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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.
-
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 disgraced gynaecologist Rodney Ledward was attacked by doctors and managers yesterday for a "breathtakingly disgraceful" defence of his years of botched surgery in which he claimed the NHS had lost in him a "first-class consultant". His remarks, universally condemned as arrogant beyond belief, raise the temperature just days before Richard
Neale, a second gynaecologist, [Friarage Hospital, Northallerton, North
Yorkshire] is due to face the General Medical Council, charged with a catalogue of botched operations, sub-standard treatment and falsification of documents. Guardian 9 June 2000
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Private arrangement. NHS trust forced to open pay beds to keep
consultants. Chris Gallagher Guardian
Wednesday July 24, 2002 [Scarborough] |
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Forty new ambulances worth £4m have been mothballed after a health
authority belatedly found that they could not cope with speed bumps. Martin
Wainwright
Thursday July 31, 2003 The Guardian [Tees, North & East Yorkshire] |
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Where the treatment centres will be. The health secretary, John Reid, today
announced details of the government's controversial programme of privately run
fast-track diagnostic and treatment centres, and a number of new mobile
ophthalmology units. This guide explains where they will be.
Friday September 12, 2003 [South-west peninsula (Mercury Health Ltd),
Lincolnshire (Mercury Health Ltd), Horton hospital, north Oxford (Mercury Health
Ltd), North-east Yorks (Mercury Health Ltd), Southampton (Mercury
Health Ltd), Northumberland (Mercury Health Ltd), East Berkshire (Slough,
Bracknell, Maidenhead and Windsor/Ascot) (Mercury Health Ltd), Didcot,
Oxfordshire (Mercury Health Ltd), Ashford, Surrey (Mercury Health Ltd),
Maidstone (Care UK Afrox), Barlborough Links, Nottinghamshire (Care UK Afrox),
Derriford, Plymouth (Care UK Afrox), Chase Farm, Barnet, London (Anglo
Canadian), King George hospital, Redbridge (Anglo Canadian), Royal National
throat nose and ear hospital, Kings Cross, London (Anglo Canadian), Bradford
(Nations Healthcare), Burton (Nations Healthcare), Daventry (Birkdale Clinic),
Trafford, Greater Manchester (Netcare UK), Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital,
Stanmore (New York Presbyterian), Shepton Mallet, Somerset (New York
Presbyterian).
Two mobile units will offer ophthalmology services in the following areas:
Cheshire and Merseyside (Netcare UK), Cumbria and Lancashire (Netcare UK),
Horton, Oxfordshire (Netcare UK), Wycombe, Bucks (Netcare UK), North Tyneside
(Netcare UK), South-west Oxfordshire (Netcare UK), North-west peninsula (Netcare
UK), Dorset/Somerset (Netcare UK), Kent/Medway (Netcare UK), Hants and Isle of
Wight (Netcare UK), Surrey and Sussex (Netcare UK), Thames Valley (Netcare UK)] |
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A retired consultant psychiatrist has been cleared by the Court of Appeal of
raping a woman patient in a hospital photocopying room. But Dr Michael
Haslam, 70, lost his appeal against his convictions for indecently assaulting
the woman on a separate occasion and three indecent assaults on two other women
patients.
Northern
Echo 20 May 2004 |
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TWENTY-five GPs are among 100 or more witnesses expected to give evidence at a
health service inquiry which got under way yesterday. The GPs, along with about
25 former patients, will appear at an inquiry into the way complaints against
two psychiatrists were handled by the NHS. Former patients claim that complaints
against
North Yorkshire psychiatrists, Dr Michael Haslam and Dr William Kerr, were
not taken seriously by the NHS. The GPs, along with about 50 NHS employees,
will be asked to answer questions about the way complaints were handled.
Northern
Echo 9 June 2004
Enquiry report [pdf]
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An NHS hospital has begun a shakeup of its outpatient systems after a
heart patient's consultant appointment was cancelled 10 times, it emerged
today. Hull and East Yorkshire hospitals trust launched a major inquiry into
cardiology outpatient appointments after Patricia Silvester received a string
of standard letters, each moving the date of her appointment. Tash Shifrin
Wednesday September 22, 2004 |
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Doctors in Hornsea have spoken out against plans to close the town's minor
injuries unit. Yorkshire Wolds and Coast PCT proposed axing services at
Hornsea's Cottage Hospital. A local GP said: "The doctors in this town are
unanimous in our thoughts. We are behind the people of the town in campaigning
for the unit to stay open."
Summary by Keep our NHS
Public of Hull
Daily Mail 15 December 2005 |
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Effect of NHS
financial crisis felt around Yorkshire. At Barnsley's hospital, £700,000
has been saved with the loss of 35 posts; Rotherham hospital is planning to
slash pay costs of non-clinical staff by 10%; hospitals in Sheffield are
trying to save £20m due to losses resulting from payment by results and the
extra costs of meeting targets; beleaguered Selby and York PCT has predicted
debts of £23.7m, and Sheffield's PCTs have combined deficits of £17; Airedale
NHS Trust has had to sell former staff residences and increase car parking
charges to try to stay in balance. Hundreds of operations are being delayed in
north Lincolnshire. Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale PCT, facing a £6.5m
overspend, is interrogating hospitals as to why operations are being performed
within a month. The trust's director of finance said: "There are more people
going into hospital than we can afford. Hospitals in York and Scarborough are
treating patients in three months - the national target is six months - and we
are looking to slow some of those procedures." Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
Yorkshire Post 4 January 2006 |
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Hospitals set
to wield axe on hundreds as debt rises. Up to 300 physicians, nurses and
surgeons could be cut by the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust as part
of an attempt to make £13.5m savings demanded by the SHA. The trust hopes to
lose the jobs through non-replacement of leaving staff. The posts will be lost
at the trust's three main hospitals - Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill and
Princess Royal.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail
16 January 2006 |
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Hospital morale
"at all time low" in Bridlington. Amicus have said that staff morale is
suffering as Bridlington hospital is wound down and patients are transferred
to Scarborough, prompting fears that Bridlington will be closed. Scarborough
and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust is predicting a £2.7m deficit.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online
18 January 2006 |
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'People's
health must come first'. Campaigners and residents are urging Yorkshire
Wolds and Coast PCT not to cut services after it drafted in management
consultants KPMG to tackle its £11m deficit. The trust is due to announce
whether the minor injuries unit in Hornsea will close and whether the unit at
Withernsea will drop its night-time opening hours at the end of January.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 25 January 2006 |
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Nine in ten say
NHS will not break even next year. Only 13% of NHS chief executives
surveyed by HSJ expect the NHS to break even by April 2007, as Patricia Hewitt
has demanded. 32% forecast their own trust would still be in debt. King's Fund
chief economist John Appleby said: "'There has got to be much better costing
of current policies. What impact is patient choice going to have on demand
? We have no idea. I do not think they have thought it through. The
major policy this government has pursued since Labour came to power has been
to improve access to hospitals by cutting waiting times, but we have never
seen a figure on how much this has cost the NHS." The full 18 trusts named by
Hewitt as being the worst performing are: Acute - Hammersmith Hospitals;
Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals; Mid Yorkshire Hospitals; The Royal West
Sussex; Surrey and Sussex Healthcare; Brighton and Sussex University
Hospitals; University Hospital of North Staffordshire; Shrewsbury and Telford
Hospitals; George Eliot Hospital (Nuneaton). Primary Care Trusts - Hillingdon
(London); Selby and York; Cheshire West; West Wiltshire; Kennet and North
Wiltshire; Sheffield PCTs (four organisations).
