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The summary articles in the table below related to the strategic health
authority area are copied from the following pages, indicated in the table by
key numbers.
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Charges
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Construction projects
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Resource shortfall Sources
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Treatment approval or not
- Withdrawal of Local Facilities -
Sources
Others
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Summary articles |
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'Compare hospital buildings to the Westminister luxuries our MPs
expect'. Julie O'Brien of Farnham in Surrey accuses politicians of
double standards. Society
Thursday April 18, 2002 |
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'Lack of publicity prevents reforms' Dana Mniszek of Brighton reports two
bad experiences in the family. Society
Monday April 22, 2002 |
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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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The government yesterday named and shamed hospital trusts where patients
were most at risk of catching one of the most feared superbugs as part of a
more aggressive campaign to reduce hospital-acquired infections in England.
James Meikle, health correspondent
Saturday December 6, 2003 The Guardian [Acute NHS trusts with the highest rates of MRSA per 1,000 bed days for 2002/03: Lewisham Hospital 0.24,
Epsom & St Helier 0.24, Dartford & Gravesham 0.24, Queen Mary's Sidcup 0.25, Countess of Chester Hospital 0.26, East & North Hertfordshire 0.26, West Middlesex University 0.27, Barnet & Chase Farm Hospitals 0.28, Ealing Hospital 0.29, North Middlesex Hospital 0.30, Weston Area Health 0.30
] |
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A foundation trust which topped the league table for rates of MRSA infection
has attacked the figures as "misleading" claiming they "grossly misrepresent"
the hospital's infection control record. Specialist hospital Queen Victoria
hospital NHS trust in West Sussex was listed as the hospital with the worst
prevalence rate in the country for MRSA infections, in figures published today
on the Department of Health website. Hélène Mulholland
Monday March 7, 2005 |
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An elderly patient was left to die on her own while other patients'
requests for help were ignored, an undercover investigation in an acute
hospital ward has discovered. An undercover nurse and a reporter exposed a
series of failings of care of elderly patients being looked after on an acute
ward at the zero-rated Royal Sussex county hospital in Brighton. They
discovered cancer patient Jessie Mowitt, aged 86, was left to die on her own,
a patient was left waiting for hours to go to the toilet while others were
left to sit in their own urine. Nurse Margaret Haywood went undercover for the
BBC 1 Panorama programme with a hidden camera while she worked 28 shifts on
the ward. Debbie Andalo and agencies
Wednesday July 20, 2005 |
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The hospital [Royal Sussex] featured in a BBC undercover investigation into the
mistreatment of elderly patients has no plans to discipline staff, it said
today. But the nurses' disciplinary body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council,
announced it has begun an investigation into whether any nurses have broken
their professional code of conduct. Debbie Andalo
Thursday July 21, 2005
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Projected debts at an NHS trust have forced it to stop all non-urgent
surgery at one of its hospitals and impose a recruitment freeze, it emerged
today. The measures are part of a range of cutbacks at Surrey and Sussex
Healthcare NHS trust, which has hospitals in Crawley, Sussex and Redhill,
Surrey. They were taken after the NHS chief executive, Nigel Crisp, wrote to
the trust expressing alarm at its forecast deficit of £68m. Matt Weaver
Wednesday August 31, 2005 |
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Private units could
trigger collapse of Brighton NHS Trust As Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt gets
to her feet to give her speech to Labour conference delegates today, her
policies are causing havoc in hospital services just down the road from the
conference hall. A controversial scheme to buy in operations from new private
sector Treatment Centres is due to slice off 85% of the orthopaedic caseload
from the Brighton & Sussex Hospital, and instead purchase £18m of NHS treatment
a year from a newly-created private unit. This will leave the NHS with only the
most costly and complex cases and emergency work.
Keep Our NHS Public
28 September 2005 |
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NHS services across two counties are on the brink of a financial collapse
that could disrupt services to patients, the Audit Commission warned last
night. It said the entire health economy in Surrey and Sussex is at risk due
to weak financial management and failure to address problems raised by
district auditors over the past few years. Hospitals and primary care trusts
are heading for a collective deficit of £75m by the end of March and their
cash position is so precarious that they may not be able to pay the wages or
meet bills from suppliers. The warning came in a "public interest report" from
Helen Thompson, the district auditor. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Friday January 6, 2006 The Guardian |
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A & E waits on
the up - for 999 crews. Ambulance crews are having to wait up to four
hours with patients outside the A &
E department at East Surrey hospital in Redhill because staff are too busy to
complete handover procedures. The delays have been occurring since the A
& E was put under greater pressure
by the closure of the emergency department at Crawley Hospital 18 months ago.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 12 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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South East NHS
trusts owe £110m. Of the 46 NHS trusts in Kent, Sussex and Surrey, 31 said
they had overspent by between £267,000 and £32m, with only seven reporting a
budget surplus. Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust has the biggest deficit. It
has cut 300 jobs, postponed routine surgery and reduced the number of
operating theatres in use. Swale PCT in Kent, with a £7.8m deficit, has axed
thirty jobs and one ward at a community hospital.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 30
January 2006 |
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Bedridden man
pays for own care. A 90-year-old man whose health problems include angina
and osteoporosis of the spine, leaving him virtually bedridden, has been told
he is not sick enough for full-time care at home. Sussex Downs and Weald PCT
said his needs did not meet the official criteria for full care. The man has
had to use his £60,000 life savings and take out a £26,000overdraft to fund
his own £5,000 a month care. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC Online 31 January 2006 |
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A&E campaign
goes to Westminster. Patricia Hewitt has been presented with a 30,000-name
petition calling for the A& E
department to be reinstated at Crawley Hospital in West Sussex. The department
was closed and moved to the East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, 10 miles away, in
August 2004.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC Online 31 January 2006
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Meeting fights
hospital proposals. Campaigners in Surrey are staging their own public
meeting in parallel to Guildford and Waverley PCT's public consultation over
cutting services. The PCT proposals include closing Milford Hospital and
cutting or redistributing beds at Cranleigh, Farnham and Haslemere. Haslemere
Hospital's League of Friends has arranged the meeting to oppose the loss of 32
beds. They have also planned a public protest for 25 February. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC Online 7 February 2006 |
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Surrey and
Sussex health authority forced to borrow £97m for wages. Board papers from
Surrey and Sussex SHA show its PCTs and hospitals are set to make a combined
deficit of at least £83m in the year to the end of March - a deterioration
from the position it reported last September. Its cash position (including
debts carried over) is worse - it is £97.3m short of the money it needs to pay
staff and suppliers next month. It has had to borrow £55m more from the NHS
Bank on top of £40m already agreed. £2.3m more will be found by putting off
capital developments. The FT says: "The scale of financial problems in Surrey
and Sussex makes it unlikely that the NHS as a whole will hit its target of
overspending by only £200m this year." Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Financial Times 8
February 2006 |
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London's health
authorities warn overspend of up to £400m likely. London's five strategic
health authorities, and the five that surround them, are currently projecting
an overspend of at least £378m based on December's figures, with some saying
the numbers could rise. This means the figure for the London area alone is
twice what the Department of Health ordered the entire NHS to reduce its
overspend to - £200m. Surrey and Sussex is projecting an £87m deficit, North
West London is projecting a £106m deficit (up almost £10m on the September
figure), South West London £30m and South East London more than £39m.
Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire predicts a £95m overspend, and while the
figures for other London and home counties authorities are lower, only one,
North Central London, expects to break even. None is forecasting a surplus.
Further afield, the Audit Commission has issued public interest reports on
Suffolk's PCTs, warning they are heading for a £33.6m overspend and that their
"immediate financial viability is placed in doubt". Meanwhile, Tony Blair has
met the NHS Partners Network, a new body representing 11 private sector
organisations that are supplying operations and diagnostic procedures to NHS
patients through IS-TCs. This has led to the effective collapse of the private
sector's trade body, the Independent Healthcare Forum, which included
insurance companies who called for tax breaks on private medical insurance. In
contrast the Partners Network has issued a document declaring that "we support
the NHS - in principle and in practice" and that they have a "commitment to
[its] future success". Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
Financial Times 17 February 2006 |
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Drip, drip of
bad news drowns the good. Surrey and Sussex SHA has put a bar on any "new
investment" in the next financial year unless it can be shown to produce
savings elsewhere in the region. Clinicians have been told to treat no more
hospital patients in the next year than in this, and in most cases fewer.
Nicholas Timmins argues that the reason for the financial troubles of the NHS
lies in "the NHS accounting system, in the culture that it creates for
managers, in the unresolved structural problems that then result, and in the
twin failure of both politicians and the service's top management to address
them." He contends that "the financial crisis has not been caused by the
government's new NHS market," although the only evidence given to support this
is the opinion of the foundation trust regulator, Monitor. According to some,
major service reconfiguration is needed. Neil Goodwin, chief executive of
Greater Manchester SHA, said what is under way is "the death of the district
general hospital as we have come to know and love it". Former DoH head of
strategy Chris Ham said that the political row in Kidderminster, where a
Labour minister lost his seat to 'save our hospital' candidate Dr Richard
Taylor in 2001, was merely "a minor skirmish in the bigger battles to come" as
some entire hospitals will close.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Financial Times 2 March 2006 |
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Protesters want
A&E brought back. Campaigners fighting to get accident and emergency
services reinstated at Crawley Hospital are staging a protest. After the
casualty department moved to East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, in 2004, Surrey
and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust said there would be an overall improvement in
patient care at Crawley Hospital. But campaigners say the result has been
"healthcare chaos across the southern section of the M25". Last month a 30,000
name petition was handed to parliament calling for Crawley's A&
E to be reinstated.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 3 March 2006 |
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West Sussex
council offers low cost loans. West Sussex County Council is setting up a
Community Development Fund offering preferential loans to encourage clinicians
to start social enterprises. The council's head of economic strategy will meet
PCT bosses to discuss how nurses and doctors might be able to set up health
services as not-for-profit ventures.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Independent Nurse 7 March 2006 |
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Price tags on
bandages highlight rising costs. Worthing and Southlands Hospitals Trust
has put price tags on bandages and syringes as a cost-cutting measure to make
nurses question whether they are really needed.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 10 March 2006 |
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It's the
doctors' fault the NHS is in financial trouble, says Hewitt. Patricia
Hewitt blamed doctors for holding up NHS improvement, saying part of the
problem facing the health service was "clinical resistance" to change. She
used the example of surgeons at a hospital in Great Yarmouth failing to
adopted the methods of colleague who operated a French-style 'production line'
system for hip and knee replacements. Meanwhile NHS staff may have their pay
rises delayed by the Government to help to ease the financial crisis. Sources
said the Treasury and DoH were considering a "staged" pay award, which would
allow them to put off payment until later in the year. Unions are furious and
say that one nurse in ten is prepared to take industrial action. Josie Irwin
of the RCN said: "Any staged pay award would be looked on with incredible
anger." Elsewhere in the latest example of deficits impacting upon patient
care, Eastbourne Downs PCT has ordered the town's hospital not to operate on
any patient who has not been waiting six months making it the latest to
introduce a "minimum waiting time" to save money.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 12 March 2006
Is the '"production line"
system a feature of the
Independent Centre
Treatment Centres that already have a record of botched operations? |
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Cash crisis
'won't hit patients'. Patricia Hewitt has rejected claims patients will
suffer because of the NHS cash crisis and denied that the raft of current
NHS reforms had caused the present financial problems. Hewitt's comments
come after the University Hospital of North Staffordshire announced it is
cutting a seventh of its workforce. Beverly Malone, general secretary of the
Royal College of Nursing, said: "The research shows that when there are not
enough nurses in hospital that patients have more infections, more falls,
more pressure sores and that their mortality rates goes up."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online 17
March 2006 |
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Community Hospitals at risk in Surrey and Sussex
SHA according to
Public Finance 17 March 2006:
Weybridge Community Hospital
Cranleigh Community Village Hospital
Farnham Community Hospital
Dorking Hospital
Emberbrook Care Centre, Thames Ditton |
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Hundreds more NHS jobs are being lost as a hospital trust struggles to
staunch its spiralling debt crisis. Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals
NHS Trust is cutting 325 posts as part of plans to save more than £10
million over the next year.
