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The state of clinical trials in the UK, which allows researchers to treat adult volunteers and their children as human guinea pigs, was exposed yesterday in a damning report from an NHS panel investigating the work of consultant paediatrician David Southall and his colleagues in North
Staffordshire. Guardian, 9 May 2000
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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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Scientists are urgently assessing the threat from new superbugs that are
wrecking antibiotic treatments for hundreds of patients and may have killed 28
people in Shropshire in the year to March. Laboratories have reported a surge
in the number of urinary tract infections such as cystitis and cases of blood
poisoning caused by strains of the E coli bug resistant to most antibiotics.
The bugs, represented by an increasingly dreaded acronym ESBL, are not only
striking in hospitals, but also turning up in GP surgeries, and only one class
of antibiotic to which they have not developed resistance is available in
tablet form. James Meikle, health correspondent
Saturday July 17, 2004 The Guardian |
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A transcript of the exchanges between ambulance controllers and a doctor
attempting to transfer a dying teenage cancer patient 300 yards to intensive
care has been released by the boy's parents. An investigation has been
launched into the two-hour delay in July during which 16-year-old Luke
Gallimore slipped into a coma while being treated at the University Hospital
of North Staffordshire. Owen Bowcott
Monday
October 18, 2004 The Guardian |
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An ambulance answering an emergency call was delayed at the barrier of
Britain's only toll motorway after the paramedic driver was asked to pay £3, it
emerged today. The driver was only allowed through the barrier after switching
on the vehicle's blue flashing light, Staffordshire ambulance service claimed
this morning. The ambulance service is now seeking urgent talks with Midland
Expressway Ltd, the company which controls the M6 toll booths, to ensure that
emergency vehicles are never held up at exit barriers again. Debbie Andalo and
agencies
Thursday December 2, 2004
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If the call to cancel debt is an effective means of helping the third
world, why confine the concept to overseas (Monks and nuns take their fight
against poverty to Westminster, May 19)? The health trust in Shropshire has a
£7m debt hanging round its neck. This can only be paid by the ruthless
imposition of cuts in services to the very people to whom the money is owed,
the taxpayers. Many trusts are in the same boat. Why not cancel all NHS debt
and start again? Letter
Friday
May 20, 2005 The Guardian |
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A new website has been launched in a bid to help
save Bridgnorth and Ludlow hospitals from closure. South Shropshire MP Philip
Dunne has built the site to drum up support for the campaign to save the
county’s community hospitals. They are being threatened with closure as a
result of a multi-million pound cash crisis in Shropshire’s medical services.
Residents are being encouraged to log on to
www.saveourbridgnorthhospital.com or
www.saveourludlowhospital.com and sign the petitions online.
Summary by Keep our NHS
Public of
Shropshire
Star 19 December 2005 |
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Royal Shrewsbury Hospital's special care baby unit could be downgraded.
Premature babies in Shropshire could be transferred to Stoke or Wolverhampton
under the plans. Shropshire PCT has said its predicted deficit could increase
to £3.5m.
Shropshire
Star 21 December 2005 |
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Protest planned against Whitchurch Hospital closure. The march, organised
by Whitchurch Hospital League of Friends, will take place in the town on 7
January.
Summary by Keep our NHS
Public of
Shropshire Star 21 December 2005 |
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Cash crisis puts new medical centre in jeopardy. Plans to build a
multi-million pound one-stop medical centre at Bridgnorth Hospital are in
doubt as an agreement between Shropshire health chiefs and developers Matrix
Holdings Ltd has been put on hold until the new year. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 23 December 2005 |
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New PFI health centres poised to open soon Three non-hospital health centres
built under the PFI by the Prime PLC consortium will finally open after more
than a decade of delays. A £1.5 million building in Packmoor in Stoke-on-Trent
will be handed over to the already indebted North Stoke PCT in mid-January,
followed by the £3 million Fenton health centre in April and another centre at
Alton. In early 2007 a further project at Audley will be completed and schemes
at Cobridge, Blythe Bridge, Bucknall, Shelton and Sneyd Green are being planned.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 30
December 2005 |
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Don't let cash
crisis cost us new hospital. The outgoing chairman of the University
Hospital of North Staffordshire, who resigned in December after it was
revealed that debts were twice as high as had been reported, has said that a
planned PFI 'super-hospital' development must not be sacrificed to tackle its
financial crisis. He said the deal with private consortium Equion, which now
appears to be under threat, is vital to provide modern facilities. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 6 January 2006 |
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Group calls for
answers on hospitals. Up to a thousand protesters are expected on the
streets on Saturday protesting against the proposed closures of Ludlow,
Bridgnorth and Whitchurch community hospitals. More than 400 people demanded
assurances over the hospitals at a meeting with the chief executive of
Shropshire PCT in Ludlow on Thursday. Meanwhile, campaigners against cuts at
the Princess Royal Hospital will gather in Telford on March 11 for a "March
for Life". Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire
Star
6 January 2006 |
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Protests over
plan to close hospitals. Thousands of people took to the streets of
Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Whitchurch on Saturday to protest against the proposed
closure of three community hospitals in Shropshire.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 9 January 2006 |
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Anxiety over
ward closure proposals. A number of surgical wards, including gynaecology,
are believed to be under threat in a review of services at Staffordshire
General Hospital by in-debt Mid-Staffordshire General Hospitals Trust.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
West Midlands Express and Star 9 January 2006 |
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Hospital
marches hailed as a record. Saturday's demonstrations against the closure
of Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Whitchurch hospitals have been hailed as the biggest
demonstrations ever seen in Shropshire. Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard said he hoped
for a similar turnout on March 11 for the 'March for Life' demonstration
against the proposed reduction of services at Telford's Princess Royal
Hospital.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Shropshire Star
10 January 2006 |
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Care fears as
recovery bid revealed. Proposals from cash-strapped Mid-Staffordshire
General Hospitals NHS Trust designed to secure the future of Cannock Chase
Hospital have raised fears that care for the elderly will decline. There is
also concern about possible future redundancies. Gordon Alcott from Cannock's
health scrutiny committee said: "It is disappointing that the needs of
long-terms patients, especially the elderly, seem to have been forgotten."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
West Midlands Express and Star
10 January 2006 |
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Hospital
protests to gallop at races. Campaigners against the closure of Ludlow
hospital have found a novel way of promoting their cause. Ludlow Races' Clerk
of the Course Bob Davies and its senior medical officer have nominated one of
Thursday afternoon's races the Save Ludlow Hospital Handicap Steeplechase.
