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Three leading NHS hospitals risk being downgraded for failing to give
information on the
death
rates of their heart surgery patients, the Guardian has learned. The
trusts are the only ones in the UK not to have provided key data for the
Healthcare Commission, which has been gathering information on mortality rates
linked to individual surgeons. The information will be published today on a
groundbreaking website designed to enable heart patients and their families
the chance to make informed choices about where to have surgery. Last night
one of Britain's top heart surgeons warned that the commission might penalise
the three trusts - St Mary's in Paddington, west
London, Glenfields
in
Leicester, and Morriston in Swansea - by
downgrading them in their annual performance ratings. "I think it is utterly
unacceptable in a modern health service that units no longer have the
discipline or facility to collect good outcome data," said Sir Bruce Keogh,
president of the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons. After a Guardian
investigation last year, the commission asked all hospitals performing heart
surgery to provide data on operations such as bypass grafts and aortic valve
replacements. The aim was to help patients assess a surgeon's track record
before having an operation. In a historic move the commission will publish
data on death rates at almost all the 33 hospitals performing this complex
work in England and Wales. It will disclose risk-adjusted mortality rates for
individual surgeons at 17 cardiac units, and the aggregated results for 13
units. John Carvel and Sarah Boseley
Wednesday April 26, 2006 The Guardian
- Wales aims to
avoid job cuts. Wales is expected to escape almost
entirely the job losses plaguing England, the director
of the Welsh NHS has claimed. Ann Lloyd said: "We have been discussing what has
been happening over the border". She said she would take a dim view of any body
that laid off staff to cut costs.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 11 May 2006
- Doctors toughen
position against reforms. Doctors at the BMA Annual Representative Meeting
have taken a stance of almost complete opposition to market reforms of the NHS.
The decision went against the BMA leadership, which had argued for maintaining a
dialogue with ministers, calling instead for no further involvement of the
private sector, a potential end to the split between providers and purchasers,
and a halt to the private finance initiative. The move means the BMA now
officially "actively opposes the government's plans". The statement was referred
to the association's council for action, rather than as a formal passage, and as
such leaves the leadership room for manoeuvre. However the BMA's leaders will
oppose core parts of government policy when they meet Patricia Hewitt next week
at a time when the government is hoping to get health professionals to acquiesce
to the reforms. The statement calls for the council to campaign for "an
integrated, publicly provided, health service in England", and refers to
Scotland and Wales where
there is no division between purchasers and providers. The doctors also stated
that the fundamental values of the NHS "cannot be maintained if the NHS is
broken up and tendered to private corporations", and that "there should be no
further involvement of the
commercial private sector in providing NHS care". Andy Burnham, health
minister said the BMA "are entitled to their views" but the department would
maintain "constructive dialogue" with clinicians. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Financial
Times
29 June 2006
- Hospital reform
plans may stall. Plans to reorganise hospital services across mid and west
Wales may be stalled because of fierce opposition from
the public. Proposals to centralise NHS services in Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion
and Carmarthenshire have brought protests from patients and staff. A four-month
public consultation has now taken place and the review board is to publish its
recommendations. But plans for a new Swansea hospital are still expected to go
through. The idea of centralising services to one main "super hospital" halfway
between Withybush in Haverfordwest and the West Wales General in Carmarthen
triggered marches in Haverfordwest and Aberystwyth, uniting staff and patients.
Community health councils (CHCs) in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire criticised
the proposals, saying they lacked "meaningful and significant detail". They said
many patients would travel greater distances and predicted strong and vocal
opposition from the public ahead of the public consultation. An action group,
Save Withybush Action Team, promised to continue the fight against downgrading.
