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.

  1. Charges
  2. Construction projects
  3. Resource shortfall Sources
  4. Treatment approval or not
  5. Withdrawal of Local Facilities - Sources
    Other
1 2 3 4 5

Summary articles
  2       A major public health disaster was avoided only 'by luck' after Labour's flagship hospital treated patients suffering from deadly contagious diseases in isolation facilities that did not work. The Observer has uncovered evidence that vital equipment at Norwich and Norfolk University Hospital for patients suffering from virulent strains of tuberculosis and other serious respiratory diseases, such as Sars, has never been operational. The hospital was built three years ago under the controversial private finance initiative (PFI) and was championed by New Labour as the future model for the NHS. Now, however, internal hospital correspondence has revealed that two 'containment' rooms which should have sealed in lethal infections by preventing contaminated air from escaping could have pumped the infected air into the public areas of the building. Antony Barnett, public affairs editor Sunday June 20, 2004 The Observer
  2       Banks and property developers made windfall profits of £73m by refinancing one of the Labour government's first privately financed hospitals, the 989-bed Norfolk and Norwich hospital, the National Audit Office reveals in a report published today. The windfall is the third to be disclosed by parliament's financial watchdog after complaints from MPs and the public. The other two are Fazakerley prison in Liverpool and the Dartford and Gravesham hospital. The report says that funding for five other privately financed hospitals - South Buckinghamshire, Calderdale, North Durham, Bromley and South Manchester - could also yield windfall profits for developers.  David Hencke, Westminster correspondent Friday June 10, 2005 The Guardian
    3     The first evidence that financial problems in the NHS are forcing trusts to ration operations came yesterday with an announcement that overweight people in East Anglia will be denied replacement joints, even if they are in serious pain. East Suffolk primary care trusts said patients will no longer be considered for hip and knee replacements at Ipswich hospital if they have a body mass index of more than 30, the clinical definition of obesity. John Carvel, social affairs editor Wednesday November 23, 2005 The Guardian
    3     A group of 27 consultant psychiatrists at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge warned yesterday that the government's squeeze on NHS deficits will put patients at risk of suicide and may lead to violent attacks in the community. Criticising the decision by the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, to crack down on deficits in the NHS, they said Cambridge and Peterborough mental health trust is being forced to make a £2m cut in services to bail out other NHS organisations. John Carvel, social affairs editor Thursday December 8, 2005 The Guardian
        5 West Suffolk consultation sees huge response. Over 3000 people took part in West Suffolk PCT's consultation over proposed cuts. The cuts could affect Sudbury's Walnuttree Hospital, Bartlett Hospital at Felixstowe, Newmarket Hospital, West Suffolk Hospital, Hartismere Hospital at Eye and St Clements Hospital at Ipswich. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of BBC Online 14 December 2005
    3 4   The decision by some NHS trusts to deny hip and knee replacement surgery to obese patients has been criticised by doctors. Last month it emerged that obese people would not be entitled to such surgery on the NHS in East Suffolk. The ruling came as part of a series of measures to be taken by the three primary care trusts in the area in an attempt to save money locally for the NHS. It is believed that the risks of operating on obese patients are higher and the treatment may be less effective, with replacement joints wearing out sooner. But Nicholas Finer, a consultant in obesity medicine at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, challenged claims that surgery could be withheld on the grounds of increased risks for obese people, saying no evidence supports withholding joint replacement from obese people. Friday December 16, 2005 6:58 AM
    3     Cash crisis may force GPs' surgery to close for month. Doctors at a practice in Combs Ford, near Stowmarket, Suffolk, have said they will have to close for a month in March if East Suffolk PCTs go ahead with a proposal to defer the March payment of GPs until the new financial year in April. The surgery would only treat its 9,000 patients in "life-threatening emergencies". In a monthly newsletter Dr Jackie Muir said: "I am writing this notice to inform you that, if we are not paid in March, then the surgery will be forced to close, except for life-threatening emergencies. We hope that you will support us in our protest against the continuing under-funding of the NHS." East Suffolk PCTs are forecasting a deficit of over £40m.  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Daily Telegraph 21 December 2005
    3     No Christmas gifts for Cambridge NHS. Patricia Hewitt told the Cambridge Evening News she would not step in to avert cuts to Cambridgeshire's mental health budget totalling £3 million. Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire PCTs have a predicted deficit of £18 million, but Hewitt reiterated the government's zero tolerance policy to NHS debts. She said: "I am not sitting on a pot of gold in the Department of Health that is available to come to the rescue. I know of places who have got these deficits and they have said "can't you help us ?" I have said the only way we can help is for other parts of the country to underspend and lend you money…Cambridge has been in a very fortunate position compared to other parts of the country." Hewitt rejected the claim made by 27 psychiatric consultants who wrote a letter claiming that the government was "unmoved" by the magnitude of the proposed cuts: "I do not accept that at all…One of my own sisters suffered from very serious mental illness. It is an aspect of health care I feel particularly strongly about from my own personal experience…In relation to the consultants' concerns, which are very serious, these are going to be considered very carefully by the PCTs and the Mental Health Trust before decisions are made on the proposals that have been put forward."  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Cambridge Evening News 6 January 2006
    3     Mental health charity warns of "devastating" cash cuts. The chief executive of East Suffolk Mind says the charity may have to reduce services to tackle a possible budget shortfall of £200,000 next year, because of cuts by beleaguered East Suffolk PCTs and the county council. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 9 January 2006
        5 MP speaks of despair at hospital axe. Sir Michael Lord, Tory MP for central Suffolk and north Ipswich, has urged Suffolk County Council's health scrutiny committee to refer East Suffolk PCTs' plans to close Hartismere Hospital in Eye back to Patricia Hewitt. He said the consultation was "farcical" since the closure of the hospital was the only option proposed. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 9 January 2006
    3     Vigil planned over mental health cuts. Mental health patients and staff will be holding a silent vigil to draw attention to proposed cuts in Cambridgeshire. There will be a particular focus on the Young People's Service, which helps young people with problems including anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and eating disorders, and is facing closure. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Cambridge Evening News 10 January 2006
    3     Church steps into NHS funding row in Suffolk. The church is lobbying Suffolk MPs over the funding crisis in the local health economy. 40 chaplains and parish priests from all denominations shared concerns over mental health services, poor rural provision and the national distribution of resources to Suffolk with MPs Richard Spring and David Ruffley. The churchmen said they are having to "pick up the pieces" left by inadequate NHS funding. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 16 January 2006
        5 Bid to save hospitals looks set to fail. East Suffolk PCTs have been accused of ignoring their own consultation exercise with the decision to close a host of hospitals in the region. The overwhelming majority of more than 30,000 people who took part in the consultation fiercely opposed the closures of mental health services and hospitals. But the PCTs, £20m in debt and rising, will push ahead with the cuts regardless, including the closure and sale of the Bartlet Hospital in Felixstowe and Hartismere Hospital in Eye, and cuts to beds at Aldeburgh Hospital. The PCTs said the negative responses to the consultation was partly due to the way the questions were drafted in the questionnaire. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 23 January 2006