Wednesday March 29, 2006 10:48 AM
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Health trust 'to
remain' in debt. Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has said it will
still be in debt at the end of the next financial year, despite Patricia
Hewitt's requirement for trusts to break even by then. The director of
finance said: "We will continue to require cash support into next year and
will eventually require a permanent solution to our cash position."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 29 March 2006 |
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Job losses
increase as NHS trusts cut spending. Brighton and Sussex University
Hospitals NHS Trust board has decided to axe 325 posts, which may include
doctors and nurses, in an effort to cut spending by £21.3m in the new
financial year. Compulsory redundancies have not been ruled out. The cuts
come in addition to 80 vacant posts that have not been filled since last
summer. The trust is one of those that was sent a turnaround team by
Patricia Hewitt. In Gloucestershire the closure of the 86-bed Delancey
community hospital at Leckhampton has been announced by deficit hit West
Gloucestershire PCT, threatening more jobs. Lord Warner, the health
minister, said that "rushed decisions" to close community hospitals could be
a false economy.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 29 March 2006 |
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Hospitals trust
to axe 325 jobs. More than 300 NHS jobs are to be axed under plans by
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust to save more than £10m over
the next year. The job cuts - more than 7% of the trust's workforce - are
likely to include redundancies. The trust runs the Royal Sussex County
Hospital, Sussex Eye Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick
Children in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital and Hurstwood Park
Neurosciences Centre in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. The trust has been
working with a government appointed 'turnaround team'.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 30 March 2006 |
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Time is running
out to save a crisis-torn health service. Nicholas Timmins argues for
NHS reconfiguration but points to the political pressures against this. In
Halifax and Huddersfield, a proposal to relocate surgery and maternity
services and make some other changes has led to managers and doctors being
abused at public meetings. A candidate is expected to run in next month's
local elections on a "save our hospital" ticket. Timmins writes that on
hospital reconfiguration, Patricia Hewitt "flunked her first big test
recently in hugely over-spent Surrey. She overturned years of work and
disregarded all advice to rule that a new critical care hospital should be
located in Labour, rather than Tory, territory - on a site that did not even
have planning permission."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Financial Times 3 April 2006 |
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The mood of crisis in the NHS deepened yesterday with the announcement
of 720 further job losses at a hospital trust in the Midlands and the
resignation of a trust chief executive in the north-west, with a £475,000
payoff.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS trust said it would have to shed 720
jobs over the next 12 months to balance the books after accumulating
deficits worth £31.5m over several years. The staff affected will include
nurses, doctors and administrative workers at hospitals in Worcester,
Redditch and Kidderminster, where Labour lost a safe parliamentary seat in
2001 due to local protest at the downgrading of NHS facilities. The job
losses bring the total announced by trusts in England over the past five
weeks to more than 6,000. The toll this week included 160 jobs at
Medway
trust in Kent, 400 at
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare trust and up to 300 at Royal United
hospitals in
Bath. Meanwhile Pennine Acute, the largest NHS trust in the north-west
of England, with hospitals in
Bury,
north Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale, announced the early retirement of
its chief executive, Chris Appleby, who was under pressure to go after a
vote of no confidence from the trust's doctors last summer. An independent
inquiry into the trust by Sir George Alberti, former president of the Royal
College of Physicians, found a "lethal mixture" of suspect leadership styles
and poor relations between doctors and managers. Other NHS developments
included a report from the Audit Commission warning of serious concerns
about the financial position of
George Eliot hospital trust in
Nuneaton. It had "deteriorated to such an extent that it cannot be
managed simply through local measures", said the auditors,
PricewaterhouseCoopers. And in
Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, NHS managers said a new multimillion-pound
mental health ward may never be opened because there was not the money
to run it. John Carvel and Les Reid
Friday April 7, 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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Trust faces
250 hospital job cuts. Up to 250 jobs could be axed by the East
Sussex NHS Hospitals Trust. Redundancies have not been ruled out. The
trust, which runs the Conquest Hospital in Hastings and Eastbourne District
General, has a £5m deficit.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 24 April 2006 |
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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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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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Hospital
announces 200 job cuts. Staff at St Richard's Hospital in
Chichester were
told on Wednesday that 10% of the workforce - or 200 jobs - would go over
the next three years. The Royal West
Sussex NHS Trust said it would try to keep redundancies to a minimum but
some may be necessary. The trust has overspent by a total of £40m and had a
£14m deficit last year. The St Richard's cuts are the latest to affect
hospitals in the South East, where more than 1,000 job losses have been
announced in the last two months. Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust,
which manages Crawley Hospital and East Surrey Hospital, has said 400 jobs
will go; East Sussex NHS Hospitals Trust, which runs the Conquest Hospital
in Hastings and Eastbourne District General, has axed up to 250 jobs; Up to
160 jobs are to go at the
Medway
Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent; Brighton and Sussex University
Hospitals NHS Trust plans to lose 325 jobs; East Kent Hospitals Trust warned
of possible cuts to claw back a £35m deficit.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 4 May 2006 |
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Debt-hit counties
plan trauma cuts. The number of hospitals providing emergency trauma
services and obstetrics in debt-ridden
Surrey and Sussex could be slashed under reconfiguration plans by the
strategic health authority. An SHA report says there could be as few as six
hospitals providing a full maternity service in the area by 2010 - the
current figure is nearly double this - and as few as three emergency trauma
centres and five emergency surgery centres could remain. The report does not
reach any conclusions about what services should be provided where, but it
suggests that diagnostics need to be co-located with acute and emergency
care centres but could be run by a different organisation, and acute and
elective care could be provided by separate organisations. Labour MP for
Hastings Michael Foster said: "You can't close local hospitals. People would
rather have slightly inferior services which are local."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 4 May 2006 |
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Why the NHS is on
the ballot paper. Overview and scrutiny committee's (OSCs) of local
authorities can demand NHS chief executives appear before them and set their
own agendas of what they want to examine, as well as being consulted on
major NHS changes. As such they can have a big impact on reconfigurations,
and parties could campaign in
local
elections on the claim that their party was the one
standing up most strongly for their local hospital. All this explains
why many councillors are making the NHS a bigger issue at elections than
ever before. For example in
Kirklees
three Save Huddersfield NHS candidates could hold the balance of power on
the council if elected. The trio have been leading the campaign against
plans to move services from their local hospital to Halifax. Tens of
thousands of people have signed petitions and attended demonstrations.
