Membership of health authorities and trusts and other NHS appointments
- NHS Trust Boards Now More Representative Of Communities They Serve - More
Women And Members Of Ethnic Minorities On Trust Boards. Department
of Health Press Release 98/80 Tuesday 24th February 1998
- Government accused of cronyism in NHS. Report calls for review of the way hospital and NHS trust board members are appointed.
Guardian March 22, 2000
- Rebuke for Labour on NHS 'cronyism'. Guardian March 23, 2000
- “I was helping women. I'm accused of politicising health service appointments” by Frank Dobson, Guardian March 28, 2000
- A sigh of relief spread across the NHS yesterday when the government appointed an internal candidate to head the service, instead of bringing in a captain of industry, as Tony Blair originally intended. Guardian 12 October 2000.
- Tories attack Labour over NHS appointment.
A senior health official criticised by the Tories as a Labour sympathiser has been put in charge of the body tasked with taking the "politics" out of NHS board appointments.
Sir William Wells has been appointed chairman of the new NHS appointments commission, which will choose chairmen and non-executives to sit on the boards of trusts and health authorities. Guardian Society
Friday March 30, 2001
- Kicking off the shackles
A job in NHS policy can unleash the critical faculties and give ex-managers and clinicians an opportunity to speak their minds.
Guardian Unlimited
Tuesday April 3, 2001
- Shock appointment for NHS head of HR
Guardian Society
Friday April 6, 2001
- Top of the NHS is no place for women
The new top management team assembled by NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp is all men. Will women ever have a place at the top of the health service? Patrick Butler investigates Guardian Society
Monday April 16, 2001
- The NHS leadership centre - tasked with delivering a "new generation of clinical and managerial leaders" - is likely to be headed by a woman, with speculation that it could be Barbara Harris, chief executive of the Royal United Hospitals Bath trust. Ms Harris will "buck the trend" of recent men-only top NHS appointments, says
HSJ, although it adds that she would report to modernisation agency head David
Fillingham. Health service journal round-up
Publication date: April 19, Guardian Society
Thursday April 19, 2001
- Former doctor Gillian Morgan has been appointed as the new chief executive
of influential health service management body the NHS Confederation. Guardian
Society
Tuesday November 20, 2001
Ministers unveil new health authority chairmen. Guardian
Society Thursday December 20, 2001
Local communities and hospital workers may be given seats on the governing
bodies of the new foundation hospitals proposed by Alan Milburn, the health
secretary, as part of his plan to devolve power within the NHS. Guardian
Society Friday February 8, 2002
More women and ethnic minorities head NHS trust boards. Guardian
Society Thursday February 21, 2002
Public invited to advise medicines watchdog. John Carvel, social
affairs editor
Tuesday August 20, 2002 The GuardianMore than 5,000 people have requested application packs to join a "common
sense" panel one week after it was announced by the medicines watchdog.
Monday
August 26, 2002 The Guardian
Bristol inquiry chief to head NHS inspectorate. David Batty
Thursday November 14, 2002
Milburn names head for new watchdog David Batty
Monday December 2, 2002
Cancer tsar. Professor Michael Richards
Friday December 20, 2002
NHS food tsar. Loyd Grossman
Friday December 20, 2002
NHS emergencies tsar. Who: Sir George Alberti, former president of
the Royal College of Physician.
Friday December 20, 2002
Mental health tsar. Professor Louis Appleby
Friday December 20, 2002
Alan Milburn, the health secretary, was last night facing a crisis at the
NHS inspectorate after its chief executive resigned citing an irreconcilable
personality clash with the chairman. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Saturday April 12, 2003 The Guardian
The fight to be top cat. The appointment of a foundation trusts regulator
could lead to power struggles at the health department, writes Peter Davies
Thursday May 29, 2003
The government's health promotion unit has appointed Paul Streets, the
head of charity Diabetes UK and a prominent supporter of NHS modernisation, as
its new chief executive. Patrick Butler
Friday June 20, 2003
The head of the NHS standards watchdog, Peter Homa, was yesterday named as
the new chief executive of one of Britain's largest teaching hospitals. David
Batty
Thursday July 24, 2003
The government has appointed a patients' champion to improve conditions
for patients in England's casualty departments.
Thursday August 28, 2003
The government has appointed a former senior vice-president of the fast
food giant McDonald's to head the health service's heavily criticised in-house
nursing agency, NHS Professionals. David Batty
Friday September 26, 2003
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) today announced a new head
of child and family policy who will take a lead role in pushing forward the
government's child protection reforms. David Batty
Monday October 27, 2003
It can be hard for private sector high flyers to 'break into' the NHS, but
moves are being made to tear down barriers. John James reports.