        5 Fight to save hospitals intensifies. Campaigners against the closure of the Bartlet Hospital and Hartismere Hospital have vowed to fight on against East Suffolk PCTs' decision to close and sell the institutions. The Hartismere Hospital League of Friends are taking legal advice and are especially concerned with the fact that the views of the public, overwhelmingly expressed in the consultation, have been ignored. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 23 January 2006
        5 Government will not save hospitals. The shift in policy towards favouring community hospitals will not save threatened institutions across Suffolk. The Walnuttree in Sudbury, the Hartismere in Eye and the Bartlet in Felixstowe will still close. Lord Warner said that old buildings are not fit for purpose, but campaigners responded by saying the buildings are functional and there will be nothing to replace them if they go.  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of East Anglian Daily Times 1 February 2006
      4   Most doctors want a public debate about the acceptability of refusing treatment to people who smoke or drink too much, according to a poll today in BMA News. The doctors were asked if they agreed with a cost-cutting decision by Suffolk East primary care trust to withhold joint surgery from the clinically obese. Four in 10 doctors thought the trust was right, and the same proportion wanted the policy to be widened to exclude smokers and excessive drinkers from certain clinical procedures. Although half the doctors took the opposite view, 96% said it was time for an open debate on rationing. John Carvel Friday February 3, 2006 The Guardian
    3     Hospital trust to cut 'modern matron' jobs. A hospital trust is considering axing half of its modern matron posts amid cuts to clinical staff brought on by the cash crisis, in a move that will embarrass the government over its attempt to 'bring back matron'. Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is considering losing 185 staff - of which 100 will be clinical posts, mostly nurses - over two years to deal with a £2m deficit. While the trust hopes to achieve this by natural wastage, the plans include reducing the 12 modern matron posts to 7, with the rest likely to have to reapply for lower-paying positions. The Royal College of Nursing has said it is concerned that trusts are targeting experienced nurses to cut costs. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Telegraph 6 February 2006
        5 Health campaigners' time plea rejected. Suffolk West PCT has turned down calls from campaigners to delay a decision on the closure of the Walnuttree and St Leonard's hospitals, expected in two weeks. Campaigners want the hospitals to continue until a new health campus in Sudbury opens in 2007. Colin Spence, chairman of the Walnuttree Hospital Action Committee, said: "The white paper states that community hospitals should not simply be closed because of short-term budgetary pressures, if they are clinically viable and local people wish to use them. Community hospitals such as Walnuttree and St Leonard's in Sudbury are quite clearly clinically viable, as are other community hospitals in Suffolk, since they continue to deliver highly valued and effective recuperation and rehabilitation services for local people."  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of East Anglian Daily Times 9 February 2006
    3     £3m mental health cuts put on hold. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mental Health Partnership Trust's plan to slash spending by £3m has been put on hold after councillors decided to refer the measure to Patricia Hewitt for review. The review process could take between four weeks and several months, during which time cuts cannot be made. The council's Scrutiny Committee referred the case to Hewitt on the grounds they would not benefit health services. Councillor Geoff Heathcock, committee chairman, said: "The committee considers these cuts will have a negative impact on people with mental health problems and their carers and we want the minister to persuade the PCTs to reduce the scale of any reduction to mental health services." However in December Hewitt told the Cambridge Evening News that she backed the cuts.  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Cambridge Evening News 10 February 2006
    3     Hospital fees rises hurt health finances. Norfolk's cash-strapped health trusts are objecting to being forced to pay above the odds for patients treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. South Norfolk PCT's finance director Matt Colmer said that since the hospital introduced a payment by results the amount the PCT was paying had increased from £2.6m to £3.2m. The PCT, facing a deficit of £6.8m, previously had a block contract with Addenbrooke's. But the hospital introduced payment by results after becoming a foundation trust in 2004.  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Eastern Daily Press 10 February 2006
    3     Cambridge Keep Our NHS Public welcomes decision to refer cuts to health secretary. Cambridgeshire County Council's health Scrutiny Committee has referred the planned £3m cuts to mental health services to Patricia Hewitt. But Cambridge Keep Our NHS Public has warned that plans by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mental Health Trust to gain foundation status by 2008 will spell further disaster for local services. Keep our NHS Public 13 February 2006
    3     Fears as cancer services face shake-up. Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA has launched the Anglia Cancer Network, which will see caner services reconfigured across the region. The SHA has called this a managerial and administrative change, meaning it does not have to consult, but critics point out that when similar steps were taken in Essex they were classed as service changes. The shake-up will see cancer services focused on the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and the Cambridge University Hospitals/ Papworth Hospital. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of East Anglian Daily Times 13 February 2006
    3     Cash crisis hits west Norfolk health. NHS trusts in west Norfolk are facing a financial crisis after being told that next year's funding from the Department of Health will be millions less than expected. The news will have a knock-on effect for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, with a deficit of £11m. West Norfolk PCT had pledged to help the hospital out of its debts, but finance chiefs from the Trust last week went to the QEH to inform the hospital that this was no longer possible as the financial position was a lot worse than predicted. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Eastern Daily Press 13 February 2006
        5 Legal fight to stop hospital closure. Campaigners in Newmarket are meeting lawyers in preparation for a decision by Suffolk West PCT on whether to close Newmarket Hospital. Closure is one proposal for the hospital, which has already been reduced to 16 beds as the PCT struggles with an estimated £20m deficit. In the event of closure campaigners would seek a judicial review, which would mean the beds being kept open while the legal process was ongoing. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of East Anglian Daily Times 13 February 2006
        5 Health cuts D-day delayed after mix-up. Health cuts in West Suffolk have been put on hold after a petition of more then 11,000 signatures and 5,000 letters were misdirected. They were sent to the Department of Health rather then West Suffolk PCT, which was consulting on proposed changes. The Walnuttree Hospital Action Group alerted the trust to the situation. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of East Anglian Daily Times 15 February 2006
    3     Warnings over NHS debt. There have been warnings of rationing NHS services in East Anglia as the region faces a £100m health budget deficit. Two reports by the Audit Commission into the financial problems facing Suffolk East PCTs and Suffolk West PCT have found they face a combined debt of more than £33m this year and, according to district auditor Robert Davies, their "immediate financial viability" is in doubt because of the extent of likely overspends. Jenny Brabazon, of the Suffolk Coastal PCT patient and public involvement forum, warned that further rationing of services is likely. New projects are also at risk, including sexual health services and new osteoporosis services, together with plans to increase the number of school nurses, develop mental health services and encourage new mums to breast-feed. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Eastern Daily Press 16 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 
    3     West Norfolk NHS warning. A £7m NHS funding shortfall will have repercussions for support groups and their services, health workers have warned. West Norfolk PCT says it will not be investing in any new programmes next year. This will affect schemes to improve sexual health, osteoporosis services, plans to increase the number of school nurses, the development of mental health services and projects to encourage new mums to breastfeed. The funding shortfall will also affect Queen Elizabeth's hospital in King's Lynn, which will be left with an extra £2m shortfall. Local health groups blame the government rather than the PCT.  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Eastern Daily Press 17 February 2006
