|
The summary articles in the table below related to the strategic health
authority area are copied from the following pages, indicated in the table by
key numbers.
-
Charges
-
Construction projects
-
Resource shortfall Sources
-
Treatment approval or not
- Withdrawal of Local Facilities -
Sources
Other
| 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Summary articles |
| |
|
|
|
|
Boy's operation death linked to safety failures. Inquest told staff
unaware of advice to check equipment. James Meikle, health correspondent
Tuesday May 20, 2003 The Guardian [Chelmsford] |
| |
|
|
|
|
An ambulance trust and private healthcare company today unveiled a landmark
joint venture to provide out-of-hours care. Care UK, the main private sector
provider of health and social care services, will take on non-emergency calls
from the Essex ambulance service NHS trust. It is estimated that the service,
which covers around a fifth of Essex, could eventually cut the number of
unnecessary ambulance call-outs by more than half. If the two-year scheme is
successful it could be expanded to other parts of the country.
Monday November 22, 2004 |
| |
|
|
|
|
More than 6,000 women who underwent breast cancer screening or follow-up
assessments over a two-year period are having their records checked after the
discovery of "inconsistencies" at a hospital in Essex. So far only seven women
have been recalled for further checks, three of whom have been found to have
breast cancer after they thought they were clear of the disease. They were
among 121 women who underwent biopsies for tissue examination after their
scans indicated the need for further assessment. James Meikle, health
correspondent
Thursday
May 5, 2005 The Guardian |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
GP's fury at
minor injuries service cut. Essex GP Dr Philip Woodcock has hit out at the
decision of Colchester PCT to restrict GPs from performing minor operations on
cysts and lumps and from administering pain-relief injections. The PCT has
imposed the restrictions, which mean patients will have to see a salaried
doctor at Colchester General Hospital for the treatments, in a bid to cut it's
deficit, with the implication that GPs were carrying out unnecessary
procedures. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Anglian Daily Times 13 February 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
PCT fury over
lost millions as PbR compensation withdrawn. Primary care trusts are
furious after learning that compensation for those that will see costs rise
under payment by results is to be halved next year, before abolition in 2008.
The change in policy, announced just two months before the new financial year,
will leave black holes in their finances. Coventry PCT will be hit hardest
with a £16.2m funding gap, and Huntingdonshire will be left with a £14.9m
shortfall. PCTs in West Midlands South strategic health authority area will
face a £53.1m gap, PCTs across Essex SHA will have to deal with a cut of £48m,
and the four Birmingham PCTs are set to lose £20m. Norfolk, Suffok and
Cambridgeshire SHA said its PCTs face a loss of £39m. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 16 February 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
PCT's minor
surgery pull-out sparks fury. GPs are furious after Colchester PCT
announced it would move some minor surgery work to a local acute hospital
rather than pay local practices to do it, warning that more PCTs would follow
suit as they ran out of money towards the end of the financial year,
regardless of the Government's drive to move such services into the community.
Essex LMC is investigating whether Colchester PCT is in breach of contract, as
practices were doing the work under directed enhanced service (DES) nationally
agreed terms.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Doctor Update 23 February 2006 |
| 1 |
|
|
|
|
Hospital car
parks make millions. Hospitals in England are each charging their
patients up to £1.5m a year for car parking. Twelve hospital trusts each
raised over £1m in charges, figures obtained by the BBC from the Department
of Health under the Freedom of Information Act show. University Hospital
Birmingham, raised £1.5 million from car parking charges in 2004-5;
Cambridge University NHS Foundation Trust raised more than £1m;
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
raised just over £1m; Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust raised more than
£1.2m. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online
28 March 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Hospital
announces 200 job cuts. Staff at St Richard's Hospital in
Chichester were
told on Wednesday that 10% of the workforce - or 200 jobs - would go over
the next three years. The Royal West
Sussex NHS Trust said it would try to keep redundancies to a minimum but
some may be necessary. The trust has overspent by a total of £40m and had a
£14m deficit last year. The St Richard's cuts are the latest to affect
hospitals in the South East, where more than 1,000 job losses have been
announced in the last two months. Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust,
which manages Crawley Hospital and East Surrey Hospital, has said 400 jobs
will go; East Sussex NHS Hospitals Trust, which runs the Conquest Hospital
in Hastings and Eastbourne District General, has axed up to 250 jobs; Up to
160 jobs are to go at the
Medway
Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent; Brighton and Sussex University
Hospitals NHS Trust plans to lose 325 jobs; East Kent Hospitals Trust warned
of possible cuts to claw back a £35m deficit.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 4 May 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Mental health
trusts get new status. The first three
mental health
foundation trusts
have been launched following authorisation from regulator Monitor. From May
1, Oxleas Foundation Trust, South
Essex Partnership Foundation Trust and
South
Staffordshire Healthcare Foundation Trust joined 32 acute foundations.
The authorisation came a month late because of the complications surrounding
the payments by results tariff.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Public Finance 5 May 2006 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
'Start small'
says primary care boss. PCTs should "start small" and begin sharing
information quickly in order to introduce
practice-based commissioning by the government's December deadline,
according to Gary Belfield, the DoH's top primary care official has said.
Meanwhile Patricia Hewitt urged practices and new providers to examine a
partly privately funded primary and community service provider in Harlow as
a possible best-practice model for how to attract extra funding in primary
care. Harlow Health Centres Trust has some
capital investment from
insurance companies. Hewitt said the model appeared "less bureaucratic than
LIFT" and showed that not everything had to be paid for using "public
money". HHCT owns and manages seven health centres in
Harlow,
originally opened in the 1950s. The organisation became a limited company in
1997, and a charity in 1998.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 18 May 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
ISTC chaos
ignored. The Government is ignoring local concerns over the national ISTC
programme as evidence emerges of more schemes being scrapped or put on hold. At
least eight of 24 schemes in the £2.5bn wave two ISTC procurement have now been
dropped and another put on hold after commissioners said they were not needed.