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 26 January 2006 |
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NHS patients
pay cash for superior care. Health Service patients are paying for
enhanced levels of care and operations that are no longer available free at
hospitals across England, in initiatives that are being criticised as the
creation of a two-tier health service and privatisation by stealth. Harrogate
and District NHS Foundation Trust is to open the Foundation Skin clinic,
described by managers as a "halfway house" between state and private care. The
clinic will carry out procedures like the removal of moles and warts,
screening of moles and Botox injections to reduce heavy sweating - all for a
fee. Trust managers admit that the initiative is a response to funding
shortages. Some of the services were offered free by the trust until 2003.
Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea NHS hospital in London recently began to offer
one-to-one midwife treatment for £4,000. Professor Allyson Pollock, director
of the Centre for International Public Health Policy at Edinburgh University,
says the most vulnerable patients are suffering as a result of fees being
widely introduced. "It is shocking that NHS patients can pay for a higher
level of care. They are getting priority treatment and are able to pick and
choose." Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
Sunday Times 29 January 2006 |
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NHS slides £90m
into red in Yorkshire. The overall financial position in the region is
expected to worsen from a current combined deficit of £77m to £90m by April.
Two-thirds of the debt is carried by four trusts - Selby and York PCT,
Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Yorkshire Wolds
& Coast PCT and Scarborough, Whitby
& Ryedale PCT.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 30
January 2006 |
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Hospital's
award-winning birth centre under threat. An Award-winning natural birth
centre could become the latest casualty of NHS cutbacks. Jubilee Birth Centre
at Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, which delivers 350 babies a year, is to
undergo a review into its future. Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
will consult before it makes any decision. The trust is attempting to reduce a
£5m deficit. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 7 February 2006 |
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United in fight
for our right to choose. Mothers, councillors and MPs have united to fight
for the future of the Jubilee Birth Centre. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 7 February 2006 |
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Help us to keep
up the pressure. Hornsea Cottage Hospital League Of Friends is calling for
supporters to keep up the campaign before the next decision about Hornsea
Hospital's minor injuries unit is made at the end of March. The group has
asked supporters to contact them so they can form a database. Anyone wishing
to get in touch with the group can call Mr Cawkill on (01964) 537171. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 9
February 2006 |
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Trust deficits
hits £10m. Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is set to see its
deficit double over the next two months to more than £10 million. The
predicted deficit has increased from £5.4m to £10.7m. It has already announced
a reduction of 300 jobs, to be achieved through natural turnover over the next
couple of years. The trust blames the funding mechanism for part of the debt. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 9
February 2006 |
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New LIFT health
centre to open in Hull. The £1.9m Newington Health Care Centre will house
two GP practices and opens at the end of the month. Repayments will be made to
the private consortium that built it over 25 years. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 9
February 2006 |
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Health trusts
plunge £47m into red. NHS trusts in North and East Yorkshire and Northern
Lincolnshire are predicting they will be £47.2m in debt by the end of next
month - despite predicting a deficit of £10m three months ago. John Grimes,
director of finance at the North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire
SHA said a "serious deterioration" in the financial position had become clear
in recent weeks. Staff cuts, axeing of beds and delays in operations have
already been implemented, and £15m has been borrowed from the NHS Bank to
enable trusts to continue paying their bills. Among the trusts, Selby and York
PCT faces debts of £24m and Scarborough and Hull's debts have doubled to
nearly £11m. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Yorkshire Post 13 February 2006 |
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Taxpayers 'foot
bill as health trusts cut services'. Social services and care home experts
have accused Selby and York PCT, which has a predicted £24m deficit, of making
cuts to services which must then be met by York City Council and North
Yorkshire County Council. Sue Galloway, executive member for health and social
services at York Council, said district nursing was being reduced by the PCT:
"I think it is about time now that local councils actually said, 'Sorry we
will do whatever we can, but we cannot go on at this rate picking up the
pieces.'" Ryedale Tory MP John Greenway said: "Frail, elderly people are not
being supported by Selby and York PCT. We now have a situation where there has
to be an acute need before the elderly will get nursing care. The Government
shrugs its shoulders and says, "not my problem" - but it is their problem."
Keren Wilson, development director at the Independent Care Home Group, said:
"There is a belief in nursing homes that the PCT is not assessing patients at
the right level. When they release a patient from hospital they assess them as
of low, medium or high need - high need costs the PCT the most to care for.
They are assessing people who come out of hospital in the medium band and
within four weeks these people have died, so they should have been put in the
higher band. I believe budgetary pressures are forcing the trust to take
decisions that are not in the best interests of the patient. That is a huge
problem." Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
Yorkshire Post 15 February 2006 |
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Woman left
waiting for air supply. Jean Waters of Hornsea has been left gasping for
breath after being kept waiting for a vital delivery of oxygen supplies from Air
Products, the company that has taken over the service after the Department of
Health privatised it at the start of this month. She had to call Air Products
three times before eventually being told it could be up to three weeks before
she had a delivery. She has suffered from a chronic lung infection for 13 years,
and fears that without oxygen she will be hospitalised. The company blamed the
delay on a higher volume of calls than it had expected. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 16 February 2006 |
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'We still need
to win the war'. Groups from across the East Riding of Yorkshire will
gather to discuss the futures of Hornsea and Withernsea hospitals. Public
meetings will take place in the two towns aimed at saving services.