In the face of such strong opposition, it is thought the review board cannot do
anything but pass on the Dyfed question for now, which could delay any decision
by months, if not years.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 10 September 2006
- Wales exceeds
forecast debt. The Welsh health service went over
its forecast debt of £20m last year, ending £24m in the red.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Service Journal 5 October 2006
- Staff lobby over
hospital closure. Staff at Fairwood hospital are to lobby health watchdogs
over the possible closure of their site, and one ward at Hill House, if a £12m
recovery plan at Swansea NHS Trust goes ahead. The
original plan to shut Fairwood, a convalescence hospital, failed last year when
7,000 signatures were presented in opposition to the closure. A spokesman for
Unison said Swansea Community Health Council (CHC) was opposed to the closure
and that protesters would be urging them to maintain the same view. The local
health board has proposed alternative services at the city's Singleton Hospital
and improved services in the community. However Unison regional organiser Jeff
Baker said: "we are not at all convinced that the alternative they have put
forward will be able to provide the same quality of care that is presently
carried out in Hill House and Fairwood Hospitals." The union has proposed
running the services in parallel to assess any impact. Swansea Council has also
opposed the plans as it is concerned about additional pressure being placed on
its social services department.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of BBC
Online 9 October 2006
- Private firms take cut of Welsh ops. Up to £8m worth of elective
surgery is being outsourced to the
private sector in
Wales, in a move that will provoke comparisons with
England's independent
sector treatment centre (ISTC) programme. The Rhondda Cynon Taff Local
Health Board (LHB), acting on behalf of all LHBs and NHS trusts in Wales, has
signed contracts for surgical services with five providers with another contract
being finalised. Under the 18-month contracts, the providers will carry out up
to 4,000 surgical procedures, most of which will be orthopaedic. Until now the
Welsh Assembly has rejected the DoH's policy of increasing private sector
involvement in NHS provision, under which billions of pounds worth of services
are being outsourced to ISTCs. An Assembly spokesman denied its stance had
changed. She said the contracts were part of the 'second offer' scheme, in place
since 2004. This offers patients an alternative place for treatment if it cannot
be provided locally within a certain time. The spokesman said: 'These contracts
are not like the ISTC programme in England. They are just short-term measures as
we reduce waiting times.' The advertisement inviting companies to tender said
they should submit bids for 'call-off' contracts with no volume or revenue
guarantees. But it suggested companies also provide 'variant bids' on a
guaranteed volume basis. The Welsh contracts do not include 'additionality'
clauses like those in the DoH's ISTC contracts, which prevented providers from
employing staff who had worked in the NHS in the previous six months. The five
providers are: Nuffield Hospitals; BUPA Hospitals; The Hospital Management Trust
at Sancta Maria Hospital, Swansea; Interhealth Care Services at Kidderminster
treatment centre; St Joseph's Hospital, Newport (independent). Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Hospital
Doctor 13 October 2006
- Bed
push protest by doctors.
A group of Mid Wales doctors, led by Dr James Wrench, were completing a 52-mile
bed push from Bronllys Hospital in Brecon to Cardiff today to demonstrate
against planned cuts in the NHS. The group is aiming to join a rally to launch
the Welsh branch of Community Hospitals Acting
Nationally Together. Powys Local Health Board has proposed cuts at Llanidloes,
Knighton, Bronllys and Builth Wells Hospitals, which campaigners believe will
lead to their closure.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Shropshire
Star 23 November 2006
- Prescriptions
free for everyone…But only if you live in Wales. Anger is growing over
Britain's two-tier health service after
prescription charges
were abolished in Wales. Anyone registered with a
Welsh GP will get their drugs and medical supplies free from April 1 but
patients in England and Scotland will continue to be charged £6.65 for each
item. There is already resentment over the decision by the Scottish Parliament
to provide free care for the elderly while councils in England are warning
services will be slashed and fees raised. It emerged last week that Englishman
George King is moving 105 miles from his home near Middlesbrough to Melrose in
the Scottish borders to get life-saving treatment for bone marrow cancer.
Prescription charges in Wales have been gradually reduced in line with a 2003
Labour promise. Welsh Health Minister Dr Brian Gibbons said: "The vast majority
of ordinary working-class people will benefit substantially and, for us in Welsh
Labour, that's what we are proud about." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Express
26 January 2007
- Alarm at loss of
NHS beds. Over a third of hospital beds have been lost in Powys over the
last five years, according to Mid Wales Assembly
candidate Nerys Evans. A Mid Wales doctor also said that community hospitals in
north Powys were full and hospitals overloaded. However Powys local health board
said the lost beds were unnecessary. Ms Evans said the figures were "truly
shocking". "The percentage of beds lost in Powys is more than three times as
much as any other trust in Wales, and I cannot see how the quality of service
for the people of Powys can be maintained if we continue to cut the number of
beds in our hospitals," she said. A spokesman for the local health board
defended the reduction saying: "The purpose of 'Doing More, Doing Better' is to
reconfigure services to ensure we provide the right services and treatments to
meet the changing needs and demands of the 130,000 people who live in Powys." Dr
Andy Raynsford, of the Llanidloes GP practice, said: "The health board should be
considering developing existing units, rather than closing them. Community
hospital beds across north Powys are full and, although individual hospitals are
making their best attempts to discharge patients into the community, their
medical conditions mean it can't be done at the drop of a hat."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Shropshire
Star 8 February 2007
- NHS surgeon from cardiac unit 'riven by bullying' worked in Italy during
sick leave. Trust paid locum to work while specialist was away ·
Absentee holds key post at hospital in Palermo. An NHS heart surgeon who was on
sick leave was working at a private hospital in Sicily as director of cardiac
surgery, the Guardian has discovered. Vincenzo Argano, who worked at a troubled
cardiac unit in Wales which was riven by allegations of
bullying and harassment, took a six months' sabbatical followed by more than
eight months' sick leave, said to be due to stress. But for most of the time he
was away from the Morriston cardiac unit at Swansea NHS Trust he has been listed
as a member of staff at the Villa Maria Eleonora hospital in Palermo. Sarah
Boseley, health editor
Tuesday
March 6, 2007 The Guardian
- Anger over GPs
service. Fed-up patients who have encountered problems with the
out-of-hours doctors service used in Powys have been inundating councillors
with complaints. Anxious patients have had to wait for a response and
sometimes for hours to see a doctor when they call the
Shropdoc service, it has been claimed. A report dubbed the UK out-of-hours
system "shambolic", sparking a debate in Welshpool
when the county council's Montgomeryshire committee had a meeting with John
Howard, chief executive of local health watchdog the Montgomeryshire Community
Health Council. Montgomeryshire AM Mick Bates said out-of-hours provision for
health care in Mid Wales should be "re-thought", after the report was issued.
