers' money. Hospital bosses in East
Lancashire have warned the scheme could see their services collapse as
patients, and the money for their procedure, would go elsewhere. But the
Government has insisted the Capture, Assess, Treat and Support Services (CATs)
deal for simple procedures and tests would drive down waiting lists and
allow hospitals to focus on more complex work. Healthcare union Unison
formally opposed the plans - worth £2.5 billion nationally - and said the
Government had not consulted the public and local bosses. But Mrs Hewitt
said she had the authority to give preferred bidder status to South African
firm Netcare and had "no duty of consultation" to the public and local
hospital chiefs. The solicitors' letter, on behalf of her and regional
authority NHS North West, said: "Your clients' complaints that there has
been a failure of statutory consultation in respect of the proposals to
introduce CATs services. . . and in particular regarding the decision to
award preferred bidder status to Netcare UK Limited are groundless and the
forms of relief which your clients seek are unwarranted." But she said
bosses at East Lancashire's Primary Care Trusts - which decide what health
services should be available - would still have the choice not to use the
services. It said: "There will be no binding legal obligation upon the PCTs
to use such services. "When the contract is in place, it will be open for
the PCTs. . . to make decisions how services should be provided in their
areas". But it said the PCTs should "take into account the availability to
them of services offered by Netcare". Unison spokesman Tim Ellis said it was
highly unlikely the PCT would not use the firm once the deal was in place.
He said: "The NHS has massively improved its waiting times in the last two
years. The proposal to remove funding from NHS trusts endangers this
achievement." This month The Lancashire Telegraph revealed bosses were
worried the move could take work away from cash-strapped East Lancashire
Hospitals NHS Trust. An internal trust report said: "We believe that the
proposals as they stand may well present risks to the sustainability of some
hospital services." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Lancashire Telegraph 30 November 2006 |
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Maternity
fighters hand over petition. A 10,000-name petition against axing
maternity services in west
Cumbria has been handed in to the House of Commons. Downgrading the
obstetric ward at West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven is one of the
options being looked at in reviews of services across the county, however MP
Jamie Reed hopes the number of signatures will make clear that it is not an
option. "The Government's policy is to support birth choices for women and
the women of west Cumbria have expressed their birth choice very clearly.
They want a fully functioning obstetrician and gynaecologist-led maternity
unit at the West Cumberland Hospital, and so do I," he said. There are also
concerns in the area that a new building for west Cumbria health services
will not maintain all the services of the current site. Marie Burnham, chief
executive of the North Cumbria Acute Hospitals Trust which runs the West
Cumberland said that any concern is premature because the plans are still
being drawn up as part of a wider review of services in the area. However
Rev John Bannister, who gave a public address at the 4,000 person march last
Saturday, has said an eye has to be kept on the review and has started
gathering political, faith and voluntary leaders to scrutinise it. Ms
Burnham welcomed the move saying that "we share some of the concerns given
the changing face of the NHS" but pointed out that a survey in 2004 had
shown that 61% of the area's residents wanted a new hospital in the west.
Rev Bannister has expressed his doubts about this survey and whether current
suggestions are the only way forward. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of North
West News & Star 15 December 2006 |
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Save Our NHS.
People United Saving Hospitals, the campaign started by
Nuneaton woman, Vanessa Casey, held a torchlit protest in the town last
night. Chanting "no ifs no buts, no hospital cuts", the protesters marched
from the Griff and Coton Social Club in Heath End Road to Nuneaton Town Hall
to protest against proposed cuts to services at George Elliot Hospital.
Under the plans, Nuneaton will lose its baby care unit and some children's
services. Emergency out-of-hours operations will also be transferred to
University Hospital in Walsgrave. Miss Casey, of Bucks Hill, said: "We need
to keep our maternity, the special care baby unit and children's services at
the hospital. I feel that years ago people fought for the things we've got
and today if we don't fight for things at the hospital what are our children
and grandchildren going to have ?"