    3     London's health authorities warn overspend of up to £400m likely. London's five strategic health authorities, and the five that surround them, are currently projecting an overspend of at least £378m based on December's figures, with some saying the numbers could rise. This means the figure for the London area alone is twice what the Department of Health ordered the entire NHS to reduce its overspend to - £200m. Surrey and Sussex is projecting an £87m deficit, North West London is projecting a £106m deficit (up almost £10m on the September figure), South West London £30m and South East London more than £39m. Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire predicts a £95m overspend, and while the figures for other London and home counties authorities are lower, only one, North Central London, expects to break even. None is forecasting a surplus. Further afield, the Audit Commission has issued public interest reports on Suffolk's PCTs, warning they are heading for a £33.6m overspend and that their "immediate financial viability is placed in doubt". Meanwhile, Tony Blair has met the NHS Partners Network, a new body representing 11 private sector organisations that are supplying operations and diagnostic procedures to NHS patients through IS-TCs. This has led to the effective collapse of the private sector's trade body, the Independent Healthcare Forum, which included insurance companies who called for tax breaks on private medical insurance. In contrast the Partners Network has issued a document declaring that "we support the NHS - in principle and in practice" and that they have a "commitment to [its] future success".  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Financial Times 17 February 2006
    3     Hewitt to look at trust plan. The decision to refer mental health cuts to Patricia Hewitt has been welcomed by the Cambridge branch of Keep Our NHS Public. Martin Booth, the chairman of the group, said: "The Government is directly responsible for the current crisis in the NHS. We need extra funding and instead Patricia Hewitt is burying her head in the sand and refusing to budge on this issue. Her zero-tolerance policy on funding for Cambridge has led to wards being closed and services slashed." Cambridge Keep Our NHS Public is also opposing Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mental Health Partnership Trust's bid for foundation trust status.  Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Cambridge Evening News 20 February 2006
    3     Care trusts to get council loan. Cambridge County Council is to offer a loan of £2.5m to cash-strapped local PCTs, following a request for financial support. PCTs in Cambridgeshire are facing a total deficit of more than £22m. Cambridge City and South Cambs PCT alone has a shortfall of about £17m. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of BBC Online 21 February 2006
          Minister's visit hijacked. A senior doctor attacked health minister Rosie Winterton for investing £2.2m in life-saving equipment at her Norfolk hospital only for it now to be standing idle with no money for extra staff while the NHS pays a private provider to carry out scans in the car park. Winterton was visiting the James Paget Hospital at Gorleston when consultant radiologist Dr Eryl Thomas told her that two new CT scanners and a new MRI scanner, bought for £2.2m, were lying mostly unused. Meanwhile a mobile scanner, operated by Alliance Medical and paid for by the NHS, is based the hospital car park for 21 days a year. Dr Thomas said it was "ludicrous" that all scanning work had to be outsourced to private companies, with the hospital left scanning only the patients deemed "too difficult" for the companies to deal with. She said: "The Government has decided in its wisdom that it wants to encourage private entrepreneurs. I could understand that position if we were fully employed but as it is it's ridiculous. The Government was very extravagant with its gift of new scanners. I can't pretend we weren't pleased. But they haven't done their sums as there's no prospect of us getting the running costs for them for at least another year...We have very sick patients here and it takes a lot of time to scan them all. We can only run one of these scanners at any one time and we must be allowed to invest in staff." According to the Society of Radiographers about 80% of hospitals are running under capacity for scanning but still have to outsource work to private companies. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 22 February 2006
        5 Young mental health services axed. Cambridge City and South Cambs PCTs have decided to axe the Young People's Service as part of cuts to claw back £3m of a £17m overspend. Health professionals and former patients have been campaigning for six months against the cuts. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 23 February 2006
        5 No closure on campaigns to save cottage hospitals. Some hospitals may be reprieved following the white paper on out of hospital care, but many of remain under threat. Suffolk Coastal PCT was not swayed by either local protest or the white paper to change community hospital closure plans. Kennett and North West Wiltshire and West Wiltshire PCTs' joint chief executive, Carol Clarke, said campaigners battling to save nine local hospitals had misinterpreted the policy vision. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Health Service Journal 23 February 2006
        5 Hospital closures put on hold. Two under-threat Suffolk hospitals were given a last minute lifeline after Suffolk's Health Scrutiny Committee voted to refer a decision on the possible closure of services Patricia Hewitt. This means a temporary reprieve for the Bartlet Hospital, in Felixstowe, Hartismere Hospital, in Eye, and 20 beds at Aldeburgh Hospital. East Suffolk PCTs, which are £19.8m in debt, said the committee's decision let the people down. However the committee backed changes to the mental health services in the area that mean Ipswich's Bridge House and The Hollies, Old Fox House, in Stowmarket, which provide services for people with mental health problems, will be closed and services instead offered within the community. Day hospitals offering services to elderly people with mental health problems in Kesgrave, Saxmundham and Stowmarket will also be axed. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 01 March 2006
    3     Suffolk overspend tops £30m. Ipswich, Central Suffolk and Suffolk Coastal PCTs - which work together as Suffolk East PCTs - and Suffolk West PCT have a combined deficit of £30m and are still spending more money than they have coming in, according to public interest reports by the Audit Commission. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Health Service Journal 2 March 2006
    3     Health care hit by £10m fine. It has emerged that deficits across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire are being funded with NHS loans that carry a 10% penalty clause if not repaid by the end of the financial year on March 31. With the region heading for an overspend of £100m the punitive charges look set to hit the £10m mark on projected end-of-year figures. The loans were secured in January 2005 when Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA gave PCTs a "stay of execution" on last year's debt crisis and agreed to defer half their deficit to March 2006, on the condition that if they could not pay it back by then a 10% penalty would be imposed. Local MPs have condemned the system as harming patients. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Eastern Daily Press 6 March 2006
    3     NHS: no cash to pay for ops. Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has been told to halt its additional operating sessions, peg capacity at current levels and put the brakes on making further inroads into waiting lists. Surgeons at the James Paget Hospital, Gorleston, and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, are facing similar restrictions. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Eastern Daily Press 6 March 2006
        5 Town councillors attack NHS cuts. Town councillors at Framlingham have said that discussions over the reconfiguration of local hospitals and services where "window dressing" and that the decisions had already been made. Suffolk East PCTs are proposing cut backs at several community hospitals. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 9 March 2006
        5 Botched operation. West Suffolk PCT has proposed the closure of two hospitals in Sudbury, one of which has a well-used outpatients' department. Patients would have to take a 75-minute bus ride to Bury St Edmunds. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Telegraph 12 March 2006