But the DoH is not only insisting that
Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge SHA spends £38m on a elective surgical ISTC,
it has also rejected its proposals for case-mix of patients treated there. A
recent report by Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire PCTs said the DoH had
"modelled that we need this capacity" without factoring new NHS capacity into
the model. It said "there will be high risk to local providers because the aim
is for the [ISTC] to fill up first". The PCTs are also under pressure to buy
more scans under the national diagnostics procurement. Most of the commissioned
scans would substitute for work done in the NHS rather than supplement it, the
report says. Essex SHA
has been ordered to spend £45m on independent sector schemes, despite the
collapse of two ISTC projects in 2005. A paper presented to Colchester PCT's
board in January said the SHA had "identified a number of concerns" with this
but the scheme was going ahead anyway. A surgical scheme for
Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland SHA has been halted. The SHA
said that a PFI project to upgrade
three hospitals and an ISTC could lead to over-capacity. The SHA is negotiating
to leave the national private diagnostics procurement. The DoH has allowed the
scrapping of a surgical ISTC in
York, which already has a surgical treatment centre, at Clifton Park.
Birmingham City Hospital's ISTC had been dropped and it has been reported
elsewhere that a further six schemes have been abandoned. These are:
County Durham & Tees Valley,
South
Yorkshire (both cardiology and general surgery),
South
West Peninsula, and
West
Yorkshire (both plastics and multi-specialty centres). Dr Paul Miller,
chairman of the BMA's seniors' committee, said: "There's clear evidence that
wave one schemes are surplus to requirements - spare capacity is being hawked
around like soft fruit at the end of market day. Rather than imposing wave two
schemes where they are not wanted the DoH should stop now. It should not sign
another contract before it has reviewed the whole policy."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Hospital Doctor 8 June 2006 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
NHS Trust scraps
'one roof' plan. A £167m project designed to transform the provision of
healthcare in North Essex has been scrapped.
Essex Rivers
Health Care Trust had already spent £3m on a private finance initiative to
centralise its services at Colchester by 2009. Services would have been
moved to Colchester General Hospital, and Essex County Hospital would have
closed. Health bosses now say the plan is at odds with government white
papers which call for healthcare in the community. A spokesman for Essex
Rivers Health Care Trust told BBC news that of the £3m already spent £2.4m
had come from the Department of Health. Another £600,000 had come from the
trust itself.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 14 June 2006 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
£7m claim after
PFI deal scrapped. Developers involved in a failed £167m PFI deal to
centralise health services in Colchester are trying to claw back millions of
pounds. Essex
Rivers Health Care Trust said last week that its private finance initiative
to move services to Colchester General Hospital and close Essex County
Hospital had been scrapped. The private sector developer AMEC is calling for
£7m in compensation for the costs of preparing the project. The Department
of Health that at least part of that bill should be paid. When the PFI deal
was scrapped, the trust said it had already spent £3m on the scheme to
centralise its services at Colchester by 2009.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 21 June 2006 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
New hospital
plans "needed quickly". Health chiefs must come up with plans to replace
a failed £167m project in Essex, a Public and Patient Involvement forum has
warned. The PFI project in Colchester in
Essex has been
scrapped and Essex Rivers Health Care Trust has begun looking at more
affordable options. However the local Patient and Public Involvement forum
has expressed its "dismay" at the plans and stressed the need to move
quickly to ensure that some of the key proposals, such as an emergency care
unit and dedicated cancer centre, are still implemented in another form. The
group blamed a government shift away from district hospitals for the
collapse.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Anglian Daily Times 27 June 2006 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Trust faces bill
for dropped PFI deal. A £167m
scheme to centralise a hospital trust's services on one site has been
dropped at a likely cost of £10m.
Essex Rivers
Healthcare trust made because the decision because the opening of a new
independent
treatment centre would have made it unaffordable and because the plans
did not align with the government's desire to move more services into the
community. Now the private finance initiative partners want as much as £10m
in recompense for the costs they have incurred on the project. It is thought
likely that the DoH will agree to meet at least some of the company's costs,
to calm the commercial sector's nerves over the future of PFI. Chief
executive of Essex Rivers Healthcare, Peter Murphy, said four factors had
influenced the decision: the white paper on care outside hospitals; payment
by results; plans for an independent treatment centre in Essex which is
expected to take 20% of the trust's elective income - £7.8m in 2008-09; a
strategy for patients with chronic conditions to visit hospital less. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal 6 July 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Loan sparks
fear of NHS queues. Patients in south
Essex may face
longer waiting times and fewer services as the NHS is forced to hand over
millions of pounds to bail out debt-ridden health departments in other
counties. The East of England Strategic Health Authority is demanding an
unspecified amount as a loan from the South West Essex Primary Care Trust.
