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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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The last remaining accident and emergency department on the Isle of Wight
may be closed, forcing the emergency services to evacuate sick and injured
patients across the Solent to a mainland hospital for treatment. Owen Bowcott
Monday
January 13, 2003 The Guardian |
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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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Five hundred hospital jobs are to go in two hospital trusts whose bids for
foundation status were thwarted last month. Southampton University hospitals
trust and Winchester and Eastleigh healthcare trust both applied to be in the
autumn wave of foundation trusts, alongside 32 other trusts. Hélène Mulholland
Thursday August 5, 2004 |
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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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Debt-ridden
hospital spends £700,000 on walls of scaffolding. Unison has criticised
Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust for spending £700,000 on keeping
scaffolding around two of its buildings for over five years - while getting
rid of 109 beds and 650 jobs in eight months. The hospital trust has debts of
£14m and says it has not been able to afford to have the cladding on the
buildings repaired, hence the scaffolding. The trust now plans to demolish one
of the buildings, which has been empty for nine months, to make way for a car
park. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Daily Telegraph 6 January 2006 |
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Services cut to
slash NHS debts in Hampshire. Southampton University Hospitals Trust (£19m
deficit) has closed wards to save money and New Forest PCT (£12m) has cut
staff. New Forest PCT and Eastleigh and Test Valley South PCT had proposed the
closure of community hospitals at Hythe, Fordingbridge, Milford-on-Sea and
Romsey, but were headed off by resistance from local residents. However the
Fenwick hospital in Lyndhurst remains closed. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 30 January 2006 |
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Community Hospitals at risk in Hampshire and Isle
of Wight SHA according to
Public Finance 17 March 2006:
Emsworth Hospital
Fordingbridge Hospital
Romsey Hospital
Milford War Memorial Hospital
Havant War Memorial Hospital
Alton Community Hospital
Andover War Memorial Hospital
Fenwick Hospital
Hythe Hospital |
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Costs soar as eye
ops go to private firm. Eye operations at a new private treatment centre
funded by the taxpayer are costing almost seven times more than they would
be on the NHS. Every cataract operation at the Mercury Healthcare ISTC at St
Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth, has so far cost a staggering £5,590 compared to
the standard NHS price of £847. The public has so far paid £335,412 for 60
cataract operations at the private-sector centre since it opened on December
19 last year - the same number would cost just £50,820 at an NHS hospital.
Mercury Healthcare has an £84m five-year contract with local PCTs. As part
of the deal Mercury should carry out 1,650 cataract operations a year,
although it gets paid whether GPs refer patients there or not. The
government also pays out an extra 20% to compensate Mercury for setting up
the £10m centre. By March Mercury should have performed 330 cataract
operations. The actual number was just 60.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Portsmouth News 18 March 2006 |
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A hospital trust is to be sentenced after pleading guilty to failing to
supervise doctors in a department where a man
died after a routine knee operation. Father-of-one Sean Phillips, 31,
died in June 2000 after developing toxic shock syndrome at
Southampton General Hospital. At an earlier hearing Southampton
University Hospitals NHS Trust pleaded guilty to failing to supervise
doctors in the trauma and orthopaedic department.
Tuesday April 11, 2006 7:38 AM
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In the first criminal trial to be brought over a patient's death, a
hospital trust was yesterday fined £100,000 for failing to supervise two
junior doctors.
Southampton University Hospitals Trust was convicted after a
health and safety prosecution prompted by the death of a young father
who had been admitted for a routine knee operation. The trust, which has a
£6m deficit, was also ordered to pay £10,000 in
costs. It pleaded guilty to failing to supervise the two doctors during a
brief period but, in a statement, denied any responsibility for the death.
Sean Phillips, 31, died at Southampton general hospital in June 2000 after
two senior house officers (SHOs) attending him in the trauma and
orthopaedics department failed to realise he had contracted toxic shock
syndrome. Amit Misra and Rajeev Srivastava were convicted of manslaughter by
gross negligence in 2003, given an 18-month suspended sentence, and, last
year, temporarily struck off by the GMC. But, in an unprecedented move, the
Crown Prosecution Service also decided to prosecute the trust, under the
Health and Safety at Work Act. Winchester crown court heard that there was a
lack of supervision by consultants, no formal system of daily visits by
registrars which should have picked up Mr Phillips' condition, and only half
the required number of junior doctors. Sarah Hall, health correspondent
Wednesday April 12, 2006 The Guardian |
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Up to a third of
dentists won't sign NHS contract. Nearly a third of dentists in some
parts of England have refused to sign new NHS contracts - contradicting a
recent statement by Tony Blair that "about 90 to 95%" of dentists had signed
up. A leaked government document, showing exactly how many dentists in each
area have taken up the contracts, reveals that in the
south west, 29% of dentists have refused to sign up; in the
Thames
Valley, 15%; in
Hampshire, 18%; in
Yorkshire, 23%; and in the
West Midlands, 24%. In south-west
London, the
figure is 12%; in
Manchester, 11%; in
Kent,
14%; and in
Dorset, 15%. In
Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, 23% have not signed up. Of the
9,419 contracts offered in England, 1,096 have been rejected, including some
covering more than one dentist - a national average of 12% more than Mr
Blair's claim.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 16 April 2006 |
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PR first in
line for cash. A cash-strapped trust is to recruit four communications
officers to persuade doctors it is listening to them.
Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, which has a £14m deficit,
has sent a memo to staff saying its internal and external communication is
'unacceptably poor'. The new team's key objectives for 'internal
stakeholders' - such as doctors and nurses - include 'developing a
reputation for listening to staff' and 'improving perception of the trust'.
Officers are also to 'campaign for positive editorial' from national health
media. The trust closed more than 100 beds in 2005.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Hospital Doctor 5 May 2006 |
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Hewitt goes against the grain on
reconfigurations. The health secretary has overruled almost half of the
primary care trust reconfiguration proposals submitted by strategic health
authorities. The government has supported 13 of the 23 'preferred options',
rejecting 10 in favour of an alternative. Meanwhile, the government has
announced 13 new ambulance trusts instead of the 11 expected. The
Isle of Wight will retain its own ambulance service as part of its
combined trust.
Staffordshire Ambulance Service trust, which opposed its merger into a
West Midlands service, will remain separate for up to two years because
of the 'strength of public concern'.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 18 May 2006 |
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Health boss opens treatment unit. A new diagnostic and treatment
centre run by Mercury Health has been officially opened. St Mary's NHS
Treatment Centre in
Hampshire has a minor injuries unit, a walk-in centre for Portsmouth
patients and provides day-surgery procedures. The ISTC expects to deal with
about 50,000 patients a year.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 19 May 2006 |
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Twenty
cash-hit NHS trusts may axe consultants. At least 20 NHS trusts are
considering making consultants redundant as they struggle to contain
multi-million-pound deficits, according to the BMA. The BMA said it was in
crisis talks with health service managers to try to avert job losses.