    3     Fears of £22m shortfall at Norfolk and Norwich. Managers at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital have criticised the government's decision to increase the payment by results tariff by only 1.5% for the next financial year. They say it will lead to a £22m funding shortfall in 2006-7. N& N executives are urging the government to think again amid growing anger over PFI funding and a lack of notice on budget plans. Hospital chairman David Prior said: "This is incredibly serious and goes right to the heart of the hospital. We are going to have to use every weapon in our armoury. It's not possible to save that sort of money in the short term." The government was also accused of reneging on a promise to pay an annual £3.8m 'smoothing payment' on N& N's controversial PFI deal. The payment was originally set for the course of the 30-year deal, but from next year it will be halved to £1.3m then scrapped. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 14 March 2006
    3     Hospital trusts reduce deficits. Bill Moyes, chairman of the foundation trust regulator Monitor, expects 28 hospitals to be awarded foundation status by next March - meaning the total number will double. Bradford, Peterborough and Stamford, and Royal Devon and Exeter foundation trusts have cut their deficits this year, but UCHL's has grown. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Times 14 March 2006
        5 Community Hospitals at risk in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire  SHA according to Public Finance 17 March 2006:
Hartismere Hospital
Aldeburgh and District Community Hospital
Felixstowe General Hospital
Bartlet Hospital
Newmarket Hospital
Walnuttree Hospital, Sudbury
St Leonard’s Hospital, Sudbury
Doddington Hospital
    3     Use £19b reserves to save Suffolk NHS. Conservative John Gummer has discovered there is a reserve of £19bn in the National Insurance Fund, and the money is ring-fenced, which means it can only be spent on pensions and the health service. He is calling on Gordon Brown and Patricia Hewitt to use the money to wipe out NHS debts. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 18 March 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     Budget crisis hits hospital jobs. Job losses at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital are inevitable, according to the chief executive. The hospital is facing a £22m shortfall in its budget. MPs Ian Gibson and Norman Lamb said 700 jobs could be lost, and they are to write to the health minister to ask her to tackle the problem. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 28 March 2006
    3     Hospital warns of further bed closures. There will be further bed closures as the debt-ridden Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn tries to claw back its mutli-million pound deficit. Many posts will not be filled and a review is under way to lose around a further 24 beds. Already around 70 vacant posts have not been filled. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 29 March 2006
  2       Ipswich PFI financial close. The Ipswich Hospitals Garret Anderson Centre project has reached financial close. The £26m, 30 year PFI project will see Prospect Healthcare - a consortium of Kier and HSBC - building the new centre, which will include a new emergency department, a critical care centre, and a day surgery suite. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  PFI.net 31 March 2006
    3     NHS trust sells car park for £4m. West Suffolk Hospital Trust, which is more than £12m in debt, has sold off a hospital car park for nearly £4m. Private company Vinci Park will manage car parking at the Bury St Edmunds site from 18 April. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 3 April 2006
    3     Mental health faces £5m deficit. Job cuts are anticipated after Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Partnership revealed an estimated £5.2m shortfall in its budget for 2006 to 2007. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 4 April 2006
    3     100 jobs set to go at hospital. 100 jobs are to go at the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk, to cope with government demands that it cuts its budget by 3%. Officials hope this can be achieved by non-replacement rather than redundancies. The hospital has broken even for the last 13 years. Chairman John Hemming said: "The staff have delivered everything that has been required while at the same time achieving the top ranking of three stars. It is therefore very disappointing that the national settlement for hospitals will require a reduction in staffing levels." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 5 April 2006
1         Fury over hospital car park deal. Unions are furious about West Suffolk Hospital's plans to sell its car park to a private firm for almost £1m less than the deal could be worth. The car park made more than £660,000 profit last year, which was ploughed back into patient services at the cash-strapped Bury St Edmunds hospital, and could be worth more than £4.6m over the next seven years. But it was instead sold for a one-off payment of £3.8m. Geoff Reason of Unison said: "We are very much against the sale of assets - the money should be used to support the hospital. It is putting our financial problems off into the future." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 5 April 2006
    3     Hospital brings in financial experts. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn is not ruling out job cuts in the long-term following the findings of leading consultants KPMG, who the hospital has called in and will pay for itself. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 6 April 2006
    3     Secret plan to ration patient care. Patients are being denied appointments with consultants in a systematic attempt to ration care and save the NHS money. The leaked document - 'Pan London Demand Management Arrangements 06-07' produced by the London Transition Team, led by John Bacon, a senior NHS manager - shows that while ministers promise patients choice, a series of barriers are being erected limiting GPs' rights to refer people to consultants. Health trusts across London have drawn up plans to establish panels that will monitor how many patients are referred to hospital by GPs. Trusts have been told that they must cut GP referral rates to those of the lowest 10%, saving £25m a year. Consultant-to-consultant referrals are also being limited, in many cases denying patients a second opinion. A& E departments are being told to "redirect" 40-70% of patients back to GPs or walk-in centres. Hospitals that treat people who ought to have been sent to their GPs will not be paid. The bureaucracy needed to screen all the referrals will itself cost £1.6m. The Times says: "The language of the document makes no pretence that this will improve care, and emphasises cost savings throughout. 'It is imperative that London balances its books overall,' the first paragraph says." The BMA says similar schemes are running in Kent, Oxfordshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Surrey, Sussex, Cornwall, Shropshire, Suffolk, Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as London. Jonathan Fielden, deputy chairman of the BMA consultants committee, said: "It's clear that clinicians don't know how these referral management systems aid improvements in clinical care. To them they are purely cost-saving. The way they work is not transparent or clear. If clinicians don't know, patients cannot know either. That certainly flies in the face of the Government's Patient Choice agenda." Myfanwy Davies and Glyn Elwyn, of the Centre for Health Services Research at Cardiff, said the centres had "appeared overnight in an evidence-free zone". Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Times 7 April 2006
        5 Call for hospital closure backed. Plans to close the Walnuttree community hospital in Sudbury, Suffolk, and instead buy in care from the private sector are set to be backed by West Suffolk Hospital Trust and Suffolk West PCT, despite a campaign and a 10,000-name petition against it. A report from the PCT recommends closing the hospital by the end of 2007, after a new health centre is built that will have no inpatient beds. Mike Stonnard, the PCT's chief executive, said that following public consultation it was decided that Walnuttree would not have to close by the end of 2006. He said the hospital trust board was being asked to support the closure of St Leonard's Hospital, Sudbury, and the transfer of its gynaecology, obstetrics and orthopaedic services to the Walnuttree. Once Walnuttree closed, beds needed for patients in the Sudbury area would be bought from the private sector. The report also recommends closing all inpatient beds at Newmarket hospital and closing the Sage older people's mental health day hospital in Newmarket, currently shut due to staff shortages. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 11 April 2006
        5 'Sort Suffolk's NHS out yourselves'. Tony Blair and Patricia Hewitt have refused to raise the lingering hopes of campaigners battling against the closure of cottage hospitals and community units in Suffolk. Hewitt acknowledged that hospital closures in the county were "extremely controversial", but insisted any decisions were best made "by the local NHS". She was commenting just hours after Suffolk West Primary Care Trust voted unanimously to close St Leonard's Hospital in Sudbury and remove all inpatient beds from Newmarket and Sudbury's Walnuttree Hospitals. A decision by Suffolk East PCTs to shut Hartismere Hospital in Eye, Felixstowe's Bartlet Hospital, and to axe some beds at Aldeburgh has been referred to Ms Hewitt for confirmation. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 13 April 2006