Service changes at the hospital have recently been accepted by the trust but
the group is seeking a judicial review, and Kirklees council OSC has also
expressed reservations, referring changes to maternity services to the
health secretary. In West
Sussex, Conservative county council leader Henry Smith says the loss of
services at Crawley Hospital has had a big impact on local politics, and
recent job losses announced by Surrey and Sussex Healthcare trust are
uppermost in residents' minds. The East Sussex committee, which covers an
area where the health service has struggled in recent years, has a high
profile and a reputation for tough questioning. In
Rochdale the OSC supported a proposed restructuring of services, which
has been attacked as a downgrading of local services. Local Liberal Democrat
MP Paul Rowen has steadfastly opposed changes and his party sees it as a
major issue in the local elections. OSCs look set to become the forums on
which public concern about local service redesigns are vocalised.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 4 May 2006 |
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Health trust
debts spark debate. NHS debts and job cuts in East Sussex are being
raised in the Commons as part of an adjournment debate led by Lewes MP
Norman Baker. The Lib Dem MP said he wanted to highlight "a major threat" to
the status of
Eastbourne District General Hospital, where he opposed any downgrading
that could see the loss of A& E
and maternity facilities. Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust
is losing 325 jobs and East Sussex NHS up to 250 jobs.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 9 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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Hopes dashed.
A leaked report has revealed the first
private management
take-over of an NHS hospital left the trust in dire financial straits,
threatening the local health economy. The draft Audit Commission report on
the deal between
Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust and Secta Group Ltd describes a costly
shambles. While the key clinical targets were met under the franchise, more
than £1m was spent on "interventions". These were deemed an unacceptable use
of public monies. The franchise agreement under which Secta ran Good Hope
lasted from 2003 until it was terminated at the end of 2005. Inadequate
provision within the contract meant the trust itself could not terminate the
contract early or enforce penalty clauses. The deal ended prematurely after
Anne Heast, the Secta employee appointed to the chief executive role, left
for another position within Secta's parent company Tribal Group. Before she
left, a paper was presented to the trust board assessing her performance -
authored by Anne Heast. Former health secretary Frank Dobson, who has backed
the Keep Our NHS Public campaign, said: "This report yet again exposes the
myth that the private sector has management geniuses who can sort out the
NHS -there isn't a single example of them doing it." Meanwhile, trusts
across the country are using management consultants to help rid them of
their deficits.
Leeds
Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is reportedly paying PwC £100,000 a month,
while
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has paid KPMG almost £700,000 to
date.
Cheshire West and Ellesmere Port and Neston PCTs are paying KPMG £10,000
per day, according to the Chester Chronicle.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Hospital Doctor 18 May 2006 |
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Nurse
entrepreneurs appeal for ministers' help. A group of nurses employed by
Surrey Heath and Woking primary care trust are hoping to mirror their East
Elmbridge and Mid Surrey colleagues and set up a 'community interest'
company to take over their PCT's provider services. According to community
services lead nurse Liz Altheridge, 750 staff currently employed providing
services for the PCT are signed up to the project, but resistance from the
PCT plus difficulty in accessing pump-priming funds is blocking their
progress. The new company will provide all community nursing and health
services and would take control of the local community hospital if it won
the contract from the PCT.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 18 May 2006 |
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Health trust
withdraws cancer drug from patient. A woman has been refused a cancer
drug by her local NHS trust despite being previously allowed to have the
treatment.
Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust is facing a £20.9m deficit and
is working with the independent financial consultant PriceWaterhouseCoopers
to develop a "turnaround plan".
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 23 May 2006 |
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£5m error
sparks review.
Worthing and Southlands Hospital trust is to be subject to an
independent review into how this year's deficit went from a predicted £6m to
£10.4m. The real debt was uncovered after finance director Livat Timbrell
resigned last month. The trust is in the process of producing a turnaround
plan to be finalised in the next few weeks.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Health Service Journal 25 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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Government
reforms will 'destroy
the NHS'. Speaking to the annual BMA consultants' conference, Paul
Miller, chairman of the consultants' committee, said: "This has been the
NHS's best year ever ... for management consultants ... for losing staff ...
for wasting money." He estimated that
private management
consultants were costing around £3bn a year and used the work of private
managers in Department of Health-appointed "turnaround teams" sent into 18
trusts with financial difficulties as examples of
wasted money. This included £700,000 paid to management consultants for
three months' work at Surrey
and Sussex trust, despite the fact it still finished the last financial
year with "an operating deficit of £28m and an accumulated deficit of over
£57m".The multi-billion pound contracts awarded to independent sector
treatment centres were also a waste of money, Dr Miller said. Calling for a
moratorium on any other private treatment contracts, he said Oxfordshire
primary care trust had been made to pay £500,000 a year for the next four
years to a private
eye clinic despite there being no shortage of NHS capacity to do the
work. He said only 160 of the 400 operations planned in the contract
annually were carried out last year. This was unnecessarily inflating local
NHS debt, which stands at around £82m. Dr Miller also criticised the
PFI, highlighting £130m wasted
on three deals: the abandoned
Paddington PFI
scheme, which cost £14.9m; the delayed Barts PFI scheme, which cost an extra
£35m; and the
Norfolk and Norwich PFI, under which the NHS missed out on £82m when the
private contractors refinanced the deal. "If you had made this up, you would
be laughed at," Dr Miller said. "If you were the one who did make this up,
you should be ashamed. If you continue to make it happen, you will destroy
the NHS. This is not the way to run our NHS… It is hard to avoid the
conclusion that we are working in a service which is being broken by
policies which do not work; devised by officials who have resigned;
implemented by managers who don't believe [in the NHS]; and
patients without a say." His speech, which got a standing ovation, was
echoed by criticism of the government made by delegates. A member of the
BMA's consultants committee, Dr Anna Athow, said the government had allowed
the NHS to get into the current financial crisis in order to ration services
and push more resources and patients into the private sector.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Guardian 7 June 2006 |
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Cutbacks
threat as NHS deficits hit £1.3bn. Nearly a third of the NHS trusts in
England overspent in the last financial year, racking up deficits worth
£1.3bn in spite of record growth in the health service budget, according to
accounts published yesterday by Patricia Hewitt. Hewitt said that some
hospitals and PCTs are in such financial difficulty this year that they may
not manage to balance the books month by month, let alone repay accumulated
debts. The accounts showed
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare trust notched up the biggest individual
deficit at £40.8m. Other big overspenders included St George's Healthcare
trust in south-west
London (£33.6m) and West
Hertfordshire hospitals (£28.3m). The government put a favourable gloss
on the accounts by focusing on the NHS's net deficit - a figure achieved by
subtracting the surpluses made by some trusts from the deficits made by
others. For the year to the end of March this came to £512m, 0.8% of the NHS
budget. The financial position of the overspending trusts was much worse
than forecast in December when a quarter of trusts warned they were heading
for a combined deficit of £948m. 174 trusts - nearly a third of NHS
organisations - ended the year with a combined gross deficit of £1,277m.