Wednesday November 12, 2003 The Guardian
New medical chief to tackle inequalities. Tash Shifrin
Friday November 21, 2003
Health watchdog appoints chief from outside sector. Tash Shifrin
Tuesday November 25, 2003
A new director has been appointed to head the arm of the NHS Modernisation
Agency responsible for governing a culture of change. Roxanne Escobales
Friday December 5, 2003 The Guardian
An Indian doctor whose attempts to become a consultant were thwarted
because of his race has been awarded record damages of £635,000. Hugh Muir
Friday December 19, 2003 The Guardian
The former chief executive of a car scheme for people with disabilities
has been appointed to head the medical telephone helpline NHS Direct.
Roxanne Escobales
Wednesday February 18, 2004
The chief executive of the NHS, Sir Nigel Crisp, today announced the
appointment of a social care tsar to improve partnership between the health
service and social services. As the first national director of social care,
Kathryn Hudson will be responsible for improving joint working between the two
sectors at both the national and local level. She is also expected to take a
leading role in the Department of Health's forthcoming reform of adult social
services. David Batty
Wednesday May 19, 2004
Tony Blair's new Downing Street health adviser was criticised by trade
union leaders yesterday who also turned on his predecessor for taking a job
with a US company looking to cash in on NHS reforms. The head of one of
Labour's largest affiliated organisations, the GMB's general secretary, Kevin
Curran, was scathing about the appointment of Julian Le Grand to replace Simon
Stevens. Mr Curran said Professor Le Grand, who angered unions last year by
labelling public service workers opposed to reform as "knaves" motivated by
"plain self-interest", was unsuitable for the Downing Street health post.
"Julian Le Grand does not share our ethos," Mr Curran said. "His background
suggests he identifies more with profit than public service. Kevin Maguire
Friday May 21, 2004 The Guardian
There is change but no change in the backrooms of Downing Street with the
arrival of Professor Julian Le Grand as the prime minister's new health
adviser this week. The appointment of Prof Le Grand, a champion of
competition, choice and private providers in public services, signals Tony
Blair's not-for-turning mood on NHS reform.
Friday May 21, 2004
Zenna Atkins is a rare independent spirit in the NHS. She tells John
Carvel a few home truths about battling bureaucracy, mediocrity and management
'muppets'.
Wednesday October 13, 2004 The Guardian
A former hospital chief executive who lied about his CV was given a
suspended jail sentence and fined £5,000 yesterday at Shrewsbury crown court.
Neil Taylor, 42, claimed to have a first-class university degree in business
affairs and economics when he applied to be head of Shrewsbury and Telford NHS
trust in 2003. James Meikle
Saturday
September 24, 2005 The Guardian
Part-time NHS
chiefs' pay doubled to £50,000. SHA and PCT chairman will have dramatic
pay rises as part of the restructuring currently taking place, despite the
financial crisis. Chairmen of strategic health authorities, who work a
three-day week, will see their pay increase from £21,882 to as much as £60,000
in London and £50,000 outside - a rise of over 100%. Chairmen of primary care
trusts, who are currently paid a maximum of £21,882 for a three-day week, will
receive £30,000 to £40,000. Health authority and PCT non-executive directors,
who typically do between two-and-a-half and three days a month, will receive
£7,500 a year, compared with £5,673 now. A Department of Health source
spokesman said: "The increase in rates is about these bodies catching up [with
the private sector], rather than receiving a large increase." Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 9 February 2006
DoH draws a
blank in quest to attract outsiders to SHA posts. Three leading figures
from American healthcare are in the running to become director of
commissioning at the Department of Health. The DoH is keen to attract someone
from outside the NHS. Among those in the frame are UnitedHealth Group USA
executive vice-president Sheila Leatherman; president of Boston-based
Institute for Healthcare Improvement Don Berwick; and former chief executive
of the US Veterans Healthcare System Dr Kenneth Kizer. Meanwhile the DoH has
failed to find anyone from outside the NHS to take on any of the new strategic
health authority chief executive jobs, despite an extensive advertising
campaign. Applicants from the private sector, local government and the
pharmaceutical industry were interviewed but none was selected. Birmingham and
the Black Country SHA chief executive David Nicholson will take on London.
Carolyn Regan, North East London SHA boss, who made it clear she was only
interested in being chief executive in the capital, is left with no SHA job.
