News Archive Jan - Mar 2009
26/03/09 Salaried GP numbers jump 10% in one year
25/03/09 Minister promises no two-tier NHS
24/03/09 BMA plans campaign against NHS 'commercialisation'
23/03/09 GPs’ surgeries “to sell medicines”
23/03/09 New guidance on private top-up payments
19/03/09 Minister rejects calls for public inquiry into hospital scandal
19/03/09 MPs oppose options for trusts that miss FT deadline
18/03/09 Scottish prescription charges cut
16/03/09 MPs condemn government over polyclinics and vascular screening
16/03/09 Government to retender for core NHS IT systems
15/03/09 Health gap drive “wasted money”
11/03/09 Patients 'forced to stay on NHS database'
11/03/09 Controversial APMS tender halted after bidder pulls out
10/03/09 Expert group to review nurse role
10/03/09 GPs who fail to offer choice risk losing job
09/03/09 London Hospitals unite to form pioneer supertrust
05/03/09 Scottish bill to ban private GP provision
04/03/09 Sainsbury's to open up to 200 GP franchises
03/03/09 GPs' fury over plans for new wave of polyclinics
02/03/09 Private sector’s reputation at risk due to "ISTC failings"
28/02/09 NHS "does not need polyclinics"
24/02/09 It's cheaper to go private
24/02/09 Urgent Care Centres to send thousands of cases back to GPs
24/02/09 NHS set to employ new technology
19/02/09 High court orders NICE to redraft osteoporosis guidance
19/02/09 Privatisation: Tories plan unlimited private sector role in NHS
17/02/09 Nationalisation of privately funded hospitals called for
16/02/09 Do better on complaints, NHS told
14/02/09 Data bill jeopardises confidentiality, say doctors' leaders
11/02/09 Cull of practices planned under integrated care scheme
12/02/09 20 trusts set to miss foundation trust deadline
11/02/09 Plans for profit-making welfare services shock unions
10/02/09 Health councils to be cut in shake-up
08/02/09 Prescription price to fall again as SNP bids to scrap charge
06/02/09 Johnson defends acting as dictator on GP-led health centres
05/02/09 Private care, yes or no?
03/02/09 MP calls for Norwich hospital PFI re-think
30/01/09 NHS appeal panel set to boost competition
29/01/09 DH announces personal health budget pilots
26/01/09 Trust criticised over Hereford GP centre contract
21/01/09 NHS constitution ends era of 'doctor knows best'
20/01/09 One in four new 'polyclinics' to be privately run
19/01/09 GPs to deliver personalised care plans for long term conditions
13/01/09 MPs condemn imposition of polyclinics
13/01/09 MPs say managers lack skills to boost NHS care
11/01/09 NHS patients to get better drug access
09/01/09 Mixed-sex wards 'blighting NHS'
08/01/09 Hamish Meldrum denies hypocrisy over polyclinic contract
07/01/09 Half of PCTs miss health centre target
06/01/09 Hospitals told to lift mobile phone ban
Pulse (26 March 2009)
Salaried GP numbers jump 10% in one year
Figures from the Information Centre show an increase in salaried GPs from 6,022 in 2007 to 6,663 in 2008. The number of practice nurses fell by 3.6% while a fall in the overall number of GP practices reflected the move towards larger working models.
BBC Online (25 March 2009)
Minister promises no two-tier NHS
Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed NHS patients can pay for private healthcare without being excluded from NHS care. NHS Scotland is also to be allowed to enter into cost sharing schemes for new medicines with pharmaceutical companies.
Pulse (24 March 2009)
BMA plans campaign against NHS 'commercialisation'
The BMA is planning a campaign to focus on problems associated with NHS marketisation, with an alternative vision of funding.
Telegraph (23 March 2009)
GPs’ surgeries “to sell medicines”
A Department of Health assessment has concluded that GPs currently allowed to dispense prescription medicines should also be able to sell over the counter medicines to their patients. Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb said this "could risk undermining the fundamental relationship between GP and patient".
Onmedica (23 March 2009)
New guidance on private top-up payments
The position of patients who choose to pay for private treatment and also receive NHS care has been clarified by NHS chief executive David Nicholson following consultation over Mike Richards' report on access to medicines. While NHS care should not be withdrawn, the administration of private treatment should be identifiably separate.