Hewitt denied this was a deterioration in financial control. She said she
sent in turnaround teams of management consultants who made trusts focus
harder on financial problems. The National Audit Office said the 2005/
6 overspend would have serious consequences for NHS spending this
year. Trusts will be expected to make a double cut to pay back last year's
deficit as well as eliminating this year's overspending.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Guardian 8 June 2006 |
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PCTs rush to
bring in private providers to run GP services. One in three PCTs will
strike a deal with a private company to run GP services by the end of this
year, according to a major Pulse survey. The survey of 104 trusts shows the
rush towards privately run NHS GP surgeries is surging ahead at a far faster
pace than expected. Ten PCTs said they had already signed alternative
provider medical services contracts, 10 had contracts out to tender and 12
planned to tender before the end of 2006. Far from being restricted to the
deprived under-doctored areas envisaged by ministers, APMS contracts are
already spreading into leafy affluent shires. Just four of the 32 trusts
forging ahead with APMS were among the 36 under-doctored areas ordered by
ministers to bring in private providers. Trusts with contracts already
sealed ranged from deprived areas like
Barnsley,
and
Wednesbury and West Bromwich to leafy shires including
Herefordshire, and
East
Elmbridge and Mid Surrey. GPs accused PCTs of rushing into APMS schemes
in a bid to gain political "brownie points". The issue is set to be a
flashpoint at next week's LMCs conference, with delegates voting on a demand
to restrict APMS to areas where there is "an identified need" and existing
GPs cannot deliver the service. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the GPC
commissioning and service subcommittee, said PCTs must not be allowed to
stray beyond the original remit for APMS - adding GP capacity in
under-doctored areas. Dr Peter Jolliffe, Devon LMC chair, said there was no
justification for
South Hams and West Devon PCT's plan to use APMS to establish a practice
in a new town: "We don't have any problems attracting doctors here."
Professor Allyson Pollock, head of health policy at University College
London, urged the Department of Health to stick to its commitment to pilot
APMS in six PCTs before rolling it out nationally.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Pulse 9 June 2006 |
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East Sussex A&E
proposals criticised by local MPs. Conquest Hospital in Hastings and
Eastbourne District General Hospital could adopt a one night on, one night
off rota to provide emergency cover at night under controversial plans.
Another option could see A& E
provided at just one hospital. Both hospitals are part of East
Sussex Hospitals trust. Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson described the plan
as "ridiculous". In Hastings a 'Hands off the Conquest' petition opposing
any service cuts has been signed by more than 6,000 people. Summary
by Keep our NHS
Public of
Health Service Journal 15 June 2006 |
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Health staff have
snubbed switch to social enterprise, says union. Plans to transfer
thousands of NHS staff into new free-standing "social
enterprises" received a setback yesterday when their union said staff at
a
Surrey primary care trust had voted firmly against such a move. Unison
said 84% of district nurses, health visitors, therapists and others who were
scheduled to be transferred into a new business, Central Surrey Health, at
the end of July, had voted against the idea. The project has been seen as a
trailblazer, with the Department of Health setting up a social enterprise
unit to help other primary care trusts do the same. The department wants the
NHS and PCTs to concentrate more on the commissioning of care, with staff to
be supplied increasingly by new forms of social enterprise, private
contractors and free-standing foundation trusts rather than being employed
by the NHS. Under Central Surrey's plans, 800 staff would form a
not-for-profit partnership, which would be at risk of profit and loss, that
would contract back the services they currently supply to GPs and patients.
Unison's claim that the idea had been decisively rejected was challenged by
East Elmbridge and Mid Surrey PCT, which contended that only 40% of staff
had responded. However, Karen Jennings, head of health for Unison, said
staff had delivered "a massive vote of no confidence". Unison would, with
other unions, be considering options including legal action and industrial
action if the primary care pushed ahead with the transfer.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Financial
Times 28 June 2006 |
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Both have cancer. But why can't one get the best care? Observer sports
writer Bill Elliott was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April. Within an
hour, his wife Val was told she had breast cancer. Now they have had to come
to terms with the stark fact that her treatment has 10 times as much funding
as his. Health Editor Jo Revill examines the human cost of NHS inequalities.
Sunday July 9, 2006 The Observer [Surrey] |
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Campaigners seek
hospital support. Thousands of leaflets are being sent to homes and
shops in West Sussex to highlight possible cuts at a hospital. Changes
reportedly being considered for St Richard's Hospital, in Chichester,
include
downgrading the A& E
department and reductions in other services. Campaigners fear lives could be
lost if patients have to travel to hospitals in Portsmouth and Worthing
instead. Fears have also been raised about the future of the Royal Surrey
County Hospital, where cost-cutting measures could include axing the
maternity and A& E units, and
Worthing Hospital. Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP for Chichester, has
urged his constituents to fight for the hospital. Health trust bosses have
said that while services are being reviewed, there are no plans to close
hospitals. The NHS in
Surrey and Sussex was overspent by £85m
against its overall budget of about £3.2bn at the end of the 2005/
6 financial year. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 6 July 2006 |
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Committee examines health changes. A task force is to examine possible
changes to health services, including hospital A& E care, in West
Sussex. The Health Scrutiny Select Committee, set up by West Sussex
County Council, will look at Worthing Hospital and St Richard's Hospital in
Chichester. Changes reportedly being considered include downgrading A& E
facilities and reductions in other services. Four other Conservative MPs
have also set up a campaign aiming to protect Worthing Hospital from any
cutbacks. Peter Bottomley (West Worthing), Nick Herbert (Arundel and South
Downs), Nick Gibb (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) and Tim Loughton (East
Worthing and Shoreham) claim the Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health
Authority is under severe financial pressures and frontline services could
be at risk. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online
12 July 2006 |