The money, which could run into millions, will be used to balance the books
of ailing PCTs in Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and
Bedfordshire. Basildon PCT has already forked out £6.1million to help the
areas which are in the red. Now there are fears the extra loan could impact
on patient services, increase waiting times and affect staff morale.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Essex
Echo 3 August 2006 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Southeast Essex
LIFT partner announced. The private partner in a multi-million-pound
scheme to fund and build a range of primary care centres across south east
Essex has been
announced. The preferred provider is gbPrimaryCare, which will be working
with Southend Primary Care Trust and Castle Point and Rochford PCT, plus
other local health and social care providers to fund and develop up to 11
health and social care buildings across the region. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of thePFI.net 15
August 2006 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Hospital projects
to receive Autumn announcement. 11 NHS hospital projects, which are
currently under review, will receive a decision in the autumn. They are:
Hillingdon Hospital redevelopment - £271m;
Leeds
Maternity and Childrens Hospital scheme - £204m; North
Bristol and South Gloucestershire scheme - £310m; North
Mersey Future Healthcare Project - £1bn;
Northwick Park
and St Marks redevelopment - £305m;
Papworth Hospital NHS Trust redevelopment - £148m; Royal National
Orthopaedic Hospital Stanmore scheme - £121m;
Sandwell and West Birmingham Acute Trust - £591m;
Southend
Hospital redevelopment - £100m;
Taunton Surgical Centre - £75m;
Watford and Hatfield Hospitals redevelopment - £880m.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of PFI.net 31
August 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
100 more
hospital posts at risk. More than 100 jobs could be cut at two hospitals
in Essex to help
meet a £14m budget deficit. Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, which
runs Broomfield Hospital and St John's Hospital in Chelmsford, has already
cut 150 posts to make savings. On Wednesday the trust said it had now saved
£7m but still needed to make a further £7m in cuts this year. This is about
£2.5m more than was predicted at the beginning of the year.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 31 August 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
MP's anger at
hospital ward closure. An MP has branded the decision to close a ward in
an Essex
hospital "absolutely appalling." Clacton Hospital said it will be closing
the 19-bed ward next month. But Douglas Carswell MP, who represents Harwich
and Clacton, insisted yesterday that the closure is part of cost cutting and
a sign of a lack of money. He said: "It's absolutely appalling. What they're
avoiding saying is that they don't have enough money. They should be open
about it. It is a cause of great concern to a lot of local people. They
ought to be taking on more staff, not getting rid of more patients." The
closure of the Percy Coleman Ward on October 2 will reduce the amount of
beds available at the hospital from 97 to 78.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Anglian Daily Times 8 September 2006 |
| 1 |
|
|
|
|
Hospital's
multi-storey car park plan. A multi-storey car park could be built to
ease notorious parking problems at
Southend
Hospital. Plans are being drawn up for a three-storey building with 400
staff spaces and 300 for patients and visitors. Hospital officials say
profits from charging visitors - and possibly staff - would fund measures to
persuade people to abandon their cars for greener modes of transport. It
would be built in partnership with a private firm. The hospital has
provisionally put aside more than £1million over the next two years, with
the expectation of recouping £1.5million in the two years following that.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of South
Essex News 8 September 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Hospital to slash 250 jobs. Tony Blair has been accused of talking "a
load of rubbish" by an MP after it was announced 250 jobs would be lost at a
mid-Essex
hospital. On the day that Blair predicted only a few hundred compulsory
redundancies country-wide in the health service this year, staff at
Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford were called into briefings where job cuts
were finally confirmed. The cash-strapped hospital has been trying to save
£14m this financial year and its 3,000 staff have already been encouraged to
cut down on photo-copying and remember to switch off lights. The hospital
has managed to save £10m but is now seeking to make up the remaining £4m
with the loss of 250 jobs. Staff have been now invited to volunteer for
redundancy. The hospital is reviewing its administration, clerical, human
resources, estates and facilities and IT departments with the possibility of
reducing staffing. West Chelmsford MP Simon Burns said: "Tony Blair is
talking a load of rubbish. You only have to look over the last eight weeks
at the job losses in West Suffolk and Ipswich that those losses together
with Chelmsford amount to more than the job losses Blair spoke of. It is an
insult that on the day that Mid Essex Hospital Trust announce 250 job losses
for the Prime Minister to claim that the total job losses in the NHS
throughout the country will be a few hundred. That is quite clearly spin and
it is not based on a scintilla of factual evidence." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Anglian Daily Times 19 October 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Anger over
GP decision.
A decision to stop local doctors from providing patient care at a newly built
hospital in an Essex town has been branded "horrendous". GPs from three
surgeries in Harwich have provided "in hours" care for their patients at the
town's hospitals for 50 years. But the recently formed North East Essex Primary
Care Trust (PCT) has told them their services would no longer be required. To
save money the service will now be provided by Primecare, a company the NHS uses
to provide care for patients at weekends and during the night in Tendring. The
company will take full control of patient care at the new £12m Fryatt Hospital
and Mayflower Medical Centre. Dr Richard Alldrick, a GP who has worked in a
practice in the town for 23 years, is among those to be hit by the changes. He
said: "The new PCT has just taken a unilateral decision that is going to
severely affect the people of Harwich and Dovercourt. The trouble is that this
is a Government driven issue that we can't do anything about. What will be lost
is the personal service that the people of Harwich and Dovercourt have had for
50 years. Our input into the hospital will actually now be nil." The new
hospital has been beset by problems, even before opening its doors. Earlier this
month the site was still not fully operational and services, including the minor
injuries unit, were left unused as workers were sent to Colchester to cover
staff shortages. Questions still remain about the unopened operating theatre and
X-ray department while there are fears about the future of the maternity unit.
Matt Bushell, director of strategic development and commissioning for North East
Essex PCT, said all
areas of current expenditure were under review. He said the PCT was responsible
for delivering "appropriate, continuing and effective" care to the local
population but also for getting best value from its funding allocations. The new
service arrangements in Harwich will be fully reviewed during the pilot period
and a tender will then be issued setting out "specification of need" for future
requirements, which local GPs will be able to bid for.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Anglian Daily Times 24 November 2006 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Health centre
project in jeopardy. Campaigners voiced their concern last night after
it emerged a long-awaited healthcare centre may never be built. Thousands of
patients in Great Clacton and Holland on Sea had been told their doctors'
surgeries were like something "out of the dark ages" and would be replaced
by a multi-million pound facility. But the recent merger of Tendring into
the new North East
Essex PCT cast doubts about whether the funding would still be
available. And residents' fears were confirmed last night when bosses
confirmed the proposed health centre was now under scrutiny. The news came
as a blow to campaigners, who had initially fought against the closure of
their out-dated surgeries. Hugh Morrison, chairman of Residents Action Group
(RAG), said people felt let-down because the old Tendring PCT had balanced
books when it was merged. He said: "Where do we go from here
? We were told we would be having a new health centre and, because of
that, the surgeries have been put on hold. If it does not go ahead, would
the PCT then be prepared to update the surgeries
? It is all up in the air.'' Four GP practices in Holland on Sea and
Great Clacton were due to make way for the new facility. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Anglian Daily Times 1 December 2006 |
| 1 |
|
|
|
|
Nurse anger over
parking fee hike. Nurses at an
Essex hospital
have reacted angrily after health bosses announced plans to hike up staff
parking fees by more than 400 % to help pay off NHS debts. Charges for
employees wanting to park their cars at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford
are set to rise from the current £3.33 per month to £16.67 a month from
February next year. Colin Rolfe, who represents trade unions and
professional organisations at the trust, said he felt hard-working and
already pressurised hospital staff were being punished for the inability of
the trust to manage its own finances properly. Mid Essex Hospital Services
NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, recently announced it was to shed as
many as 250 jobs in an effort to pay back a £14m deficit. In an email sent
to staff this week it announced that in order to generate additional money
to help pay its debts it was going to increase staff car parking fees by
five times. Patient and visitor parking fees would also be increased, it
added. "The extra income generated from the increases, after paying for the
upkeep of the car parks, will go straight back into the trust's overall
budget. If you work more than 20 hours per week the change will increase to
£16.67 a month. If you work 20 hours or less, the charge will be £8.33 per
month." The email also said that the hospital staff's parking fee had not
been increased in eight years, and that similar trusts in Essex, including
Basildon and Thurrock university hospitals, were also increasing their
charges. Mr Rolfe said: "It is indicative of what is going on in the wider
NHS at the moment, with the poor financial controls of the trusts and a
staff who are under great pressure to increase patient care and workloads.