The rally was one of many held nationally in places such as
Kendal,
Chichester,
Hinckley, Coventry and Redditch to form a united front. In
London, marches
sang carols at the gates of the Department of Health.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Coventry Evening Telegraph 19 December 2006 |
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Business primed
to expand GP role. BBC News has learnt that the government will soon
extend proposals to get businesses to run GP surgeries in areas which have
struggled to recruit doctors. An initial scheme has had only limited success
- but ministers are planning a wave of advertisements next year in an effort
to attract big companies and smaller organisations to fill gaps in 30 parts
of England which are short of family doctors. The government says the scheme
will help tackle health inequalities and strike a good deal for the NHS -
but some campaigners disagree. Campaigners in the quiet
Liverpool suburb of Maghull are fighting a low-budget but determined
battle against plans for a new GP surgery in the area, which would be run by
a company. Some local people are suspicious about the move - including Peter
Crowder, a retired psychiatric nurse and chairman of the campaign group. "We
want the opportunity to have a fair say. From our point of view, that means
stopping the negotiations that are going on with a particular private
company and going back to the public. Give us our voice and let us have our
say." GPs have in effect always been independent operators - but Peter
Crowder says that's very different to companies who may be answerable to
shareholders. He said: "We accept our GPs as part and parcel of our local
area so they're more than just a faceless entity. They have an investment in
this area and they re-invest in this area." Leigh Griffin, who runs Sefton
Primary Care Trust, said: "What's happened is that from an open tendering
process, the Department of Health has identified a preferred provider and
almost married us up with them, and we are talking to them." He would not
confirm if that provider is Care UK. When challenged that not being able to
confirm who the PCT was dealing with at this stage was bound to fuel a
feeling of discontent among the local campaigners, Griffin said: "I've got a
lot of sympathy with those concerns." The Merseyside scheme is part of a
wider programme launched by the government last year, to boost coverage in
areas short of doctors. It's led to two new surgeries in north and east
London signing
up fifteen hundred patients. But the programme has run into problems in
other areas. In
Plymouth and in
Accrington, NHS managers decided none of the bids to run a new service
was affordable. And in
Bradford,
an NHS board decided recently it was ending its participation in the scheme
- again because the bidders' proposals cost too much. But the government
says it is determined that the gaps in these and other areas will be filled,
and so new advertisements will be placed for 30 areas next year. A
Department of Health spokesman said: "The schemes will be advertised in
tranches with advertisements placed in the local and national media. Taking
forward the programme in a series of local procurements should help ensure a
level playing field for big companies, smaller organisations and social
enterprises. PCTs in under-doctored areas deciding not to take part in the
national programme will be expected to take forward their own local
procurements." And with ministers demanding that other GP surgeries, not
just those in under-served areas, open up to different providers, we can
expect to see more of these schemes in the future. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 20 December 2006 |
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Top docs slam private clinics plan. A group of top consultants has
condemned government plans to bring in privately-run clinics to ease local
waiting lists. The four ear, nose and throat surgeons say the proposals will
disrupt existing services and have dire consequences for patients across the
area. The Capture, Assess, Treat and Support (CATS) centres proposed for
Workington and Carlisle would perform routine operations, diagnostic
tests and aftercare. But they have been met with strong opposition from NHS
staff, who fear it will affect quality of care and put their services and
jobs at risk. A petition opposing the centres has been launched and now the
four surgeons have added their combined weight to the campaign. The letter
to Mike Farrar, chief executive of the North West Strategic Health
Authority, is signed by Nick Murrant, Donald Clark, Richard Hogg and Andrew
Robson, who together conduct ear, nose and throat (ENT) procedures at the
West Cumberland Hospital and Cumberland Infirmary. One of their main worries
is how far the contracting process has gone - with South African firm
Netcare already named as the preferred operator - without any discussion
with local clinicians. In the letter they state: "The matter was effectively
raised with us surgeons, whose combined consultant experience totals over 40
years, only once a fait accompli. This is an outrageous omission from the
perspective of our patients and the general public." They say the new
clinics will give poor value for taxpayers' money and add an unnecessary
tier, which will result in "wide-reaching, probably irreversible erosion of
high quality, consultant-led care." They claim that similar centres
elsewhere in the UK are already recruiting junior doctors to run these
services. The consultants go on to list nine specific concerns about the
impact of creating NHS-funded, privately-run clinics in north Cumbria and
demand an urgent response. These concerns include the financial impact on
the existing acute trust, potentially resulting in closure of units, the
lack of public consultation and the impact it will have on staff training.