Campaigners say that although they saved Hornsea Cottage Hospital's minor
injuries unit from closure earlier this month there is no room for
complacency.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 22 February 2006 |
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Hospital meal
shock. Harrogate District Hospital is serving patients weekend evening
meals of sandwiches on paper plates because it says it cannot afford to
recruit agency staff to make hot dinners. The Harrogate and District NHS
Foundation Trust said it was having difficulties recruiting permanent staff
for the kitchens and claimed that employing temporary staff through an agency
would be too expensive.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Sun
01 March 2006 |
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Trust may seek
help to manage £12.6m deficit. East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is
considering asking for financial advice from the Government to cope with its
large budget deficit. The trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill
Hospital in Cottingham and Princess Royal Hospital in east Hull, started the
last financial year with an overspend of £4.5m. Since then, the overspend has
swelled, growing by £2m since December alone. The trust has already reduced
the number of staff by 300 in the next two years, stopped overtime, instituted
a ban on agency staff and a recruitment freeze.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 7 March 2006 |
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PCTs block
referrals to hit budget targets. The BMA has called on the Government to
issue clear guidance to PCTs, urging them not to delay referrals on financial
grounds, after it emerged that PCTs are using referral management centres to
ration care. All routine referrals at Yorkshire Wolds and Coast PCT had been
delayed to push treatment into the next financial year. In South East and
South West Oxfordshire PCTs, a clinical advice and liaison service set up to
vet all routine referrals sends referrals back to GPs suggesting alternative
routes of referral - other consultants, triage or other clinical areas. GPC
chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum - who himself had a referral returned to him after
a four week delay with a note saying "refer to consultant" - said that
referral management schemes made a nonsense of Choose and Book, as it was
unclear who made referral decisions.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Doctor Update 9 March 2006 |
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Cash blow for
trust. Yorkshire Wolds and Coast PCT, heading for an £11m deficit this
year, will receive £1.4m less than expected next year because of the DoH
dropping the purchaser parity adjustment scheme.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 16 March 2006 |
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Community Hospitals at risk in North and East
Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire SHA according to
Public Finance 17 March 2006:
Hornsea Cottage Hospital
Withernsea Community Hospital
Alfred Bean Hospital
Bridlington Hospital
Whitby Hospital |
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Health staff
find ward padlocked. Ward 10 at Hull Royal Infirmary was unexpectedly
closed at the weekend, and now managers at the Hull and East Yorkshire
Hospitals NHS Trust cannot guarantee its future. But the ward was reopened
on Monday due to a shortage of beds elsewhere in the hospital. The ward,
which has 26 beds, treats mainly elderly people with a range of medical
conditions. The trust admitted current financial troubles meant there were
not enough nurses to staff it safely. It is £12.6m in the red, and has
introduced several cost-cutting measures, including shedding 300 jobs over
the next two years. One nurse said: "I went to work and found chains on the
door. We were not informed the ward would be closed. We were told to report
to a different ward to see where we would be working. It's not good enough.
Patients and their families must have been distressed. I think it's
disgusting the way the trust has treated staff and patients."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 3 April 2006 |
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Campaign delivers
victory. The Jubilee Birth Centre in Hull is to be kept open after a
concerted campaign against the threat of closure.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 3 April 2006 |
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Angry dentists
quit the NHS in droves. One in nine dental practices in Yorkshire have
quit the NHS amid anger over their new contracts. Ninety practices out of
800 in the region have left for the private sector.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Yorkshire Post 6 April 2006 [North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire Strategic
Health Authority,
South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority,
West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority] |
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Hospital
trust to shed 200 jobs. York Hospital is to cut 200 jobs. It has not
ruled out compulsory redundancies. Managers blamed the decision largely on
financial problems at the Selby and York PCT, which buys services from the
hospital. The hospital itself balanced its books last year.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 7 April 2006 |
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Secret plan to
ration patient care. Patients are being denied appointments with
consultants in a systematic attempt to ration care and save the NHS money. The
leaked document - 'Pan
London Demand Management Arrangements 06-07' produced by the London
Transition Team, led by John Bacon, a senior NHS manager - shows that while
ministers promise patients choice, a series of barriers are being erected
limiting GPs' rights to refer people to consultants. Health trusts across
London have drawn up plans to establish panels that will monitor how many
patients are referred to hospital by GPs. Trusts have been told that they must
cut GP referral rates to those of the lowest 10%, saving £25m a year.
Consultant-to-consultant referrals are also being limited, in many cases
denying patients a second opinion. A&
E departments are being told to "redirect" 40-70% of patients back to
GPs or walk-in centres. Hospitals that treat people who ought to have been
sent to their GPs will not be paid. The bureaucracy needed to screen all the
referrals will itself cost £1.6m. The Times says: "The language of the
document makes no pretence that this will improve care, and emphasises cost
savings throughout. 'It is imperative that London balances its books overall,'
the first paragraph says." The BMA says similar schemes are running in
Kent,
Oxfordshire,
Dorset,
Wiltshire,
Surrey, Sussex,
Cornwall,
Shropshire,
Suffolk,
Lancashire and
Yorkshire, as well as London. Jonathan Fielden, deputy chairman
of the BMA consultants committee, said: "It's clear that clinicians don't know
how these referral management systems aid improvements in clinical care. To
them they are purely cost-saving. The way they work is not transparent or
clear. If clinicians don't know, patients cannot know either. That certainly
flies in the face of the Government's Patient Choice agenda." Myfanwy Davies
and Glyn Elwyn, of the Centre for Health Services Research at Cardiff, said
the centres had "appeared overnight in an evidence-free zone".
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Times 7 April 2006 |
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Concern as
county's third minor injuries unit closes overnight. The 24-hour minor
injury unit at the Alfred Bean Hospital in Driffield has had its hours axed
due to staff shortages. It is no longer open after 6pm. Earlier this year,
Yorkshire Wolds and Coast PCT has announced decided to reduce opening
hours at minor injury units at Withernsea and Hornsea, meaning many patients
in the East Riding area will have to travel long distances for care at
night.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 13 April 2006 |
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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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Foundation
hospital planning cuts.
Harrogate Hospital has revealed plans for major cost cuts this year. The
hospital trust, which has forecast a deficit of between £4.2m and £9.2m,
said it wanted to cut beds and surgery but had no immediate plans to axe
jobs. It said it had been hit by local PCT plans to cut the amount of work
given to the hospital by £7m. Lib Dem MP for Harrogate
& Knaresborough Phil Willis
challenged Tony Blair over the cuts at prime minister's questions, asking:
"Why should my constituents suffer for failures elsewhere in the system and
above all for government meddling ?"
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 20 April 2006 |
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NHS levy on
trusts 'will lead to cuts in services'. Health chiefs have warned of
wider cuts in services in Yorkshire under plans to impose a levy on NHS
trusts as part of desperate efforts to shore-up health service finances.
Gordon Firth, chairman of
Barnsley
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said his organisation would lose £6m and
inevitably frontline services would be affected. Health chiefs in
North Lincolnshire predict the levy will cost £4.5m, further adding to a
difficult financial position. A 12-point action plan is being drawn up
including deferring non-urgent surgery, reducing hospital referrals and
outpatient follow-up appointments and cutting spending on mental health and
the voluntary care sector.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Yorkshire Post 20 April 2006 [also
West
Yorkshire] |
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Trust blames
deficit on PCT.