Sir Ian Carruthers will become chief executive of South West SHA after he has
stepped down as acting chief executive of the NHS. Margaret Edwards gets
Yorkshire while Barbara Hakin takes on the East Midlands. West Yorkshire SHA
chief executive Mike Farrar gets the North West while the North East goes to
the chief executive of Northumberland Tyne and Wear SHA David Flory. Kent and
Medway SHA boss Candy Morris moves to the new South Coast SHA to add the
troubled Surrey and Sussex region to her existing patch. University Hospital
Birmingham foundation trust chief executive Mark Britnell is promoted to boss
of the South Central SHA. No appointments have been made to the remaining two
SHAs - West Midlands and East of England - and the jobs will be re-advertised.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 4 May 2006
Search for new
health chief goes overseas. The search for a
new chief executive for the financially
beleaguered National Health Service is to go overseas as the Department of
Health struggles to attract high-quality applicants to top posts. In an
indication that they do not expect the search to be a short one, ministers
have said Sir Ian Carruthers, the acting NHS chief executive, will have his
secondment extended from July until the end of the year. Exploratory talks
have been held with figures in the US whom it is thought would bring some of
the commissioning skills that the service needs as it begins to act more as a
giant insurance and health purchasing system and less as the direct
provider of all services.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Financial Times 8 May 2006
A health minister who left her job in the reshuffle has said she resigned
because Downing Street advisers meddled in the affairs of the NHS appointments
commission and told her not to express views. Patrick Wintour
Monday May 8, 2006 The Guardian
Controversial
SHA appointment drove Kennedy to resignation. Appointments to new SHAs
have come under attack with the resignation of a minister, criticism of the
prime minister's health adviser and a letter of protest signed by 22 MPs.
Health minister Jane Kennedy resigned after the appointment of former
Liverpool council chief executive Sir David Henshaw as chair of the new North
West SHA. Her opposition was backed by 22 Merseyside MPs, who signed a letter
to NHS Appointments Commission chair Sir William Wells saying they would find
it "extremely difficult" to work with him. Three other ministers signed the
letter but were ordered to withdraw their signatures due to their ministerial
status. Kennedy said she was concerned about the way payment by results
applied to children's hospitals such as at the Royal Liverpool Children's
trust in her constituency. But she said her position became untenable after
the appointment of Henshaw: "My local party was aghast; my colleagues
dumbfounded." She passed on her views to the NHS Appointments Commission even
though she said she had been warned by No 10 health adviser Paul Corrigan not
to intervene. Elsewhere in the reshuffle social care minister Liam Byrne has
been moved out of Richmond House and two new ministers, Andy Burnham and Ivan
Lewis, will fill the vacant posts. Andy Burnham, 36, is minister for NHS
delivery and will work closely with Lord Warner, who stays on as minister for
reform. Ivan Lewis, 39, takes over from Liam Byrne as social care minister.
Health services minister Rosie Winterton remains in post and Caroline Flint is
promoted from junior minister to minister of state, in charge of public
health.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 11 May 2006
NHS seeks 1,000
non-execs. The NHS is to recruit more than 1,000 non-executive directors
who will be paid fees totalling over £8m, plus expenses. Professional
head-hunters have however suggested that the NHS may have great difficulty in
filling so many posts; more than the number of non-executive directors on the
boards of the FTSE 100 combined.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Observer 21 May 2006
Business
executives help prepare for market-based health reforms. Senior executives
from some of
Britain's biggest companies are to join
the boards of
foundation hospitals to help them prepare for a new market-based health
service. Tony Blair is hosting a seminar with health managers and
representatives from companies including Tesco, Lloyds TSB, GlaxoSmith-Kline,
Unilever and Smiths Group, under a scheme to make foundation hospitals with
budgets of up to £500m more commercially minded. Other companies interested in
lending their expertise include O2, Sainsbury and Anglo-American. The move has
come under fire from union leaders who warn that it would alienate Labour
voters. Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers'
Union, said the involvement of businesses proved that foundation hospitals
were "pathfinders to privatisation". Analysts have noted that the companies
involved are not all strong performers in their sectors. One fund manager
said: "They may not all be the most highly regarded companies, but they can at
least teach about the profit motive and need to face up to competitive
pressures."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Financial Times 6 June 2006
Wesson was unlawfully sacked. The
Appointments Commission has admitted unlawfully sacking a non-executive
director of a primary care trust who opposed an ill-fated
independent treatment centre contract. Paul Wesson was sacked as a
non-executive director of South West
Oxfordshire PCT last year, but when he sought a judicial review of his
case the commission accepted that it should not have terminated his contract.
He was one of five non-executives at the PCT who initially opposed a £2m
contract to buy hundreds of cataract operations from private firm Netcare as
part of a national contract. But the work will not now be carried out by
Netcare due to a lack of demand. Mr Wesson said the sacking process started
when he mistakenly sent an e-mail to local campaigners discussing possible
closures of local community hospitals. He was told by the Appointment
Commission that he would face disciplinary action and a decision was taken to
terminate his contract. Mr Wesson has since applied to be a non-executive
director of the new Oxfordshire PCT and for a similar position with South
Central SHA. He said: "My card has been marked, but it is not fair because all
I had been doing was my job, which was to robustly challenge the PCT's
decision. I was effectively sacked for arguing with them, but everything I did
was constructively challenging."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal
27 July 2006
Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, last
night released a letter to the prime minister warning that "difficult
decisions will have to be made on jobs and acute hospital
reconfigurations". She has appointed health minister Andy Burnham as her
communications troubleshooter to explain the changes "consistently and
positively" to staff and patients. And, in an attempt to combat increasing
disenchantment within the NHS, she invited the health unions to join a
strategic advisory group to work out the next steps in the reform programme.