Guardian (19 March 2009)
Minister rejects calls for public inquiry into hospital scandal
Health secretary Alan Johnson resisted calls for an independent inquiry after the Healthcare Commission found unacceptable mistakes and an obsession with targets and foundation status led to at least 400 more deaths than usual at Stafford hospital over three years. Investigations by the emergency care and primary care tsars and the National Quality Board have been announced.
Health Service Journal (19 March 2009)
MPs oppose options for trusts that miss FT deadline
MPs and council health scrutiny chairs have voiced opposition to proposed outcomes for those trusts who are unlikely to achieve foundation status by the end of 2010. Around 20 trusts face closure of services, franchising to a private supplier or takeover by another NHS organisation.
BBC Online (18 March 2009)
Scottish prescription charges cut
Scottish Tory health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon has urged the parliament's health and sport committee to freeze prescription charges rather than phase them out. She argued that the money could be better spent elsewhere in the health service. Her proposal was defeated.
Pulse (16 March 2009)
MPs condemn government over polyclinics and vascular screening
The health select committee has criticised the roll out of the vascular screening programme for the lack of a national model leading to great regional variations. The central imposition of polyclinics was meanwhile condemned for lack of consideration of inequalities.
Computerworld UK (16 March 2009)
Government to retender for core NHS IT systems
NHS chief executive David Nicholson has told MPs that the National Programme for IT is to be retendered as a back-up plan in case either of the two chosen products, iSoft Lorenzo and Cerner Millennium, fails.
BBC Online (15 March 2009)
Health gap drive “wasted money”
The Commons' Health Committee has said a series of Government schemes aimed at reducing health inequalities should have been more carefully designed and piloted. The 1997 pledge to reduce the health inequality gap by 10% by 2010 is almost certain to be missed as the gap has actually widened.
Guardian (11 March 2009)
Patients 'forced to stay on NHS database'
Patients choosing to opt out of the NHS database, the Spine, are being told they need to explain their decision in face to face interviews with NHS advisers. The BMA's head of science and ethics has expressed concern at findings of trials of the scheme.
Pulse (11 March 2009)
Controversial APMS tender halted after bidder pulls out
The preferred bidder for two contracts for GP practices under Lord Darzi's Equitable Access scheme has pulled out. Manchester PCT is now in discussions about next steps. GPs are hailing the move as a victory for their campaign against the use of private providers.
BBC Online (10 March 2009)
Expert group to review nurse role
Unions have welcomed a new commission being set up to advise the Government on the role of nurses, with freedom to commission and run their own services under consideration. The commission builds on the Darzi review of the health service and will publish its recommendations in March 2010.
Pulse (10 March 2009)
GPs who fail to offer choice risk losing job
Offering choice to patients could become a contractual obligation, and the Department of Health’s director of primary care, Ben Dyson, has said GPs could lose their contracts if they fail to comply. The BMA has called the plans "threats and megaphone diplomacy".
London Evening Standard (9 March 2009)
London Hospitals unite to form pioneer supertrust
Three London hospitals have been chosen among five bidders to link with research institutes to deliver integrated research and healthcare to patients.
Health Service Journal (5 March 2009)
Scottish bill to ban private GP provision
A Scottish Government bill aims to ban private companies from running GP servives. The Scottish GPs committee of the BMA has welcomed the move, which they say will ensure that patient care comes before profit.
Pulse (4 March 2009)
Sainsbury's to open up to 200 GP franchises
Sainsbury's is planning 200 new GP surgeries to run alongside dentists and other health services as franchises in existing stores. The NHS services would be funded by PCTs. London and Leeds are being earmarked for the first franchises.
Pulse (3 March 2009)
GPs' fury over plans for new wave of polyclinics
A second phase of Lord Darzi's GP-led health centres is meeting strong opposition from GPs and patients over clinics planned to run alongside existing surgeries. GP entrepreneurs bidding for clinics away from their area have also come under attack.
Health Insurance (2 March 2009)
Private sector’s reputation at risk due to “ISTC failings”
Independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) are producing poor clinical results, including four avoidable deaths, and appointments of surgeons are insufficiently vetted, according to a survey by the Royal College of Surgeons and the BBC.