However they are most worried that staff at the new clinics will not have
the high standard of training expected, affecting the quality of care. They
say: "It appears that care may be delivered by doctors with either no UK
training or by a GP who has undergone a few hours training a week over 12
months. "Do you understand our frustration that the patient population,
which is being sold a relentless 'choice' mantra, is in reality having the
most fundamental choice - that of consulting with a fully accredited,
audited, appraised and reputable NHS consultant surgeon - taken away
?" Ultimately the surgeons stress that there is no need for the
private clinics in this area, as they are already on course to meet the new
18-week waiting target by December 2008. In fact, they say that in 2002 a
fourth ENT consultant was appointed in north Cumbria to help do just that.
The implementation of the CATS centres - at Workington Community Hospital
and an unknown site in Carlisle - was due to get underway next month.
However, this has now been postponed following threats from health unions of
a judicial review. After receiving a copy of the consultants' letter, David
Maclean, MP for Penrith and the Border, has publicly backed their campaign.
He has also written to Mr Farrar calling for essential information about the
proposed centres and demanding full consultation before they progress any
further. Labour MPs Tony Cunningham, Eric Martlew and Jamie Reed have also
expressed their concerns and have written to health secretary Patricia
Hewitt.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Cumbria
Times & Star 8 January 2007 |
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5 |
The MP, the health secretary, and an unresolved
conflict. Campaign over A&E highlights discrepancy. Hewitt
said to see protests as legitimate response. Throughout last year, Kitty
Ussher, an up and coming Labour MP, fought a high profile campaign to save
the accident and emergency department at the NHS hospital in her
Burnley constituency. It was slated for closure and there were fears
among the townspeople that lives could be lost if they had to be taken in an
emergency to the hospital in Blackburn. In June, Ms Ussher led local
protesters on a delegation to London to plead their case with Patricia
Hewitt, the health secretary. It may not have been too difficult for the
35-year-old MP to gain access to the minister. For three years, while Ms
Hewitt was trade and industry secretary, Ms Ussher was her special adviser.
Before the protesters' bus headed back to Burnley, Ms Hewitt said their
presentation had been "amazing". But any decision to open or close a
hospital unit is made by local trusts and health authorities. There was
nothing Ms Hewitt could do to help her colleague, whose 5,778 parliamentary
majority at the last election was not impregnable against the passions
roused by loss of cherished NHS facilities. The health secretary could only
intervene if local authorities backed a formal complaint. In this case, that
required the support of a scrutiny committee of councillors from Lancashire
county council and Blackburn with Darwen borough council. If Burnley won the
case to keep its A&E, the chances were that Blackburn's rival department
would have to close. Since there was no appeal, Ms Hewitt did not have a say
in the matter. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Saturday January 13, 2007 Guardian |
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NHS privatisation plan slammed. Proposals to privatise outpatient
services have been slammed by health staff and unions. Plans have been
outlined for new independent treatment centres which are designed to provide
community based assessment, diagnostic, treatment and support services for
patients. A Clinical Assessment Treat and Support (CATS) centre, is planned
for the Preston health court development at the former Sharoe Green Hospital
site. CATS will be paid for by the NHS, but will be provided by the private
sector and the centres will be run by Netcare UK. hospital unions have
criticised the proposals and say it will mean that all initial assessments
for general surgery, rheumatology, ENT, gynaecology and orthopaedics will be
outsourced to Netcare who will profit from the NHS. Tim Ellis, regional
officer for health union Unison, said: "If introduced, they will cause
reductions, and in some cases, closure of outpatient services across
Cumbria & Lancashire."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Lancashire
Evening Post 19 January 2007 |
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Private clinics threat to new hospital bid. Plans to build a new
hospital in west
Cumbria will be threatened by the proposed introduction of privately-run
treatment centres, it is claimed. The controversial CATS centres, which aim
to reduce waiting lists, are currently planned for Workington, Carlisle and
Ulverston. But it is feared the centres will pose a major threat to existing
services, jobs and future investment projects - such as the new hospital.