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Latest NHS
cuts compound crisis. NHS trusts driving through cuts and job losses are
already failing to deliver for patients. Trusts across the country were
asked to assess whether they would reach 44 basic standards of care by the
Healthcare Commission, the NHS's independent inspectors. Many of the trusts
that felt they would fail to reach
the required standards are the ones worst hit by the NHS
funding crisis - and many have already announced
major cutbacks. The report makes a mockery of health secretary Patricia
Hewitt's claim that job losses will not affect the patient care. The
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust recorded the biggest financial
deficit across the health service, overspending by £40.8m. It has announced
400 job losses. The trust reported there was insufficient assurance that it
had reached the government's core standards in ensuring that reusable
medical devices are properly decontaminated; ensuring that staff are
appropriately recruited, trained and qualified for the work they undertake;
and providing healthcare in environments that promote effective care and
optimise health outcomes by being a safe and secure environment. Brighton
and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which has announced 325 job cuts
- 7% - in an attempt to claw back £10m, reported that it had not met six of
the targets. Both the Kennet and North
Wiltshire PCT and the West Wiltshire PCT reported they had not met or
had inadequate assurance on 26 of the 44 basic standards. Each of these PCTs
is also faced with a shortfall of over £10 million and both plan sweeping
cuts to claw back these deficits. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Socialist
Worker 12 July 2006 |
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March over
hospital cutback fears. Hundreds of people are expected to march in
protest at planned cutbacks at St Richard's Hospital, in
Chichester. Campaigners fear the A&
E department will be downgraded and other services reduced. The march
through the streets of Bognor Regis will finish at the Alexandria Theatre on
Thursday evening where a public meeting will be held. Campaigners fear lives
could be lost if patients have to travel to hospitals in Portsmouth and
Worthing instead. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 13 July 2006 |
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The row over the rationing of prostate-cancer therapy deepened this weekend,
as the government's former chief economic adviser on the NHS revealed that
he had received the treatment only after threatening to publicise the fact
that its use was being restricted. Two weeks ago, The Observer revealed how
a Surrey couple, Bill and Val Elliott, were both diagnosed on the same day
with cancer, but while Val is receiving treatment and expensive drugs for
her breast cancer, Bill is having to fight for his care. Bill Elliott's
local health body, the Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust (PCT), told
him last month it would not pay for the relatively new form of treatment his
consultant had recommended, known as brachytherapy, which carries fewer side
effects than a surgical operation and is less invasive than the alternative,
a radical prostatectomy. He is now appealing against the decision. The trust
has refused the treatment to 11 out of the 12 men who have asked for it
since April 2005, though the local hospital treats around 100 men a year
from other parts of England. But the 12th man from Guildford, who did win
the right to treatment, is Professor Clive Smee, the former chief economic
advisor to the Department of Health. After reading about Bill Elliott's
case, he came forward to reveal that he had to fight for brachytherapy
himself. Smee, 64, who is making a good recovery from his prostate cancer,
was diagnosed in June 2005. His consultant at the Royal Surrey Hospital in
Guildford, Stephen Langley, recommended him for brachytherapy. 'I was left
in limbo for two months while the PCT considered whether they would fund
it,' said Smee. 'I had to write first to the trust's director of public
health, and then I had to threaten to write to my local newspaper.' Smee
also set out an economic evaluation of the treatment to explain why they
should fund it. It was Smee who chaired one of the committees which led to
the setting up of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence
(Nice), the body which considers the cost and clinical effectiveness of
therapies. Last year, Nice
decided that brachytherapy was an intervention which worked, and had a
place in the NHS. 'As someone who spent 20 years working for the NHS, I find
it perturbing that the service would be making decisions about
withholding
treatment on such an unaccountable basis,' he said. 'Because I was
articulate and well-informed and also, I suspect, because I had connections
with the Department of Health, I got the right to my treatment. 'I did
inquire about what would happen to the six other men who at that stage were
waiting for brachytherapy. I was told that they would all have to make their
own case. But all of the men, including myself, were considered by the
consultant to be eligible for treatment, so how could a PCT have extra
knowledge which would help them decide?' Jo Revill, health editor
Sunday July 23, 2006 Observer
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Thousands in NHS cutbacks rally. The astronomer, Sir Patrick Moore, has
joined thousands of people in a protest against health cuts which they fear
could affect St Richard's Hospital, in
Chichester. Campaigners fear accident and emergency services could be
downgraded, and lives could be lost as a result. Sir Patrick, who lives in
Selsey, said: "We've got to stop this closure. St Richard's is a marvellous
hospital - one of the best in the country. If we lose it with its A&
E then people are going to die." Campaigners fear patients would have
to travel to hospitals in Portsmouth and Worthing instead. About 4,000
people from villages and towns across West Sussex attended the march,
bringing the centre of Chichester to a halt. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 24 July 2006 |
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Surrey social
enterprise prepares for launch. England's largest so-called 'social
enterprise' offering healthcare services will launch in shadow form on 1
August. Seven-hundred community and primary care staff will then transfer
from East Elmbridge and Mid Surrey primary care trust to Central
Surrey Health when it officially launches on 1 October - provided it
meets five conditions. The company was set up to take over £250,000 worth of
primary and community services by two of the PCT's directors after the
government announced it wanted to reorganise primary care last year. The new
company must now demonstrate that it is committed to the PCT's turnaround
plan projects, it has taken full advice on public consultation, its board
has the full 'range of competencies' necessary, it is 'engaged with staff
and local GPs' and its business plan is bearing practical fruit.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal
27 July 2006 |
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Workers' fury
over NHS cuts. Angry doctors and nurses
leaders have blasted the Government over its health service reforms.