He suggested a system that would place rapid response vehicles alongside
ambulance services, to deal with emergency and non-emergency calls between
them.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Shropshire
Star
16 March 2007
- Assembly minister
claims PFI wasting millions. A Welsh Assembly member
has claimed that PFI deals are wasting millions of pounds. Owen John Thomas,
Assembly Member for South Wales Central, has claimed that PFI deals were a
'scandalous' waste of money when patients are having to take out loans to pay
for treatment privately. The members comments came after it was revealed that a
former soldier had taken out a loan to pay for treatment for prostate cancer
because the NHS refused to fund it. Finance Minister Sue Essex yesterday
suggested the Assembly Government was flexible on the role of private finance
initiatives as she faced questions in the chamber about why there had been fewer
PFI projects in Wales than in England under Labour. Ms Essex said PFI had been
used to build roads, schools and hospitals, but she was happy to look at 'other
mechanisms rather than PFI if it doesn't fit the proposal". Plaid Cymru Assembly
Memeber Alun Ffred Jones asked, "What advantage is there in borrowing money in
the private sector at higher interest rates than the public sector can borrow
the funding, and therefore increase the payment
?" Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of PFI.net
20 March 2007
- Hospital parking 'a stealth tax on illness'. The NHS may be free at
the point of delivery, but patients and their families paid hospital parking
charges in England totalling £95m in 2005/06. The figures, released under the
Freedom of Information Act, show that 12 hospital trusts each raised more than
£1m in charges. Government guidelines on car parking charges in December
"strongly recommended" that NHS bodies introduce some kind of "season ticket"
arrangement, allowing free or reduced-price parking for patients with a
long-term illness or those with serious conditions who require daily or
regular treatment, and their prime visitors. It also suggested a weekly cap on
parking charges. Macmillan Cancer Support, which is campaigning for all cancer
patients to get free hospital parking and help with travel charges, says the
figures are shocking. Judy Beard, the charity's acting chief executive, says:
"When the government announced its revised hospital car parking guidance,
Macmillan expected NHS trusts to exempt cancer patients. However, we have yet
to see this happen." Research by the charity last year found a postcode
lottery of hospital car parking costs, with patients in
Scotland spending an average of £636 on travel and parking throughout
their cancer treatment compared with patients in Wales
who spent £318. In south-west England, the average bill was £477, in the
south-east, £424, and those in the north paid £371. Some patients were found
to have spent more than £1,000. The charity called the charges "a stealth tax
on illness". Alison Benjamin
Wednesday March 21, 2007 The Guardian
- NHS crisis is forcing cuts to maternity care, charity warns.
Support for pregnant women is being cut because of the NHS's financial
troubles, a healthcare charity has warned. The National Childbirth Trust (NCT)
says it is receiving "increasing reports" that NHS antenatal classes,
breastfeeding services and postnatal visits are being cancelled. NHS antenatal
classes have been cut or suspended in at least 10 areas in England and Wales,
according to the NCT. These are Romsey in
Hampshire;
Worcestershire; Newham in
London;
Watford; Gwent in south Wales; south-west
Kent;
Nottinghamshire;
Gloucestershire; Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire; and Wiltshire. The NCT
said it also understood that postnatal home visits have been stopped or are
facing cuts in Wiltshire and in east and north Hertfordshire, which would mean
new mothers have to travel to a clinic in order to receive after-birth care.