        5 New fears over health centre. Campaigners angry at the decision to close St Leonard's Hospital and shut all inpatient beds at the Walnuttree Hospital in Sudbury, Suffolk, have been told that plans for a new health centre in the town cannot be guaranteed because of the reconfiguration of PCTs.Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 13 April 2006
        5 Hospital cutbacks given the go-ahead. Defiant campaigners battling against plans to close every bed at Newmarket and Wanuttree hospitals hospitals have warned they will take their fight to the High Court. More than 100 staff at both hospitals face an uncertain future as bosses describe job cuts as "inevitable". Warwick Hirst, chairman of the Newmarket Health Forum, warned Suffolk West PCT: "We will be seeking a judicial review and taking appropriate legal advice over the closure of the beds." The county council's health scrutiny committee is due to meet on April 27 and could refer the decision to Patricia Hewitt.Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 13 April 2006
  2       Time to look at N&N deal again. A National Audit Office report on the controversial refinancing of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has made the case for a fairer funding deal "unanswerable", according to North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb, who wants the hospital to be treated as a special case. Commons Public Accounts Committee chairman Edward Leigh said that recent deals, including the refinancing of the N& N, showed that private-sector companies were still making "astronomical" profits while passing on added risk to public authorities. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of Eastern Daily Press 21 April 2006
    3   5 Children with cancer and leukaemia are among the frontline victims of sweeping cuts being forced through to contain the health service's ballooning financial deficits, nurses' leaders warned last night. The elderly and those with mental health problems are also suffering, with the closure of beds in community hospitals and the reduction in numbers of specialist nurses needed to treat them. Nurses' leaders yesterday published a dossier of examples to back their claims and said their research disproved ministers' assertions that trusts are seeking to balance their books without any detriment to patient care. The warning came as Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, came under widespread attack for claiming yesterday that the NHS had just enjoyed its "best year ever". In a speech to Unison's health conference in Gateshead today, Ms Hewitt is expected to offer a stark message that the NHS must "modernise or die". As part of a coordinated fightback she will say that, after the additional resources put into the service by Labour over the past few years, the NHS was now "back in business". Beverly Malone, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, roundly denounced Ms Hewitt, saying that if this was the best year for the NHS she dreaded to think what a worse one could be like. Drawing from RCN research, she gave examples of how patient care was being affected in second tier services for the vulnerable. Among the examples were:
  • Children with cancer and leukaemia in Taunton, Somerset, are no longer being treated by a community nurse because the local primary care trust withdrew funding it had promised to the cancer charity CLIC. The children now have to make long journeys for treatment, wrecking their chances of continuing a normal life in their own community.
  • Avon and Wiltshire mental health trust has cut the number of beds by more than 65 to less than 40. The frail and vulnerable have to go further afield for treatment.
  • In the Cotswolds, 80 community beds have been closed within the last three months to reduce deficits. A similar number have been lost in Felixstowe.
  • Ward closures in Skegness has led to patients having to travel 40 miles to Lincoln.
  • Minor injuries units are being closed and opening hours reduced.

Dr Malone said: "NHS deficits are hitting patient services; to claim otherwise is simply wrong. These are real services for real people with real illnesses, and we have got to stop treating them as statistics on a balance sheet." Yesterday it emerged that Downing Street received a report from his delivery unit last week pointing out that prospects for reaching 11 of the government's 28 health targets by 2008 were poor. The Department of Health declined to name the 11 targets that received "red traffic lights", but it was understood they included public health objectives such as improved sexual health and reduced children's obesity. John Carvel and Tania Branigan Monday April 24, 2006 The Guardian
    3     Region's NHS still £90m in the red. The NHS in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire remains more than £90m in debt - despite staff cutbacks and beds being axed. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 24 April 2006
    3     Trust plans to axe up to 450 jobs. Up to 450 jobs could be axed at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital this year as part of plans to reduce a £14.8m budget deficit. This is despite the fact that the trust board said a lower than expected national pay deal for NHS staff had shaved nearly £7m from its £22m shortfall for 2006/ 7. A trusts spokesman said: "We believe that if we took no other action to reduce pay and other costs we would need to lose approximately 450 posts during this year. Inevitably there will also be job losses and we expect that a significant number of these will be lost through normal staff turnover but sadly some redundancies may be inevitable." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  BBC Online 26 April 2006
        5 Anger as health service cuts accepted. A raft of cutbacks to health services in west Suffolk will not be referred to the Health Secretary. Members of Suffolk's health scrutiny committee narrowly voted against referring the Suffolk West PCT plans to Patricia Hewitt, by a margin of six to five. The decision - which comes just weeks after the same committee did refer proposals by East Suffolk PCTS - will see all inpatient beds at Newmarket Hospital and Sudbury's Walnuttree Hospital closed this autumn and replaced with beds purchased in the private sector. Sudbury's second hospital - St Leonard's - will be closed and sold. After the decision Suffolk West PCT chief executive Mike Stonard made a plea to those considering the possibility of a judicial review, saying: "It could delay the whole process for between six and twelve months." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglia Daily Times 28 April 2006
          A poultry worker has contracted the H7 strain of bird flu in the form of conjunctivitis, the Health Protection Agency confirmed last night. The affected person is thought to have contracted the infection via close contact on a Norfolk farm.  James Meikle Saturday April 29, 2006 The Guardian
    3     Salary hikes for health trust chiefs. Chief executives at debt-ridden NHS trusts have been awarded pay rises up to 12 times the rate of inflation. The average pay for a hospital chief executive last year was £125,000. The Sunday Telegraph survey of pay reports, compiled by the analysts Incomes Data Services for the financial years 2003-04 and 2004-05 and based on audited NHS accounts, found that. among the largest pay awards was that given to Derek Smith, the chief executive of Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, which has a deficit of £15 million and is shedding 300 jobs through freezing vacancies. He received a 35% increase in 2003-04, taking his pay from £157,500 to £214,000. His 2005 salary was £197,500, meaning he enjoyed a 25% rise over two years. At University Hospital of North Staffordshire, the former chief executive David Cowley, who left the trust last summer, enjoyed an 18% pay rise in 2004-05, from £127,700 to £150,700. The trust is facing a £15m deficit and has announced 1,000 job cuts. At the Royal West Sussex Hospital, the chief executive Andrew Liles received a 16% increase in 2004-05, from £90,000 to £105,000. The trust is facing a deficit of £13.9 million. At James Paget Healthcare NHS Trust in Norfolk, the chief executive David Hill received a 16.9% increase, from £118,000 to £138,000. There is no deficit, but 100 jobs are likely to go through a vacancies freeze. 115 executive directors of NHS trusts are flouting Department of Health guidance on openness and refusing to reveal their salaries, citing the Data Protection Act. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Telegraph 30 April 2006