Thousands of healthcare workers and nurses have been told they will be made
redundant, but for the first time doctors are being told they may lose their
jobs. Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the BMA consultants' committee, said: "We
have managed to avert some redundancies and we are working to avoid more.
Making consultants redundant is never the right way to deal with debts -
just ask patients. While this may not be the end of the NHS, you can see it
from here. The biggest problem now is that the NHS is no longer based around
the patient-doctor relationship but the manager-politician relationship."
The East and North
Herts NHS Trust became the latest to announce job losses, with 500 posts
- 10% of its staff - expected to go in an attempt to save £18m.
Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust also announced that it would
shed more than 500 jobs and close 140 beds as it fights to cut a £27m
deficit. Community nurses in
Waltham Forest
have also claimed that their budget is being cut by 45% because the local
NHS trust is under pressure to make £17.5m of savings. They warned that the
cuts could put vulnerable children under social services care at risk as
well as hinder the care of elderly people living in their own homes. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Independent
29 June 2006 |
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Ministers miss
key deadline for PBC as chaos dogs scheme. Practice-based commissioning
is falling way behind schedule, with more than half of GPs shunning the
scheme due to a catalogue of problems. Only two out of five GPs have so far
signed up amid doubts over their ability to keep savings and unreasonable
demands being set by PCTs desperate to save money. Even those GPs who have
agreed local plans are claiming the process has been a worthless exercise. A
Pulse survey of 61 PCTs covering 2,038 practices has found just 38% of GPs
had agreed a local plan with their PCT by the end of June. The government
target by this time was 100%. Despite having come nowhere near the target,
health minister Lord Warner said the fact 3,454 practices were involved
showed the NHS was "surging ahead" in adopting the Government's reforms. But
in Kent,
Hampshire,
Somerset and Dorset, no GPs had signed up.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Pulse 7 July 2006 |
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Trust told: do
not fleece patients. Health chiefs have been warned against "fleecing
patients unfairly" as it emerged
Southampton hospitals charge some of the highest car parking fees in the
country. The Lib Dem MP said: "The extent of charging in the NHS highlights
how extra costs have crept into a service that should be free at the point
of use." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hampshire
News 20 July 2006 |
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One of the country's biggest NHS trusts has banned visitors from sitting on
patients' beds in hospital in an attempt to cut rates of the
superbug MRSA. Friends and relatives will have to sit on chairs when
they visit patients in the four hospitals run by
Southampton University Hospitals NHS trust. Young children will only be
able to visit with the approval of the ward manager, and visitors will be
asked to use alcohol hand gel before and after each visit. Sarah Hall,
health correspondent
Wednesday August 2, 2006 The Guardian
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MP in birthing
centre blast. A
New Forest MP has blasted health chiefs for the lack of proper public
meetings over plans to axe three birthing centres. Dr Julian Lewis has
accused them of failing to let the public air its concerns about
controversial proposals to shut maternity units at Hythe, Lymington and
Romsey. He said the poorly advertised and poorly attended drop-in and focus
group sessions currently being used were "entirely inadequate''. "It smacks
of a manoeuvre designed to prevent the community from having its say,'' he
said. Protestors say health chiefs are running scared because they are
reluctant to face the sort of hostility seen last year at public meetings
about plans to axe beds at five community hospitals in Romsey and the New
Forest.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hampshire
Daily Echo 4 August 2006 |
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Mothers in labour
forced to travel hundreds of miles. Heavily-pregnant women are being
forced to travel hundreds of miles to give birth because intensive care beds
for premature babies are all full. In just two weeks, at least two
Portsmouth mums have travelled more than 100 miles from their homes
shortly before giving birth to twins, leaving their loved ones far behind.
And hospital chiefs admit transferring 18 babies to a national network of
other hospitals around the country - including Edinburgh - in just five
months.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Portsmouth
News 4 August 2006 |
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Mums fear as
oxygen supplier is switched. 35-year old mother Helen Armstrong relies
on oxygen
24 hours a day due to severe asthma and a hole in her heart. But since
private provider Allied Respiratory took over the contract she hasn't
received the vital gas and has to rely on small cylinders from the local
pharmacy, where she was already picking up her cylinders before the company
took over. Since the contract changed in February, and despite constant
calls from her husband, Mrs Armstrong is still awaiting her oxygen.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Portsmouth
News 15 August 2006 [Hampshire] |
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NHS plc: a dire diagnosis. Private Eye says: "No sooner had a cross-party
committee of MPs heavily criticised the government's use of
independent sector
treatment centres (ISTCs) than the Department of Health defiantly announced
that these private sector companies would be given £lbn worth of contracts to
run a series of "diagnostic centres". The identities of the lucky firms show how
commercial the business of healthcare has become. The
London and
east England contract goes to
Amicus InHealth… owned by a consortium of South African private health outfit
Netcare, which botched a contract to provide cataract operations in
Oxfordshire;
Apax, a private equity group set up by New Labour favourite Sir Ronald Cohen;
and Inhealth, a company chaired by serial private health director Tim Chessells
and owned by a mysterious Luxembourg fund called Pegasus. Doubtless this bunch
has nothing but the nation's health in mind as it makes crucial diagnoses and
won't be unduly inclined to push people to independent treatment centres of the
sort run by, er, Netcare. Meanwhile in the
South West the record of the
(management) consultants at Atos Origin in providing the over-priced and
unpopular choose-and-book system for hospital referrals was no bar to their
success. Nor in the South East were
there too many concerns about the conflicts of interest presented by handing the
diagnosis deal to the country's biggest private hospital operator, the
taxdodging BUPA. West Midlands
patients will be able to benefit from the services of Mercury Healthcare, the
company that has already been paid millions for work it hasn't done and whose
"group strategy director" is one Mark Smith, the former chief executive of
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS trust who resigned after the trust received zero
stars. From there he became head of health at PFI firm Amey working closely with
Ken Anderson... who now just happens to be doling out the diagnostic centre
contracts as "commercial director" of the NHS. Appropriately enough in the
North East the diagnostics contract
has gone to Alliance Medical, the company owned by yet another private equity
group, Bridgepoint - former employer of Geordie New Labour man and ex-Health
Secretary Alan Milburn. The company's previous forays into the health service
include a £95m contract to run MRI scans which were so poor they had to be
checked by the NHS anyway, leading the British Medical Association to describe
the firm's performance as "a complete disaster". So depending on where you live,
your next illness could well be diagnosed by an incompetent or a profiteer - or
more likely a combination of the two."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Private Eye 16 August 2006 |