The moves follow the appointment yesterday
of David Nicholson, a long-serving health service manager, to become the NHS's
new chief executive. Mr Nicholson beat off a challenge from two American
healthcare managers who were regarded as standard bearers of the competitive
approach that Mr Blair wanted to become the way ahead for the NHS. But the
appointments panel assembled by the civil service commissioners decided the
service would not respond well to a further dose of
private sector zeal from an outsider. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Friday
July 28, 2006 SocietyGuardian.co.uk
Critics
round on London SHA chief. Patient groups and campaigners have questioned
the suitability of George Greener as chair of
London strategic health authority. Greener was
appointed in May but patients' groups that
have researched his employment history reveal that he has worked in senior
roles for confectionary, tobacco, pharmaceutical and drinks industries. He
spent 20 years working for confectionary giant Mars, five as managing director
of Mars UK. From 1991-98 he held a number of chief executive posts at
financial services subsidiaries of BAT (British American Tobacco) Industries
plc, becoming group chief executive of BAT financial services and a board
member of its parent tobacco company. Until May, he was also director of
Reckitt Benckiser plc, a domestic cleaning company which also produces several
consumer pharmaceuticals and last year bought Boots' over-the-counter
division. Geoff Martin, campaigns director for pressure group London Health
Emergency, said: 'It's a shoddy system that thinks a person with a track
record like this is an appropriate figure for the health service in London.
What a CV for this job. Mars and BAT have if anything contributed more to the
ill-health of London than anything positive. This appointment goes to the
heart of the Blair agenda that says, whatever it is responsible for, big
business knows best.' NHS Consultants Association president Dr Peter Fisher
said: 'It would be nice to think such a person would have a background in
health or an appropriate profession. It's not a terribly impressive
background.' Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health
Service Journal 31 August 2006
Health chiefs
defend boss's £130k deal. A
debt-ridden health body has justified paying its
new chairman nearly £130,000. The
newly-created Western
Cheshire PCT, which is trying to recoup losses of up to £42m, will pay
businessman John Church £32,500 a year for his services over the next four
years. Church is chairman of Group Tyre (UK) Ltd which has a turnover of
nearly £200m. He also runs a management consultancy. His part-time appointment
has proved unpopular with one member of the local health service who said:
'The NHS is in turmoil and the new PCT has appointed the chairman of Group
Tyre (UK) Ltd for a four-year term earning £130,000. You have to ask what is
his knowledge of the NHS ? To me,
this appointment beggars belief.'
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Ellesmere Port Pioneer 1September 2006
The NHS Appointments Commission, responsible for ensuring senior positions are
filled fairly, has been forced to apologise for breaches of procedure over the
selection of a chair for the new strategic health authority in London. The
Commissioner for Public Appointments has ruled that the key post was allocated
to Dr George Greener, after the selection procedures were changed half way
through the process. This, it was said, appeared to favour candidates with
skills developed in the private rather than the public sectors. An
investigation also uncovered errors in record keeping, "no clear audit trail
on the shortlisting process" - some of which was conducted by telephone
conference - and a lack of clarity in the information sent to applicants. The
appointment will stand, but the ruling will heighten concerns that opaque
procedures are being used to put candidates with significant political
experience at a disadvantage. Hugh Muir
Wednesday November 15, 2006 The Guardian
Natural selection will save the NHS. Received wisdom has it that
introduction of general management in the NHS in the 1980s was a good thing.