Meanwhile an official from Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust has told the
local council health scrutiny committee that closing community hospitals in
Shropshire would leave the two large hospitals over-stretched. The trust
already has a 95% bed occupancy rate.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Shropshire Star
11 January 2006 |
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Hospital beds
may go to cut debts in Stoke. North Stoke and South Stoke PCTs are
considering closing hospital beds, cutting health visitor and district nurse
posts, reducing services at the Haywood Community Hospital and Longton Cottage
Hospital and urging GPs to write cost-effective prescriptions. They are
seeking to save £8m from their deficit.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online
16 January 2006 |
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Two wards to
close at hospital. The gynaecology and women's health ward and the
orthopaedic ward will close at Staffordshire General Hospital as part of
controversial plans to save £600,000. Staff on the wards are now worried for
their jobs. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
West Midlands Express and Star
16 January 2006 |
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Probe urged to
look at NHS management. Hospital workers in North Staffordshire are
calling for Unison to focus on their region's £18m debt in its inquiry into
the financial crisis. They say the fault lies with the politicians rather than
health managers. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 18 January 2006 |
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Health cuts
branded an absolute horror. The proposed cuts by North Stoke and South
Stoke PCTs include the temporary closure of 10 beds at Westcliffe Hospital,
Chell; a reduction in the number of beds and suspension of X-ray services at
Longton Cottage Hospital; a reduction in service at Haywood Hospital walk-in
centre, Burslem; a reduction in the number of health visitors and district
nurses pending a city-wide service review. The PCTs have a combined deficit of
£9m. Pressure group North Staffordshire Healthwatch said the cuts would hit
the elderly and the vulnerable particularly hard, but would have knock-on
effects for the whole population.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 18 January 2006 |
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Hospitals
outcry to ministers. Petitions in defence of Whitchurch, Bridgnorth and
Ludlow hospitals with 30,000 signatures have been handed to the Department of
Health. Shropshire MP Owen Paterson said: "This is a phenomenal demonstration
of popular feeling."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star
18 January 2006 |
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Fight to save
"forgotten" hospital. The campaigns around threats to Bridgnorth, Ludlow
and Whitchurch community hospitals have overshadowed the plight of Bishop's
Castle Community Hospital, which also has an uncertain future. Local residents
have now launched a campaign and organised demonstrations.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Shropshire Star
20 January 2006 |
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Patients face
longer wait for treatment as minor injuries unit cut. North
Staffordshire's PCTs are planning to withdraw £130,000 annually from a
pioneering walk-in centre at Burslem's Haywood Hospital as they struggle to
claw back millions of pounds of debt. This would leave the Haywood centre with
just its £800,000 of central government funding, undermining its ability to
hit the four-hour waiting target. This week Newcastle PCT also announced it
will be pulling funding from cancer services and a mental health care
initiative.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 20 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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Midlands faces
an NHS debt crisis. The region's combined deficit could top £100m by
April, according to BBC research. Shropshire alone is £55m in debt and
proposals have been put forward to close three community hospitals in Ludlow,
Bridgnorth and Whitchurch.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 30
January 2006 |
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NHS chief's vow
over future of A&E unit. Tom Taylor, chief executive of Shrewsbury and
Telford Hospitals Trust, has given his strongest pledge yet that Telford's
Princess Royal will not lose its Accident and Emergency department or see it
downgraded. He said there was not enough cash to make any major changes.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 1 February 2006 |
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Jobs on the
line at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire. The new chief
executive of the Stoke hospital has told unions that up to 700 posts need to
be shed to balance the books. He wrote to all 7,000 staff, telling them their
jobs could be on the line to claw back a £18 million debt. But both he and the
new chairman publicly backed the £420 PFI project for a new superhospital. The
previous chairman, who resigned due to the financial situation, had called for
the scheme not to be scrapped. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 6
February 2006 |
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I'll run private
ambulance fleet. The chief executive of Staffordshire ambulance trust wants
to turn it into Britain's first private emergency brigade to avoid a merger with
three worse performing trusts that would create a West Midlands regional
service. Roger Thayne said: "We save significantly more lives than the other
services and do it for 25% cheaper so it would be hard for the PCTs to ignore a
bid from a new independent Staffordshire ambulance service. Our assets are worth
£7m to £8m and I have spoken to banks about the possibility of them finding that
capital for the service and then leasing it back to the NHS under, say, a
30-year private finance initiative deal." He is not surprised that PCTs have
shown interest in the scheme, "when they are facing debts of around £8 million
and I can demonstrate I can run the best performing service in the UK for £4
million a year less than the average cost of ambulance trusts." The plan to
merge the services has been widely opposed and 30,000 people have signed a
petition. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 8
February 2006 |
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Politicians
fight to make North Staffordshire NHS a special case for extra Government
funding. Five MPs from the area around the University Hospital of North
Staffordshire have signed an Early Day Motion in Parliament calling on
Patricia Hewitt to provide extra funding to the institution because of the
costs of operating on a split site a mile apart. The hospital's previous chief
executive calculated that split site working cost an average of 6% more than
having services under one roof. Taken over its annual budget of nearly £300
million, that equates to £18 million - the same sum as its current deficit.