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Support increases
for mum-and-baby unit. In just two hours, more than 500 people added
their names to a petition to keep a mother-and-baby unit in
Basingstoke. A signing session saw hundreds of residents give their
backing to the campaign to keep the unit, which helps mothers with
post-natal depression - boosting the running total of signatures to well
over 2,000. Last November, health bosses announced plans to move the unit,
based at Fairway House, near Parklands hospital, in Basingstoke, to Melbury
Lodge in Winchester because it serves the whole of Hampshire and Winchester
is more central. But these plans are now in doubt. A new eating disorder
in-patient unit is set to go into Melbury Lodge, which will be larger than
initially thought, leaving the future location of the mother-and-baby unit
in limbo.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Basingstoke
Gazette 24 August 2006 |
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Packed meeting
shows anger over hospital closure. Hundreds of people had to be turned
away from a packed meeting as hospital campaigners showed their fight was
far from over. Residents battling to save the Royal Hospital, Haslar,
Gosport, put on a show of force to grill health bosses. Up to 500 people
converged on Thorngate Halls, but a staggering 300 were left outside as
there was no room. Health bosses are holding a series of meetings to get the
public's views on Portsmouth Hospitals Trust plans to become a foundation
trust. NHS chiefs say this will mean a greater say for local residents and
the potential to attract more money from the private sector.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Portsmouth
News 7 September 2006 |
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Staff fear jobs,
beds to be cut at health trust. Jobs are to be cut and hospital beds
closed at Winchester and Eastleigh health trust in a bid to balance the
books. The trust, which runs the Royal
Hampshire County Hospital site in Winchester, aims to save £15m by
December 2008. Staff were this week fearing that hundreds of jobs could be
axed over the next two years as part of a radical restructuring. The trust
has invited consultants Health Works to produce a savings plan, called Fit
For The Future, because its own financial recovery scheme is not saving
enough money. Hospital bosses claim it is too early to say how many jobs
will be lost, but most will be through "natural wastage" and freezing of
posts. Compulsory redundancies have not been ruled out. Job losses at the
trust, which employs 3,000 people and has a turnover of £83m, will hit
medical and non-medical staff. Managers are also considering selling more
buildings on the RHCH site. They have already sold Mount Hospital in
Highcroft and three blocks of former staff accommodation, netting millions
of pounds. Doug Smith, spokesman for trade unions at the hospital trust
including UNISON and the Royal College of Nursing, said they were extremely
concerned about the cuts. He said: "Staffing levels have already been cut to
the bone. We have already gone through a process of freezing posts. The
other concern is that once again the trust has indicated they are
selling-off property. We feel that it is asset stripping and will put the
trust at even more risk in future."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hampshire
News 7 September 2006 |
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Breast cancer
patients face mixed wards. Health bosses have been slammed for shutting
a breast cancer treatment ward - in the middle of Breast Cancer Awareness
Month. Royal Hospital Haslar's 3C specialist breast cancer ward, where
cancer victims prepare for and recover from traumatic breast surgery, is set
to close in weeks. The cancer patients will now have to go to a mixed
general ward instead.
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust says both wards are under-used and it is
more efficient to put all the patients together.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Portsmouth
News 6 October 2006 |
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Anger as
high-paid directors appointed at cash-strapped trust.
Winchester hospital chiefs have come under fire for recruiting five
directors on £85,000-a-year salaries each, at the same time as cutting
hundreds of medical staff. There are already more managers than consultants
at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital. Now Winchester and Eastleigh
Healthcare Trust has appointed the new directors, including a new MD of
surgical services, Sherrin Moss, former head of healthcare markets for BUPA
in London. His job is to ensure the efficient operation of surgical
services, be a link with the private sector, and market the hospital "as a
provider of choice for elective surgery for the local community". The
hospital said the management shake-up was necessary to provide stronger
leadership, plan services and meet targets, including financial. The trust
is currently £7.5m in the red and is faced with the enormous task of saving
£15m to balance the books by 2008. But the timing of the new appointments
has angered staff coming just weeks before the trust announced it was
shedding 310 jobs by March 2009, about 15 per cent of the 2,200-strong
workforce, and closing four wards. The job losses will affect 144 nurses, 10
consultants, nine doctors and more than 100 other workers. The £425,000
combined salaries of the new directors would pay for 17 nurses and 12
doctors. One hospital worker, who asked not to be named, said: "When they
want to cut budgets the first thing they do is cut beds and nursing staff,
but that is the part that matters to patients. A lot of people are very
frustrated."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hampshire News 6 October 2006 |
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NHS demos 'mirror
poll tax action'. An "extraordinary" level of protests against cuts in
NHS services is building up across the UK and now threatens to rival the
rebellion against the hated poll tax, the Government has been warned.
Members of the public have been turning out in their thousands in recent
weeks to demonstrate against closures or cutbacks across the country,
including Nottingham,
Cambridge,
Manchester,
Sheffield,
Birmingham and
Epsom. Marches and rallies have been held in Huntingdon,
Huddersfield and
Southampton while protests will be held later this month in areas
including
Oxford and
Guildford. Unions and other organisers of the events have expressed
amazement at the number of people joining in. Geoff Martin, head of
campaigns at pressure group Health Emergency said: "An extraordinary grass
roots movement against government policy on hospital closures and
privatisation is putting thousands of people on the streets every weekend in
villages, town and cities the length and breadth of the country. There's
been nothing like this since the spontaneous rebellion against the poll tax
in the early 90's. The Government are right to be worried. The full scale of
their closure programme, which will involve up to 60 major acute hospitals,
has yet to hit home and when it does the scale of the protest will ratchet
up several notches. This growing NHS protest could well do for New Labour
what the poll tax did for Margaret Thatcher and the Tories." Karen Jennings,
head of health at Unison said: "Local people are joining these protests in
their droves because they care about their local hospital. It shows that
people are not interested in choice or privatisation. What they want is a
good local hospital they can use they are sick. This is a mass movement of
people demonstrating that they want their hospitals to stay open."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Guardian
7 October 2006 |
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NHS SOS.
There has been yet another week of protest from health trade unionists and
campaigners all over the country.
Nottingham had
3,000 people on the streets opposing hospital closures and cuts while
between 5,000 and 7,000 marched in
Hastings. NHS Logistics workers held a solid strike in all five depots,
opposing the take-over by the courier company DHL on 1 October (more on page
11). Workers in other parts of the health service are warming up for
industrial action in response to compulsory redundancies and privatisation.