Harrogate and District
foundation trust is facing a £9.2m deficit this year and blames Craven,
Harrogate and Rural District PCT's plans to cut the amount of work given to
the hospital by £7m for 2006-07. The cost-improvement programme will
"necessarily impact on the level of capacity available within the trust".
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 27 April 2006 |
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Experts Help
Hospital Trust Claw Back £12 Million.
Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust has called in
PricewaterhouseCoopers to save money in the coming year. The trust is
£12.35m in the red.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 11 May 2006 |
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Health staff
join protests over curbs on spending. The cuts at
Leeds
Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust come after the most financially successful 12
months in its six-year history - it broke even without any outside help for
the first time. Other NHS hospitals in Yorkshire that have already announced
millions of pounds of cuts include
Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley,
Hull, York, Harrogate and
Airedale.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Yorkshire Post 12 May 2006 |
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County's NHS
Cuts could reach £80m. Health services across
North Yorkshire will be dramatically affected amid a deepening financial
crisis that could see up to £80m in cuts made. The true extent of the crisis
will be disclosed at a public meeting next week when senior officials from
the North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire SHA will outline
initial details of a recovery plan to impose the multi-million pound
savings.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Yorkshire Post 12 May 2006 |
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NHS Direct, the nurse-led
health helpline, will today axe more than 1,000 staff in a comprehensive
restructuring of branches and business objectives, the Guardian has learned.
Proposals will be presented for consultation with staff unions to close 12
call centres across England and shed more than a quarter of the workforce to
avert a forecast £15m deficit for 2006-07. The move follows an announcement
yesterday by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust that it plans to shed
1,200 jobs to avoid a deficit of £60m - caused partly by a new
payment-by-results system introduced last month. The Nottingham cuts - like
most of the 13,000 hospital job losses over the past few months - will be
achieved largely through staff turnover, with few compulsory redundancies.
But NHS Direct said up to 114 of its nurses may be sacked, along with
managers and administrators. NHS Direct was founded in 1997 to provide a
24-hour telephone helpline advising patients on how to deal with symptoms
and where to go in an emergency. It handles about 6.5m calls a year and its
website attracts 1m visits a month. This side of its business is likely to
grow, but a report to staff today admits the organisation has failed to meet
targets for expanding into new areas. It expected to get the lion's share of
contracts for call centres for patients wanting to see a GP outside working
hours - but got only 20% of the business. It also runs an appointments line
to support the choose and book system that enables patients to fix an
outpatient appointment at a convenient time at the hospital of their choice.
Delays in installing necessary IT equipment in hospitals and GP surgeries
slowed this income stream. It says it can no longer afford to run many of
the smaller call centres. The proposals call for the closure of centres in
Doncaster,
Scunthorpe, York,
Chester,
Bolton,
Preston, Chorley,
Southport,
Cambridge,
Croydon,
Brighton and
Kensington, London. They will shut over the next 18 months and staff
will be made redundant unless they can be redeployed. Eighteen call centres
will be expanded.John Carvel, social affairs editor
Tuesday May 16, 2006 The Guardian |
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'Cosmetic'
ops axed in £51m cuts. Four primary care trusts serving
North Yorkshire will stop offering treatment for "cosmetic" procedures,
such as varicose veins, in a bid to save £51m. They said a small number of
procedures will no longer be offered unless there was a strong case for an
exception. The trusts will also try to reduce referral rates to hospital and
to cut the number of routine outpatient follow-up sessions.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 17 May 2006 |
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Cuts may mean
some operations rationed.
North Yorkshire primary care trusts are considering
rationing certain surgical
procedures to help balance the books by the
end of the financial year. Operations to carry out varicose vein removal,
vasectomies, and hip replacements may be curtailed for all but exceptional
cases.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Yorkshire Post 22 May 2006 |
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DoH throws down
gauntlet on APMS. The pace of private sector involvement in primary care has
accelerated, with ministers trumpeting the first in a series of
Government-backed private provider deals, allowing a private company to run a
traditional GP practice in east
London. Health
Minister Lord Warner said private provider Care UK would run a new 7,000-patient
practice and walk-in centre in Barking and Dagenham. The DoH said similar
contracts that would "challenge the existing monopoly of independent GPs" were
close to agreement in Hackney,
Liverpool,
Lancashire,
Plymouth and
Yorkshire. PCTs have also begun planning to put directly managed practices
out to tender to avoid the cost of running them.
Sunderland PCT has opted to put out to tender a practice run by two GPs for
the past two years. Dr Ashley Liston and Dr Tracey Lucas, who transformed the
struggling practice, had hoped to take it over. He said: "We are disappointed
but not surprised by the outcome. We're keen to continue the work we've started
here, so we will be putting in a bid. We recognise the challenges of competing
with large multinational companies, but we will give it our best shot." GPC
Medical Practitioners Union representative Dr Ron Singer said: "PCTs will get
Brownie points from the Government by involving the private sector. They are
beginning to realise that they don't want salaried practices." Dr Chaand Nagpaul,
a member of the GPC sessional GPs subcommittee, called on the Government to make
it a legal requirement that salaried GPs keep their NHS contracts when APMS
providers take over a practice: "We need to ensure the private sector is not
seen as a cheap option with doctors on lower rates. The worry is we will see a
downward trend in employer and employee terms." Dr Richard Fieldhouse, chief
executive of the National Association of Sessional GPs, told salaried doctors
not to sign alternative contracts if their practice is taken over: "It's like a
civil servant moving to become part of McDonald's."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Doctor Update 30 May 2006 |
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Hospital trusts faced criticism from Britain's biggest trade union yesterday
over a scheme to send tens of thousands of confidential patient records to be
transcribed in India, the Philippines and South Africa under a new form of
outsourcing that will save the NHS millions of pounds. Hospitals in
London, the
south-east, the
Midlands,
Hull and the
south-west are replacing their medical secretaries with staff employed
overseas by private British dictaphone companies who pay 6.5p a line to
transcribe doctors' notes and email them back to hospitals. Unison accused
hospital trusts of putting lives at risk because of typing errors by staff
thousands of miles away who are not able to cross-check the information by
accessing a patient's medical history or talking to a consultant. David Hencke,
Westminster correspondent
Thursday
June 22, 2006 The Guardian |
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More NHS cuts
due to £20m deficit. A series of cutbacks have been unveiled to tackle a
£20.7m deficit for two primary care trusts in the
East Riding. The Yorkshire Wolds and Coast and the East Yorkshire trusts
have said they face a joint deficit of £20.7m by April 2007 unless they act
to cut costs. Plans include closing two centres for on-call GPs and reducing
follow-up appointments for outpatients. Family planning, mental health and
palliative care budgets will all be affected by the plans and some
pharmacies may stop opening out of hours as their subsidies are axed.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 7 June 2006 |
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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 |
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NHS workers in
Yorkshire rubbish their own hospitals. An official survey carried
out by the Healthcare Commission, asking NHS staff their opinion of the
services they work in, has produced damning results. When asked whether they
would be happy as a patient with the
standard
of care provided; ten Yorkshire trusts had more staff unhappy about the
treatment they would receive. Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stewart said
the survey showed NHS staff "who aspire to high standards but feel they're
not being allowed to deliver."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Yorkshire Post 13 June 2006 |
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Hewitt warns
overspending NHS. Overspending NHS trusts that are "concentrated in the
healthiest and wealthiest areas" will have to take responsibility and not
rely on being bailed out by the rest of the NHS according to Patricia
Hewitt. Addressing an Amicus conference in Scarborough, the health secretary
said that although trusts in the black will be asked to help their
neighbours this year, they will get the money back with interest starting
with the poorest areas. Hewitt also admitted that times would be
particularly hard for acute trusts as attempts are made to drastically
reduce the number of visits made to hospital by those taken seriously ill.