The hospital plans to cut up to 700 posts and dismantle some services over the
next two years. This is in addition to 500 jobs to be lost as part of a freeze
on recruitment. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 10 February 2006 |
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Aged facilities
mean NHS cash is wasted. 19,000 ambulance journeys a year have to be made
to transfer patients the mile between the two sites that comprise the
University Hospital of North Staffordshire. North Staffordshire Healthwatch
has launched a nationwide search to find if any other similar-sized hospitals'
finances are squeezed by split-site working which is beyond their control.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 10 February 2006 |
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Hospital axe
decision call. Owen Paterson, MP for North Shropshire, has called for a
decision once and for all on the future of Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Whitchurch
community hospitals. The closure of the hospitals was one of a number of
options put forward by management consultants Finnamore, paid £95,000 to
tackle the £36m deficit of Shropshire's health economy. NHS chiefs have said
the closures are still a possibility and no options have been ruled in or
out. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 14 February 2006 |
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Shropshire
hospitals may get reprieve. Controversial plans to save £37m a year by
closing community hospitals in Shropshire have been delayed following last
month's white paper on out of hospital care. A consultation document will now
be published in March - later than planned because of the white paper, as well
as recent policy on practice-based commissioning and payment by results. Among
the options raised in the pre-consultation period were closing one or more of
the community hospitals at Ludlow, Whitchurch, and Bridgnorth. A 2,000-strong
demonstration protested at the plans. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 16 February 2006 |
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Hospitals staff
must be axed to tackle debt. The University hospital of North
Staffordshire has admitted for the first time that staff will be made
redundant to tackle debts. Until now it was hoped that a recruitment squeeze
would be enough to tackle the £18 million deficit. But the hospital says that
policy will only reduce staff numbers by 260, well short of the 1,200 jobs it
says need to go to balance the books by March next year. The hospital, which
needs to cut its overall spending by £30m to ensure it stays in the black,
also revealed the financial crisis had pushed up sickness leave over the past
three months as morale has sunk. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 16 February 2006 |
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Ambulance crews
in drug row. Heart attack patients across Birmingham and the Black Country
are not given the blood clotting Thrombolytic drug en route to hospitals
because local PCT's say they are unable to fund it. Neighbours in
Staffordshire and Shropshire are given the £350 shot which can prove the
difference between life and death. The West Midlands ambulance service runs in
both regions but is forced to treat patients from the two areas differently.
Summary by Keep
our NHS Public of Birmingham Mail 16 February 2006 |
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Community
hospital battles continue. Despite the recent health white paper favouring
community hospitals, campaigners are still having to fight closures due to the
financial pressures on PCTs. Closure decisions are still going ahead Suffolk
and Wiltshire, and there are concerns for the future of services in other
areas, such as Shropshire and Gloucestershire. Now the Department of Health is
to issue a "get tough" message to those PCTs who are unnecessarily planning to
close community hospitals in the face of local opposition, telling them such
closures should not be implemented because of "short-term budgetary
pressures". The Department's letter says: "We are not leaving this shift of
care to chance. We will reject local NHS plans that do not set out a strategy
for providing more care closer to patients." Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 17
February 2006 |
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Hospital delays
paying £4m tax bill. The University Hospital of North Staffordshire is
delaying paying its tax bill in order to pay local suppliers on time. The
hospital, currently predicting an £18m deficit, is £7 million short of the sum
it needs to pay all its bills in the next two months. Directors of the
hospital trust have authorised a delay of payments totalling £4m to the Inland
Revenue until the new financial year. The hospital wishes to prioritise local
suppliers and small businesses before large companies and the taxman. As part
of the delay, the hospital will hold off handing over employees' national
insurance contributions to the Treasury, as well as VAT.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 21 February 2006 |
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Auf Wiedersehen
from doctor. A doctor has quit a privately run GP practice just months after
being appointed, as patients face further discontinuity in their care. Private
firm ChilversMcRae won the contract to run Longton Health Centre in North
Staffordshire in October 2004 because the PCT was unable to attract doctors to
the area. But in its opening three months, Chilvers McCrea firstly had to pay a
PCT to supply doctors and then it used temporary doctors to fill the gap,
including one from France. It employed Dr Gabriele Muzzulini from Germany just
months ago but she has now left.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 21 February 2006 |
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Superhospital
plan may be scaled down. Negotiations are under way to reduce the size of
North Staffordshire's planned £420m PFI superhospital, raising fresh fears over
job cuts. Already 1,200 posts are to be lost because of the financial state of
the University Hospital of North Staffordshire. Hospital executives are in talks
with PFI consortium Equion to see if the 30 annual instalments of £53m the NHS
is set to pay under the PFI can be reduced by keeping some of the support
services - including cleaning, catering and portering - in the public sector
after all. They are also looking at a scaled down scheme with fewer beds. Unison
branch secretary Pat Powell said: "We warned this would happen years ago but
were ignored. It would seem the only alternative now is for the Government to
ditch the whole PFI policy and start funding hospitals from the Treasury as they
always used to…If the trust is now talking about cutting costs by keeping the
staff within the NHS instead, that can only mean job numbers falling. We have
always fought to keep jobs and services in-house at this hospital but in light
of recent events you now wonder if they would be less at risk if they were
working under a private contractor."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 21 February 2006 |
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Plans for
mini-hospital casualty of NHS crisis. A £5 million pound PFI mini-hospital
to treat people falling ill at nights and weekends has been scrapped, because of
the financial crisis gripping North Staffordshire healthcare. It was set to
become Britain's first fully comprehensive out-of-hours medical centre,
containing GPs, nurses, dentists and pharmacists. But the four North
Staffordshire PCTs - with a combined deficit of £15m - say they can no longer
afford the PFI scheme it due to the "present financial climate". In the autumn
the service will be transferred from its current location to the University
Hospital of North Staffordshire's central outpatients department. Doctors have
voiced concerns over how a service incorporating 80 doctors, 48 nurses, teams of
drivers and a range of full-time staff can be "grafted on to" an already busy
hospital department.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 01 March 2006 |
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Doctors had own
plan for treatment. A doctors' co-op in North Staffordshire's was prepared
to run out-of-hours medical cover and was poised to build a state-of-the-art
centre before the service was incorporated into the mainstream NHS two years
ago. Now PCTs cannot afford the mini-hospital.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 01 March 2006 |
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Old buildings, inefficient systems, delayed operations and £18m losses.