Over the next few weeks, protests are planned in
Oxford,
Banbury, Epsom,
Redditch and
Southampton. Some important victories are being won. The
Stroud birthing unit has been saved from closure due to a vociferous
campaign of health workers and local people. At a lobby of London's
Strategic Health Authority, London Health, on 25 September, pensioners and
health activists were told: "There will be no flexibility when dealing with
deficits and hospitals in deficit will not be baled out". In support of the
TUC lobby on 1 November, the National Pensioners Convention Greater London
region has called a feeder march. The march has the support of local
campaigns, NHS Logistics union reps, striking health workers at Whipps Cross
hospital and many others.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Socialist
9 October 2006 |
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NHS rallies 'echo
poll tax anger'. A rising number of protests against cuts in the NHS is
threatening to rival the 1990s rebellion against the Tories' poll tax,
campaigners have said. The protests have attracted both health professionals
and members of the public affected by potential changes. The Keep
Worthing and Southlands Hospitals campaign will gather at the site on
Sunday afternoon. On Saturday, more than 1,000 people took part in a protest
in
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, where Hinchingbrooke Hospital is vulnerable
to closure because of a £24m debt. A
Huddersfield protest related to a decision to switch the town's
maternity services to a hospital in Halifax. In recent weeks demonstrators
have also turned out in
Southampton,
Nottingham, Cambridge,
Redditch,
Manchester,
Sheffield,
Birmingham and
Epsom. "An extraordinary grass roots movement against government policy
on hospital closures and privatisation is putting thousands of people on the
streets every weekend in villages, town and cities the length and breadth of
the country," said Geoff Martin, head of campaigns at pressure group Health
Emergency. Labour leadership contender John McDonnell MP has said the
government risked losing dozens of seats at the next general election in
areas affected by NHS cuts.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of BBC
Online 9 October 2006 |
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Patients 'at risk' in closure plan. Hospital bosses have been accused
of putting patients at risk after moves to close an isolation ward. NHS
chiefs say the eight-bed unit at Queen Alexandra Hospital,
Cosham, is not heavily used, but critics have branded the proposal
ridiculous and dangerous. Nurses, health care support workers and a ward
clerk would be among 20 staff affected if the closure went ahead, although
bosses insist they will try to move workers to other jobs. The unit is
currently used to isolate patients with dangerous infectious such as severe
cases of MRSA and TB. The announcement comes as the trust battles to reduce
infections in hospitals - Portsmouth hospitals have been among the worst 10
trusts in the country for rates of MRSA infections. Portsmouth South MP Mike
Hancock said: 'It seems ridiculous that a hospital that has still got a
serious problem with MRSA should consider closing its isolation unit.' An
anonymous hospital source said: 'There will be no facilities for infectious
patients or immune-suppressed patients who require isolated care. With MRSA
and TB, etc, on the increase, it is absurd.' A decision on whether to close
the ward is expected next month.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Portsmouth
News 19 October 2006 |
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Terminally ill man says oxygen firm is forcing him into debt.
A terminally ill
Southampton man is being driven into debt because he can't afford to pay
for the electricity that keeps him alive. Housebound Robert Fenton needs to
breathe from a respirator for at least 15 hours a day to stay alive. Under a
contract with the NHS, oxygen suppliers Allied Respiratory should pay for
all the electricity used by the machine, about £425 a year. However, since
February Mr Fenton has received only £31 from the company, throwing the
55-year-old into hundreds of pounds of debt. Mr Fenton, who suffers from
terminal emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), says
unless the company pays up he will be forced to an early death. Allied
Respiratory took over the supply of respirators to NHS patients in the
south-east when the service was privatised in February of this year. A
letter from the company to Mr Fenton states: "Patients are entitled to be
refunded for the electricity that their concentrator machines consume. We
calculate the amount to refund based on meter readings which are taken when
the machine is serviced by our engineer, which is every six months."
However, no engineer has visited Mr Fenton's home in Portswood Road, and
only two payments have been made to him - one for £6 and another for £25.
"The situation is ridiculous," he said. "I have been told by the company
that I am only using the respirator for two hours a day. I only wish that
were true - but if it was I would be dead. I am prescribed at least 15 hours
a day but sometimes I need it for the whole 24 hours. Allied are putting
themselves above the word of a consultant - it's complete corporate
arrogance. It seems to me they are hoping I will die before they have to pay
the bill."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hampshire
News 23 November 2006 |
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Shock as axe falls on birth centres.
Thousands of mums-to-be across
Hampshire got the news they have been dreading on the future of three
vital birthing centres in the region. After months of public consultations,
relentless campaigning and the collection of thousands of signatures the
recommendation to close Hythe, Romsey and Lymington Birth Centres has been
made. The services will now transfer to a stand-alone facility at Snowden
House in Ashurst, the option recommended by the Southampton University
Hospitals Trust board yesterday. The news came as a blow to the thousands of
families who campaigned to save their midwife-led birthing centres. Joanne
Lunn, one of the campaigners who hoped to save Lymington Birth Centre, said:
"We are very disappointed that the board have taken this decision as we
collected thousands of signatures on our petitions. We feel that the views
of the general public have not been taken in to account and we will be
holding an emergency meeting to discuss our next move. This is a real shame
for women who want to give birth within their local community. This area of
the New Forest is still quite a way from Ashurst and it will be a long
journey for expectant mums and their families to make."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hampshire
News 23 November 2006 |
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A
Portsmouth health trust was censured today over the
death of a
mentally ill patient who was restrained on the floor by staff for 25
minutes. An independent report into the death of 37-year-old Geoffrey
Hodgkins criticised staff for holding him down at St James' hospital for
more than eight times longer than the maximum time recommended by an earlier
inquiry into a similar incident. Mr Hodgkins, who was schizophrenic, went
blue and stopped breathing after being restrained by seven members of staff,
including security guards not trained in appropriate restraint techniques.
He was taken to another hospital but died the following day on November 20
2004.
Monday October 23, 2006 Guardian Unlimited |
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Patient care forces ward reopening.
Winchester's Royal
Hampshire County Hospital was forced to re-open a ward closed last month
because patients needed the beds. Four wards have been earmarked for closure
at the hospital trust that is battling with accumulated debts of £7.5m, and
is £2.2m overspent this year in an attempt to balance the books. Victoria
Ward was temporarily re-opened last Sunday evening until 5pm on Monday.
Hospital managers say it is understandable that having just closed a 28-bed
ward, there will be pressure on beds but progress in reducing the number of
delayed discharges, more day surgery, and a 12% fall in acute medical
admissions against last year, will help them manage with fewer beds.
According to the trust's annual report, one of the reasons it failed to
reach its savings target last year was a high number of medical emergencies
during winter and re-opening previously closed beds. A "significant number"
of medical patients used surgical beds, meaning orthopaedic patients were
sent to private hospitals, said the report. But a trust spokesman denied
re-opening the beds called into question the trust's ability to cut costs by
closing 125 out of a total 600 beds and shed 310 jobs over the next two
years. The next ward to close in December will be St Cross Ward, a surgical
ward for breast and urological procedures. Breast patients will be
transferred to Florence Portal House, while Freshfield Ward will take
urological cases. More patients will also be treated as day cases in the
Treatment Centre. A hospital insider was highly critical of managers. He
said when Victoria Ward was closed, elderly patients in need of general care
were instead sent to an annexe of Clarke Ward, a specialist cardiac ward.