BBC Online (28 February 2009)
NHS "does not need polyclinics"
A study of 384 GP practices has found no difference in the standard of services offered by new polyclinics or "super surgeries" and those offered by standard surgeries. The study author found no evidence that polyclinics provide more services, as promised by the Government.
Argus (24 February 2009)
It's cheaper to go private
Patients are being sent to a private hospital for operations because of extra demand for beds caused by the bad weather and flu outbreak. NHS bosses say it is cheaper than opening operating theatres at weekends. Paul Evans of the NHS Support Federation said it was "very strange" that treatment could not be done more cheaply in-house.
Pulse (24 February 2009)
Urgent Care Centres to send thousands of cases back to GPs
New GP-run urgent care centres introduced following Lord Darzi's Next Stage Review in an attempt to ease pressure on A&E departments could swamp practices as patients are referred to their GP. GP leaders have attacked the plans for lacking evidence and consultation.
Press Association (24 February 2009)
NHS set to employ new technology
Sixteen "telehealth" projects are to share £1.6m in Scotland with the aim of diagnosing patients closer to home. In one project home touch screens will monitor symptons while in another online scanning will allow remote diagnosis.
Pulse (19 February 2009)
High court orders NICE to redraft osteoporosis guidance
Patient groups and pharmaceutical companies have have won a major victory in the judicial review of the NICE guidance for osteoporosis, with the high court ordering that the decision making process involving the NICE economic model be opened to scrutiny.
Healthcare Republic (19 February 2009)
Privatisation: Tories plan unlimited private sector role in NHS
In a New Statesman round table debate Labour was the only major political party arguing that NHS privisation should be limited with most NHS care staying in the public sector. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both backed an expansion of social enterprise with the Tories criticising limits on the independent sector.
Anaesthesia UK (17 February 2009)
Nationalisation of privately funded hospitals called for
Campaign group Health Emergency is arguing that planned PFI deals should be taken back into public ownership. The call comes as the Government is expected to announce a multi-billion pound bail out of PFI schemes, leaving the risk wholly with the tax payer.
BBC Online (16 February 2009)
Do better on complaints, NHS told
The Healthcare Commission says complaints upheld rose to 50% in 2008 compared to 2007. Poor communication by trusts is cited, with the Commission siding with trusts in fewer than 20% of cases. The complaints procedure will change this year with patients going direct to the ombudsman.
Guardian (14 February 2009)
Data bill jeopardises confidentiality, say doctors' leaders
Proposals by justice secretary Jack Straw to allow ministers to share NHS data with other departments and private companies would destory trust between doctors and patients according to the BMA's Hamish Meldrum.
Pulse (11 February 2009)
Cull of practices planned under integrated care scheme
Lord Darzi's plans for integrated care organisations has led South East Essex PCT to propose cutting the number of surgeries from 81 to 48. Brian Balmer of Essex LMCs has said the policy is in danger of being top-down, and could cause "absolute havoc".
Health Service Journal (12 February 2009)
20 trusts set to miss foundation trust deadline
More than 20 of the 111 hospital and mental health trusts who have yet to apply for foundation trust status will not be ready by December 2010. Those which fail to meet the deadline face radical restructuring or take over by existing foundation trusts.
Guardian (11 February 2009)
Plans for profit-making welfare services shock unions
Health centres are included in proposals from Cabinet Office minister Liam Byrne to transfer 25,000 people from the NHS and local government into social enterprises. The plan builds on the NHS Right to Request programme, and has been criticised by Dave Prentis of Unison as ill-conceived.
Western Mail (10 February 2009)
Health councils to be cut in shake-up
Edwina Hart, Welsh Health Minister, is to cut the number of community health councils from 19 to seven, aiming for a more consistent approach to local consultation, inspection, scrutiny and complaints advocacy.
Scotland on Sunday (8 February 2009)
Prescription price to fall again as SNP bids to scrap charge
In the next step towards its manifesto pledge to scrap prescription charges the SNP Government is to reduce the current charge from £5 to £4, if agreed by the Scottish Parliament. Eventual abolition should be in place by 2011, leaving only England with prescription charges.