  2       The impact of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the National Health Service will be questioned today in a highly critical report from parliament's spending watchdog. The public accounts committee details how some of the top business names in the country, including an arm of Barclays bank, took money out of a hospital project and left it with huge debts. The Norfolk and Norwich hospital is facing hundreds of job cuts as it seeks to balance its books, and there are concerns about the way the refinancing of other PFI hospitals may add to wider problems. Terry Macalister and John Carvel Wednesday May 3, 2006 The Guardian
1 2 3   5 The politics column - Allyson Pollock. In the New Statesman's main political column, Allyson Pollock writes: "According to Patricia Hewitt the NHS has had its best year ever. So why is the Royal College of Nursing threatening industrial action over cuts and closures, and why did the annual conference of Unison, traditional Labour supporters, greet the secretary of state with heckling? In her words, "the NHS must modernise or die". So why, from Surrey to Manchester and from Gateshead to Shropshire, are local people banding into hospital action groups and "Keep our NHS public" campaigns in an effort to defend the health service ? The chief targets for cuts are mental health services, palliative care, older people's care and emergency hospital care, yet Hewitt maintains, to general derision, that quality will not be affected… Pay accounts for 60-70 per cent of NHS hospital budgets, but pay awards accounted for less than 30 per cent of the new money and should have been absorbed easily. Nor was greed involved; the increases returned NHS pay to previous levels after years of pay freezes. The hourly rate of the lowest-paid rose initially from £5.16 to £5.67 an hour; medical consultants got increases of 4-5 per cent a year, taking them to averages of between £75,000 and £95,000, while managers - their numbers swollen by the complications of marketisation - got 7.5 per cent more last year. The real reason for the decision to axe in excess of 13,000 clinical staff and 1,000 NHS beds, plus associated services, is market-oriented reforms such as "choose and book", "payment by results" and foundation hospitals. Hospitals and services are required to behave like stand-alone companies, competing with each other and private corporations for income and patients… The government plans to hand over most of the NHS budget to the private sector through "practice-based commissioning". Under this policy, local PCTs will eventually contract with for-profit companies such as the US-owned UnitedHealth Europe to provide GP services… The Prime Minister asserts that the reforms are bearing fruit, and so they are - for "investors" such as the lucky shareholders of Norfolk and Norwich and Bromley PFI hospitals, who received a windfall of more than £500m within months of the new hospitals opening. But the PFI has been less "fruitful" for local people, who have seen a quarter of beds closed and clinical staff and community provision cut. A large part of hospital trust deficits is due to PFI debts, running at £1.5bn a year… And then there are the costs associated with establishing and operating a market - costs the NHS was explicitly designed to avoid: these are for invoicing, marketing, advertising, drawing up hundreds of thousands of contracts, legal disputes with contractors and rival hospitals, and using management consultants… And though NHS hospitals remain responsible for balancing their books, the government has ensured that the only way they can do so is by cuts, closures, the sale of land and buildings - and more privatisation. Some foundation trusts are entering joint ventures with companies such as the Hospital Corporation of America, providing care to private patients in what were previously NHS beds. Others are charging NHS patients for "extra" care: Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea NHS hospital has introduced a fee of £4,000 for one-to-one midwife care - once the NHS standard - and the government is allowing it. The less fortunate hospitals - if that is the right word - are closing services and sacking staff. Is this what the English patient needs or wants ?" Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  New Statesman 2 May 2006
  2       PFI Deal Extension is a 'leap in the dark'. Commenting on the Norfolk and Norwich PFI refinancing deal, Richard Bacon, public accounts committee member and MP for South Norfolk, said: "We should not be surprised that private sector companies seek to maximise their profits. What is shocking and unacceptable is that the Department of Health allowed a contract like this to be signed, which put the public sector in such a weak position. PFI has produced spectacular returns for investors but nurses and others hospital workers facing the sack will rightly feel very angry and will not understand how it has been allowed to happen." The committees report said Octagon's investors "took the benefits of refinancing immediately, whereas the N& N trust is receiving its share over 35 years". Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 3 May 2006
        5 Cottage hospitals are saved from the axe. Four cottage hospitals were saved from the axe as North Norfolk PCT sought ways to wipe out a £9m overspend. The move to close community facilities at Kelling Hospital, North Walsham Cottage Hospital, Cranmer House at Fakenham and Benjamin Court at Cromer was ruled out after GPs, nurses and clinicians spoke about its potential impact on services in north Norfolk. However cost-cutting measures will now mean patients waiting for non-urgent operations like hernias will face delays. There will also be a possible 20 job losses in areas yet to be revealed, and a cut in mental health funding. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 3 May 2006
  2       Watchdog brands profits on PFI scheme 'unacceptable'. The Commons Public Accounts Committee has condemned some of Britain's biggest investors in the private finance initiative as "the unacceptable face of capitalism". John Laing, Innisfree, 3i, Barclays Infrastructure and Serco were accused of taking gains "unacceptable even for an early PFI deal" from a refinancing of the £158m Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. The five, who make up the Octagon consortium that built and runs the hospital, made gains of £95m but left the hospital with extra potential liabilities of up to £257m should it need to terminate the contract early. The gains came from borrowing more at lower rates of interest over a much longer period than the original deal and allowed Octagon to more than triple its original expected internal rate of return from 19% to 60%. As a consequence, the Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust is committed to the contract for 39 years rather than 34 even though the committee noted that it was "impossible to predict that far in advance the nature and extent of services that may be needed." If the contract were terminated early, the hospital might have to pay up to £257m more. The refinancing produced gains of £129m. The NHS Trust, which had no contractual right to a share, received £34m under a voluntary agreement on refinancings negotiated by the Treasury. However, to receive even that, the trust accepted liability for all the £106m in extra borrowing that the consortium undertook. Edward Leigh, chairman of the committee, said: "This is taxpayers' money and the risk of this large liability was incurred essentially so that investors could have fatter returns". Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Financial Times 3 May 2006
  2       No cash for key heart surgery. Hundreds of patients across Norfolk look set to miss out on life-saving heart surgery closer to home because the cash-strapped NHS cannot afford the £1m bill for a new cardiac suite at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. The sum would allow the hospital to run its new angioplasty treatment service to its full potential. While 250 patients a year will benefit from the treatment without the new suite, another 750 will have to wait for an angioplasty at Cambridge and travel up to 75 miles. The most serious will remain on a ward in the N& N, effectively blocking beds, an issue which costs the hospital £2.4m a year. The news comes after it emerged that the Octagon consortium made a £116m profit from refinancing the N& N PFI deal. North Norfolk Norman Lamb MP has suggested that Octagon should stump up the £1m needed. He said: "I think this graphically illustrates the extent and impact of private profiteering with a hospital not being given the chance to invest in facilities that would provide enormous benefit to Norfolk patients." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 4 May 2006
  2       The high price of the PFI learning curve. In the light of the report on the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital PFI refinancing deal, an FT leader claims that "the PFI learning curve has been costly, but the gains are tangible". However it calls for "greater transparency in the secondary market" and better negotiators in the public sector. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Financial Times 4 May 2006