What with the redundancies as well, this feels like yet another nail in the
coffin." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Anglian Daily Times 8 December 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
NHS to restore health at Tribal. Mercury Health, the healthcare
delivery arm of struggling public sector outsourcing specialist Tribal, has
won preferred bidder status for a "substantial five-year contract" to
provide a range of surgical, orthodontic, rehabilitation, sexual health and
family planning services to NHS patients in
Essex. It is
already contracted to design, build and manage five other NHS centres for
diagnostic procedures and surgery. Tribal said the Mercury deal was for
29,000 procedures and appointments annually in Essex. Mercury Health chief
executive Peter Martin said: "This announcement extends our partnership with
the NHS and builds on recent success in being chosen as preferred bidder for
a major diagnostics contract treating NHS patients in the
West Midlands."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Western Daily Press 14 December 2006 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Plan to farm out post-op checks to GPs unsafe, says top surgeon. The
president of the Royal College of Surgeons has warned that government plans
to farm out the aftercare of surgical patients to GPs are potentially
unsafe. Bernard Ribeiro, who still practises as a general surgeon, said in a
letter to the Guardian that the proposal is a cost-cutting measure that puts
patients at risk. The government wants to free up surgeons by requiring GPs
to see patients for the follow-up checks now carried out by the surgeon
responsible for the operation. Mr Ribeiro says GPs are too busy and would
have neither the skills nor adequate knowledge of the case. "There is
neither the expertise nor the capacity to deal with this. It appears to be
attempting to move this work from surgeons trained in managing these cases
to GPs." Basildon and Thurrock University hospital,
Essex, where Mr
Ribeiro practises, has for the last three months invited GPs to take back
the patient after surgery. Only 24 patients out of thousands went back to
their GP rather than the surgeon's outpatient clinic. Most GPs did not
appear inclined to take on the extra cases. Mr Ribeiro is sceptical about
government claims that the measure would free up surgeons to carry out more
operations. Surgeons would still have to hold outpatient clinics, and since
consultations with new patients take longer than follow-ups, the increase in
surgery would not be great. He also questions whether there will be enough
theatre capacity and staff for more operations. Safety is the biggest issue,
he says. There is no obvious way in which the care of the patient will be
improved if he or she is seen by a GP. "If I'm treating a patient, I want to
be in a position to say to the patient your treatment is complete," he said.
He felt the measure had little to do with quality of care and was perhaps
prompted by government commitment to meeting its waiting time targets for
patients by increasing the number of operations. The proposal has been
recommended by David Colin-Thome, the national clinical director for primary
care.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Guardian
30
December 2006 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Health chiefs
face "rationing" claim. Health chiefs at North East
Essex Primary
Care Trust have been accused of rationing treatment to cataract patients. A
leaked memo has revealed a policy supposedly designed to ensure that those
with the most serious conditions get treated quickly. The new system of
"affordable eye care" means people in the Colchester, Clacton and Harwich
areas who suffer from cataracts will be graded on a points system depending
how serious their condition is. Health bosses have claimed it is designed to
avoid those with more advanced conditions being blocked by those with less
serious ones. However North Essex MP Bernard Jenkins has accused the PCT of
massaging figures and covering up the true numbers waiting by not adding
many to the list. The PCT's director of strategic development and
commissioning, Matt Bushell, defended the new system saying: "Patients who
need cataract surgery will receive an operation within three months, which
is in accordance with national guidelines. Patients are assessed as to those
who need prompt access to surgery, those who can wait three months and those
that do not need surgery. People with more advanced cataracts need an
operation as soon as possible and this system means they will not be
delayed." He added that the new system would "ensure that the PCT operates
within its means, as there are limited resources available for elective
surgery - across the East of England PCTs are in overall financial deficit
situation."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of East
Anglian Daily Times 8 January 2007 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Hospital told
to treat fewer patients. One of
Essex's biggest
hospitals has been ordered to see fewer patients because of the cash crisis
in the NHS. Colchester General Hospital has been told that the North East
Essex Primary Care Trust (PCT) cannot afford to pay for it to continue
treating people at the current rate. More than 1,500 people will now be seen
later than they could have been because the PCT has ruled that non-emergency
patients must wait at least 16 weeks before going to the hospital. This
means people waiting to see a hospital consultant will face the minimum wait
even if the consultant is available for an NHS appointment the following
week.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of East
Anglian Daily Times 12 January 2007 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
We'll get NHS
cash back - eventually. The county's top NHS boss has defended £27.3m
worth of loans from south
Essex health
services to bail out debt-ridden health departments in other counties. Neil
McKay, newly-appointed chief executive of the east of England Strategic
Health Authority, said he has a responsibility to balance the books for the
entire region. But patients fear longer waiting times and fewer services as
£18.4m is taken from the £460m budget of the South West Essex Primary Care
Trust. A further £8.9m has been demanded from the South East Essex Primary
Care Trust. There is no guaranteed date for when the cash will be returned.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Essex
Echo 12 January 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
BUPA makes home
healthcare move. BUPA has stepped into the expanding out-of-hospital
care market with the acquisition of Clinovia, a UK home healthcare
specialist. BUPA purchased the company for £87.7m from Lyceum Capital, which
established Clinovia in 1975. The company provides comprehensive home
healthcare such as delivering prescribed drugs and intravenous feeds to
patients at home for more than 8,500 patients a month with a wide range of
medical and chronic conditions like multiple sclerosis and haemophilia. It
has around 450 staff at sites in
Harlow,
Manchester, Derby
and Glasgow. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Insurance & Protection 12 January 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Health hijack.