Pulse (6 February 2009)
Johnson defends acting as dictator on GP-led health centres
Health Secretary Alan Johnson has defended the policy of forcing PCTs to commission a GP led health centre, saying it was Bevan's vision for the NHS and might not have happened if it it had not been dictated from the centre.
Camden New Journal (5 February 2009)
Private care, yes or no?
A referendum on the simple question of whether private firms should be allowed to run local health services is being proposed in Camden, where the PCT controversially handed three GP surgeries to American giant UnitedHealth.
Norfolk Eastern Daily Press (3 February 2009)
MP calls for Norwich hospital PFI re-think
MP Ian Gibson is calling for the Government to buy up the PFI contract used to build and run Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, claiming that £217m could be saved. A hospital spokesman said the trust had not looked at buying out the contract because it was "simply not feasible".
Financial Times (30 January 2009)
NHS appeal panel set to boost competition
The new Co-operation and Competition Panel is intended as a court of appeal for healthcare providers who believe PCTs are not competing fairly in the process of tendering for services. The panel has no legal standing, though the NHS will be expected to follow its advice.
Pulse (29 January 2009)
DH announces personal health budget pilots
The Department of Health is inviting expressions of interest from PCTs to pilot the personal health budgets recommended in Lord Darzi's Next Stage Review and included in the Health Bill. The pilots will run from late 2009 to 2012.
Hereford Times (26 January 2009)
Trust criticised over Hereford GP centre contract
Herefordshire PCT has given the contract for a new GP health centre to private company Primecare rather than a consortium made up of Hereford Hospitals Trust, local GPs and a group from Shropshire.
Guardian (21 January 2009)
NHS constitution ends era of 'doctor knows best'
Health secretary Alan Johnson will launch the new NHS constitution, setting out rights and responsibilties for patients, NHS staff and organisations that provide services for the NHS.
Telegraph (20 January 2009)
One in four new 'polyclinics' to be privately run
Under the government policy of a GP-led health centre in each primary care trust area 26% of contracts have been won by the private sector, with 30% going to GP consortia. Dr Hamish Meldrum of the BMA has questioned the Government's obsession with the market based model of healthcare while minister Ben Bradshaw says the number of contracts won by groups of GPs demolishes the scare stories.
Pulse (19 January 2009)
GPs to deliver personalised care plans for long term conditions
GP practices are to be used for personalised care planning for patients with long term conditions. The move comes as a part of the Next Stage Review.
Pulse (13 January 2009)
MPs condemn imposition of polyclinics
The Commons health select committee has strongly criticised the imposition of GP-led health centres on every PCT without a pilot or evidence that patient care will be improved.
Financial Times (13 January 2009)
MPs say managers lack skills to boost NHS care
The Commons health committee has said NHS managers lack the analytic and planning skills needed to commission services. Minister Lord Darzi welcomed the report, accepting that more needed to be done to strengthen PCT commissioning.
Observer (11 January 2009)
NHS patients to get better drug access
An agreement between government and drugs companies should reduce prices and overcome objections from NICE about costliness. Cost sharing with drugs companies could mean the NHS would be reimbursed for cases where the condition did not improve.
BBC (9 January 2009)
Mixed-sex wards 'blighting NHS'
A Conservative Freedom of Information request found that 15% of 132 hospital trusts still have at least one mixed sex ward despite Labour manifesto commitments to phase them out.
Health Service Journal (8 January 2009)
Hamish Meldrum denies hypocrisy over polyclinic contract
BMA chair Hamish Meldrum has denied that he is now backing the Government policy of GP-led health centres. A consortium including his practice has won the contract for a health centre in Bridlington, which he says will be not-for- profit. The bid was made to defend against the threat of private provision he said.
Healthcare Republic (7 January 2009)
Half of PCTs miss health centre target
An investigation found that 47% of PCTs who responded to enquiries have yet to sign a contract with a provider for their GP-led health centre. GP consortia have won 17 of 26 contracts, with just two being won by big private companies.
Guardian (6 January 2008)
Hospitals told to lift mobile phone ban
The Department of Health has told NHS trusts that mobile phone use should be allowed except where it could interfere with medical equipment or invade privacy. New guidance states that hospitals must clearly indicate where mobiles can and cannot be used.