  2       Public services but private motives. A Guardian leader says: "Norwich may at least have a good new local hospital, but the cost of getting it makes the blood boil. As with the city academy programme, the taxpayer has lost out. The question is whether the public sector might not have been better off borrowing the money and building the new schools and hospitals itself - perhaps by issuing bonds. Evidence for this is mounting… Not only have payments been pushed off the books and onto future governments but health trusts have been left with inflexible contracts - the Norwich deal runs for 39 years and terminating it early would cost up to £257m. Is the scheme a response to spending shortfalls of the past, rather than new challenges of patient choice and changing demand ? Health needs vary, as the recent white paper shows. But the latest worries surround the growing market in second-hand PFI contracts, sold on to buyers who may have little interest in public service and are unknown to the government. They just want to make money. That is to be expected. But the government is not getting the best of the bargain." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Guardian 4 May 2006
  2       Companies stand to reap profits of £3.3bn from the government's controversial private finance initiative (PFI), a healthcare pressure group said today. The claim by London Health Emergency comes after the Commons public accounts committee criticised private firms involved in one of the first NHS PFI deals for awarding themselves an early windfall of £115m. The pressure group said private consortium Octagon's refinancing of the PFI deal for Norfolk and Norwich hospital to boost its profits was a "scandal". It estimates that recently approved PFI schemes in London, Birmingham and St Helens will produce windfall profits of £440m for the companies involved. And, it reckons, the private sector stands to make £2bn worth of bonus payouts from £10bn worth of PFI schemes in the pipeline. David Batty and agencies Wednesday May 10, 2006
    3     NHS Direct, the nurse-led health helpline, will today axe more than 1,000 staff in a comprehensive restructuring of branches and business objectives, the Guardian has learned. Proposals will be presented for consultation with staff unions to close 12 call centres across England and shed more than a quarter of the workforce to avert a forecast £15m deficit for 2006-07. The move follows an announcement yesterday by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust that it plans to shed 1,200 jobs to avoid a deficit of £60m - caused partly by a new payment-by-results system introduced last month. The Nottingham cuts - like most of the 13,000 hospital job losses over the past few months - will be achieved largely through staff turnover, with few compulsory redundancies. But NHS Direct said up to 114 of its nurses may be sacked, along with managers and administrators. NHS Direct was founded in 1997 to provide a 24-hour telephone helpline advising patients on how to deal with symptoms and where to go in an emergency. It handles about 6.5m calls a year and its website attracts 1m visits a month. This side of its business is likely to grow, but a report to staff today admits the organisation has failed to meet targets for expanding into new areas. It expected to get the lion's share of contracts for call centres for patients wanting to see a GP outside working hours - but got only 20% of the business. It also runs an appointments line to support the choose and book system that enables patients to fix an outpatient appointment at a convenient time at the hospital of their choice. Delays in installing necessary IT equipment in hospitals and GP surgeries slowed this income stream. It says it can no longer afford to run many of the smaller call centres. The proposals call for the closure of centres in Doncaster, Scunthorpe, York, Chester, Bolton, Preston, Chorley, Southport, Cambridge, Croydon, Brighton and Kensington, London. They will shut over the next 18 months and staff will be made redundant unless they can be redeployed. Eighteen call centres will be expanded.John Carvel, social affairs editor Tuesday May 16, 2006 The Guardian
          Export fears over N&N's patient notes. Fears have surfaced over Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital's proposed plan to move vital clerical jobs to India. The hospital, which faces a £15m deficit and a possible 450 redundancies, is considering out-sourcing medical note administration overseas. East and North Herts NHS Trust also plans to cut 50 medical secretary jobs and move typing of medical notes to India. Some have voiced fears that the move could lead to dangerous errors. Small but possibly risky mistakes have already been noticed: In one case hypertension (high blood pressure) was written as hypotension (low blood pressure). Unison have pointed out that picking up these errors may be almost as time consuming as typing them in the first place and, without enough medical secretaries, the load may fall on medical staff. Unison representatives have voiced concerns over the trend across the country towards over-seas outsourcing of medical notes, and strike action is being talked of. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 18 May 2006
    3     Dismay as hospital faces more job cuts. Unions have reacted with dismay after it was revealed that Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust overspent by £7m last year and cannot rule out job losses as a result. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times19 May 2006
    3     Hospital calls for voluntary job losses. Managers at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital have issued a plea to staff for voluntary redundancies to help them avoid laying people off. But unions said they were preparing to fight any kind of redundancies. Up to 450 jobs could be lost and other severe cuts made. More than 200 workers at the hospital gathered on Tuesday at a Unison-organised meeting in a bid to help avoid redundancies. The meeting called on Patricia Hewitt and PFI consortium Octagon Healthcare to meet staff and reward the hospital's success with better funding. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 19 May 2006
    3     Hospital facing Mission Impossible. Ipswich Hospital is grappling with over £11m in debt to clear in less than 12 months. 105 job losses were announced weeks ago when hospital debts were thought to stand at £4.9m. How the £7m financial black hole went undiscovered is under investigation as it becomes clear that Chief Executive Andrew Reed will have to make some "difficult and unpopular decisions." Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times May 2006
    3   5 PCT saves £11m in nine months. Buying cheaper drugs and ending expensive private sector packages for patients have helped a primary care trust cut £11m from its debts. Last year Suffolk West PCT revealed it was £22.6 million in the red. A new management team was put in place and management consultants brought in. The savings come amid plans to close all in-patient beds at Newmarket Hospital and Sudbury's Walnuttree Hospital, and to close St Leonards Hospital in Sudbury before transferring its services over to Walnuttree. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 23 May 2006
    3     QED to axe 145 posts. Up to 85 workers could be made redundant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn in a bid to save £7.6m in the next year. The hospital hopes to reduce some of its £11m debt by ditching 145 posts, which may result in up to 85 people losing their jobs. Chief executive Ruth May said that the trust hoped to reduce the current redundancy figures, if possible, during its consultations over the next few months. She explained that losing jobs came at a price and could put the hospital in the red by a further £2m. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 23 May 2006
    3     Fears for jobs send morale plummeting. Staff morale at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings Lynn, has plummeted as trust bosses announced a possible 145 job losses; leaving workers questioning the level of care that the hospital will be able to provide. The trust has already cut 70 jobs over the last year by scrapping vacant posts in an effort to recoup an £11m debt. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 24 May 2006
    3     Health trusts aim to clear £33m of debts. Local health trusts in Norfolk are striving to wipe £33m worth of debts off their balance sheets before they are replaced with one trust in the autumn. Health chiefs are joining forces in their last few months before amalgamation to take a united approach to the financial problems. Last week, the north Norfolk PCT heard its forecast deficit had worsened from £9m to £12m - mainly due to paying for more treatments than expected. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 30 May 2006