But Aidan Halligan, the former NHS director of clinical governance who quit
the Department of Health last year, has come to the view that putting doctors
and nurses in charge is the only way to save the service. Halligan, an
obstetrician by background who now runs his own healthcare consultancy, was
commenting on the recent BBC2 programme in which management guru Sir Gerry
Robinson was filmed advising on problems at Rotherham hospitals foundation
trust. Among the many excruciating aspects, said Halligan, was the amount of
time the trust's hapless chief executive seemed to spend locking his office
door against stereotypically blinkered and self-interested clinicians. The
next 10 years would determine whether there was any long-term future for the
NHS as we know it, Halligan told the AGM of the College of Chiropractors. But
that would depend on the most charismatic doctors and nurses stepping forward
and being appointed chief executives to lead their fellow professionals as
only they could. "The only way the NHS will get to where it wants to go is by
professionals looking to take responsibility for offering patients the sort of
care you would want for yourself and, looking neither right nor left, going
for leadership positions and going for results. That will happen - I have no
doubt - and when it does, people will say it was obvious." David Brindle
Wednesday January 24, 2007 The Guardian
Hewitt is
accused of NHS trust cronyism. Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary,
faced accusations of cronyism as figures showed NHS trusts are being stuffed
with Labour activists. Seven out of ten of those appointed to hospital and
primary care trust boards who declare a political affiliation are Labour
supporters, compared to one in six Tory and one in eight Lib Dem. The
Conservatives claim that the figures, from the independent NHS Appointments
Commission, show a continuing bias towards Labour. Of the 459 who declared an
affiliation - well under a quarter of those serving on boards - 312 said they
supported Labour, compared to 77 who supported the Tories. Janice Scanlan,
acting chief executive of the Appointments Commission, said: "There is no bias
in the process and these figures are more a reflection of the political
activity of the people who apply for these jobs." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Telegraph
13 February 2007
Ex-minister to
head London agency. The former minister who piloted the creation of
foundation trusts through Parliament is to run a new NHS body in London
designed to encourage more provision by foundation trusts in the capital. Lord
Warner, who resigned from the government two months ago, will front London's
Provider Development Agency from next month. The agency will manage and
develop the performance of London's provider organisations. A spokesman for
NHS London said one of its challenges would be to see that all NHS-owned
provision was delivered by foundation trusts. NHS London chief executive Ruth
Carnall previously said that the agency's independence from the strategic
health authority would enable it to push the provider reform agenda more
effectively. Lord Warner, who as health minister championed foundation trusts
during the controversial passage of the bill to create them, said: 'The agency
is the first of its kind in England, driving forward continuing improvements
to deliver foundation status for acute trusts in London. Our priorities will
be to ensure services are properly planned and managed to deliver reform and
excellent healthcare in the capital.' NHS London has made two other
high-profile appointments this week: Antony Sumara has been appointed
turnaround director and Paul Baumann is the new director of finance and
performance. Mr Sumara took up his post on Monday but will continue in his
current role as interim chief executive at Hillingdon primary care trust. Mr
Baumann worked at household goods multinational Unilever for the last 20
years, and Unison said it had concerns about his appointment. Unison head of
health Karen Jennings said: 'He does not have any record in the public sector
which we would be concerned about in terms of bringing in more competition
rather than a co-operative approach.' Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Service Journal 22 February 2007
London chief
defends Corrigan and Warner's appointments. NHS
London's interim chief executive has defended her new top team against
claims they include political appointments
meant to push through New Labour reforms. Ruth Carnall acknowledged that two
appointments were always likely to be politicised, namely former health
minister Lord Warner as chair of the new London Provider Development Agency,
and Number 10 adviser Professor Paul Corrigan as the strategic health
authority's director of commissioning and strategy. Carnall said: 'The notion
that I have put in place a team with the aim of privatising the NHS in London
is nonsense.' Her comments came after shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley
wrote to senior officials at the Department of Health and to NHS London
expressing his concerns. Mr Lansley alleges Lord Warner's appointment breaches
the ministerial code of conduct and has written to permanent secretary Hugh
Taylor to demand answers to a series of questions about the appointments
process, its timing and whether permission has been sought. He argues that
Professor Corrigan's appointment, which comes on the eve of a major shake-up
of London health services, is 'deeply unwise' and should be abandoned. He
said: 'These appointments of people who have been at the most senior level
pushing the proposals for the reconfiguration of hospitals are unacceptable.
They undermine the credibility and independence of the NHS in London for
reaching its own view about what is in the best interests of patients in the
capital.' Unison also has concerns about the appointments. London head of
health Chris Remington said: 'I think they will use London as a test bed. We
will see the wholesale shifting of staff into the private sector.' The new
team in London includes: Ruth Carnall as interim chief executive; Professor
Paul Corrigan, Tony Blair's special adviser on health and widely regarded as
an architect of the current market reforms, as director of strategy and
commissioning; Lord Warner, former health minister, now chair of London's
Provider Development Agency where he will steer trusts towards foundation
status; Malcolm Stamp, PDA chief executive, who was one of the first
foundation chief executives; Paul Baumann, a finance director from Unilever,
as director of performance and finance; Antony Sumara, turnaround director,
known for his work in troubled trusts. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Health
Service Journal 22 March 2007
US health
executive offered top NHS role. An American executive with a lifetime's
experience of paying for care in the US health system has been offered the job
of commercial director at the Department of Health, overseeing the purchase of
care for NHS patients. But the appointment of R. Channing Wheeler, who is in the
final stage of negotiations ahead of an expected announcement, is likely to be
controversial as he has been caught up in the scandal of backdated stock options
in the US. The appointment of a US big- hitter with extensive healthcare
purchasing experience is seen within the department as a clear signal of its
continued commitment to market-based reforms and to the use of the private
sector to treat and commission care for NHS patients. His selection has been
approved by Tony Blair, the prime minister, from a short list that included
other experienced US candidates. Mr Wheeler, 55, was an executive vice-president
of UnitedHealth Group, which is still being investigated by the US Securities
and Exchange Commission over the alleged granting of backdated share options.