Press Association
Monday
March 26, 2007 SocietyGuardian.co.uk
- Wales drops
prescription charges. All patients in Wales are now
entitled to free prescriptions, although the cost rose to £6.85 in the rest of
Britain. The decision of the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff to scrap prescription
charges, which it had already reduced to £3, raised the prospect of a two-tier
NHS. Prescription charges rose by 20p in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Three million patients registered with a Welsh GP and 15,000 Welsh patients who
have an English GP, will qualify.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Telegraph
2 April 2007
- Open or shut
case as service shake-ups hinge on SNP result. The bruising process of NHS
reconfiguration in Scotland could be repeated as NHS reforms are reversed if
the SNP comes to power in the Scottish Parliament
elections on May 3rd. The SNP, which is ahead in the polls, has promised to
reverse the decision to close two accident emergency wards and adopt a
"presumption against" further centralisation of services. Although there is
little space between the SNP and Labour on the health service - both propose
different methods to achieve shorter waiting times - the centralisation issue
is what separates them. During the last parliament, all parties in Scotland
signed up, in principle, to the National Framework for Service Change, better
known as the Kerr Report. There was also support for the Scottish Executive's
response, Delivering for Health. However the SNP has broken from this path.
The SNP also hold an anti-PFI stance, though it is not yet clear how this will
apply in practise. Although the party has been vocal on the issue, its
manifesto is more much cautious. Professor Allyson Pollock, head of Edinburgh
University's centre for international public health policy and a leading
critic of PFI, hopes the election will provide an opportunity re-evaluate the
situation. "Servicing PFI debt is already having a financial impact in
Lanarkshire and Lothian and there are big plans for PFI projects elsewhere in
Scotland." Workforce issues may also show up differences, the Scottish
Executive has already broken with Westminster in awarding the full pay
increase to healthcare workers and providing a more generous resolution to the
furore over applications for specialist training. But BMA Scotland chair Dr
Peter Terry calls this "small-scale stuff". "The big differences are that the
NHS in England is performance managed, usually through financial systems,
while the health service in Scotland is run much more on partnership. I'd hope
that consensus building would continue whoever is in power." Meanwhile if
Labour wins in Wales then there is likely to be
increased scrutiny and a "get tough" approach to costs. The party's manifesto
promises independent analysis of managerial capacity and administrative costs
to underpin a drive to move as much money as possible into frontline services.
Research from BBC Wales was forecasting a £33m NHS overspend for the last 12
months, added to historical debts of £84m. However the most likely outcome is
coalition government, the shape of which no one is certain of. If so, any
policy will be the result of negotiation over manifesto pledges between the
partners. The Conservatives are likely to hold on to their policy of replacing
22 existing health boards with one all-Wales commissioning body. The Lib Dems
want to introduce "health hubs" bring services together and introduce
nurse-led walk-in centres. Plaid wants to halt proposed closures and require
health boards and local authorities to share budgets to ease bed blocking.
Labour's proposal, which wants services to be based on co-operation, not
competition, should probably be remembered by all who make up any coalition.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Service Journal 26 April 2007
- Stroke patients die needlessly in care lottery, study reveals.
Hundreds of deaths of stroke sufferers could be avoided if disparities in
treatment were remedied, new figures suggest today. More than a third do not
receive treatment on a stroke unit where their prospects are considerably
better, a national audit found. Research, funded by the Healthcare Commission,
found large disparities in the quality of care offered across England, Wales
and Northern Ireland. Patients in Wales are more
likely to die, or if they survive suffer higher levels of disability, than
elsewhere. Fewer than three in 10 (28%) patients there are treated in a stroke
unit, compared with an average across the three countries of 62%. Meanwhile,
two out of three (64%) patients in England and seven out of 10 (73%) patients
in Northern Ireland can expect to visit a
specialist unit. Press Association
Wednesday May 9, 2007 SocietyGuardian.co.uk
- The Complexities Of Bed-Blocking. Cardiff and
Vale NHS Trust is the largest NHS trust in Wales, providing health
services to half a million people in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. It
also provides specialist health services – such as paediatric, renal, cardiac,
neurological services and bone marrow transplantation – to patients from
across Wales. It has a total income in excess of £576m and it employs
approximately 13,500 staff. The trust runs two acute hospitals – the
University Hospital of Wales and Llandough Hospital – both of which bear the
brunt of bed-blocking. The trust has consistently had some of the highest
levels of delayed transfers of care – the figures for March show that 8.3% of
its beds are currently blocked.