Portrait of a struggling trust [hospitals in Stoke on Trent]. Hugh Muir
Wednesday March 8, 2006 The Guardian
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Despair of
Shelton boss at cuts. Staff and patients have been told that the
Lilleshall mental health ward at Shelton Hospital in Shrewsbury will close on
April 23, to generate savings of about £300,000. The boss of Shropshire's
mental health service said he felt "utter despair" that it has been caught up
in the county's NHS cash crisis through no fault of its own. Despite being
able to balance its books for the fifth year running it is still being forced
to freeze more than 50 staff vacancies.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 8 March 2006 |
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Two big hospital
PFIs at risk. The University of North Staffordshire NHS Trust has admitted
it will not be able to afford it's £350m PFI hospital without scaling back the
project. The scheme, which also includes the construction of a community
hospital, would tie the trust in to paying the private consortium Equion between
£52m and £53m a year over 30 years, a total of around £1.5bn. The government is
also reviewing the PFI project at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS
Trust.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Independent 12 March 2006 |
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Health trust's
cash "bombshell". Telford &
Wrekin PCT has said it cannot rule out an impact on patient care because of a
financial "bombshell". New pricing structures will cost the PCT £1.1m next
year while the strategic health authority has asked for £5.3m back to cover
deficits elsewhere. The trust's chief executive said: "When recovering that
sort of money you can't rule out there being some impact on patient care."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 13 March 2006 |
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Patients facing
longer wait as hospital debt is slashed. Cost-cutting measures have
succeeded in reducing the debt at the University Hospital of North
Staffordshire by a million pounds in three months. But the number of patients
waiting for an operation rose by nearly 400 in January to 6,286. The hospital
still plans to lose 1,200 jobs in the next two years, a figure that will
require compulsory redundancies.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 13 March 2006 |
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Hospital
protest hits the streets. More than 1,000 people took to the streets of
Wellington to deliver a clear message to health chiefs: "Hands off our
hospital." There are fears that the Princess Royal Hospital could be
downgraded and could lose its A& E.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 13 March 2006 |
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Hospital to cut
up to 1,000 jobs. Staff at the University Hospital of North
Staffordshire have been told 1,000 jobs could be lost, including 750
compulsory redundancies. An estimated 370 of the posts will be nurses and
midwives. Vacant posts may not be filled to help reduce staffing and 15
consultant posts could be cut. The hospital is £17m in debt. The overall
figure of 1,000 jobs represents a seventh of the workforce.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC Online 16 March 2006 |
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Up to 1,000 jobs could vanish in an attempt to reduce the debts of a
hospital trust which is carrying a deficit of £18m - one of the worst in the
country - it was announced yesterday. As many as 750 of the redundancies at
the University hospital of North Staffordshire NHS trust could be
compulsory, the staff were warned at the launch yesterday of a 90-day
consultation process. Sarah Boseley, health editor
Friday
March 17, 2006 The Guardian
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Ambulance chief
quits over merger. Roger Thayne, head of the Staffordshire Ambulance
Service, has resigned following a row over planned mergers.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC Online 17 March 2006 |
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Community Hospitals at risk in Shropshire and
Staffordshire SHA according to
Public Finance 17 March 2006:
Ludlow Community Hospital
Bridgnorth Hospital
Whitchurch Hospital |
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Question Time.
Staffordshire MPs are to meet with Tony Blair amid concerns that the NHS in
North Staffordshire is in crisis. Staff at the University Hospital of North
Staffordshire have gone into official dispute after refusing to accept
guarantees that patient services would not be hit. Unions have pulled out of
all negotiations on the redundancy programme. Unison secretary Pat Powell
said: "Staff are so angry some are talking about industrial action but with
so many jobs going I don't know where that would get us. Documentation from
the trust says they want to reduce the length of stay for patients and cut
outpatient appointments by 27,000. We do not accept that can be done without
drastically reducing patient care."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 17 March 2006 |
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The public must
fight to save hospital jobs. A campaign of public resistance is being
called for to fight the hundreds of compulsory redundancies due to hit the
University Hospital of North Staffordshire. North Staffordshire Healthwatch
called on the public to step up pressure on MPs to fight the cuts by acting
at national level. Group co-ordinator Ian Syme said: "It is the equivalent
of closing a small acute hospital and cannot be accepted by the public."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 17 March 2006 |
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Hewitt gets blame
for hospital's slashing of 1,000 jobs. Patricia Hewitt has come under
fire for the axing of 1,000 jobs at the University Hospital of North
Staffordshire as the government was blamed for causing its cash crisis. A
Unison report by John Lister cited "perverse" government targets and
"contradictory" policies for the hospital's £15.5m debt. Dr Lister
highlighted the cost of the £350 million hospital being built on the Stoke
site through the PFI. He also accused the Government of turning a blind eye
to high debt before last year's general election to avoid "politically
embarrassing cuts in services". Niall Dickson, the chief executive of the
King's Fund, said hospitals could not be blamed for the costs of pay deals
negotiated by the DoH, which is now making the NHS "carry the can". Liz
Longstaff, the regional officer for the RCN, said it was preparing to ask
its members to work to rule if the threat of such large cutbacks was not
lifted. She said: "If every nurse worked their contractual hours let's see
how many they could get rid of then."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 18 March 2006 |
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Thousands more
jobs may go as crisis hits NHS Direct. Hundreds of jobs could be lost at
NHS Direct, the telephone and online service, as it becomes the latest arm
of the health service to report a deficit. Cost-cutting proposals include an
immediate recruitment freeze, compulsory redundancies and the closure of
some call centres. Meanwhile the RCN has warned that there could be 5,000
more job losses in the West Midlands alone, on top of the 1,000 jobs cut by
the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, because of
"huge problems" at hospitals such as Good Hope and City Hospital in
Birmingham, New Cross in Wolverhampton, and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals
NHS Trust.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 18 March 2006 |
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Midwife: Women
stand to lose a gold standard birth choice service. Sue Brown, the
deputy head of midwifery and Royal College of Nursing representative at the
University of North Staffordshire, said the hospital's jobs cuts will affect
the standard of patient care: "We offer a gold standard service and women
will lose that service. The birth rate is increasing and we need more
midwives, not less. Recently, 10 midwives qualified, having trained here for
three years, but there's a recruitment freeze so we can't take them on.