In a comment piece, John Lister writs: "A brand new hospital in the
New Forest, to be paid for by the NHS, is handed over to the management
of a private company before it even opens: in
Oxfordshire a long-standing NHS orthopaedic hospital, which has just
spent millions on rebuilding work, faces the threat of closure or merger as
private sector treatment centres hijack the simplest routine cases. Two
Essex NHS trusts
scrap plans for new hospitals because they face massive losses under the new
system of payment by results: west
Hertfordshire residents fight the "centralisation" of A&
E services on the condemned crumbling site of Watford General, now
plans for a £550m super-hospital have been binned. In
Bolton 132 medical and nursing staff face the axe as a strategic health
suthority opts to divert work to a private treatment centre. Like the
sorcerer's apprentice, Tony Blair's "modernising" reforms of the NHS now
threaten to lurch out of control: they have conjured up a booming new,
costly, private sector in health care provision, while the core public
sector hospitals and health services are sent reeling from one cash squeeze
and reorganisation to the next. A new pamphlet outlining the dynamics and
the implications of what it terms the "patchwork privatisation" of the NHS
has just been published after months of research by the Keep Our NHS Public
campaign. It shows that while Thatcher's privatisation of state-owned
utilities were high profile campaigns with mass sales of shares, the
piecemeal process of hiving off key NHS services to private providers has
been an obscure process, largely conducted behind a cloak of
"confidentiality" with minimal public involvement or debate. Especially
tight security has shrouded the contracts for Independent Sector Treatment
Centres (ISTCs) with all future decision-making now in the hands of
Strategic Health Authorities with no local accountability to patients or
public. The Healthcare Commission this week underlined the lack of data on
the clinical quality of ISTC services: but the general public is equally in
the dark on the real cost of these controversial new units. Ministers admit
that the ISTCs get paid an average 11.2% more than the NHS for each
operation they do: but no details are published on the profits pocketed by
ISTC companies at the expense of the NHS. Similarly, the details of the £8bn
worth of new hospitals to be built through the controversial Private Finance
Initiative (PFI) remain under wraps, with deals signed behind closed doors
and not a single unexpurgated full business case having been published.
Government figures now show the long-term cost of borrowing the £8bn capital
in this way will be a staggering £53bn - £37bn in "rent" for use of the new
buildings over 30-35 years, almost five times the initial cost. Had trusts
been allowed to borrow as a conventional repayment mortgage at 6% they would
pay back twice the cost of the initial investment - over just 25 years. The
extra cost above this (equivalent to paying a massive 18% interest) is the
premium that the NHS is set to pay for this one-sided, extravagant
"partnership" with the private sector - without taking any account of
further windfall profits from refinancing their loans on the money markets
once the construction phase is complete. It seems the secrecy surrounding
these deals is because there is plenty that ministers are understandably
eager to hide. But while every million extracted from the NHS in profit is a
million less in resources for patient care, the real cost of private sector
involvement is far higher than its profits and bureaucracy… All of the
constraints have fallen on the public sector: all the growth is in the
private sector. That's why NHS trusts like Ipswich, which once sweated to
reduce waiting lists and waiting times, are now being forced to drive them
back up again, or face fines and penalties from indebted primary care
trusts. It's all gone horribly wrong, leaving a dozen ministers - and dozens
more local communities - supporting local campaigns against "reforms"
endorsed by Tony Blair. In 2005 New Labour were reinventing failure in
health policy: now with their own Starship Enterprise they are exploring new
dimensions in failure, with patchwork privatisation at the centre of
policies that have managed to be both more expensive and more unpopular than
ever before."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Guardian
20 January 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Hospitals A&E merger threat. South
Essex could be
left with a single Accident and Emergency department if too many people
choose to go to NHS-funded private clinics, it has been warned. Marlene
Moura, chairman of the patient and public involvement forum for Basildon
Hospital, said a secret hospital report suggested it may have to merge
services with Southend if funding dropped below a certain level. Mrs Moura
said: "If 15% of finances and patients are removed from the hospitals, we
could end up with one hospital. A&
E would be the first to feel it." Mrs Moura said patients choosing to seek
private treatment outside the hospital, at centres such as a proposed
mini-hospital (ISTC), would take money from the main hospitals and cause
services to be scaled down as a result. She said: "I'm really worried.
They're allowing this new mini-hospital to go ahead, which will take out
huge amounts of services for our hospitals." A separate report, released by
the NHS in December, suggests hospitals of the size of Basildon and Southend
are being encouraged to combine their emergency services. The report, called
Looking to the Future: Development of hospital services in the East of
England, states: "It must be questionable whether units serving a catchment
population below 300,000 can or should continue to plan to provide these
services on their own." Both hospitals just scrape over the 300,000 mark in
terms of patients they provide services for. A spokesman for Basildon
Hospital confirmed they were also worried about the "knock-on effects" for
emergency services and said some services may be lost if the majority of
patients chose to go private. Basildon Hospital chairman David Hooper
estimated about £11m funding would be at risk if patients were treated at
the planned mini hospital instead. He said: "Although this is the worst-case
scenario, even smaller numbers of patient treatments transferring from this
trust will create significant financial and service risks for the trust."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Essex
Echo 9 February 2007 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Hewitt approves seven PFI hospitals at cost of £1.5bn. Patricia
Hewitt, the health secretary, gave the green light yesterday to plans for
seven new hospitals to be built under the private finance initiative at a
cost of £1.5bn. Her decision to back the NHS's biggest ever tranche of
investment will provide modern facilities for patients in
Bristol,
Peterborough,
Middlesbrough,
Wakefield,
Tunbridge
Wells,
Chelmsford and
Edmonton, north London. But it added to anxieties among health service
managers and union leaders that the NHS is locking itself into repaying huge
sums in 30-year deals with the private sector for buildings and equipment
that may not meet changing medical needs. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Tuesday February 27, 2007 The Guardian
|
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Seven more PFI
hospitals to go ahead. Seven more private finance initiative hospitals, with
a capital value of almost £1.5bn, were finally given the go-ahead but amid
growing frustration among PFI providers at the time it is taking for the
Department of Health to adjust hospital building plans to the new, more
competitive, NHS market. The hospital PFI programme is being cut back from an
original £12bn of additional schemes to something closer to £7bn-£9bn, according
to the health department, as hospitals adjust to the uncertainty of a system
that pays them for each patient they treat, in contrast to block contracts. The
announcements in part reflect that. The value of the seven schemes given the
go-ahead is being reduced by about 15 per cent, or by £248m on their original
£1.63bn value. But although the go-aheads - for schemes at various stages of
procurement - has now been given the first stage of the review was meant to be
completed by late last year. And a reappraisal of 23 other schemes with a
capital value of about £5.5bn, including some individual projects worth £500m
and more, is unlikely to be completed before the autumn, the health department
said - the better part of two years since the review of PFI projects was
launched. To date, only a few PFI projects - the £1bn
Paddington campus
scheme, Whipps Cross and
Essex Rivers - have been withdrawn. Three of yesterday's approvals -
Peterborough, a rebuild in North
Bristol, and a smaller project in the
north-east, went through unchanged. Two more have undergone relatively minor
revision. But the
Maidstone
deal has been cut back from a £269m scheme to £218m, while one in Mid-Essex is
down from £199m to £143m. Unison, the health service union, protested that
taxpayers will be "paying over the odds" for the new facilities for years to
come because they have been built through the PFI. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Financial
Times 27 February 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
Surgery of banned
GP facing closure threat. A GP surgery is facing closure just a month
after its doctor was banned from practising in the NHS for inappropriate
behaviour. South East
Essex Primary
Care Trust confirmed it was considering the closure of the Fairway medical
centre, in The Fairway, Patients have been fighting the possible closure of
the surgery for months, with more than 600 signing a petition against it.