Hewitt's comments come as more
Yorkshire health workers are set to lose their jobs and Scarborough
hospital faces the threat of a
new private
non-urgent surgery clinic in York.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Yorkshire Post 13 June 2006 |
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Hospital
referral cuts "to hit patients". York and North
Yorkshire PCT's request to GPs to cut referral rates will force GPs "to
make compromises that could effect the health of patients" according their
local representatives. The comments come from Dr Dougie Lumb, Yorkshire GP
and deputy head of the Local Medical Council. He said: "This is something we
are unwilling to do. We have rejected the PCT's proposals which we believe
will significantly disadvantage patients in North Yorkshire." The new trust
is attempting to make savings of £54m. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Yorkshire
Post 4 July 2006 |
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Fears for
patient care as trust cuts £23m. Selby and
York PCT is to carry out severe cuts to services in order to slash 7.5%
from its budget. The cuts will include a 20% cut in hospital referrals,
fewer follow up appointments and a reduced drug bill. Local politicians have
expressed concerns about the impact of the cuts. Liberal Democrat Councillor
Sue Galloway said: "The decisions look to have been taken by business
consultants, rather than healthcare professionals, so I am concerned that
the impact on patients has not been looked at holistically." As well as a
reduction in hospital referrals, the number of operations will be cut and
care for the elderly will be slashed by £5m. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Yorkshire
Post 14 July 2006 |
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Hull healthcare
LIFT project taking shape.
Hull Citycare, the LIFT partnership, has just begun the construction of
the next two new primary care centres of the first tranche of nine for the
city. The centres are to be designed, built and maintained by the Sewell
Group. These two developments are the latest of Hull Citycare's planned nine
medical centres, representing just the first tranche for the city, which are
all at various stages of planning and construction, with two already
operational. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of thepfi.net 26 July 2006 |
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Anger as trust
cuts hospital centre's hours. Angry campaigners are threatening to hold
a further protest after it emerged that an East Coast minor injuries unit (MIU)
is to start closing overnight. Mick Pilling, of the Save/
Support
Bridlington Hospital Campaign Group, said he was appalled by the lack of
consultation with townspeople by the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire
NHS Trust. From September 4, the unit will close overnight from 9pm to 9am.
The trust, which is £6.9m in the red, says the service will have to close
"temporarily" because of staff sickness. But Mr Pilling said it was the
third time the trust had reduced hours in as many years. He said: "They
blamed the closure last time on staff shortages. There is a complete
overtime ban at Bridlington Hospital and staff who leave are not being
replaced. It is absolutely diabolical. Full consultation was promised at
past meetings, but the trust has failed yet again."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Yorkshire
Post 17 August 2006 |
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Health
watchdog attacks trust over £8m cuts. A patient watchdog has attacked
plans by health chiefs to ration treatment in the
struggle to save £8m.
Craven, Harrogate and Rural District PCT is examining cuts that could
see patients referred to hospital only for urgent treatment with more care
being provided in the community. Angry family doctors have already branded
the proposals unsafe, claiming the cuts will "undermine the principles of
the NHS". The plans would mean that for the first time in the history of the
NHS, doctors would not be able to refer people who in their opinion needed
expert help to hospital. The opposition from GPs has forced managers to
think again and now the area's
patient and public involvement forum has expressed its fears that plans
to refer people to expert GPs rather than to hospital specialists could put
patients at risk. The forum has also criticised proposals not to fill
vacancies, leading to a reduction in nurses dealing with young people with
mental health problems and staff trained to assist people with learning
disabilities. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Yorkshire
Post 25 August 2006 |
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Exclusive:
'Babies are dying due to lack of beds'. Premature babies are dying
because of a shortage of cots and nurses, a senior NHS manager has warned.