Patient representatives in the county have used predicted case numbers to
estimate the potential costs of the service - around £35m. They have now
launched a joint campaign against the plans, which went out to public
consultation on Monday. In a letter to Tony Blair and Health Secretary
Patricia Hewitt, the chairs of the individual panels set out their fears.
They include serious fears that the private clinics will take money away
from NHS hospitals and put further strain on finances. The CATS (Clinical
Support, Treatment and Support) centres stem from government plans to bring
in private healthcare companies. They would perform diagnostic tests and
routine treatment. But local patient groups, union officials and consultants
argue that such centres are not needed in Cumbria. They say the area's
existing NHS hospitals are already on target to meet the new 18-week waiting
target by 2008. The patient representatives say that new government funding
criteria - where hospitals are paid for actual patients treated, rather than
predicted workloads - means any downturn will drastically impact on
finances. As a result, they fear competition from the private sector will
have a huge impact, closing existing outpatient clinics, leaving other
services unsustainable and threatening future developments. Cumbrian union
officials fear CATS will put NHS jobs at risk and have launched a petition
opposing the plans. Meanwhile, several top consultants have expressed
concerns about the quality of care that will be provided. Bosses say they
need to find a way of introducing clinics that will compliment the county's
existing health service, not jeapordise it.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of North
West News & Star 19 January 2007 |
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5 |
Maternity
transfers would cost lives, MP Jamie tells Commons. Downgrading
maternity services could dramatically cut ambulance response times and
ultimately put lives at risk, an MP has claimed.
Copeland's Jamie Reed believes time spent transferring mothers from
Whitehaven to Carlisle will leave gaps in ambulance coverage for other
emergencies. His comments, in the House of Commons, add a new twist to the
debate surrounding maternity care. Downgrading the obstetric ward at
Whitehaven's West Cumberland Hospital is one of the options currently being
looked at by health chiefs. If agreed, all specialists will be moved to
Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary and a dedicated midwife-led birthing unit,
similar to the one in Penrith, would replace it. This option would result in
west Cumbrian mums having to travel many miles to Carlisle, during labour,
if they needed a consultant. The alternative is to maintain maternity and
obstetric units at both of the hospitals, though each would require major
modernisation. Jamie Reed, MP, believes about 1,000 births at Whitehaven
need some kind of consultant intervention. He argues that, if this were the
norm, 1,000 ambulance trips could have to travel the 42 mile distance
between the two sites every year. Mr Reed believes any downgrading of
services would go against the government's new choice policy, as he does not
believe many mums would choose to give birth without consultant support. He
added that although merging the maternity units would not be down to cost,
extra cost would be incurred as additional ambulances would be needed. Mr
Reed does not believe the difference in numbers of births at the two sites
justifies the need for centralisation. Last month a 10,000-strong petition
was handed to the government demanding it retain a consultant-led maternity
service in Whitehaven.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of North
West News & Star 22 January 2007 |
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Blair warned over CATS plan. Tony Blair has been told by patient
groups that they fear for West
Cumbria's NHS services if a controversial private treatment clinic is
established at Workington's Community Hospital. A statement warning of the
threat to local health care has been sent to Mr Blair and health secretary
Patricia Hewitt by the county's Patient Panels which represent the public.
They claim that proposed Capture, Assess, Treat and Support Centres (CATS)
at Workington and Carlisle would jeopardise a new hospital for West Cumbria
and will 'most certainly' affect its ability to deliver emergency care.