We've tried to make births as normal and natural as possible, like the
Government wanted, by providing choice. Now that choice won't be there."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 18 March 2006 |
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300 jobs to go at
two hospitals. Almost 300 jobs are to go at Shropshire's two main
hospitals. 80 jobs will go immediately this financial year and 211 before
the end of the next at the Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury
Hospital. The Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust is in debt by £30m.
Compulsory redundancies have not been ruled out.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online
21 March
2006 |
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Problem of NHS
deficits far worse than admitted, with real deficit at £900m. A
Conservative Party analysis of 139 NHS organisations suggests the financial
crisis gripping the NHS is far worse than ministers have admitted, with
hospital and PCTs expected to be £900 million in debt by the end of the
financial year. The organisation with the greatest increase in predicted
deficit is Burton Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Queen's
Hospital in Burton Upon Trent. The predicted overspend is £31 million -
£29,850,000 more than expected in September.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 21 March
2006 |
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Postcard campaign
launched to fight hospital cuts. Hundreds of postcards are being sent to
hospital bosses from residents urging them not to axe services. More than
1,600 people signed the postcards against cuts at Macclesfield Hospital,
which serves patients in Congleton and the Staffordshire Moorlands.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 21 March
2006 |
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A proposal to close several community hospitals in Shropshire has been
dropped, health bosses have confirmed. Campaigners have been protesting at
the plans to close Bridgnorth, Whitchurch and Ludlow hospitals. The NHS in
the county collectively has a £55m deficit, and it was suggested closure
would save several million. Shropshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) said it was
proposing "substantial changes" for community hospitals but ruled out
closing any of them.
BBC
Online 24 March 2006 |
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Hospital will axe
150 staff to save £10m. Mid-Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust,
which runs Stafford Hospital, has announced that more than 150 posts are to
be lost to save £10m next year. Compulsory redundancies have not been ruled
out. The trust is actually making a surplus this year.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 30 March 2006 |
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NHS watchdog may
ask minister to halt job cuts. Stoke-on-Trent City Council's health
scrutiny commission is considering a plea to Health Secretary Patricia
Hewitt to rule on whether the planned job cuts should be allowed to go
ahead. It will take the move if it believes that patient care will suffer as
a result of the cuts. Unions at the hospital have lodged a dispute with
management after failing to be convinced by assurances on patient care and
called for officials to demonstrate how they can pull it off. The dispute
means that a 90-day consultation period over redundancies has been put on
ice.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 30 March 2006 |
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Blair is accused
of wrecking NHS with
confused policies.
The former chairman of the University Hospital of North Staffordshire,
the hospital forced to sack 1,000 staff due to its £15.5m debt, has accused
the Government of wrecking the NHS with bureaucracy and contradictory
policies. Calum Paton said Tony Blair had "snatched defeat from the jaws of
victory" on state-funded health. He said the Prime Minister had "not a hope
in hell" of achieving his stated aim of a maximum 18 weeks between a
patient's first GP visit and having an operation. He said: "The Government
has suffered from drastic policy confusion and what I call initiativeitis,
bringing out up to three initiatives a day that cost a fortune to run."