When this was full, Victoria Ward was temporarily re-opened with the help of
bank and agency staff which was expensive and "de-motivating" for nurses who
had previously worked on the ward, and been re-deployed or had their hours
cut, he claimed.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hampshire
Chronicle 24 November 2006 |
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Blood staff
threaten strike action. The NHS blood service may face strike action
over Christmas by technicians at its
Southampton centre and across the country in a nationwide job dispute.
Amicus said it would ballot its members in Wales and England over plans to
close blood processing and testing centres in the city and elsewhere. The
union complained about a lack of consultation over the move and said that
highly skilled workers would lose their jobs. Amicus regional officer Owen
Granfield said: "This is a wake-up call to senior management who need to sit
down with Amicus and talk about the future of the blood service. Hundreds of
technical and scientific jobs are being put at risk and these are highly
skilled posts which cannot just be relocated to different parts of the
country. This mirrors exactly what is wrong with the NHS reform agenda
because modernisation is being rushed through without consultation with
staff or local communities" Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Southern
Daily Echo 28 November 2006 |
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Health trust axes
private ops in bid to cut costs.
Winchester and Eastleigh hospital bosses have clamped down on sending
patients for private treatment, in a bid to cut costs. The trust, that runs
the Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Andover War Memorial Hospital, is
striving to save £11m by April and meet the Government requirement of
balancing its budget. The pressure has forced the NHS trust to become more
efficient. In the first six months of this financial year Winchester and
Eastleigh Healthcare Trust forked out £1.5m on private healthcare for
patients, in an attempt to reduce waiting times. Health bosses aimed to quit
using the private sector by this month as part of their plan to turn around
multi-million pound debts. But the trust stopped sending patients for
private treatment by the end of September - nearly three months ahead of
schedule. The trust is currently consulting staff on how to get the best use
out of its 10 theatres. Last year, 600 operations were cancelled. Proposals
include increasing operating hours from 8am to 8pm, scheduling regular
planned weekend operations and more flexible working by staff between
theatres. Patients were chosen for private healthcare based on the length of
time they had been waiting and the type of treatment required. More complex
cases stayed within the NHS, as private hospital do not have intensive care
units. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hampshire
News 7 December 2006 |
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Private contracts "destabilise NHS". Doctors are being forced to
refer patients to private centres for fast track treatment by NHS bosses
while local hospitals have longer waiting times imposed upon them. The
British Medical Association has condemned the move calling it a "two-tier"
health service that is being used to prop up privately-run centres. They
also claim that it makes a mockery of the Government's "patient
choice" policy. In one instance, GPs in Basingstoke,
Hampshire, have been told to divert people who need routine hip and knee
operations away from North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke and to surgical
centres run by Capio, a Swedish company. While waiting times at the private
centres are as low as six weeks and a maximum of 10 weeks, health bosses are
imposing a "go slow" on orthopaedic surgery at North Hampshire Hospital by
refusing to fund routine hip and knee surgery unless the patient waits at
least 16 weeks. One GP said: "The business with Capio is a disgrace. We have
been told that operations will be done extremely quickly… but there are a
whole lot of people waiting longer than that on the local hospital waiting
list. I don't understand why they can't invest this money in the hospital
service itself." Similar "go slow" arrangements are working in
Coventry and Warwickshire.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Telegraph
11 December 2006 |
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Pulse survey
shows GPs are in the front line of NHS financial cutbacks. Pressure on
GPs to cut their hospital referrals is intensifying as the NHS gets ever
more desperate to rein in mounting deficits. Almost seven GPs in 10 are
being subjected to policies aimed at cutting their referrals, with some
facing attempts to cut them by more than 20 per cent. Referral management
centres are the most popular method being used by PCOs. Some 53 per cent of
GPs said their referrals were now going via these centres. Stopping named
consultant referrals (45 per cent) and using standardised referral forms (35
per cent) were the next most-used restrictions. 'There is no evidence to
show new methods such as the referral management system work,' said Dr
Thomas Nichols, a GP in
Oxford.
'Letters get lost, or we have to make several referrals. There is no way to
know the impact on health, but there is a big nuisance factor for GPs and
patients.' Dr Mohammad Mustafa, a GP in Fareham,
Hampshire, said: 'I have been trained to know what a patient needs and I
am upset that my decisions are being challenged because of money issues.'
One GP in four had been set a specific target to cut their referrals by
their PCO. Dr Douglas Moederle-Lumb, a GP in Scarborough, said cuts of 20 to
30 per cent were being demanded by
North Yorkshire and York PCT. Orthopaedics, where 44 per cent of GPs
were having difficulties, and
mental health (27 per cent) were the specialties where GPs experienced
most problems. More than a third of the first 185 respondents said it was
increasingly difficult to refer to a hospital of their choice. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Pulse 14 December 2006 |
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£750m cottage hospital plan under way. The
first of a new generation of NHS
cottage hospitals will be announced by the Department of Health today,
kickstarting a £750m programme to move minor operations away from the big
general hospitals and closer to people's homes. Lord Warner, the health
minister, will sign a deal to build community hospitals to serve patients
living on the fringes of
Sunderland,
Bristol,
Gosport and
Minehead. They will provide minor surgery, medical tests and follow-up
care for about 75,000 patients a year.
Scores of cottage hospitals across England had been under threat of closure.
Some, but not all, will be saved and given new or upgraded accommodation.
Ministers think patients will benefit from having a full range of diagnostic
tests closer to their homes. But the move will reduce the income of the big
hospitals, with A&E departments offering a full range of medical services.