Care and Health
22 May 2007
- Bird flu outbreak confirmed at Welsh farm. An outbreak of bird flu
at a country estate in north Wales was confirmed today
but does not involve the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Christianne Glossop,
Wales's chief vet, made the announcement after tests were carried out at the
unnamed farm in Denbighshire. She said the strain is H7N2 low pathogenic avian
influenza, which is different from the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain currently
circulating in Asia. James Orr and agencies
Thursday May 24, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
- Two tested for bird flu after farm outbreak. Two adults were last
night tested for bird flu after Welsh authorities
confirmed an outbreak on a remote smallholding in north Wales. However, they
reassured the public that this was not the H5N1 strain, which is potentially
deadly to humans and which resulted in 160,000 turkeys being slaughtered this
year in Norfolk. Police cordoned off the road about a mile from the farmhouse
in Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr, near Corwen, Denbighshire. It is understood that
all the 45 chickens and two geese on the farm were slaughtered and everyone
entering the site was offered the drug Tamiflu as a precaution. John Vidal,
environment editor
Friday
May 25, 2007 The Guardian
- More patients getting into stroke units but 21st century care still
lacking. The results of the 2006 National Sentinel Audit for Stroke show
that patients are spending more of their time on stroke units, but there are
still unacceptable waits for brain scans and starting treatment. Results from
Wales are still falling behind those from England, and
are a major cause for concern. A separate release on the Welsh results is
available. The Audit, funded by the Healthcare Commission, was carried out on
behalf of the Intercollegiate Stroke Group by the Royal College of Physicians’
Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit (CEEu), and covers 100% of eligible
hospitals in England and Wales.
Care & Health 7 June 2007
- Record-breaking Ambulance service hits new heights. The performance
of the Welsh Ambulance Service is the best its ever been
since it was formed in 1998 - and its getting better all the time.
Care & Health 8 June 2007
-
Decision over nurses' pay 'creates disunited kingdom'. Pressure
was increasing today for English nurses to be given their pay award in full
after politicians in Northern Ireland
opted to give their nurses the entire 2.5%. Scottish
and Welsh ministers had earlier agreed to give their
nurses the full rise and campaigners said the decision left English nurses the
poor relations. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) wants the government
to scrap plans to stagger the pay award in England and instead to implement
the independent pay review body's recommendation to give nurses the full rise.
The Northern Ireland executive decided last night to do just that, and to
backdate the rise to April. Sara Gaines
Tuesday July 10, 2007 SocietyGuardian.co.uk
- Hospital
campaigners say it big. Visitors to the Royal Welsh
Show will find it hard to miss one huge protest statement against hospital
cuts. Campaigners have mown the name of their action group into a hillside in
a sign stretching 200m (656ft) in letters 100m (328ft) high and 40m (131ft)
wide. The massive BACH (Builth Against Closing Hospitals) near Builth Wells in
Powys is intended as a reminder to Royal Welsh-goers in nearby Llanelwedd. It
is the latest stunt by the group, which opposes plans by Powys Local Health
Board (LHB) to cut services at Builth Wells, Knighton, Bronllys and Llanidloes
hospitals. The group is fighting plans by the LHB as it faces a £3.5m deficit.
But the LHB has said the hospital buildings are outdated and patients deserve
better. Last month, First Minister Rhodri Morgan called a temporary halt to
changes to Welsh hospital services.
Summary by Keep
our NHS Public of BBC
21 July 2007
-
Scots suffer highest cancer rate. Scotland has the highest cancer rates
in the UK, with Scots 15% more likely to die from the illness, according to
figures published today. National Statistics figures covering the years 2002 to
2004 revealed that there were 446 new cases per 100,000 men and 379 cases per
100,000 women in Scotland. That compares with rates
of 450 (men) and 366 (women) in Wales, and 394 and 338
in England. Press Association
Thursday
July 26, 2007 SocietyGuardian.co.uk
- Action call on
hospital parking costs. Cancer patients are paying up to £1,000 a year to
travel to park at hospitals while they undergo life-saving treatment. One of the
hidden costs of the disease has been revealed by Macmillan Cancer Support, which
is encouraging people to email Health Minister Edwina Hart and other Assembly
Members to demand free parking at Welsh hospitals. The
move comes after the Scottish Executive issued strengthened guidance to NHS
boards, recommending that they offer free parking to cancer patients attending
treatment. The One Wales document agreed by the Labour-Plaid coalition Assembly
government includes a commitment to reform charges for hospital parking. But, to
date, there has been no action taken. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of icWales
13 August 2007
- Health debt
experts join team of 50. City health bosses have asked for help to find
ways of saving money. It has been revealed there are already 50 or so people
in the unit trying to balance the books. Consultants will be spending the next
couple of months closely scrutinising the finances of both Swansea NHS Trust
and Swansea Local Health Board to help the books balance and find the £15.5m
in savings it needs. The trust already has 50 people working in its finance
department, while the LHB employs around four financial staff. Both Swansea
NHS Trust and Swansea Local Health Board, in a joint statement said the
Assembly expert would be there for a limited amount of time. The
troubleshooters will also be looking at the scheme to re-shape services for
the future, including pushing forward the city's £500m super hospital
blueprint. It is predicted that the LHB will end the year £10.8m overspent,
and bosses at Swansea NHS Trust have to find a major £15.5m of savings.