But to their dismay, South East Essex Primary Care Trust is now considering
its closure. A decision will be made on March 29. David Woods, chairman of
Friends of the Fairway, said: "The trust is putting 2,500 patients out on
the street. It is going to affect a hell of a lot of people."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of South
Essex News 5 March 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Mini hospital raised in parliament. Plans to develop a privately-run
mini hospital in
Basildon are now being reviewed by the Government. Billericay Tory MP
John Baron fears the centre would take cases away from Basildon Hospital,
losing it £11m a year. But after raising the issue in Parliament, the shadow
junior health minister has been assured the decision to develop a health
centre for NHS patients at Festival Park industrial area is not
"irrevocable". The pledge followed a Parliamentary debate about the NHS and
private sector, in which Mr Baron accused the Government of forcing the
centre on Basildon. The news comes just a week after plans for the centre
were up in the air and might not even end up in Basildon. Mercury Health has
been chosen by the Department of Health as the most likely firm to win a
£36m contract to develop three centres in Essex, initially proposed for
Basildon, Braintree and the Phoenix Hospital in Southend. The firm has just
a week left to produce its final business case.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of South
Essex News 9 March 2007 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
Longer wait for
NHS patients. Patients will have to wait up to five months for surgery
to save NHS cash, a leaked letter has revealed. The current average waiting
time is eight weeks but hospitals are being told to treat fewer patients to
avoid overspending their budgets. A document from the
East of England Strategic
Health Authority, leaked to MP John Baron, tells how primary care trusts
are told to ensure surgery is "limited" to urgent patients or those who have
waited 20 weeks. The Billericay and district MP said it meant efficient
hospitals, currently hitting targets, would be penalised and forced to limit
the numbers of operations they carry out. He said: "South West
Essex PCT has
been ordered to transfer £3.5m to the health authority so it can be given to
other trusts in the region with deficits. However, it is struggling to find
all the cash. Why should our PCT be made to make cutbacks because other PCTs
are in deficit ?" Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of South
Essex News 16 March 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
Save our
surgeries! More than 1,000 people have backed a campaign to save two
threatened doctors surgeries. Patients have been campaigning against South
East Essex PCT's
plan to close the Leecon Way surgery, in Rochford, and the Hawkwell Park
Drive practice, in Hawkwell. Supporters have organised a petition demanding
the surgeries stay open and more than 1,000 people have signed it.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of South
Essex News 16 March 2007 |
| |
|
3 |
|
|
NHS cash is being
wasted, claims MP. Vital NHS funding is being "wasted" and is not
getting through to frontline services, it has been claimed. Simon Burns, the
MP for West Chelmsford, said although extra money had been poured into the
NHS, much of it was being spent on bureaucracy. Figures from the Department
of Health have revealed there are fewer beds available now in mid
Essex than there
were a decade ago when the Conservatives left office. Figures given to Mr
Burns following a Parliamentary question showed that in 1997, mid Essex had
888 beds, a figure that has fallen to 809 now. The number of beds has
dropped in recent years because of the closure of the intermediate care
wards at St John's Hospital. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of East
Anglian Daily Times 23 March 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
NHS dentist reforms have failed, says survey.
The government's reforms of NHS dentistry have failed to improve the scope
and quality of the service, according to two surveys today. A year after the
introduction of a new dental contract there is still "huge inequality in
access to NHS dentistry", with no change in the number of people receiving
treatment, according to the Citizens Advice, the umbrella group for Citizens
Advice Bureaux. It estimated that nearly 2 million people were unable to get
treatment. Two thirds of the 4,000 people polled in England and Wales said
they ended up going without treatment due to "huge problems accessing NHS
dentistry and not being able to pay for private treatment". More than three
quarters of the respondents to the survey, called Gaps to Fill, said they
were unable to get treatment because none of their local dentists were
accepting NHS patients. Some patients said they were forced to do round
trips as long as 120 miles to reach an NHS dentist. The British Dental
Association (BDA) also criticised the government's reforms, backing the
CAB's findings that the new dental contract has failed to improve access to
NHS treatment. Its research found that 85% of 394 dentists surveyed believe
the new contract has not improved patient access to NHS dentistry.
Furthermore, 95% of dentists questioned felt less confident about the future
of NHS dentistry than they did two years ago. Citizens Advice called on
ministers to take urgent action to deal with "dentistry deserts" in some
parts of England and Wales. The charity said there was a postcode lottery of
NHS dental care with some areas, such as
Hartlepool and
Hornchurch, "spoilt for choice" and others, including
Blackburn and
Petersfield, having "very poor access". David Batty and agencies
Wednesday March 28, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
|
| |
|
|
|
|
£60,000 for
hospital marketing director.