Some may be forced to close departments. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Thursday December 21, 2006 The Guardian |
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It's not
privatisation, but Care UK's hospital job could be profitable. Robert
Cole, market analyst for the Times, writes: "As stock exchange statements
go, the one from Care UK looked like pretty small beer. In terms of
healthcare provision across the country, it is more significant than it
looks. The quoted nursing home company, which has set out its stall to take
business offered by the Department of Health under the
Independent Sector
Treatment Centre (ISTC) scheme, could equate to some seriously large
potatoes. The deal is not done or dusted. But Care - through a 50 per
cent-owned joint venture company called Partnership Health Group (PHG) - has
won preferred bidder status on a contract to run
Royal South Hants Hospital and Lymington New Forest Hospital. Care and
PHG will not own any of the facilities, but if it moves from preferred
bidder to contract winner, as is likely, Care will have day-to-day
responsibility for administrating the medical establishments from top to
bottom. It will do everything from ensuring that surgeons are suitably
supported in operating theatres to seeing that gardeners have the
wherewithal to keep the hedges trimmed. It is not the first time Care has
got this close to winning a contract of this sort. But it is the largest
deal it has sought and, if the company proves it can handle the
responsibility, it could be the first of many… The best guess is that Care's
earnings will rise by about 10 per cent in two years. That is insufficient
to explain the fact that Care shares trade on a price-earnings multiple of
25. But if it secures some other contracts and keeps the nursing home
business ticking over, there is hope of share price appreciation." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Times
22 December 2006 |
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Private firm is
awarded total control of NHS hospital. The first NHS hospital to be put
under the total control of a private company has been announced by the
Department of Health. In a further erosion of the health service's role as
sole provider of healthcare for NHS patients, ministers have awarded a
five-year contract to manage the new Lymington New Forest Hospital in
Hampshire to the Partnership Health Group, a partly owned subsidiary of
Care UK. PHG will run all services at the 60-bed hospital, built for £36m
under the private finance initiative, including the minor injuries unit,
x-ray, urgent care and medical admissions. The company will deliver about
40,000 emergency and non-emergency operations and procedures. Doctors and
nurses will be seconded from the NHS to work alongside staff employed
directly by PHG. The NHS's South Central strategic health authority said:
"The contract with the independent sector provider will be the first in the
country where the provider will manage the services at a whole NHS site. It
is also the first contract where the independent sector will be running
urgent care services with a state-of-the-art medical admissions unit." Karen
Jennings, head of health at the public sector union Unison, said: "Handing
over the running of the new hospital in Lymington represents a fundamental,
seismic shift towards pushing entire communities out of the NHS and into the
private sector. We fear this is just the first wave." Care UK expects to
take over responsibility of the hospital in July. Yvonne LeBrun, area
director of care services for Hampshire primary care trust, said:
"Healthcare at the Lymington New Forest Hospital will continue to be funded
by the NHS and it will remain an NHS facility. Hospital services will be
designed by the NHS to meet the needs of the community." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Guardian
23 December 2006 |
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Healthcare that's
fit for the 21st century? A 107-bed, three-storey building on the
outskirts of
Lymington is to be officially opened on Tuesday 9 January and will soon
be the first complete NHS hospital to be run by the
private sector.
Lymington New Forest Hospital has been dubbed a "one-stop-shop",
incorporating appointment, consultant, diagnosis and treatment services -
all under one roof. Built by Ryhurst under the private finance initiative,
health bosses took official ownership of the building last week. That came
as the Department of Health announced it wanted Partnership Health Group (PHG),
a private company, to run all services at the hospital from July in a first
scheme of its kind in the country. Hampshire Primary Care Trust will run it
until then. PHG will invest £21m. The project is set to include a new 20,000
patient a year treatment centre at Royal South Hants Hospital in Southampton
from 2008. The six-ward Lymington hospital will employ about 400 staff and
see about 45,000 patients a year through its 8am to 10pm minor injures unit,
outpatient clinics and diagnostic treatment centre, which will carry fast,
prebooked day and short-stay surgery such as cataract removal, hip and knee
replacements and hernia repair. The hospital has two theatres, two endoscopy
suites, a larger radiology department with a CT scanner from next month, two
ultrasound suites, medical and surgical day units, stroke rehabilitation and
a surgical ward. There will be also be an urgent care centre plus support
services such as a pharmacy, education and training centre. Half of the beds
will be immediately filled by patients who are being transferred from the
existing Lymington hospital, in Southampton Road, which will be closed. The
site is being sold off to a developer to build 41 houses. PHG - jointly
owned by Care UK Plc and Life Healthcare - currently operates
NHS treatment
centres in
Plymouth,
Barlborough, near Chesterfield, and
Maidstone.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Salisbury
Journal 8 January 2007 |
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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 |
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Another ward
shuts in drive for efficiency. Winchester hospital chiefs have announced
the latest ward closure in an attempt to cut costs and balance the books.
Under its financial recovery plan,
Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare Trust, which runs the Royal
Hampshire County Hospital and Andover War Memorial Hospital, needs to save
£11.2m by April. The cash-strapped trust is proposing to cut 125 beds, equal
to four whole wards, as well as shed 310 jobs within three years. Two wards
at the RHCH have closed since last October, plus five beds in family
services. Now the plan is to close a further 21 beds by May. Clarke Ward,
including six coronary beds will close, but four high dependency beds will
transfer to a high care cardiac bay in the intensive care unit. Hospital
managers say up to six beds on Clarke Ward will be kept as "contingency
beds" to be re-opened during busy times. Other wards are also being
reorganised, including Clifton ward and the stroke unit The financial
recovery plan hinges on selling off NHS property, including The Mount
Hospital in Eastleigh.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Hampshire
News 26 January 2007 |
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South African press probes Netcare as UK government audit chief voices
concerns over NHS outsourcing. A statement from clinical negligence
solicitors Michelmores reads: "Michelmores' head of clinical negligence,
Laurence Vick, was interviewed this week for South African newspaper, Business
Day, over the firm's involvement with orthopaedic claims arising out of the
Haslar outsourcing project. This was an NHS contract that saw Netcare, the
largest healthcare provider in South Africa, treating 1000 NHS orthopaedic
patients at MoD Royal Hospital Haslar in
Hampshire in late 2003 and early 2004. Netcare reacted to suggestions that
their main focus must have been patient number targets rather than clinical care
by dismissing any complaints as "isolated incidents". We believe that the
orthopaedic cases could reflect wider concerns about the delivery of NHS
healthcare by private providers. A Channel 4 News special report on the 7th
December 2005, in which Laurence Vick was interviewed, raised issues relating to
Netcare's provision of both orthopaedic and ophthalmic surgery. The BBC has also
commented on what it regards as plans to emasculate the clinical role of Primary
Care Trusts by reformulating them as purely commissioning bodies. On 11th
November 2005, it described the whole question of private sector involvement in
the NHS as a "niggling sore that will not go away". In another recent
development, the outgoing head of the Audit Commission, James Strachan, told the
BBC on 3rd January 2006 of his concerns that "outsourcing significant slices of
NHS work" has had adverse implications for the way that the NHS works. The Audit
Commission is a government public spending watchdog whose comments are seen as
authoritative. The warning reinforces the concerns of Laurence Vick, who has
been leading the debate over the risks that NHS outsourcing might pose to
patient safety. The move to have increasing volumes of NHS surgery performed by
the private health sector is a key initiative in the government's health
strategy. Laurence Vick says, 'At last there are signs that the crucial issues
surrounding private NHS outsourcing will be aired and debated thoroughly. They
are too important to be overlooked in the quest to drive down waiting lists. If
we are to have an additional tier of healthcare delivery within the NHS there
must be adequate procedures in place to monitor results and audit outcomes.'"
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Michelmores
5 February 2007 |
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Protests over
blood centre cuts. Hundreds of NHS workers are set to protest against
plans to close blood centres across England. Demonstrations are planned
outside many centres including those in
Leeds,
Birmingham,
Sheffield and
Southampton. Unions are campaigning to halt plans to centralise work in
three centres in London, Bristol and Manchester. The union Amicus has voted
to take industrial action but the National Blood Service denies patients
will be put at risk by the changes. Amicus official Owen Granfield said: "If
we only have three sites in the UK, it would be impossible to maintain the
right levels of blood stock and patients may go short of blood products and
services." Bill Campbell, national officer of Unison, said it was wrong to
make cuts in a "life-saving service". "Closing centres will mean precious
blood supplies will have to be transported from one end of the country to
the next. The National Blood Service should look again at these proposals
and make their decisions on what will help to save the most lives, not what
will save the most money." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of BBC
Online 14 February 2007 |
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Health trust 'on
target' to break even this year.