Swansea Local Health Board is also saddled with £3.5m of debt and it is still
forking out around £600 a day on top management consultant Terry Tonks after
it failed to find a new director of resources. Meanwhile, the row over the
3,000 or so Swansea health workers waiting for back pay for up to three years
as a result of re-gradings is rumbling on. There is growing discontent at the
time delay in paying back hundreds of thousands of pounds owed to them.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of South
Wales Evening Post 13 August 2007
- Blood shipped to
hospitals by taxi. Blood is being shipped to Swansea hospitals by taxis,
according to a city health worker. He says he fears lives are being put at risk
by the decision to have private hire vehicles carry the precious cargo. The
warning comes in the wake of a decision by Swansea NHS
Trust to end its link with the health courier service - part of the Wales
Ambulance Service - for emergency blood supplies at night from Cardiff. The
health worker, who does not want to be identified, said he feared taxis were not
properly equipped to carry blood specimens and, if there was a spillage, it
could put future passengers at risk. It is understood the courier service had
offered on-call support for the NHS Trust during the past 20 years, without any
problems being reported. There are also fears that, if a blood sample was
urgently needed late on a Saturday night, no taxi would be available to rush the
blood to either Swansea's Morriston or Singleton hospitals because of the
pressure on the service from revellers enjoying a night out in the capital. The
health worker said a security risk would also be posed by having taxi drivers
arrive with blood samples at the city's hospital sites. "These drivers are going
to be able to walk through the hospital with just their passes. It is not right
that taxi drivers are doing this work." Nobody from Swansea NHS Trust was
available to comment. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Swansea
Evening Post 13 August 2007
-
Trust warns of £15m
hospital debt. Swansea NHS Trust has said it must
cut 750 jobs and close 86 beds to avoid going £15.5m into the red. However,
health officials say they will treat the same number of people by cutting the
amount of time they spend in hospital. The BMA and Amicus say the move is
needed to safeguard services and patient care, but Unison, which has called a
mass meeting of its members for Tuesday, described it as "unacceptable" and
"driven by financial cut-backs and not any planned improvements in health
care". The trust said jobs would be cut through "natural wastage" and there
would be no redundancies. In a letter to Unison acting trust chief executive
Calum Campbell said: "Independent reports have made it clear that Swansea's
hospitals have too many beds and we have been inefficient in the way we have
managed care. Increasing our day case rates and reducing lengths of stay means
patients are in hospital for shorter periods of time. We realise that what may
lay behind the proposals is . . . what may be the unnecessary use of acute
hospital beds. However, this can only be done when it is safe to do so - when
community services are in place and with alternative uses found for any unused
beds."A spokesperson for the Welsh Assembly Government said that they had been
assured that patient care would not suffer and that: "staff can be absorbed
through normal staff turnover and reduced use of agency cover". The trust is
currently considering plans to merge with its neighbour Bro Morgannwg.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of BBC
11 September 2007
-
A foreigner’s view of the NHS in
Wales. The Welsh Assembly Government wants Wales
to have a world class health service. But how does the rest of the world
regard NHS Wales?