Southend
Hospital has been accused of insulting nurses by seeking to recruit a
director of marketing with a £60,000 salary. The Patients' Association said
the hospital would be better spending the money on medical staff. Insiders
said the salary offered to the director of marketing was more than a
director of midwifery would earn at a major hospital. Blair Gibbs, campaign
director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "At a time when the NHS is
struggling to afford the latest drugs, creating a new corporate role like
this that pays more than twice a junior doctor's starting salary is an
insult to hardworking frontline staff." The advert for the post comes at a
time when the hospital, which is £1.5m in the black, is advertising for a
staff nurse on a salary of up to £25,000 a year.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Essex
Echo 22 May 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
5 |
MP quizzes
minister over service fears. An
Essex MP tabled
three parliamentary questions as concerns grow about health services in his
constituency. Harwich MP Douglas Carswell spoke out after it was revealed
that the Harwich maternity unit at the newly-built Fryatt Hospital was to
close overnight because of staff shortages. The £12m hospital has already
hit the headlines after a series of delays in getting services up and
running at the new facility. The future of Peter Bruff ward at Clacton
Hospital, which is for people with mental health issues, is also currently
under review. Mr Carswell said: "Our local NHS is being salami-sliced.
Tendring's own primary care trust was merged with Colchester's. Last summer
we lost one of the wards at Clacton hospital. Now we hear that another one
might disappear, and that the brand new Harwich hospital stands under-used.
At the same time, local people are having to wait ever longer for even basic
procedures. I am angry that local services are being cut. And like local
people, I am furious at the underhand way it is being done. Ministers blame
local officials. Local officials remain unaccountable. Amid all the
confusion, services get cut. Local people have every right to be angry. As
their member of parliament, I will ensure that their voice is heard."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of East
Anglian Daily Times 5 June 2007 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Empty GP surgery
row heads to Commons. An MP has accused the Health Minister of "passing
the buck" in the row about a new doctor's surgery which has stood empty for
six months. Villagers in Dedham raised funds for the surgery to be built
after the current one was deemed unsuitable under health and safety and
disability access laws. The building, part of a larger construction project,
was unveiled in December - but has never been used because of a funding row.
Villagers currently have to travel up to five miles to a doctor's surgery in
East Bergholt, for which there is no regular bus route, costing as much as
£25 in taxi fares. Now North
Essex MP Bernard
Jenkin has applied for an adjournment debate in the House of Commons so he
can question health ministers about the situation. He is angry after
receiving a letter from Andy Burnham MP, health minister for delivery and
reform, saying the issue should be resolved by the two primary care trusts
(PCT) which cover the area. Essex PCT boss Dr Paul Zollinger-Read has said
the funding to run the surgery would be too costly and that
Suffolk PCT will not hand over money for the patients Essex PCT would
take on if they transferred from East Bergholt. Mr Jenkin said yesterday:
"They (the Government) are hoping the problem is just going to go away but
it is just monstrous that the people of Dedham dug into their own pockets to
build a surgery and it is standing empty."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of East
Anglian Daily Times 11 June 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
MP Baron is
worried by 'secrecy' over hospital. MP John Baron has been assured NHS
patients will be given a choice over where they are treated if a
privately-run mini hospital is built. The Tory MP for
Billericay met
health chiefs amid mounting concern the Government will force through the
health centre without consultation. Mr Baron said: "After hearing the
so-called Government consultation on this independent centre is going to be
a sham, the Primary Care Trust has assured me patients will have genuine
choice as to where they receive their care. I remain concerned a centre is
being forced on Basildon by decisions being made in Whitehall, between the
Government and private firm Care UK. I feel this whole project has been
wrapped in secrecy."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Essex
Echo 13 July 2007 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Hospitals facing
massive lawsuit. Triskelion Healthcare, the private company contracted
to carry out the
Leicester Pathway PFI project has announced it is considering suing for
compensation after the £711m project was scrapped. The project, which has
already swallowed £23.4m of taxpayer's money, was halted after Triskelion
said the cost of the revamp had reached £921m. The company says it has spent
millions preparing the project, although bosses will not reveal the exact
figures. The scheme is the third recent PFI failure in the NHS. A £150
million scheme for a new hospital in
Colchester and a
£200 million project in
Torbay have also been scrapped. The Department of Health said
compensation talks were taking place in both cases.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Leicester
Mercury 24 July 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Health trust's
management cost shock.
Essex Rivers
Healthcare NHS Trust spent £7.376m on management in 2006/
07, compared to £6.263m the previous year, a rise of over £1m. The
trust attributed the "small" increase to a "reclassification of revenue" and
said the amount was only a tiny part of the total budget. But Douglas
Carswell, Conservative MP for Harwich, condemned the figures. He said: "Only
today I met an old age pensioner who has been waiting weeks for a hearing
aid and there are people campaigning in Clacton to save Peter Bruff ward
which treats vulnerable people with mental health problems in Clacton
Hospital. Yet now we hear management costs have been significantly
increased. This is not what our tax pounds should be being spent on."
He added: "Think what £1million could do - just a fraction of that sum of
money could make sure everybody waiting for a hearing aid could have one.
Just a fraction of that money could dramatically cut any waiting list and
just a fraction of that money could guarantee the future and long-term
security of Peter Bruff ward in Clacton." A spokesman for Essex Rivers
Healthcare Trust said: "There has been a small increase in our management
costs most of which are due to a reclassification of revenue. More than 50%
of the management cost increases were previously classified in other costs
areas. There has been extra money spent on recruiting clinical support to
advise managers on the running of the hospital. Funds have also been spent
on improving IT services in management and the usual annual pay rises."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of East
Anglian Daily Times 29 August 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Patients pull own teeth as dental contract
falters. Large numbers of people are
going without dental treatment and some even report extracting their own
teeth because they cannot find an NHS dentist in their area, a survey
reveals today. The Dentistry Watch survey of more than 5,000 people, from
the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health, found
widespread unhappiness among both patients and dentists despite government
reforms to increase the availability of NHS dentistry. More than
three-quarters of those who have a private dentist consider they were forced
into it because their own dentist went private or they could not find an NHS
dentist. Just over 10% were not registered with a dentist at all. A third of
those (35%) said there were no NHS dentists nearby, 22% said they did not
know how to find one, 13% said they were on a waiting list and 30% said
there were other reasons. But 6% of the respondents said they were
self-treating, which often included pulling out their own troublesome teeth.