The scandal has brought down William McGuire, the former longstanding chairman
and chief executive of UnitedHealth, one of the largest US managed-care
providers. Mr McGuire resigned after it was discovered that he and other
executives had repeatedly received stock options, meant to incentivise future
performance. Mr Wheeler, who until 2004 was chief executive of Uniprise, the
UnitedHealth subsidiary that deals with some of the biggest US companies, is
alleged to have received grants of more than 409,000 options on similar dates to
Mr McGuire between 1998 and 2002, according to court papers filed in the US. A
civil action has been filed by public sector union shareholders in UnitedHealth
seeking $5.5m in damages from him over the share options. The UK's health
department is understood to have done due diligence on the appointment and
accepted that Mr Wheeler was unaware at the time that the way the options were
granted was questionable. Mr Wheeler held executive positions with US health
plans, while running UnitedHealth's north-east region, before becoming chief
executive of Uniprise in 1998. Karen Jennings, head of health for Unison, said:
"The American health system is riddled with fraud and we must protect our NHS
from that sort of corruption. UnitedHealth is trying to infiltrate the NHS, and
it is worrying that someone from that organisation is being favoured over an NHS
or civil service appointee."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Financial
Times 30 April 2007
PM backs health
job offer for US executive. Tony Blair defended the offer of the post of
commercial director at the Department of Health to a US executive. Asked if
appointing Channing Wheeler, an American caught up in the scandal of postdated
stock options - granted by his previous employer United Health Group - risked
pouring petrol on the fire of opposition to private sector involvement in the
NHS, he said: "You should appoint the best person for the job". Allyson
Pollock, a fierce opponent of private sector involvement in the NHS and
professor of international public health policy at Edinburgh University,
claimed the government "is creating a banana republic within the NHS where
anything goes".
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Financial
Times 1 May 2007
NHS prepares for independence under Brown. A drastic reshuffle of
the NHS's top management team in England was announced by its chief executive
last night to make the health service ready for any moves that Gordon Brown
may take to give it independence from day-to-day political control. David
Nicholson said he was creating "a distinct NHS leadership team" inside the
Department of Health to strengthen the service's strategic, financial and
clinical capabilities. It will include Chan Wheeler, a senior executive with
the US healthcare giant United Health, who will become commercial director
general of the NHS. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Thursday May 10, 2007 The Guardian
Ex-boss of
hospital under fire. Fresh criticism has been hurled at the former boss of
Hinchingbrooke who increased the hospital's debts tenfold. Debt at
Hinchingbrooke was already £2m when Douglas Pattisson took up the reins as
chief executive, but the bungling boss racked up a total of £23m debts while
he was there. He resigned last September, and has since staggered his critics
after going on to become a member of a steering group to tell the Government
how to help the NHS save money. Campaigners are fighting to save jobs and
departments under threat at the hospital.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Cambridge
Evening News 15 May 2007
Hewitt denies
retreat on health reforms. A structural shake-up at the Department of
Health should not be seen as a sign that the government is rowing back on its
reforms, Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, said. David Nicholson, the
National Health Service chief executive, has announced a new "leadership team"
that had a single post of "director-general for commissioning and system
management" in place of separate roles that reflected the "purchaser/
provider" divide in the NHS. With some in the private sector worried
that Gordon Brown's accession to the premiership might lead to a dilution of,
or even a halt to, the government's market-based reforms, Ms Hewitt said the
decision to end the distinction between the two roles should not be seen that
way. The responsibility for ensuring that more hospitals became foundation
trusts, and that more staff moved out of the NHS to create not-for-profit
"social enterprises", was being devolved to the 10 strategic health
authorities, she said. The move towards making NHS providers more independent
needed to be pursued "primarily at the regional level". London had led the way
by creating its own separate purchaser and provider organisations, she said.
The new leadership team would not have a formal annual agreement with
ministers over what the NHS should deliver. Meanwhile 180 cancer specialists
told the BBC in a survey that they were worried or very worried about the
NHS's ability to afford the cost of a series of new cancer drugs that are
coming on stream.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Financial
Times 15 May 2007
Laid-off NHS
man gets cash - but keeps job. The new director of finance for
Kingston's Primary Care Trust (PCT) is reputed to have received a huge
redundancy package from his last post, despite continuing to work in the NHS.