Care & Health 14 September 2007
- Anger as talks
ruled out. Health workers say they are angry that
Swansea hospital chiefs are refusing to consult the public over
controversial plans to axe 86 beds and around 750 jobs. They say both patients
and visitors have the right to have a say because the changes will affect them
in the long term. But trust bosses say the decision to reduce bed numbers has
come about because the length of patient stays has been reduced and the 740
jobs will be lost through natural wastage. Swansea NHS Trust has said it does
not believe a formal public consultation is needed because it is not a service
cut. But Jeff Baker, regional organiser for Unison, said staff were angry. He
said: " Swansea NHS Trust has flatly refused to get involved in any sort of
public consultation regarding the proposed bed closures. Unison has made a
formal request for public consultation, and I understand the community health
council has done the same. I understand that the statutory NHS service change
regulations require trusts to publicly consult over what is termed
'significant service changes'. While obviously this is open to interpretation,
it is difficult for our members to understand why Swansea NHS Trust has
decided the permanent closure of 86 beds does not amount to a significant
service change." Trust bosses have continued to warn that unless the changes
go ahead, there could be cuts in hospital services and compulsory
redundancies. Nursing, medical and administrative posts are among those due to
be lost over the next three years by natural wastage. The reductions are part
of the trust's savings strategy, which aims to save £15.5m over the financial
year. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Swansea
Evening Post 21 September 2007
- Opposition to
health trust merger. Plans to unite health trusts in Pembrokeshire and
Ceredigion with Carmarthenshire are facing opposition from community health
councils concerned that it won't save money and may affect services. The Welsh
Assembly government claims the move will save £2m and is already in the
process of merging other trusts across Wales. Any move to merge the three
trusts will follow consultation between the trusts, community health councils
and staff associations. Managers at the west Wales trusts said the merger
would allow them to pool skills and safeguard services as well as making
efficiency savings Carmarthenshire Community Health Council favours the merger
but Ashley Walker from its equivalent in Pembrokeshire said:@It may well lead
in the longer term to an erosion of local services. I know this is very much
an organisational change and not a service change but there is a great fear a
new grand merged trust would lead to a downsizing and erosion of local
services in the periphery." In Ceredigion, Jack Evershaw from the community
health council said that the new trust would have to cope with 37m in debt
that his trust had "little part" in creating. "We are also worried that such
an organisation is doomed to not succeed with that level of debt." However
Meirion Hughes, char of the area's NHS merger review board said the move was
really abut enabling the trust to deal with changing demands.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of BBC
26 September 2007
- Edwina Hart
orders rethink on hospital closures. Health minister Edwina Hart ordered a
review of plans to close community hospitals and downgrade services across
North Wales. A leading GP was also appointed to
re-examine plans to develop primary and community health services. The
announcement, welcomed by AMs from all parties, followed Mrs Hart's decision
to commission a re-assessment of proposals to shut community hospitals at
Prestatyn and Blaenau Ffestiniog. Plans for major re-structuring of North
Wales hospital services, Designed for North Wales, prompted widespread
opposition and became a key campaigning issue during the Assembly elections.
Mrs Hart offered closure-threatened services a potential lifeline after
widespread criticism of the public consultation process previously adopted.
The closure of Flint Cottage hospital is on hold pending the review of
community services, while an independent report on clinical governance at
Abergele hospital will be undertaken by the Academy of Royal Colleges in
Wales. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Welsh
Daily Post 17 October 2007
- A&E gridlocked
as bed cuts bite. Patients in need of emergency hospital treatment in
Swansea have instead been left stranded in ambulances
for hours because of a beds shortage. The queues outside Singleton Hospital
have been seized upon by protesters in their fight to stop 86 city beds being
axed. Ambulance crews claim they were told there were no beds available
anywhere. It led to some paramedics being forced to wait around from 9.40pm
until around midnight - meaning they were unable to attend other emergencies.
A health worker highlighted the "dangerous" situation. He said: "There were
five emergency ambulances stuck outside Singleton Hospital waiting to offload
- there wasn't a bed anywhere. They were there for hours. It meant an
ambulance from Whitland had to go to a call for an incident at Fforestfach.
The trust must know there are not enough beds." It is understood there was a
similar situation outside the hospital site the previous night. Last winter
sparked chaos at hospitals across South West Wales - at one stage in February,
12 ambulances were lined up outside Morriston Hospital's A
& E department. A lack of beds was
also blamed for the problems then, although health chiefs said it was due to
the high level of patients needing emergency treatment along the M4 corridor.
Now hospital bosses say they no longer need the same level of beds, because
they have reduced the length of patient stays. And they have said there is no
need to consult the public over plans to reduce bed numbers. Swansea NHS Trust
is looking to lose 740 jobs through natural wastage, as part of the £15.5m
cost-saving strategy. Nursing, medical and admin posts are among those to go
over the next three years. Trust bosses have warned that without the changes,
there could be cuts in hospital services and compulsory redundancies. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Swansea
Evening Post 17 October 2007
- Midwife father.
A father had to deliver his own baby after his wife was twice turned away from
an NHS hospital because it was full. Elizabeth Jones, 24, gave birth after
coming home for the second time from the Princess of Wales hospital in
Bridgend, South Wales. Her husband dialled 999. The
paramedics who attended supervised him until the baby was born. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Times
18 October 2007
-
'Too many' health bodies in Wales. There are
too many bodies commissioning health services, leaving patients to get "lost
in the gaps", Health Minister Edwina Hart has said.
Care & Health 23 October 2007
- NHS Reconfiguration in Powys and North Wales. Welsh Assembly
Government Statement by Edwina Hart, Minister for Health and Social Services
on the NHS Reconfiguration in Powys and North Wales.
Care & Health 23 October 2007
-
Summary care record
launched in Bolton. The first 48,500 summaries of patient records have
been uploaded to the NHS Spine and out-of-hours staff in the
Bolton
pilot area will start using them over the next few weeks, Connecting for
Health announced. Bolton in North-west England was the first primary care
trust to take part in the NHS Care Records Service Early Adopter Programme.