"Fourteen teeth have had to be removed by myself using pliers," said one
Lancashire respondent. "Have pulled teeth out before, easier than
finding a dentist," said one in
Hull. "Because I could not afford the treatment cost, I had to extract
my own tooth on one occasion," said one in
Harrow. "I took
most of my teeth out in the shed with pliers. I have one to go," said
another in
Wiltshire. Some of the respondents show considerable ingenuity. "Filled
own teeth - clove oil and Polyfilla," said one in
Essex. Another
fixed a crown with Superglue and a third used a screwdriver to scrape off
plaque. The survey was carried out by Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)
Forums around England. It was triggered by complaints received by PPIs
following a new contract for dentists in April 2006, which was supposed to
increase access and simplify the charges levied on NHS patients. Almost half
the 5,212 respondents said they did not understand the charging system and
20% of those with NHS dentists went without treatment because of the cost.
There are three treatment bands - £15.90 for a basic examination and x-rays,
£43.60 if treatment such as root canals is also carried out and £194 if
construction work such as crowns is included. In August the Department of
Health announced a drop of 50,000 in the numbers attending an NHS dentist,
to 28 million. It also said there had been a shortfall in the expected
revenue of £159m as a result. Most (84%) of the 750 dentists surveyed said
the contract had not made it easier for patients to get NHS treatment and
45% said their practice was not taking new NHS patients. A majority (68%)
had either reduced or kept the same number of NHS patients as the year
before. Fixed charging bands meant dentists were better off if they treated
people who needed less work, they said. "If one orange costs 10p, then 10
oranges cost £1. BUT if one filling costs £43.60, ten fillings cost £43.69.
RUBBISH," wrote one dentist in
Sheffield. "There is no incentive in the contract to take on new
patients who often have high needs. I feel the contract discriminates
against people who probably need me most," wrote another. Norman Lamb,
Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "Eight years after Labour promised
that everyone would have access to an NHS dentist, this survey shows the
system is at breaking point." Sarah Boseley, health editor
Monday
October 15, 2007 Guardian
|
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Trusts 'shell'
bed space to keep grip on PFI approval. Hospital trusts are being forced
to mothball significant numbers of beds to get government approval for
private finance initiative deals. The process - known as shelling - cuts the
annual charges the trusts pay the PFI developer as some areas are not fully
fitted out, reducing both initial cost and ongoing facilities management
charges. Trusts say they are using shelling to build in flexibility in using
the space. The Department of Health confirmed that it was concerned over the
affordability of the schemes and said that shelling was 'an appropriate
solution to this concern'. Involved are Barts and the
London trust,
where 181 beds out of 1,248 will be shelled; University Hospital
Birmingham foundation trust (108 out of 1,213); and St Helens and
Knowsley trust (100 beds). Mid
Essex Hospital
Services trust, whose PFI plan is awaiting approval, is also expected to
have some shelled space but says this was planned from the outset. Barts and
the London has reduced its unitary charge by £9.4m by shelling. It will
still have to pay £98m a year. Trusts need to make a business case for
bringing the extra capacity into use, which normally requires government
approval. Although trusts escape some of the costs of running the beds until
they open, they still incur the cost of building the extra space. Unless
this can be put to good use, it will not contribute income towards the
annual charge. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Service Journal 1 November 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Fears over impact of
health centre. An
Essex MP has said he is concerned about the impact a multi-million-pound
privately run health centre will have on NHS services. The Government has given
the go ahead for an Independent Treatment Centre (ITC) to be built in Braintree.
The development is designed to give patients a wider choice while cutting
hospital waiting times for patients with knee, hip and cataract problems.
Earlier this year Richard Bourne, the head of Essex Rivers Healthcare NHS Trust,
which runs Colchester General Hospital and Essex County Hospital cast doubt on
the proposal, saying not enough had been done to ensure it would work
effectively. And Simon Burns, MP for West Chelmsford, has been calling on the
Government to abandon the scheme claiming it could have "devastating" impact on
Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. The Conservative MP has said he fears the ITC
would harm Broomfield's ability to meet its targets because it would "cherry
pick" certain services which would adversely affect the hospital. He warned
there could then be a downward spiral where the financial wellbeing of the
hospital would be affected. But the chief executive of Mid Essex Primary Care
Trust, Sheila Bremner has welcomed the announcement. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of East
Anglian Daily Times 22 November 2007 |
| |
2 |
|
|
|
Southend Hospital
PFI spiked. An
Essex NHS Trust has scrapped its plans to redevelop its acute facilities
using the private finance initiative. Southend University Hospital NHS Trust
had planned a new building to house services such as accident and emergency,
and stroke rehabilitation. But a spokesman says they have now binned plans
to use PFI. "The project will proceed at a much smaller scale and will rely
on public and foundation trust funds," said Southend NHS Trust's director of
facilities, Dave Walsh, "This gives us much greater financial freedom." The
hospital was awarded £105m in PFI credits in 2004. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Public
Private Finance 29 November 2007 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Opposition calls for
rethink on data storage. The debate over healthcare data security took a
political turn as the opposition called on the government to change its plans
for central data storage in favour of local, interoperable services. Shadow
health secretary, Andrew Lansley, told said that plans for the national database
in England holding around 50m records should be replaced by storage on 'local
servers with interoperability between them.' Encryption was fine, he said, but
there was a risk if many people had the passwords to get into the system. The
Department of Health defended the centralised approach currently being rolled
out and responded to Lansley's comments saying that the planned central system
had particularly strong data protection rules and the highest standards of
security control. Lansley's comments came as review of NHS trusts security
showed nine reporting data losses. The trusts are:
City and Hackney
Primary Care Trust ;
Maidstone and
Tunbridge Wells;
Bolton
Royal Hospital; Sutton and Merton PCT;
Sefton PCT; Mid-Essex
Care Trust; East and North
Hertfordshire;
Norfolk and Norwich and
Gloucester Partnership Foundation Trust. Ross Anderson, professor of
security engineering at Cambridge University, commented on one of the incidents
at City and Hackney PCT where 160,000 children's records were lost. Professor
Anderson asked: "How is it that somebody had access to 160,000 children's
records? Surely that's not right." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of E-Health
Insider 9 January 2008 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Heat Map East of
England
PETITIONS
|