Winchester hospital trust has "a good chance" of balancing the books in
three months, although costs still need to be cut. In December the trust,
which runs the Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Andover War Memorial
Hospital, managed to control running costs for the first time in nine
months. The trust has an accumulative overspend of £653,000 and is £500,000
adrift of its financial recovery plan. The trust ended the financial year
2005/ 06 £3m overspent. A large
charitable donation and a "war chest" of past savings could help plug the
estimated £1m black hole in its budget this spring, the board heard. Up to
125 beds and 310 jobs are to be axed over three years as part of a plan to
turn around debts and get back in the black. Other cost-cutting measures
included asking office staff to empty their own bins and reducing the number
of delayed discharges.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Hampshire
News 19 February 2007 |
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Protesters march
against NHS privatisation. Protestors took to the streets of
Hampshire to get their campaign against the privatisation of the NHS
noticed. Noisy marches took place in Winchester and Lymington, amid the busy
shopping crowds. The events were organised by public services union Unison
as part of the nationwide NHS Together Day of Action and were attended by
healthcare workers and supporters. In Lymington, the protest was against the
privatisation of the new Lymington New Forest Hospital. Bobby Noyes,
chairman of the Southampton Unison health branch, added: "There was no
consultation concerning the private company that's going to be taking over
the running of Lymington hospital. The Department of Health just told the
PCT that the hospital was going out to tender in the private sector. It
means we will finish up with a dual system of healthcare." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Hampshire
News 5 March 2007 |
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Storm over injured troops' care fails to save military hospital.
Defence chiefs vowed to press ahead with the closure of Britain's last
military hospital yesterday despite growing concern about the standard of
care offered to injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Amid
complaints about the plight of severely injured soldiers at Selly Oak
hospital in
Birmingham and revelations that the record numbers of troops returning
with mental illnesses are having to wait up to 18 months for treatment, the
surgeon general, Lieutenant General Louis Lillywhite, insisted that the
Ministry of Defence will not change strategy. Britain will become the only
country in Europe without a dedicated military hospital this month when
Haslar hospital at Gosport,
Hampshire, is closed. Troops will be treated at Selly Oak. Yesterday the
relatives of soldiers being treated there disclosed the contents of letters
sent to ministers alleging neglect and substandard care. Concerns were also
voiced by Lord Guthrie, the former defence chief of staff, who accused
senior medical officers and ministers of a "lack of leadership and drive".
The NHS immediately launched an investigation. But the surgeon general said
the complaints were at odds with views expressed by military patients at
Selly Oak this year, all of whom rated their treatment as "excellent, very
good or good". Hugh Muir
Monday March 12, 2007 The Guardian |
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£95m NHS parking
bill. Patients and visitors forked out £95million to park at NHS hospitals
last year. Two trusts earned more than £2m from car park charges, while another
30 topped £1m.
Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust and
Southampton University NHS Trust made the most. Judy Beard of Macmillan
Cancer Support said: "These figures are shocking. Parking should be free for
regular patients."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Mirror
19 March 2007 |
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Hospital car
parks make millions. Figures from the Estates Return Information
Collection have revealed that over 30 NHS trusts make over a million a year
in car parking charges, with some making over £2.2m. The top earners were
Southampton University Hospitals at £2.41m and
Cambridge University Hospitals, £2.26m. The total for trusts looked at
was £95m, however 74 trusts did not provide any figures. Macmillan Cancer
Support acting chief executive, Judy Beard, said: "These figures are
shocking. Cancer patients spend hundreds of pounds each year on hospital
parking. Macmillan wants to see all cancer patients travelling regularly for
treatment to be able to park free at hospital. NHS Trusts urgently need to
implement this guidance - it is shameful that cancer patients are still
paying to park at hospital." Sandra Gidley, Liberal Democrat health
spokesperson, described the figures as a "tax on the sick". Roy Lilley, a
former NHS trust manager, said: "Whilst most hospitals do have exemptions it
is very hard to figure out how you get an exemption. You should not have to
feel that you have to go begging for the refund. Where you pay there should
be a list saying this is how you do it."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of BBC
20 March 2007 |
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NHS crisis is
forcing cuts to maternity care, charity warns. Support for pregnant
women is being cut because of the NHS's financial troubles, a healthcare
charity has warned. The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) says it is receiving
"increasing reports" that NHS antenatal classes, breastfeeding services and
postnatal visits are being cancelled. NHS antenatal classes have been cut or
suspended in at least 10 areas in England and Wales, according to the NCT.
These are Romsey in
Hampshire;
Worcestershire; Newham in
London;
Watford; Gwent in south Wales; south-west
Kent;
Nottinghamshire;
Gloucestershire; Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire; and Wiltshire. The
NCT said it also understood that postnatal home visits have been stopped or
are facing cuts in Wiltshire and in east and north Hertfordshire, which
would mean new mothers have to travel to a clinic in order to receive
after-birth care. Press Association
Monday March 26, 2007 SocietyGuardian.co.uk
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Maternity care
cut 'to balance books'. Hampshire MP Sandra Gidley has condemned cuts or
reductions in antenatal services to tackle the NHS financial crisis. The
comments come in response to a report by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT)
which identified at least ten areas in England and Wales where antenatal
classes have been cut or "temporarily suspended", including Mrs Gidley's
constituency of
Romsey. Mrs Gidley said: "Antenatal classes help women prepare for
childbirth and knowing what to expect can help make the experience a more
comfortable and less medical one." A spokeswoman for the NCT said: "These
cuts in maternity services may reflect a more widespread pattern. The NCT is
concerned that these short-term measures to ease financial deficits are
having a negative effect on new parents and parents-to-be, preventing them
from getting the information and support they need at this important stage
in their lives." The Department of Health said that trusts were expected to
follow the guidelines within the Children's National Service Framework and
those provided by NICE. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Southern
Daily Echo 27 March 2007 |
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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
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Fresh blow to
faith in care records. Confidence in Connecting for Health's development
of care records has fallen to a new low with hospital staff claiming that a
patient administration system that will form part of the service is 'not fit
for purpose'. This comes on top of existing concerns about patient
confidentiality and the robustness of the national spine. Management at
Milton
Keynes General Hospital, one of the five trusts at which the Millennium
system has been rolled out, were sent a letter from 79 hospital doctors and
administrative staff reporting major problems. The Millennium system is a
patient administration system that includes a module allowing clinicians to
record medical problems and procedures directly onto the electronic patient
record. Staff reported that the system was 'clunky', and that patient notes
were lost or impossible to access. 'We cannot foresee the system working
adequately in a clinical context,' the letter said. 'It should not be
installed in any further hospitals. If it is not already too late, there is
a strong argument for withdrawing the care records service system from this
hospital.' Dr Paul Cundy, GPC IT subcommittee chair, said the faults
reported in Milton Keynes raised serious questions about the NHS care
records service project as a whole. A spokesperson for Connecting for Health
denied that the problems with Millennium would have a larger impact on the
care records service, but admitted there had been 'unacceptable problems'
that required 'immediate attention'. The other trusts at which Millennium
has been rolled out are Nuffield Orthopaedic,
Winchester, Buckinghamshire and
Weston. Staff at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre filed a serious
untoward incident after the system went live in December 2005, amid reports
of delayed treatments and lost patient records.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Pulse
20 April 2007 |
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MP quizzes
secretary over NHS web breach.