  2       N&N £7m payback snubbed. Shareholders in Octagon, the consortium that built Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, have refused to pay back a 10% chunk of the £75m windfall made from the extension of their PFI contract. Though not legally obliged to part with any of the windfall, Octagon has already handed over a 30% share of around £34m in return for a five year extension and increased penalties for the Norfolk and Norwich if it wishes to terminate the contract early. However a request from the hospital trust's chairman, David Prior, for an additional cut from shareholders, which include Barclays, Innisfree, 3i, Serco and John Laing, has fallen upon deaf ears. The consortium describes any further payment as "inappropriate." Norfolk MPs attacked Octagon's attempt to avoid its "moral responsibilities" as well as the government for pushing the hospital into the original PFI deal on such "unfavourable terms." Harry Seddon, Unison branch secretary at the hospital, drew further attention to the extra £5m a year the Norfolk and Norwich was costing the taxpayer as a result of the PFI deal. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  East Anglian Daily Times 1 June 2006
  2       Octagon chairman to step down. Richard Jewson is to step down as chairman of the Octagon consortium at the centre of the controversy over the refinancing of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, after criticism over his other role as Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk. Norfolk MP Norman Lamb raised the matter in the Commons, saying Jewson should reflect on what the highly critical findings of the Commons Public Accounts Committee about the refinancing meant for Norfolk. He called on Octagon to help the hospital trust out of its present financial difficulties. Jewson said his resignation would "avoid any potential for confusion in the minds of the public between this role and that of the wider role of the Lord Lieutenant in representing the interests of the county as a whole". He also said that "in view of the current debate about the financial relationship between Octagon and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust", he was concerned to ensure the company had a chairman who could speak publicly on its behalf. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  PFI.net 6 June 2006
          Help health workers stop the sell off of NHS Logistics. NHS Logistics has been targeted for privatisation by the New Labour government under the guise of an "arms length body". But Unison's Maidstone branch, along with four other small Unison branches, in Alfreton, Normanton, Runcorn and Bury St Edmunds, are fighting the plans and are consulting their members for strike action. A recent consultative ballot saw 92% vote in favour. Over 2,000 people have signed a petition against the sell off, and now first rally in Maidstone for over ten years has been organised, under the banner of the national organisation Keep Our NHS Public. The rally is set to take place on Saturday 1 July, in Maidstone's Brenchley Gardens next to Maidstone East railway station. The rally will be joined by those fighting over 300 jobs losses in the Maidstone Hospital Trust and 160 at Medway. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Socialist Worker 7 June 2006
  2 3     Government reforms will 'destroy the NHS'. Speaking to the annual BMA consultants' conference, Paul Miller, chairman of the consultants' committee, said: "This has been the NHS's best year ever ... for management consultants ... for losing staff ... for wasting money." He estimated that private management consultants were costing around £3bn a year and used the work of private managers in Department of Health-appointed "turnaround teams" sent into 18 trusts with financial difficulties as examples of wasted money. This included £700,000 paid to management consultants for three months' work at Surrey and Sussex trust, despite the fact it still finished the last financial year with "an operating deficit of £28m and an accumulated deficit of over £57m".The multi-billion pound contracts awarded to independent sector treatment centres were also a waste of money, Dr Miller said. Calling for a moratorium on any other private treatment contracts, he said Oxfordshire primary care trust had been made to pay £500,000 a year for the next four years to a private eye clinic despite there being no shortage of NHS capacity to do the work. He said only 160 of the 400 operations planned in the contract annually were carried out last year. This was unnecessarily inflating local NHS debt, which stands at around £82m. Dr Miller also criticised the PFI, highlighting £130m wasted on three deals: the abandoned Paddington PFI scheme, which cost £14.9m; the delayed Barts PFI scheme, which cost an extra £35m; and the Norfolk and Norwich PFI, under which the NHS missed out on £82m when the private contractors refinanced the deal. "If you had made this up, you would be laughed at," Dr Miller said. "If you were the one who did make this up, you should be ashamed. If you continue to make it happen, you will destroy the NHS. This is not the way to run our NHS… It is hard to avoid the conclusion that we are working in a service which is being broken by policies which do not work; devised by officials who have resigned; implemented by managers who don't believe [in the NHS]; and patients without a say." His speech, which got a standing ovation, was echoed by criticism of the government made by delegates. A member of the BMA's consultants committee, Dr Anna Athow, said the government had allowed the NHS to get into the current financial crisis in order to ration services and push more resources and patients into the private sector. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Guardian 7 June 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       Trusts feel the impact as PFI and payment by results collide. There are increasing concerns about the incompatibility of PFI and payment by results. Payment by results does not recognise the higher costs that PFI hospitals have to face. In Woolwich, Queen Elizabeth Hospital trust chief executive John Pelly says: "The funding mechanism for hospitals does not reflect the cost of PFI. We are left with a huge extra cost and no chance of recovering it." His trust's PFI scheme adds £8-9m to its costs each year compared with the 'average' hospital. Pelly says: "To survive in a world of PbR, irrespective of whether or not the market causes work to move away from us, we need to get ourselves into a position where we are in the upper quartile of all resource usage. On a day-to-day basis in order to achieve break-even it is about driving down all the other costs that we can control." Queen Elizabeth Hospital trust is planning to pull £11m out of its costs in 2006-07 - including the abolition of some posts - but is still heading for a £6.5m deficit. PFI expert and Edinburgh University research fellow Mark Hellowell comments: "PFI puts a hell of a lot of financial pressure on trusts. PbR will exacerbate that - new market entrants will make demand volatile and it is based on a tariff that does not cover your true costs. We now have a mismatch between the way the NHS is funded and the way PFI is funded." Furthermore, PFI payments may affect reconfiguration. Abandoning a PFI site is likely to incur large penalties - so changes may have to focus on non-PFI hospitals. Hellowell says: "It would be disproportionately expensive to close down services at PFI trusts. It would not be that surprising to find that it is the non-PFI trusts close to PFI trusts that get services closed down." The problem is that the national tariff only includes an average payment for capital charges - hospitals which have invested heavily in new buildings either through PFI or other funding will have higher-than-average costs. However, non-PFI projects are shown as a capital charge of 3.5% of the value of the asset whereas PFI projects typically cost around 15% of a trust's income. They are also committed to the payments plus inflation for 25-30 years. Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital trust has also said its costs are higher - by around £6m a year -because it is an early-stage PFI. The trust is trying to head off a £15m deficit in 2006-07 and is considering cutting jobs. A spokesman said that its £38m yearly payment for the building and facilities was fixed so savings would have to be concentrated elsewhere. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Health Service Journal 8 June 2006
    3     Region's NHS £100m in debt. Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge primary care trusts and hospitals account for a fifth of the national NHS deficit, over £100m of debt. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 8 June 2006
        5 Town angry at "health village' plan. Widespread opposition to the replacement of Dereham Hospital with a complex of NHS services has been met with surprise by local authorities who have described plans as an "enormous opportunity". The plans to place a nursing home, community clinic and care assisted housing on the Cemetery road site brought 200 residents, concerned over bed losses, to a meeting last month. Friends of Dereham Hospital member, Freda Abell, accused the plans of being "all about just saving money"; and also questioned whether the new plan has taken into account the growth of the town and whether or not private partners running the care home would provide NHS beds when the time came. Summary by Keep our NHS Public of  Eastern Daily Press 8 June 2006
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