There is local scepticism about the exercise. A recent survey by the Bolton
Local Medical Committee (LMC) was sent to all 169 GPs in the area, and from 98
responses, just 20 said they were in favour of proceeding with the SCR. These
results indicate that almost 70% of GPs working in Bolton are not in favour of
the SCR being turned on. The creation of SCRs for England runs parallel
similar moves in Wales and
Scotland. Scotland has the Emergency Care Summary which available to staff
in emergency and unplanned care. Wales is developing the Individual Care
Record, currently being piloted in Gwent, which is designed to assist
clinicians working in OOH and emergency settings. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of eHealth
Insider 24 October 2007
-
Even GPs say
patients are getting a raw deal when it comes to out-of-hours care. Family
doctors will admit that out-of-hours care has dramatically deteriorated since
they were allowed to opt out of working at evenings and weekends. Nearly
two-thirds of GPs think standards have slipped since Primary Care Trusts took
over the service in 2004, a survey reveals. Only just over half of those who
become ill outside office hours now see a doctor. The rest are visited by
nurses or are given advice over the phone. One family doctor interviewed by
the GPs' magazine Pulse said that sending nurses to patients was
"inappropriate" and amounted to "conning the public". Many surgeries no longer
provide out-of-hours care. One in five patients questioned in a separate poll
said they received "poor" or "very poor" out-of-hours care. Richard Hoey,
deputy editor of Pulse, said: "The Government keeps insisting out- of-hours
care is improving, but that's not the message we're getting from doctors or
patients. The fact is that ministers hugely underestimated the size of the
task in running out-of-hours services, so when trusts took over responsibility
many lacked the funding or expertise to do so adequately." Trusts have
employed a mixture of in-house teams and private firms to plug the gaps but
complaints have soared. An investigation also revealed that the amount spent
by trusts on out-of-hours care varies widely across England and Wales. While
Birmingham East and North trust spends just £2.43 per patient per year,
Pembrokeshire spends £17.62. It has also emerged that
rising numbers of patients are ringing 999 or turning up at overstretched A&
E departments. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Mail
31 October 2007
- Delays in hospital ‘compromise patients’ independence’. Auditor
General of Wales identifies a 'whole systems' problem that needs changing. The
independence of vulnerable people, and the treatment of others, is being
compromised because of delayed transfers of care, according to the Auditor
General for Wales.
Care
& Health 6 November 2007
- Costly legacy of PFI projects. A Welsh
hospital which cost £66m to build will end up costing taxpayers more than
£300m. The size of the eventual repayments on Neath Port Talbot Hospital can
be revealed for the first time today as one of the biggest of all Wales'
Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes. Information compiled by National
Assembly officials and passed to the Western Mail shows that the capital value
of such projects has now passed £1bn.
Care & Health 6 November 2007
- Wales told to cut bed blocking.
Delayed discharge from hospital is compromising the health and independence of
vulnerable older people and damaging wider health service delivery, according
to a hard-hitting report by the Wales Audit Office.
Care & Health 12 November 2007
- Nurse shortage
for sick baby care. Care for sick and premature babies is at "breaking
point" because of a shortage of nurses, a charity has said. A report by Bliss
said demand for care in neonatal units in Wales had
jumped by 13% in 2006, while the number of specialist nurses rose only by 2%.
It also said overcrowding meant some new admissions were turned away. The
Welsh Assembly Government said Bliss had been advising it on neo-natal
facilities and developing specialist services for children and young people.
The charity for premature babies said no unit in Wales currently met the
recommended nursing levels. It said more than 100 specialist nurses were
needed - increasing the workforce by 27% - to meet recommended minimum
standards in Wales. The study said services were being "stretched to breaking
point" and said the units had to close their doors for an average of 24 days
in a six-month period. It said that this meant mothers and babies sometimes
had to travel long distances to access the care they need. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of BBC
4 December 2007
- Review after
laptop theft from Welsh GP practice. Health bosses in
Wales have written to 950 patients whose details were on a laptop computer
stolen from St Julien's GP surgery in Newport last month. Cardiff and Vale NHS
Trust said the laptop contained patient retinopathy images together with the
details of the patients' names, addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers.
The data was part of a screening problem for diabetic people with eye problems
run by the Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Service (DRSS), which screens
patients across Wales. The trust says that it is possible further patient
records were held on the laptop. When the DRSS holds clinics in various
locations in the community, including GP surgeries, staff record patient
information onto laptops, later uploaded to a central database. The trust has
also ordered an investigation into data and computer security measures, and
says rigorous security measures are in place. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of E-Health
Insider
18 December 2007
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