Portsmouth's Labour MP has challenged the health minister over
'dreadful' security lapses on an NHS website. Sarah McCarthy-Fry went
head-to-head with Patricia Hewitt over breaches in the on-line job
application website for junior doctors. The Medical Training Application
Service has been suspended after personal details of junior doctors
accidentally became accessible to the public. Ms Hewitt - who has faced
calls to resign over 'shambolic' medical training reform - was forced to
explain in the House of Commons what precautions she had ordered. Ms
McCarthy-Fry, MP for Portsmouth North, said: 'The website has been closed
while investigations into this dreadful security breach take place, quite
rightly, but has not yet re-opened. I was concerned that this delay could
jeopardise junior doctors' training. I asked the Health Secretary if she
could give any clearer indication of when the website would re-open.' The
health minister assured MPs that it would take a while to fix and she had
brought in technical experts to help restore confidence in the system.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Portsmouth
News 8 May 2007 |
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Maternity
shake-up delays. The future of maternity services will not be known
until the end of the year. A consultation into which birth centres will
remain open in the area is due to begin next month, but the options are yet
to be decided.
Hampshire Primary Care Trust has come under fire for the two-year delay
in proposals for the future of services that will impact on The Grange,
Petersfield; Blake, Gosport; and Fareham Community Hospital on the Coldeast
site. At the PCT board meeting members agreed to give the chairman,
Professor Jonathan Montgomery, the power to give the consultation the
go-ahead once they had each given him their thoughts. While the trust says
no decisions will be made until the consultation comes to an end on October
31, insiders say the move could see services in Gosport, Fareham, or
Petersfield expand. Plans could include upgrading the Grange to a
midwife-led unit.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Portsmouth
News 29 June 2007 |
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Would-be mother
loses out in fertility treatment lottery. When doctors told Claire Dando
she could never conceive naturally she was devastated but she put her faith
in the government's promise of free fertility treatment to couples like
them. She ticked all the boxes laid down by government guidelines; at 33,
she was in the right age group (between 23-39) and had a medically proven
problem. She also felt that, since an NHS consultant had misdiagnosed and
mistreated the cause of her infertility, setting her back 18 months, her
local trust would be sympathetic. Her local authority, North
Hampshire, has decided to ignore the health secretary's advice to all
trusts to offer at least one free IVF cycle to infertile couples who qualify
under guidelines set by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence
(NICE). Instead, it introduced its own age criteria of women between 36-39.
"The biggest thing is the lack of fairness. Some people can access it and
some can't. In Scotland, people get three free cycles. In some parts of
England, they get one, others two. People are told they are too young,
others too old. The government should be more honest about what they can
achieve or be more direct with the PCTs." Now 35, Ms Dando ought to be
eligible for free IVF next year at the
Berkshire
trust, where the criteria is the same as Hampshire. But she has now paid for
two IVF cycles privately, inadvertently making herself ineligible. She
believes it is means-testing by the back door. "Previous ability to pay
shouldn't be seen as continuing ability to pay. People borrow or somehow
scrape together enough money, but it doesn't mean they'll be able to do it
again. I If they gave one cycle to everyone eligible, it would be
equitable." She describes IVF on the NHS as a "Cinderella service", a
description that was backed by a recent report which concluded that trusts
are "reluctantly funding the barest minimum with which they can get away
with, if they fund any at all". She added: "If the NHS isn't going to fund
fertility treatment, then the government should take a much more active role
in the regulation of treatment to stop people being ripped off. Infertility
is definitely big business which is making a lot of people very rich. There
is no ceiling on what can be charged."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Guardian
13 August 2007
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£5 million
hospital expansion plan. A major £5m hospital expansion plan to provide
a better environment for patients going through cancer treatment has been
revealed. Health bosses have received the cash injection to revamp
Southampton General Hospital's pioneering blood disorder unit. The news
comes just 24 hours after proposals by Southampton University Hospitals NHS
Trust to slash £21m from its budget by introducing cost-cutting initiatives.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Basingstoke
Gazette 28 August 2007 |
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Government
overpays private groups 222m for NHS treatments. The government's
independent surgical treatment centre programme, under which it has
committed to purchasing 1.4bn of services, is running at 16% below capacity.
The remaining 222m is being paid regardless because most of the centre's
operators have negotiated contracts whereby the are paid the full sum
whether or not the NHS sends enough patients. A spokesman for the Department
of Health said: "Whole programme utilisation of the wave-one ISTC programme
is currently 84 per cent. Utilisation is the value of procedures used as a
percentage of the procured value." The department refused to comment on
individual centres as "specific details about individual schemes and their
contracts are commercially sensitive." However, it has been revealed that
Mercury Health's St Mary's NHS Treatment Centre in
Portsmouth is running at just 80 per cent of capacity, according to its
owner, Care UK. Another ISTC, Capio Healthcare's centre in
Reading,
was under performing considerably, but is now operating at 90% capacity. The
department of Health said the numbers were improving. Graham Kendall,
spokesman for the NHS Partners Network, the organisation representing
independent healthcare providers, said the deals were necessary to persuade
companies to make initial investment in the centres. Private investors
privately blame poor estimates of patient numbers, vested interests in the
NHS and institutional opposition from some elements within the NHS
hierarchy. Mr Kendall said: "Every provider is working to maximise take-up.
It's in the interests of all of the providers to treat as many people as
possible." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Times
19 September 2007 |
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Hospital will
remain closed to new patients. A Hampshire hospital will remain closed
to new patients until next year while an external investigation into patient
care is carried out, it has been revealed. And there is no guarantee that
the in-patient ward at Fordingbridge Hospital, will reopen once the
three-month inquiry is concluded. New Forest West MP Desmond Swayne
described the latest developments as "very worrying". Admissions to the
hospital's Ford Ward were controversially halted last week after
Hampshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) received what it described as a "very
serious complaint" about the quality of care at the facility. Forest MPs
have spoken of their fears that the suspension of admissions is a backdoor
attempt to close the hospital. PCT chief executive Gareth Cru | |