Risking her job by speaking out, Tracy Woodall disclosed that desperately
sick newborn infants are being transported hundreds of miles for specialist
care when they are at their most vulnerable. In one instance Woodall,
£50,000-a-year network manager of neonatal care in Yorkshire, rang round the
country for seven hours trying to find a cot for a baby due to be born at 25
weeks in Scarborough General,
North Yorks. But there were no beds available in England. Finally, at
2.30am, Tracy found the nearest - in Edinburgh 220 miles away. Unless
another hospital is found, the infant faces being taken there in a pitifully
weak condition by helicopter at a cost to the taxpayer of £25,000. At least
three premature babies are transferred between hospitals every day because
of severe shortages of cots and specialist nurses. The average journey
length is 126 miles, according to premature baby charity Bliss. But journeys
of 200 or 250 miles are not uncommon. Premature babies need round-the-clock
care from nurses and specialists with intensive care training. The
Department of Health announced an extra £70million funding three years ago
to tackle the crisis. But that was not ringfenced and only 34% went on
improving services.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Mirror 31 August 2006 |
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'Betrayed by ward
closure'. Patients will no longer be kept in overnight at an
East Riding hospital. Yorkshire Wolds and Coast PCT is closing the
12-bed inpatient ward at Hornsea Cottage Hospital from October 1. Patients
normally admitted to the ward include those needing continued medical care
or requiring rehabilitation, as well as those recovering from surgery or
suffering from terminal illnesses. They will now have to be treated at home
or at another hospital. Staff will also be moved to other hospitals. The
move comes just days after it was announced the minor injuries unit at
Bridlington Hospital is to be closed overnight. Beverley and Holderness MP
Graham Stuart, chairman of Hornsea Health Forum, said he felt "betrayed" by
the decision. He said: "We think this is a substantial change in service
provision and it is driven by financial, not clinical, need." Hornsea
Cottage Hospital's League of Friends Chairman Ian Smith said: "This
is…tantamount to closing the hospital down and I don't think the management
can make that decision." The PCT has said it will reopen three beds in
Withernsea Hospital and three at Bridlington and will review the situation
in March.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 8 September 2006 |
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MP's legal fight
to save hospital. Patients are being urged to join a legal challenge to
save facilities at an
East Riding hospital. Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart is
seeking a High Court injunction to prevent the closure of the inpatient ward
at Hornsea Cottage Hospital. The 12 beds in the ward are used for people
recovering from surgery, suffering from terminal illnesses or in need of
long-term medical care. Yorkshire Wolds and Coast PCT has announced it will
close the ward on October 1. Mr Stuart said: "What we need in order to get
funding for our challenge is a resident who uses the services and is
eligible for legal aid. Ideally, we want a proven user of Hornsea Cottage
Hospital. I would also like to hear from anyone who fears a decision will
affect them personally, so I can make the best possible case on behalf of
everyone who uses that service." Mr Stuart said he was making the legal
challenge on the basis the public were not consulted about the move. Mr
Stuart said: "The trust is behaving illegally and illogically."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 10 September 2006 |
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MPs could probe
ward closure. The closure of a
Holderness cottage hospital ward may be scrutinised by the House of
Commons health select committee if it is found that services are being cut
as a result of overspending. Committee chairman and Rother Valley MP Kevin
Barron said: "We are continuing to look into the NHS deficits issue and
what's happening where there has been overspend and it might be that this is
one of those cases. If it came to our attention we would look at it. We need
to know whether this has come about as a result of deficits." Yorkshire
Wolds and Coast PCT announced last week it was shutting the 12-bed ward
because it could not afford to recruit agency staff to cover at the
hospital. The trust said current staffing levels were putting patients and
staff at risk. It described the closure as temporary and said it would
review the situation in March. But a national lobby group, which includes
senior doctors and trades union leaders among its ranks, has accused the
trust's managers of using stealth tactics to bring about the permanent
closure of the ward. The group, Keep Our NHS Public, fears the ward will
close for good when it stops admitting patients on October 1. Spokesman Alex
Nunns said: "We've seen this in other parts of the country where trusts
close a ward and say it's only for a limited period of time, and when that
time is up, surprise, surprise, it doesn't open again. It's a method
managers use to close things down." The axeing of the ward infuriated many
in the area, including those who successfully blocked plans to shut the
hospital's minor injury unit last year. Campaigners are considering a legal
challenge and Mr Nunns said he believed that was worth pursuing. He said:
"Closing a ward is a major service change and
patients have legal rights to be consulted. They need to use those
rights to keep this ward open. There was a case in
Oxford
where they planned to close a pain relief unit, and just the threat of legal
action from patients forced a U-turn. Legal action is available to patients
and we would encourage them to use it." Staff from the ward, who are being
transferred to other services in the area, are also said to be unhappy at
the decision. Polly Worsdale, East Riding councillor for North Holderness,
and a member of Holderness Hospitals Action Group, said: "Just after it was
announced I saw one of the nurses and she was in tears. All they want to do
is look after people."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Yorkshire
Post 10 September 2006 |
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'We'll keep ward
for elderly open'. Health managers have denied a hospital ward for the
elderly at
Hull Royal Infirmary is to be axed to save money. Nursing staff told the
Mail they fear ward 10 may be closed by the end of the month, with the loss
of 28 beds. But senior officials at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS
Trust said ward 10 would not close, although its role may change in the
future. The trust is examining the running of each hospital ward as part of
its "turnaround" plan to save £31m by 2008. One member of staff said the
trust had attempted to close the ward in March, but had to re-open it days
later because of demand for beds. Earlier this year, the trust commissioned
a report from business advisers Pricewaterhouse Coopers to tackle its
financial problems.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 12 September 2006 |
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We'll pay to keep
our hospital open. Campaigners said they were prepared to stump up
£90,000 to save services at an East Yorkshire hospital. They said the cash
could be raised by the end of the week to halt controversial closure plans
at
Hornsea Cottage Hospital. The cash would cover the cost of running the
hospital's 22-bed inpatient ward for six months, which the Yorkshire Wolds
and Coast Primary Care Trust (PCT) is closing on Sunday, October 1. The
money would be donated by Hornsea Cottage Hospital League Of Friends,
Hornsea Town Council and individuals.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 12 September 2006 |
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Health bosses
'waste' £1/2m. An NHS Trust with a £23million debt blew £500,000 on
accountants - who advised them to cut spending. City accounting firm KPMG
was called in by
Selby and York Primary Care Trust after it was identified as an
organisation at risk of "serious financial overspend" last December. KPMG is
set to charge £490,000 for work carried out by a team of 14 accountants from
December to May. Hospital staff are furious at what they see as a further
waste of cash. Medics and nurses face the axe as part of cuts by the trust.