Officials from 12 unions met Patricia Hewitt to call for more consultation
over changes they fear are leading to
privatisation. The
talks followed news of almost 1,000 more job losses in the NHS as hospital
trusts continue to make cuts to try to balance the books. Those in
Sunderland and
Brighton are both axing up to 500 jobs each. It brings total NHS job
losses this year to 18,000. Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC,
said: "There has been an unprecedented expression of anger. Morale is at a
very low ebb."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Mirror
27 July 2006 |
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Prostate cancer sufferer Bill Elliott has finally won his battle to receive
the treatment he needs, after his local primary care trust approved the
funding. Elliott, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer on the same day
that his wife, Val, found out she had breast cancer, has spent two months
battling with the
Guildford and Waverley PCT which initially said it would not pay for a
course of brachytherapy. The treatment, which involves planting tiny
radioactive seeds into the prostate gland to kill the cancer, is £1,500 more
expensive than the surgical alternative, which costs £3,500. But Elliott
still doesn't know what will happen to four other men in the area who have
appealed for the therapy. Jo Revill
Sunday July 30, 2006 The Observer
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10,000 march
against hospital cuts in Worthing. Protestors marched in their thousands
on Wednesday of last week to oppose cuts to health services in Worthing,
Sussex, and the surrounding area. The strategic health authority is
threatening to close Worthing and Southlands hospitals. Up to 10,000 marched
from two ends of Worthing to protest. Hospital users from across Worthing,
Lancing and Shoreham were joined by large contingents of hospital and health
workers. Worthing Keep Our NHS Public supporters handed out several thousand
leaflets. The demonstration, one of the biggest in the town's history,
converged on the Pavilion Theatre for a public meeting addressed by
strategic health authority chief executive Candy Morris, who was heckled and
booed and looked visibly shaken by the end. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Socialist
Worker 9 August 2006 |
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The government revealed yesterday it was reviewing the way it warns people
they may be incubating the human form of BSE after transfusion with
contaminated blood or being infected by tainted surgical instruments, as a
coroner called for an urgent shake-up in the present system. John Hooper,
deputy coroner for
Brighton & Hove, made the appeal after the family of a patient who died
from the disease complained that the blood authorities had known he was in
danger for years before he was told. James Meikle
Thursday August 17, 2006 The Guardian
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Mental health a
low priority. In a letter to the Times, Tim Loughton, shadow minister
for health, writes: "Ticking the box by calling
mental health a priority does not deliver. Judging its effectiveness on
the basis of falling suicide rates ignores record numbers of people,
especially schoolchildren, developing mental illness. Whereas mental health
accounted for 14 per cent of NHS spending in 1997, that has dropped to 11
per cent - hardly suggesting a "priority". From
Westmoreland to
Sussex, acute mental health beds are being cut and day centres are
closing. In Sussex every hospital is in the spotlight for downgrading or
even closure as the strategic health authority wrestles with huge
deficits. We are told that the prospect of losing
our A& E department at Sussex's
largest town, Worthing, and dicing with congested roads to reach Brighton is
part of the clinical modernisation process."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Times
17 August 2006 |
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At least 10 major hospitals are facing closure or cut-backs, with some facing
the end of emergency care, the BBC said. The sites in
London,
Surrey,
Sussex,
Lancashire and
Cornwall will either close or have their facilities downgraded to handle
basic care in order to get back into financial health, after an unprecedented
level of NHS debt was revealed earlier in the summer. Nearly a third of NHS
trusts ended the year with a combined gross deficit of pounds £1.27bn. Hélène
Mulholland and agencies
Friday
August 18, 2006 Guardian Unlimited |
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Future of 10
hospitals 'in doubt'. At least 10 major hospitals in England face potential
closure or a downgraded role, according to a BBC investigation. Talks are under
way about removing emergency care from hospitals in
London,
Surrey,
Sussex,
Greater
Manchester,
Lancashire and
Cornwall. The sites will either close or be left to handle basic care, with
"super" regional centres seeing the most ill. There are concerns people will
have to travel miles for life-saving treatment. Over 30 hospitals could be
affected by the reviews - including those losing services and others left to
bear the brunt of that work. NHS bosses involved in the reviews have said the
measures are part of a push to provide more care in the community, either with
hospital doctors setting up local clinics, GPs providing extra specialist
services or medics treating patients in their own homes. However, they also
acknowledge deficits and new European working time restrictions are forcing them
to reconsider how services are provided. Dr Jonathan Fielden, deputy chairman of
the BMA consultants' committee, said: "In some of these cases we have to ask
whether this is being driven by financial reasons. If this is the case, it is
likely not to be in the best interests of patients." The areas under review are:
London - Talks under way over Harrow's Northwick Park and the nearby Central
Middlesex hospitals. Project board set up to review services across the four
north central trusts - Barnet and Chase Farm, Royal Free, Whittington and North
Middlesex Surrey and Sussex - Widespread discussions have been followed by the
creation of focus groups to discuss future of the 15 hospitals run by nine NHS
trusts. Formal consultation to start in the autumn. Greater Manchester -
Committee set up to decide the future of four hospitals run by the Pennine Acute
Hospitals NHS Trust. Decision due end of September. Lancashire - Changes to the
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust's three centres - spread across
Cumbria and Lancashire, planned, with the Westmorland threatened with losing its
acute facilities. Cornwall - Two proposals have been discussed by Royal Cornwall
Hospitals NHS Trust, one of which involves withdrawing services from two of its
three hospitals.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 18 August 2006 |
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ISTC's op systems said to be 'unsafe'. Operating conditions during
the first six weeks of an
independent sector
treatment centre (ISTC) in
Sussex were "demonstratively unsafe" and a "catastrophic" result for one
patient was only narrowly avoided, a senior orthopaedic surgeon has alleged.
In a leaked letter, Sandeep Chauhan, trauma lead at Brighton and Sussex
University Hospitals NHS Trust, raised "serious concerns" over clinical
safety at the Haywards Heath ISTC, run by Mercury Healthcare. In the most
serious example, a patient's medication was changed by an overseas
anaesthetist five days before major knee surgery from aspirin to Tinzaparin.
People given spinal anaesthesia are at increased risk of bleeding if on this
drug. The operating surgeon and anaesthetist were not informed, although
they had been planning spinal anaesthesia. Surgery was only delayed after a
bruise was noticed on the patient, avoiding a "potentially catastrophic"
result, Mr Chauhan said. He also alleged that there was "dangerously poor"
experience among theatre staff, with nurses asked to scrub for procedures
they had never seen before; a "complete failure" of some staff to understand
how equipment worked; unsafe booking processes, with incorrect operations
listed against patients' names, and incorrect operative sides also listed;
"significant problems" with equipment availability; basic drugs were
unavailable; and nurses were unaware of incident reporting policies. Chauhan
wrote that the issues had been raised with Mercury's management "with less
than positive action". The centre, which opened in June, is one of three
Mercury-run surgical ISTCs in England. The Government has confirmed that
ISTCs are operating below capacity. Usage for May and June was 85 per cent,
according to a DoH spokesman. "Contracts are for five years. Money is not
going to be wasted. We intend to ensure any under-referral early on is made
up by the end of the contract," he said.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hospital
Doctor 22 August 2006 |
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MPs scrutinise mental
health cuts. The Commons health select committee has promised to investigate
claims that more than £30m has been plundered from
mental health budgets to bail out deficits in
other sectors. The committee has taken evidence from mental health charity
Rethink which has been running a campaign highlighting areas where mental health
budgets are being slashed. Cuts are being reported across England from
Suffolk, Cambridgeshire,
Cornwall, Nottingham,
London and
Sussex.