Encouraging Trusts to work independently to promote choice but at the same
time telling them to promote local collaboration had caused confusion. SHAs
"crawl to ministers and refuse to tell them the full extent of the
financial
crisis". He slammed patient choice,
saying "patients in Staffordshire don't want a bus trip around the country
to go to hospital, they want good local services. If the Government had
taken a harder look at strategy at the outset it could have spent the same
and got much better health care."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 5 April 2006 |
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Round up some
patients and reopen an operating theatre. The Health Secretary is paying us
a visit. The University Hospital of North
Staffordshire reopened an operating theatre that had been closed for 10
months for the visit of Patricia Hewitt. Staff were told last Thursday that
Hewitt was visiting and that for the day the theatre would be doing eye
operations again. A doctor said: "We had to wash out and check all the
equipment, the microscopes and the cataracts operating machine. The nurse
who ran the theatre before was called back in and for the first time in
almost a year the theatre was used for eye operations again. All this was so
that the hospital could show Miss Hewitt that all was well and that cuts
could not affect patient services, which is of course rubbish. It was an
incredibly sneaky thing to do but then the management is obsessed with spin
rather than trying to run a good hospital. What Miss Hewitt won't see is
that tomorrow, the next day and for the foreseeable future the eye theatre
will be closed again." As Hewitt arrived she was heckled by protesters angry
at the job cuts. Jim Cessford of the NHS Save Our Staff Campaign said:
"Staff say they are already working to full capacity. They say this
reduction will tip them over the edge, as well as putting lives at risk."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 5 April 2006 |
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Patient care jobs
face axe. Seventy voluntary car drivers could lose their jobs taking
patients to Shropshire hospitals and care centres after the county ambulance
service lost a £1.5 million transport contract. Instead Shrewsbury and
Telford Hospital Trust and the area's PCTs awarded the contract to the
private sector.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 5 April 2006 |
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Dear Mrs Hewitt. A letter from "the people of North Staffordshire and
South Cheshire" on the front page of the Stoke Sentinel calls for Patricia
Hewitt to alleviate the problems of the University Hospital of North
Staffordshire. It says: "Our main hospital, the University Hospital of North
Staffordshire, has done all you have asked in the past year… It is the 7,000
staff on the ground who have made all this possible by over-performing on
the hospital's contract with the PCTs. But it is 1,000 of them who now face
the dole as a reward for their dedication and hard work."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 5 April 2006 |
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'Ridiculous'
to say patients won't suffer. North Staffordshire NHS Save Our Staff, a
new group comprising leading figures from North Staffordshire's trade
unions, the city's socialist party, campaigning group Healthwatch and staff
leaders from the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, say it is
ridiculous to claim that cutting 1,000 jobs will not affect patient care. A
delegation including four workers whose jobs are under threat met Patricia
Hewitt when she visited the hospital on Tuesday. The group plans a mass
demonstration in Stoke-on-Trent at the end of April.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 5 April 2006 |
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Shorter stays
to save cash. With the University Hospital of North Staffordshire
planning to discharge patents earlier to save money, opponents including
Healthwatch and Unison have claimed patient care will be harmed because the
facilities are not in place to care for people in the community. North Stoke
PCT, which would be expected to pick up much of the slack, is itself in debt
and has cut services.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 5 April 2006 |
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It's all your
own fault. Patricia Hewitt has rounded on managers at the crisis-hit
University Hospital of North
Staffordshire for recruiting hundreds of staff it could not afford. And
she also savaged previous teams of NHS officials for failing to improve
community services enough to allow patients to be discharged sooner.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 6 April 2006 |
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Plan for new
hospital site to be reviewed. Patricia Hewitt revealed that a DoH team
is in
Staffordshire reviewing plans for the £420m PFI superhospital, which has
already been delayed two years and may now be downsized.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 6 April 2006 |
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Breast cancer patients living in
Wales are
getting the so-called "wonder drug" Herceptin free at a hospital but women
living in England have to pay, it emerged yesterday. The "postcode lottery"
surrounding the potentially life-saving drug means that women in Wales do
not have to pay for the treatment at the Royal Shrewsbury hospital because
Herceptin provision is funded by their health board. But women in the early
stages of breast cancer who live in England must raise the £30,000 a year
cost themselves, because their primary care trust will not foot the bill.
The disparity - which illustrates the differences in priorities between
different PCTs - was exposed yesterday by Owen Paterson, the North
Shropshire Tory MP. Since February, all Welsh local health boards have
agreed to pay for the drug for women living in Wales who need it, even if
they are treated in England. Sarah Hall, health correspondent
Monday April 10, 2006 The Guardian |
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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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Help me to
save 350 jobs. University Hospital of North
Staffordshire chief executive Antony Sumara wants £20m from the
Government to save around 350 of the 650 workers facing compulsory
redundancy and bring the hospital's finances back into credit. The hospital
is requesting the £20m "bridging finance" to transfer nurses and other staff
to look after patients outside hospital. Sumara said: "It is ridiculous that
we are having to throw away such large sums in redundancy payments when
these staff could transfer to primary care and look after the same patients
being rehabilitated at home rather than in hospital." Unison branch
secretary Pat Powell said: "It is a good start but this is only taking care
of less than 300 jobs and is nowhere near enough. We can't afford to lose
any jobs because there isn't enough staff for the services that are there
now."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 11 April 2006 |
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Hostile
reception for hospital boss. Scores of furious health workers and NHS
campaigners greeted University Hospital of North
Staffordshire boss Anthony Sumara as he justified plans to axe 1,000
jobs to Stoke-on-Trent city council's scrutiny committee. Save Our Staff
(SOS) campaign - formed to try to block the redundancies - held a
banner-waving protest.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 11 April 2006 |
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Claim patients
face long wait in ambulances. Bed shortages at the Royal
Shrewsbury Hospital have forced patients to be kept in ambulances for up
to two hours before being taken into the A&
E department, according to Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 13 April 2006 |
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Private firms to run non-999 ambulances. Two private firms have won
contracts to run non-emergency ambulance services in
Staffordshire. Parkwood Healthcare and Ambuline will manage the majority
of the county's Patient Transport Services. Staffordshire Ambulance
Service's acting chief executive Geoff Catling said: "It is devastating news
that, despite this trust having a well-renowned name for the quality of the
services it provides…the coordinating organisation acting on behalf of the
PCTs and hospitals in Staffordshire has awarded the majority of the
contracts to two private companies. PTS staff at the trust have all been
trained to a higher level than the national standards for this group of
health workers, with all vehicles equipped with 'heart start' machines and
carrying fully-kitted responder bags and oxygen therapy equipment. There is
a real danger of sustainability of the trust when reacting to potentially
very serious or major incidents." An Ambuline spokesman admitted that the
company's ambulances would not carry cardiac monitors. North Staffordshire
Healthwatch spokesman Ian Syme said: "An ambulance service is an NHS service
and should remain in the NHS." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinal 19 April 2006 |
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Health bosses
face a grilling over NHS cuts. An OVER-50s campaign group is to
challenge health leaders about hundreds of job losses planned for the
University Hospital of North
Staffordshire. Hospital chief executive Antony Sumara and Newcastle
Primary Care Trust chairman Ian Ashbolt will answer questions in a session
organised by the newly-created Newcastle 50+ Forum.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 19 April 2006 |
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Superhospital
plan to be scaled down. The blueprint for the £420m PFI superhospital
for North
Staffordshire has been torn up, as the area's NHS faces financial
meltdown. Instead, planners are looking at a scaled-down scheme, with
contractors moving on site at least three years later than the previous
proposals. Equion has "stood down" its teams working on the contract. Delays
in the superhospital had already sent the cost of the scheme soaring by £21m
a year, and preparation work was already underway.