The pay-out to Rob Yeomans, rumoured to be in excess of £100,000, has caused
outrage among some of his NHS colleagues, particularly when many PCTs,
including Kingston, are making service cuts to get back into the black. Under
NHS rules, if a worker is made redundant and then re-employed by the NHS
within four weeks, they are not liable for a pay-out. But since leaving
South Coast Strategic Health Authority (SHA) on March 31, Mr Yeomans has
been working without a break for Kingston PCT. Legally, his redundancy payment
looks secure as he has been employed on a three-month contract through an
external agency, so therefore is not technically an NHS employee, despite
being the man who has been running Kingston PCT's finances. He begins his
permanent contract on July 1. A Kingston PCT spokeswoman said Mr Yeomans'
terms of employment were being looked at by its remuneration and conditions of
service committee, but refused to confirm how much he was paid in redundancy.
The Surrey Comet became aware of the row after an insider wrote to us
anonymously about Mr Yeomans' redundancy payment. "In a time when Kingston PCT
is reporting a £20million overspend and the whole NHS is struggling to make
ends meet, I find this to be morally unacceptable," they said. Michael Walker,
the Unison representative for the PCT, said: "They would never allow any of
our staff to work on an agency basis - we have had problems where people lose
their jobs and then can't work. Staff have been talking about this and at a
time of redundancies the PCT needs to be careful to be completely
transparent."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Surrey
Comet 23 May 2007
New medical research chair unfit for job, say MPs. MPs on the
Commons' science and technology committee said today they have "serious
reservations" about the suitability of the new chairman of the Medical
Research Council (MRC). Sir John Chisholm was appointed chairman of the MRC,
which allocates around £500m a year in public funding for health research, in
October 2006. In a damning report, the MPs said they had concerns as to
whether he was the "right person to guide the MRC executive" through its
restructuring and the departure of its current chief executive, Colin
Blakemore, later this year. MPs also said Sir John could neither give a "clear
account" of the process by which he was appointed, which should have been
"transparent and open to scrutiny", nor the hiring of Ernst & Young to review
the MRC. Anthea Lipsett and agencies
Tuesday July 31, 2007 EducationGuardian.co.uk
Doctor in the
house. A profile piece on health minister Lord Darzi in The Guardian
reads: Doctor in the house.Lord Darzi, the surgeon and health minister, comes
striding out of his operating theatre at St Mary's Hospital in London wearing
full blue scrubs and a face mask, his white surgical clogs spattered with
blood. These are troubled times for Gordon Brown's "government of all the
talents", but Ara Darzi is as good an advert for the idea as Downing Street
could dream of: here, his whole bearing seems to say, is a doctor-politician
who really knows the health service he has been charged with reimagining. A
cynic might suspect stage management; after all, he could just as easily
conduct interviews at the ministry. Then again, a less cynical observer might
respond by recalling the moment when the Labour peer Lord Brennan collapsed in
the House of Lords during a debate, and Darzi performed heart massage until a
first aid crew arrived. Hero Health Minister "Saved Labour Peer's Life" is how
Sky News reported the story on its website, and how often do the first and
third words of that headline appear in the same sentence
? To be fair to his less-admired Westminster colleagues, the cancer
specialist has not yet had to make many unpopular political decisions. It was
only in July that Darzi was recruited to conduct a "once in a generation"
year-long review of the NHS in England. So far, he has been able to announce a
swath of innovations - more money for developing new technology, more
screening for MRSA, 150 new health centres, and a review of the troubled £12bn
update of the NHS computer system - without having to specify the hospital
closures that will be the inevitable flipside of his reorganisation.Darzi has
his critics, but up to now they have been largely confined to the ranks of NHS
professionals. Doctors responded lukewarmly at best to his plans for a network
of "polyclinics" to provide routine treatment locally, along with a handful of
specialist super-hospitals. Politically speaking, there is a big difference
between disagreeing with NHS insiders and telling the public that keeping a
hospital open no longer makes sense. The time for that has yet to come. We are
crammed into a tiny coffee room outside the operating theatre, and Darzi, an
affable 47-year-old, is explaining another tactic for keeping out of trouble.