Opposition from the patient watchdog group comes after fears about the
impact of the proposed private clinic were voiced by nursing staff and
senior consultants. Workington MP Tony Cunningham is demanding that the
town's minor injuries unit must not close as a result. The Patient Panels'
letter to Mr Blair, MPs, council leaders and health chiefs states: "We
believe the consequences of introducing CATS Centres in Cumbria will have a
devastating impact on the ability of our local NHS to provide effective
acute secondary healthcare to our population, given that the baseline income
for North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust will be severely eroded." South
African firm Netcare is the preferred bidder to run the centres. But a group
of ear, nose and throat consultants have added their weight to a petition
opposing the plan. The Patient Panels, comprised of 54 former and current
patients of the West Cumberland Hospital and Cumberland Infirmary, attacks
lack of public consultation and says that if the CATS centres treat their
anticipated number of patients then £35 million could be removed over three
years from local NHS acute secondary care services. They add: "Regardless of
the numbers of patients they would treat, CATS centres would receive £25
million they have been guaranteed centrally from the NHS. "We believe this
could be invested better in the NHS locally." By removing money from the
NHS, hospital services such as accident and emergency could be put in
jeopardy and the building of West Cumbria's proposed new hospital could be
at risk. The Patient Panels say they are concerned about the quality of care
that will be given to patients referred to the CATS centres. They claim the
doctors who run them will not be trained to the standard of specialist
registrars or consultants which could lead to over-testing of patients and
to inappropriate surgery. The letter says: "Care would be delivered for
reasons of expediency rather than with the aim of meeting overall clinical
need and improvement to the quality of life. A 'quick fix' does not deliver
patient-focused care as demanded by National Service Frameworks. It is our
strongly-held opinion that CATS centres in Cumbria will destabilise our
local NHS Trust health care provision and disrupt services to the whole
community . . . they will introduce an unnecessary tier into an otherwise
exemplary NHS service and will represent poor value for taxpayers' money in
terms of patient care." Primary Care Trusts have meanwhile launched an
eight-week consultation which ends on March 9 following a series of public
meetings in Keswick, Workington and Whitehaven.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Workington
Times & Star 22 January 2007 |
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Doctors angry at plan to assess patients at private clinics. GPs will
lose the right to refer NHS patients for assessment at a hospital outpatient
clinic under plans that were condemned by the British Medical Association
yesterday as a step too far in the creeping privatisation of the health
service. The BMA drew attention to proposals designed to cut hospital
waiting lists by creating a network of private centres under contract to the
government that would assess and test patients before they are allowed to
get treatment as hospital outpatients. The private medical chain Netcare
will set up 10 centres in
Cumbria and Lancashire, where the company expects to be able to deal
with 60% of patients without needing to send them for an assessment by an
NHS consultant. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Tuesday January 23, 2007 The Guardian |
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Private centres 'a threat to NHS'. A new wave of privately run
'clinical assessment treat and support' centres (CATS) could worsen the NHS
financial crisis and threaten jobs, the BMA is warning. It also believes the
planned centres in
Cumbria and Lancashire could lead to damaging conflicts of interest. The
provider, Netcare, already runs a surgical treatment centre in
Manchester and is a preferred bidder for an integrated assessment and
treatment centre in the city. Under the plans for a network of 10 CATS in
the north west, 60 per cent of GP referrals would be triaged by the centres
rather than hospital consultants. Dr Hamish Meldrum, GPC chair, said the
centres could have a huge impact on the on the availability of services and
on patients' relationships with their doctors. He said: 'The Government's
NHS reforms are supposed to be all about patient choice, but under these
plans, it seems a private company would get to pick and choose between
patients, rather than the other way round.' Dr Jonathan Fielden, chair of
the BMA's consultants committee, said the long-term implications of allowing
private firms to take work and staff away from the NHS had not been thought
through. He added: 'It would fundamentally threaten the safe continuity of
patient care provided by GP-to-consultant referral.' The centres are due to
open in March and will handle GP referrals to ENT, orthopaedics,
rheumatology and general surgery.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Pulse
25 January 2007 |
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Top docs in revolt over privatisation. East
Lancashire's four | |