Cuts are a
prescription for concern. Most medical specialities will see their beds
cut under the scaled-down proposals for the revised superhospital. There
will only be 86 intermediate care beds, as opposed to 202 in the original
plans, despite the fact that intermediate care beds are seen as essential to
reduce the lengths of hospital stays. Overall, bed numbers inside the
hospital will fall from the current 1,300 to 1,169 - including drops in
maternity from 72 to 55, paediatric intensive care from 29 to 26, heart and
lung critical care from 23 to seven, and general child health from 80 to 42.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 21 April 2006 |
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Residents to
fight hospital job losses. North Staffs NHS SOS (Save Our Staff)
campaign is appealing to residents to join a protest against job cuts at the
University Hospital of North
Staffordshire on Saturday, April 29.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 21 April 2006 |
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Hospital may
close a year early. A community hospital due to close in 2007 could be
shut down this summer to cut costs. North Stoke Primary Care Trust plans to
shut Westcliffe Hospital in Chell, north
Staffordshire. The hospital currently treats treats 30 elderly patients
who will have to be moved to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.
Jobs may be lost through the closure although exact numbers are not known.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 26 April 2006 |
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Thousands of cancer patients are
waiting
longer than two months before they can begin treatment, according to new
figures that reveal a crucial health target has been missed. The government
had promised that 95 per cent of patients would start treatment for cancer
within 62 days of being referred by their GP. But figures to be released in
June will show that 9 per cent of all patients had to spend longer in the
queue, equating to around 12,000 people a year. The main delays happen in
the wait for a diagnosis, where there is still a shortfall of both staff and
equipment to carry out the tests needed to assess the nature and severity of
a cancer. The biggest waits are for bowel cancer, the third most common form
of cancer in Britain affecting 34,000 people a year, where patients need a
colonoscopy, an internal probe to find the tumour, for their diagnosis. ...
The figures came as new pressures emerged over the
deficits facing the NHS. A rally took place yesterday in Stoke-on-Trent
where up to 1,000 jobs could be lost as the NHS trust, the University
Hospital of North
Staffordshire, faces debts of up to £15m. Managers have launched a
90-day consultation on the plans, which have been greeted with dismay by
staff there. The actual deficit in the NHS could be as high as £1.2bn with
58 per cent of hospital trusts facing deficits. Many of them now have to
repay loans to the NHS Bank, which has traditionally lent money and allowed
deficits to be carried over. Niall Dixon, the fund's chief executive, said
further cuts in services were almost inevitable because of the pressure to
meet targets on cancer and waiting lists. 'It's clear that these financial
problems threaten to derail the reform agenda,' he told the Health Service
Journal. 'Hospitals will be left with too little cash to fund policies which
would improve patient care.' One leading economist called last week for the
government to acknowledge that there would be a huge funding gap for the NHS
by 2009, when the large year-on-year increases in funding dry up. Oxford
economist Andrew Dilnot, former head of the Institute of Fiscal Studies,
said the government should contemplate a system of 'co-payments'
so that those able to afford it could pay towards routine care, and the NHS
would be safeguarded. ...· Have you or your relatives had to endure a long
wait for cancer radiotherapy? If you want to tell us about it, please email
jo.revill@observer.co.uk
Jo Revill, health editor
Sunday April 30, 2006 The Observer |
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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 |
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Rally to fight
hospital jobs cuts. 5,000 Uniformed workers, union members and residents
took to the streets of Stoke-on-Trent to protest at plans to axe 1,000 jobs
at the University Hospital of North
Staffordshire. NHS Save Our Staff march organiser Jim Cessford said:
"People were cheering us into the city centre, clapping us on. The whole
city centre came alive in support of us today. Every car that came past us
tooted their horn. The community is 100% behind us."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 2 May 2006 |
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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 |
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Show of unity at
NHS protest march. 5,000 people turned out to fight plans to cut more
than 1,000 jobs at the University Hospital of North
Staffordshire in a protest on 29 April. Among the people taking part
were NHS workers, patients, politicians and entire families, from children
in pushchairs through to pet dogs. Motorists tooted their horns along the
way.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Stoke Sentinel 2 May 2006 |
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'Nurses are dead
on their feet - they can't carry on'. Campaigners in North Staffordshire
plan to link up with other pressure groups and trade union leaders to stage
a national protest over NHS job cuts. They are calling on the Government to
write off hospital debts and spare staff from compulsory redundancies. Jim
Cessford, chairman of the Save Our Staff campaign, said the 5000-strong
march through Stoke-on-Trent at the weekend was merely a prelude to a much
larger expression of anger.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Stoke Sentinel 2 May 2006 |
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Obese patients to
be refused hip operations.
Overweight people are to be made the latest victims of a cash crisis
gripping healthcare in North
Staffordshire. People classified as clinically obese will be denied hip
and knee replacement operations, to help the area tackle its £30 million of
NHS debt, which is already forcing the loss of
1,000 hospital jobs. The cut-off point will be a Body Mass Index (BMI)
measurement of 30. The clampdown, which is still awaiting final approval,
could rule out treatment for a quarter of the 700 patients having joint
replacement surgery at the University Hospital of Staffordshire every year.
The initiative is among a string of economies revealed by North and South
Stoke-on-Trent PCTs, which are £9 million in the red, and need to cut annual
spending by £18.5 million a year to balance coming budgets.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Stoke Sentinel 2 May 2006 |
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Health boss
pledges no cuts to front line services.