"I know what I'm there to do, and everyone around me knows what I'm there to
do," he says. (Darzi is an Iraqi-born Armenian, but his accent is pure Irish,
the result of having been raised there.) "If you're going to ask me my views
about the war in Afghanistan, I'll tell you you're wasting your time. Even if
you ask me a very specific question about a [health] policy idea that belongs
in the portfolio of one of my colleagues, I'm not going to get into that. One
thing I know, being a clinician and a scientist - I only talk about things I
know about." Perhaps as a result, he has escaped being publicly brought into
line by No 10, which has been the humiliating fate of his fellow "outsider"
ministers, Admiral Lord West and Lord Malloch Brown. The essential problem
with the NHS, Darzi argues, is not a lack of funding or expertise, but the way
different parts connect. Patients in search of treatment must navigate a maze
- and may not end up at the door of those best equipped to treat them. "Take
the example of a patient in London who develops abdominal pains in the
evening," he says. "They tolerate the pain overnight, then they go to see
their GP, who says they need to see a consultant..." What follows is a
time-consuming and costly back-and-forth: to the consultant, to the hospital
for an ultrasound scan, to the consultant to discuss the results, to the
hospital for a surgery pre-assessment, to the hospital again for an operation,
back to the GP with a wound problem. "I mean, if you did your shopping this
way... If Tesco provided you with that service, you wouldn't go there. If you
booked your flights that way you'd be all over the place." The NHS may even
need to appoint "navigators", he says, whose job would be to "navigate you
through the system". The prime minister is so taken with this view that, when
challenged about the need for reform, he recites Darzi's example.Maybe worse,
though, is that what Darzi refers to as the "one size fits all" district
hospitals system means that when patients do receive treatment, it may not be
anywhere near the best available. "Because I'm a professional who works in the
health service, if I had a car crash I know exactly where I would want to go.
I know if I had a cancer of the rectum where I'd want to go. No question about
that... But the patient doesn't know. If I could just say something about the
failings of people like me, it's that we've never stood up and said to our
public: 'If you have this condition, which is complex, this is where you
should be going.'" Take emergency care. Ambulances are no longer just
"fast-moving vans"; crews are equipped to make relatively precise diagnoses on
the spot. In Darzi's ideal NHS, a patient in an ambulance might even "pass by
the local hospital - you know, and wave from the window - because you're
actually going to the right place". If Gordon Brown thought appointing a
senior medic would win doctors over, it hasn't worked yet. Quite apart from
the row prompted by his interim recommendation that GP opening hours be
extended, the British Medical Association notes that centralising specialist
care doesn't always lead to better outcomes. NHS workers suspect that
"rationalisation" will inevitably mean centralisation, and the role of the
private sector in all this remains unclear. And though he uses the Brownite
language of "empowering the patient", it is not certain that Darzi really
wants individuals to know which hospital teams have the best results so that
they can choose between them. "To be fair, it's not for the patient to know
where these places [are], but for the people who place them," he says. And, of
course, we don't yet know which hospitals will have to close. Darzi says he
never planned to be grappling with these issues at all. "I've planned a few
things in my career - I wanted to become an academic, I wanted to lead a big
department. But this wasn't part of it," he says. "I got the phone call, and I
was, as they say in Ireland, gobsmacked." Even so, he had fashioned himself
into a prime candidate for the job, thanks to his rapid and relatively
youthful rise to the three positions he now holds: professor of surgery at
Imperial College, honorary consultant surgeon at St Mary's, and chair of
surgery at the Royal Marsden. He currently combines his government job with
two days of operations per week.Darzi was born in Iraq, to Armenian parents
displaced by the 1915 genocide. (His pointed references to it as a "genocide"
are a rare example of him diverging from the Downing Street line, since the
British government has resisted calls to recognise it as such.) The family
later emigrated to Ireland. "In Ireland, in those days, looking like me...
people couldn't pronounce my name, and so I used to be called 'Dara Darcy the
dark Paddy,'" he says. Did he mind ?
"No, it was quite fun." He came to Britain for a year's medical training,
never left, and is now married with two children. His father would have
preferred him to become an engineer, in the family tradition. It is to this he
attributes his focus on "minimally invasive" surgery techniques involving
robotics: "I describe myself as a failed engineer," he says.These are early
days for Darzi in his incarnation as a politician. His ideas may yet herald
the end of the 20th century hospital system, but for now they remain only
theories. On controversial, concrete matters of day-to-day health policy -
doctors' pay, or fighting hospital infections - his comments are cautious. He
doesn't believe GPs are overpaid, he says, but does think there's a problem
with "the continuity of care", a benign-sounding phrase that may yet herald
much more fraught negotiation with the BMA and others.This approach has
allowed him, for now, to attract respect across party lines: Andrew Lansley,
the shadow health secretary, has called him "an honest man set among thieves".
The obvious risk is that he might get sucked so deeply into Brown's agenda
that politics, rather than his perspective as a clinician, becomes the sole
influence on his decision making. One thing that seems to bode well, in this
respect, is his attitude to meetings at Downing Street. "I had an appointment
there on a Tuesday afternoon to brief them on the review, and at two o'clock I
got a call from one of my colleagues saying that one of our registrars wasn't
well," he says. "He came in with abdominal pains and had a scan, and he had
peritonitis, and I wanted to take him into theatre... So I cancelled the thing
at No 10.You could get all, 'Oh Christ, who am I going to piss off now - No 10
?' But you've just got to make a decision," he says, with
characteristic aplomb. "From day one, I told them: if one of my patients
[needs attention], that comes first." Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Guardian
31 December 2007
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