Gloucestershire Partnerships trust has recently concluded a consultation on
proposals to make over £9.3m savings. Cheltenham town council has written to
Patricia Hewitt complaining about the package, which means reductions in older
people's services on 12 sites and at six sites for adult services.
Hertfordshire Partnership trust, which has run at a surplus for four years,
has been asked to contribute over £5m to help pay off debts in local acute
trusts. The trust is planning to achieve this by closing an acute ward, a day
unit, the early intervention team and making staff reductions across community
mental health teams, as well as in psychology, older people's services and
learning disabilities. In May, Hertfordshire county council's health overview
and scrutiny committee rejected the proposals and referred them to the secretary
of state for a decision. Three months on, staff are voting with their feet,
leaving at-risk posts. As a result, the trust has already been forced to
temporarily close a 22-bed acute admissions unit at St Albans City Hospital.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal 31 August 2006 |
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Sussex hospitals
face loss of acute services. Up to five hospitals could be left without
any acute surgery or medical facilities under proposals being considered by
the NHS in West
Sussex. Crawley Hospital, Southlands Hospital in Shoreham and Brighton
General Hospital would all lose acute facilities under each of the four
options being looked at. The Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath,
Worthing Hospital and St Richard's in Chichester could also lose acute
services. The options are in a briefing sent to NHS staff in West Sussex and
may change before they go to public consultation later this year. They are:
St Richard's retains acute services, Worthing and possibly the Princess
Royal lose them; Worthing keeps acute services but St Richard's and the
Princess Royal lose them; hospitals in Brighton and Worthing work more
closely together; hospitals in Chichester and Worthing work more closely
together. The proposals are part of a wider reconfiguration process which
also covers Surrey and East Sussex. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal
7 September 2006 |
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Nurses to leave
NHS and sell services back through limited company. About 700 nurses and
therapists are to quit direct employment with the National Health Service
and sell their services back through a mutually-owned limited company. A
Surrey primary care trust has finally decided to go ahead with the
ground-breaking three-year contract, thought to be worth about £20m a year,
in spite of trade union opposition and criticism from the private sector
that the deal has not been put out to tender. Central Surrey Health "goes
live" on October 1, East Elmbridge and Mid-Surrey PCT confirmed yesterday.
It is the first significant creation of a new "social enterprise", formed by
NHS staff, to take the risk of leaving the NHS to sell their services back
to it, in a move the Department of Health is encouraging. Central Surrey
Health will operate a little like a John Lewis-style partnership, with staff
owning the company, which can make profits but will also risk going bust.
Staff will not be paid dividends, but could receive a bonus, with profits
being reinvested into the business. To get the deal started, staff are being
allowed to remain members of the NHS pension scheme, and are being
transferred with existing terms and conditions protected, including pay
rates set by the NHS's new pay restructuring deal. Patricia Hewitt told a
meeting of the Social Enterprise Coalition there was "huge potential" for
such social enterprises to "un-leash the potential of staff within the NHS
to deliver better services for patients". But the move has been strongly
opposed by some of the health service unions such as Amicus and Unison,
which see it as further evidence of the government's desire to break up the
NHS. The Business Services Association has criticised the deal as being
anything but "fair, open and transparent". Norman Rose, the BSA's
director-general, said the primary care trust "is doing a cost deal with its
own staff. I don't see how it can know whether it is getting value for
money".
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Financial
Times 14 September 2006 |
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Axe to fall on
first of 60 hospital departments. Hospital departments in
Surrey and Sussex are likely to be the first to be axed in sweeping
health service "reconfigurations" expected to involve every region in
England. Closures could take place before the next general election. Surrey
and Sussex health area, now called South East Coast NHS, had been
overspending by around £100 million a year and its "fit for the future"
plans are the most advanced. Intense activity over the summer means that the
health authority is nearly ready to set out its proposals to the five
newly-formed PCTs in the area.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Telegraph
14 September 2006 |
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Growing anger at
'hospital cuts'. People concerned at proposed hospital changes in the
South East have been promised their views will be heard. Hundreds were at a
meeting in Haywards Heath, West
Sussex, on Wednesday as part of the Support the Princess Royal Hospital
campaign in the town. Some of its services could be under threat due to a
review of healthcare provision across Surrey and Sussex. Southlands
Hospital, in Shoreham, and Brighton General could be shut. Two others might
see services downgraded. A programme to "shape the future for health
services" in the two counties will involve a full public consultation from
mid-November once firm proposals have been made.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 15 September 2006 |
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March over
hospital shake-up plan. About 3,000 people joined in a march in
Eastbourne on Saturday to protest against an NHS shake-up in East
Sussex. Campaigners have said they are fighting cuts to maternity
services and the A& E at
Eastbourne hospital. Campaigners took to the streets led by Eastbourne MP
Nigel Waterson, Eastbourne mayor Colin Belsey and the Bishop of Lewes, the
Right Reverend Wallace Benn. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 19 September 2006 |
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Concerns aired
about NHS changes. About 400 people gathered at a public meeting this
week to voice concern about the future of the Princess Royal Hospital in
Haywards Heath. It is one of several hospitals in West
Sussex that could see changes under the ongoing NHS Fit for the Future
review. Consultation is already under way, but plans are expected to be to
put forward in November, leading to a second phase of discussion in the
autumn. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 19 September 2006 |
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Anger over
NHS-notes-abroad plan. Hospital workers in
Sussex say plans to send patient notes and letters to South Africa or
India to be typed could lead to deaths if mistakes are made. Managers at
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust say the plan could save
more than £1m a year as well as clearing a backlog of typing. "We don't
believe it is in patients' interests," said Mark Sargent from public service
union Unison. Staff have already been consulted about a trial of medical
secretarial services, which took place with two companies in South Africa
and India. An internal NHS document, seen by the BBC, said the trial was a
success but admits the accuracy of a company in India was "variable". It
gives an example of one mistake where hypertension and hypotension were
mixed up. "If in listening to dictation you hear hypertension and type
hypotension - one meaning high blood pressure, the other low - the treatment
could be incorrect and the outcome could be death for the patient," said
medical secretary Elaine Bass. If it goes ahead it would reduce local
staffing by up to 70 jobs.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 20 September 2006 |
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Ex-Beatle backs NHS campaigners. Sir Paul McCartney
has voiced support for a campaign against NHS cuts in
Hastings following a 5,000 strong march through the town. Sir Paul said
"any cutback in medical services is a real shame…Thes | |