The number of care home beds will also be reduced. The row came as it was
revealed that the NHS spends £172 million on management consultants each
year.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Sun
13 September 2006 |
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Unions look for
security of beds. Staff at an
East Riding hospital threatened with service cuts are calling for
assurances over their jobs. A letter of grievance has been sent to the
Yorkshire and Wolds PCT after it announced plans to temporarily close
Hornsea Cottage Hospital's inpatient ward. Amicus, Unison and the Royal
College of Nursing have sent the letter to the trust asking for the ward to
be kept open until negotiations have taken place. The letter said staff will
not take part in any talks over their jobs moving until they have been told
beds will reopen and have been reassured over their future. John Fleming,
regional officer for Unison, said: "We are supposed to be working in
partnership, but we were never told about this. There has been no
consultation whatsoever. We had a successful meeting on Monday night and we
have agreed a way forward." Meanwhile, London-based law firm Leigh Day and
Co is preparing to take the PCT to the High Court. It will launch a bid for
a judicial review on Friday, on behalf of two Hornsea patients, if the PCT
does not reverse its plans.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Hull Daily Mail 14 September 2006 |
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NHS trust
faces cuts to save cash. A struggling NHS trust in
North Yorkshire is considering closing two wards and axing up to 100
jobs in a bid to save money, it has emerged. Last year, the Scarborough and
North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust overspent by £7m. Accountants
Price Waterhouse Coopers who were hired to advise the trust, have
recommended several options to balance the books by March 2008. One option
is to axe 99 jobs and close two wards at Scarborough Hospital. The report
also suggests cuts in the number of midwives and agency nurses and reducing
the hours worked by consultants and junior doctors.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 15 September 2006 |
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Hospital locks
out heart patient. A woman claims her husband nearly died after being
locked out of an East
Yorkshire hospital while suffering a heart attack. John Deakin woke up
in the middle of the night with severe chest pains and his wife May drove
him to her local hospital in Bridlington. The couple were astonished to find
the hospital closed - and were forced to spend an anxious 20 minutes waiting
in the cold for an ambulance to arrive from Scarborough. Mr Deakin, 58, was
stabilised by paramedics when they arrived and then admitted to the
hospital. His wife has since added her name to almost 20,000 others calling
for Bridlington and District Hospital's minor injuries unit to be reopened
between 9pm and 9am. On September 4, Scarborough and North East Yorkshire
NHS Trust closed the unit between those hours. It said the closure was
temporary and a result of staff shortages. Although patients such as Mr
Deakin should not have been affected, with other services at the hospital
continuing around the clock, the unit's closure is thought to have made
access to the hospital more difficult. The closure has left patients in the
town, which has a population of about 44,000, either having to rely on an
out-of-hours GP service, or the accident and emergencies unit at Scarborough
General Hospital. The trust is in desperate financial straits. It has a
historical deficit of £13.4m, and a projected overspend this financial year
of £9m. Mick Pilling, who has organised the petition on behalf of the Save
Bridlington Hospital campaign, said Mr Deakin's case proved that lives were
being put at risk by the closure. He said: "If you go up to the hospital at
night all the doors are locked - what kind of hospital is that
? Most of us have paid our National Insurance contributions and our
income tax and yet we are not getting the service we deserve." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Yorkshire
Post 29 September 2006 |
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Outcry over
hospital bed closures. Objectors to a plan to reduce beds at a community
hospital from 20 to 10 left a public meeting on Monday believing the move
had been blocked and the unit saved from possible closure. But the PCT had
already jumped the gun and halved the number of beds in use at
Ripon Community Hospital before its plans were criticised by an
independent Health Scrutiny Committee. Now the new chairman of the North
Yorkshire and York PCT, Johnny Wardle, is to be challenged about the
decision by the chairman of North Yorkshire's Health Scrutiny Committee,
John Blackie, whose members unanimously opposed the loss of beds. He said:
"Clearly it does cause me concern that the PCT came along to the meeting and
said there would be consultation and in fact they were consulting on a
proposal that had already been implemented. What I hope is that they will
react very quickly to Monday's meeting and the recommendations of the
Scrutiny of Health Committee." A PCT spokesman confirmed beds at Ripon had
been reduced before Monday's meeting. He said: "The PCT does not have the
nursing staff safely to open more than 10 to 12 beds at the hospital at the
moment. We are unable to recruit more unless a decision is taken to allow us
to do so." A former Mayor of Ripon and Freeman of the City, John Richmond,
said: "What worries me is it was made quite clear that if beds were reduced
to 10 the Ripon hospital would not be viable and it would lead to its
closure."Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Yorkshire
Post 29 September 2006 |
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Health chiefs
plan top-level talks. Health bosses will see for themselves some of the
challenges they face in providing services for
North Yorkshire's most rural communities when they travel to their first
meeting with county councillors. The two top officials of the new North
Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) will have been in their posts
for less than a fortnight when they meet members of North Yorkshire's health
scrutiny committee next week. One item on the agenda will be halving the
number of beds from 20 to 10 at Ripon Community Hospital, a move opposed by
councillors. Craven and Harrogate Rural District PCT went ahead with the
cuts, prior to consultation, as part of efforts to save £9m. At the time a
spokesman said the cuts were down to current staffing levels and were a
short-term operational response which will be reviewed in November. He added
that any full-time change would have to go out to public consultation.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Yorkshire
Post 5 October 2006 |
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Petition aims to protect healthcare. A petition calling for the
protection of healthcare and support of NHS staff is being launched this
weekend by Conservative
Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart. Plans to cut Hornsea's
remaining in-patient beds were scrapped last month after a legal challenge
by Mr Stuart over the consultation process. Mr Stuart said: "I want to
influence the strategic health authority so it gives back £8m that was taken
away from the primary care trust in top slicing. If they were to give that
money back, I believe our PCT is fully capable of improving services without
cutting back to make short-term savings."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Riding Mail 16 October 2006 |
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22,000 sign petition to help save hospital.
Thousands of names have been handed over to councillors concerned about
cutbacks at
Bridlington Hospital. The hospital has already had its minor injuries
unit's 24-hour cover halved and campaigners fear it may suffer further as
Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS trust looks to make further
savings. Mick Pilling, chairman of campaign group Save and Support
Bridlington Hospital said he hoped that councillors would challenge any cuts
and that the petition would be taken on board by NHS bosses. He said: "The
amount of people who took part shows the strength of feeling." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hull Daily Mail 17 October 2006 |
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What is
our health trust waiting for?
Pressure was mounting today on health officials in
East Yorkshire for failing to bid for Government cash to safeguard
community hospitals. Campaigners have spoken of their anger after it emerged
a neighbouring health trust had already applied for £8m in extra cash.
Earlier this year, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt unveiled a five-year
£750m fund to support and renew cottage hospitals. However, no application
has been sent by East Riding of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust (PCT), which
has a multi-million pound deficit. Campaigners are fighting to save services
at Hornsea Cottage Hospital and Beverley Westwood Hospital - run by the East
Riding of Yorkshire PCT - as part of the Mail's Hands Off Our Hospitals
campaign. Now it has been revealed that the neighbouring Scarborough, Whitby
and Ryedale PCT has submitted a bid for £8m from the new fund. However, the
East Riding of Yorkshire PCT has delayed its bid until March when the latest
public consultation on the future commissioning of services has come to an
end. As a result, the trust will miss out on at least the first two waves of
funding, which could put it behind in the race to win the cash. Campaigners
are urging the East Riding of Yorkshire PCT to act in the same way
Scarborough NHS Trust has.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Riding Mail 23 November 2006 |
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Private hospital
is first in UK to open NHS ward. Classic Hospital in Lowfield Road,
Analby has opened the first private ward dedicated to NHS patients. The
Wilberforce Wing cost £800,000 and was opened by Shadow Home Secretary David
Davis. The 10-bed facility will treat a whole range of conditions and
managers have already signed a £3.5m contract with the NHS. A hospital
spokesperson said: The Wilberforce Wing is a testament to the partnership
forged with the NHS and a shared vision of choice and quality healthcare for
NHS patients." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Riding Mail 27 November 2006 |
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NHS beds to go in
care homes switch.
East Riding Primary Care Trust has drawn up radical plans to shake up
healthcare across the county and privatise some services. All beds are to be
removed from Beverley, Driffield, Hornsea and Withernsea community
hospitals. 60 beds would then be offered at Bridlington, Goole and an
unspecified third location. Radically, a further fifty beds would be moved
from the NHS into private care homes across the county. The local Hands of
Our Hospital campaign has experienced recent success in blocking moves to
cut beds at Hornsea Cottage Hospital by challenging the way in which the
decision was reached. However the new move is seen as the latest - and
possibly most significant - threat to rural hospitals in the East Riding.