Stoke-on-Trent's PCTs are to make £18.5m of cuts
to services. Elective operations, help with hearing and eyesight
problems, vasectomies, orthopaedic care, health promotion and some mental
health care will be given a lower priority because of the need to protect
life or death care. There will also be cuts at the Haywood Hospital walk-in
centre at Burslem. Among other savings are: bringing forward
closure of Westcliffe Hospital, Chell; withdrawing clinics for people
suffering depression; and reduction in counselling services.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Stoke Sentinel 2 May 2006 |
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NHS to pay out for non-existent
centre.
Staffordshire's cash-strapped NHS will have to
pay up to £750,000 for an out-of-hours medical centre that was never built.
The "abortive costs" include fees paid to architects, planners and
consultants. Local health officials are arguing with Prima 200 Ltd, the
private firm that was to construct
the building, to decide how the cost will be shared between them.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Stoke Sentinel 2 May 2006 |
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Health trust in
fresh delay. Health chiefs have delayed a public consultation on the
future of hospital services at the Royal
Shrewsbury and Telford's Princess Royal for a third time. The hospitals
trust is working on proposals with accountants Price Waterhouse Coopers, one
of the Government's special "turnaround teams".
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 3 May 2006 |
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Trusts Plan
Thrown into Disarray. Cuts in
mental health services by Stoke-on-Trent's two PCTs have scuppered the
bid of North
Staffordshire Combined Healthcare trust to become a
foundation trust.
Financial uncertainties mean the trust failed to be awarded foundation
status by Monitor. While against foundation trusts in principle, leaders of
Combined Healthcare's 2,500 staff have joined management in condemning the
cuts to be imposed by North and South Stoke PCTs.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 4 May 2006 |
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£4m
Budget cut for mental health care. Patients in
Stoke-on-Trent face being denied some
mental health services as the city's primary care trusts plan to slash
£4m from their psychiatric services budgets. The figure represents a 10%
reduction in funding and has wrecked North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare
trust's bid for foundation
status. Combined Healthcare is appealing to the PCTs for more time to avoid
the cuts and possible redundancies.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 4 May 2006 |
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Mental health
trusts get new status. The first three
mental health
foundation trusts
have been launched following authorisation from regulator Monitor. From May
1, Oxleas Foundation Trust, South
Essex Partnership Foundation Trust and
South
Staffordshire Healthcare Foundation Trust joined 32 acute foundations.
The authorisation came a month late because of the complications surrounding
the payments by results tariff.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Public Finance 5 May 2006 |
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Shock sinks in
over BNP councillors. Residents have blamed job cuts at the University
Hospital of North
Staffordshire for the surprise success of the BNP in the recent local
council
elections.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 9 May 2006 |
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Bed cuts plan for
hospitals. Bed cuts and ward closures in community hospitals are planned
as part of a range of measures to save
Shropshire County PCT £4m a year. The PCT has rejected closing
hospitals, but the proposals include reducing the number of general beds at
Ludlow Community Hospital and closing its Clee ward. The Whitcliffe ward,
which looks after elderly mental health patients, would be closed. At
Bishop's Castle Community Hospital it is proposed to reduce the number of
NHS beds from 24 to 12. Whitchurch Community Hospital would lose six general
inpatient beds. Changes to district nursing and health visiting services, as
well as more controlled GP prescribing, are also being considered by the
PCT. These measures will now be subject to a 13-week public consultation.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 9 May 2006 |
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Hospital
campaigners meet bosses. Campaigners fighting to save services at Ludlow
community hospital in
Shropshire are to meet health officials. There are plans to close a
mental health ward at the hospital to try and save £3m. Shrewsbury
& Telford Hospitals NHS Trust is
still looking at configuring services between the Royal Shrewsbury
& Princess Royal Hospitals and
changes may affect several services including emergency, paediatric and
maternity.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 15 May 2006 |
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Hospital cuts
spark anger. Over 200 Ludlow Residents confronted
Shropshire health bosses over proposed cuts at two south Shropshire
hospitals. Shropshire PCT is planning to close a ward for elderly mentally
infirm patients at Ludlow Hospital as well as cutting up to 20 other beds.
Bishops Castle Community Hospital will also lose beds under the plan that
local residents have described as "inept." Chief executive of the PCT Julie
Grant conceded that the closures would cause problems such as long journeys
for those visiting relatives as well as demoralising staff.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Shropshire Star 18 May 2006 |
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Hewitt goes against the grain on
reconfigurations. The health secretary has overruled almost half of the
primary care trust reconfiguration proposals submitted by strategic health
authorities. The government has supported 13 of the 23 'preferred options',
rejecting 10 in favour of an alternative. Meanwhile, the government has
announced 13 new ambulance trusts instead of the 11 expected. The
Isle of Wight will retain its own ambulance service as part of its
combined trust.
Staffordshire Ambulance Service trust, which opposed its merger into a
West Midlands service, will remain separate for up to two years because
of the 'strength of public concern'.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 18 May 2006 |
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Crunch time for new super hospital. North
Staffordshire's new super hospital will find out its future in the next
fortnight when the government rules whether it can go ahead. The plans for
the PFI hospital have been scaled down because the local health economy
could not afford the £53m annual instalments to be paid over 30 years to
private partner firm Equion. University Hospital of North Staffordshire
chief executive Anthony Sumara said he was "optimistic" the long-awaited
approval was imminent.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Stoke Sentinel 19 May 2006 |
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Hospitals get
£34m lifeline.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust has received a massive loan from
the new NHS regional bank to cover its £31.4m "historic debt" and help plug
a £5m budget gap for the coming year. The loan, which still leaves the trust
with a £2.2m budget shortfall an |