Grandmother Jean Waters, who recently spent 10 days in Hornsea Cottage
Hospital, said "Removing the beds from Hornsea Cottage Hospital would be
devastating. I don't believe we would get the same level of care from a care
home" Residents will have the opportunity to view the proposals and give
their comments at four meetings set to start next month. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Riding Mail 28 November 2006 |
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Report outlines
draft proposals for community healthcare.
East Riding of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust has outlined its draft
proposals for the future of community healthcare in a report titled
Discussion Document On A Future Commissioning Strategy For Community
Services. The plans include shifting NHS-funded beds out of community
hospitals in Beverley, Driffield, Hornsea and Withernsea into the
"independent care home sector", as well as possible upgrades to the
hospitals in Bridlington and Goole. It states: "The role of community
hospitals would need to change, in order to enable a wider variety of
services to be delivered." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Riding Mail 30 November 2006 |
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Crisis over
beds boosts day unit. A day care unit at
York Hospital is being expanded to cope with a reduced number of beds
amid the financial crisis gripping the county's health service. 22
additional beds will be opening for patients on the hospital's day unit as
the second phase of an £8m development is completed. However, it emerged in
September that a total of 60 beds - the equivalent of two wards - is
expected to go amid multi-million pound Government cutbacks. The
newly-expanded day care unit will now be used to cater for more patients who
will be staying for treatment for shorter periods. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Yorkshire
Post 30 November 2006 |
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'These hospitals
won't be closed'. Campaigners fighting to safeguard community hospitals
were today given hope for the future. Health officials have pledged to keep
all four of the county's community hospitals open. But they have insisted
far-reaching changes must be made to ensure their long-term survival. The
plans were to remove all beds from Withernsea Hospital, Hornsea Cottage
Hospital, Beverley Westwood Hospital and Alfred Bean Hospital, and upgrade
hospitals in Bridlington and Goole and an unspecified third location. And in
the most controversial move, 50 NHS beds would be shifted into care homes in
what is seen by critics as the creeping privatisation of the service. Today,
officials at the
East Riding of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust said as much as £8m could be
spent upgrading facilities in Bridlington and Goole. And a new hospital
could be built depending on the results of the consultation. But they said
the current community hospitals would "absolutely not" be closed. It is the
first such guarantee since the launch of the Hands Off Our Hospitals
campaign 2 years ago. Claire Wood, the PCT's interim chief executive, warned
the current system must change and that doing nothing could lead to cuts and
closures, clinical errors and problems finding and retaining staff.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Riding Mail 1 December 2006 |
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£16m taken
from trusts. Healthcare managers have pledged services will not suffer
from budget cuts of more than £16m.
Hull Teaching and East Riding of Yorkshire primary care trusts (PCT)
have been required to plough millions into a Strategic Health Authority
(SHA) fund used to support trusts across the county that most need it.
Almost £8m was taken from the old trusts working in the East Riding, which
have now merged to form East Riding of Yorkshire PCT. A total of £8.5m was
also taken from Hull. Managers today said the levy, which is 2.5% of the
PCT's budget, had been expected and planned into finances. However,
campaigners said they feared it would put extra pressure on patient services
at a time when budgets are tight. A spokeswoman for the SHA said: "The
creation of this strategic reserve is primarily to support the management of
financial risk. The SHA has reviewed the situation and has identified those
organisations facing significant challenges." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Riding Mail 7 December 2006 |
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Campaigners will
fight hospital plans 'to the bitter end'. A campaign is being mounted to
combat the latest threat to a community hospital. People and organisations
are being urged to join forces to fight controversial proposals for Alfred
Bean Hospital. The hospital could face losing its 20 patient beds under
East Riding of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust's (PCT) proposals for future
healthcare. Health watchdog Driffield Hospital Defence League, which has
fought planned cutbacks in the past, is organising a series of meetings to
draw up a campaign strategy. Alfred Bean Hospital includes two wards, a
minor injuries unit, outpatients clinics, X-ray facilities, a physiotherapy
department and a Macmillan day hospital. A public outcry followed the PCT's
latest proposals, which are now the subject of a consultation exercise,
which will end in March. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Riding Mail 7 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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"It may be the
only way to keep services close to people's homes". Members of East
Riding of
Yorkshire Primary Care Trust met with campaigners yesterday to go over
controversial new proposals for healthcare which are to be consulted on
until March next year. The plans could see new facilities at Bridlington and
Goole and the possibility of a new hospital in Market Whittington. However
the proposals would also see the beds in four East Riding community
hospitals relocated to care homes. Hundreds have already added their names
to a petition against any privatisation of healthcare but health bosses have
defended the move. Dr Duncan Ross, director of commissioning and procurement
for the trust, told a public meeting in Cottingham: "We cannot afford to
have beds in community hospitals. A bed in an acute hospital costs between
£500 and £600 per week, but in a community hospital it is about £1,700 per
week. By using nursing homes, care can be provided close to people's homes.
The provision of beds in independent care homes will be fully funded by the
NHS."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of East Riding Mail 18 December 2006 |
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NHS facing more
pain after dental fees blunder. Cash-stricken
NHS trusts in Yorkshire face another blow amid fears a Government blunder in
calculating controversial
dental
charges will leave a multi-million black hole in budgets. found health
chiefs in the region are predicting losses of up to £11m in revenue from new
dental charges introduced in April. If the same pattern were to be repeated
nationwide it could leave the NHS facing a dental charge deficit of more
than £100m in 2006-07 - on top of an escalating crisis in health service
finances which is already leading to swingeing cuts in care. The
miscalculation would be the latest by the Department of Health over new
contract. The biggest predicted deficit is in the
Bradford
district where health chiefs estimate they will be £2.4m below target by
March.
Sheffield Primary Care Trust (PCT) could run up losses of £2m - nearly
25 per cent of total revenue. Only health chiefs in
North Yorkshire and Calderdale are confident they will recover the full
total but most are predicting they will be 10-30 per cent short. The losses
are exacerbating the NHS financial crisis. In latest estimates, NHS trusts
in Yorkshire are predicting they will plunge £129m into the red by the end
of March. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Yorkshire
Post 27 December 2006 |
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NHS trusts force
patients to wait longer for operations. Patients in some parts of the
National Health Service are for the first time facing minimum waits to be
seen and treated as managers attempt to balance their books.
Suffolk,
Hertfordshire,
North Yorkshire and
Kingston are all
imposing various forms of minimum wait, with some primary care trust chiefs
saying their organisations may foll | |