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NHS finances ‘absolutely on the knife edge’. The health service is “absolutely on the knife edge” with no reserve left to cushion against unforeseen pressures, NHS England officials have warned. Speaking at the organisation’s board meeting yesterday, chief finance officer Paul Baumann said there was “no reserve left which will cater for things which we haven’t anticipated in the risk and mitigation analysis we’ve done”. He described 2014-15 as “the year in which we are absolutely on the knife edge of balancing or not balancing against the position we’ve got”. At month six he said the NHS was £184m off-plan, which accounted for 0.2 per cent of its total budget. The figures are “to be taken seriously, but not a vast deviation” from where the health service is expected to be”, he explained. Mr Baumann said the health service has “overall a good chance of squaring its [financial] position in most foreseeable scenarios through to the end of the year”. He said it was “really, really important that we contain our expenditure”, but “at the moment I can see ways in which it should be possible to do that”. “What I can’t guarantee is that there will be nothing that transpires between now and the end of the year that I wasn’t expecting, either in terms of activity trends going faster than we’ve got in the forecast, or any other calamities or disasters,” he warned.In other years it might have been possible to say don’t worry about that too much, because I’ve got a reserve over here of a couple of hundred million that will deal with the inevitable bumps and turns that the NHS throws up in the course of given year. http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/finance/nhs-finances-absolutely-on-the-knife-edge/5076569.article?blocktitle=More-headlines&contentID=7838#.VGBUOcmOquc Bedford refuses to sign Circle MSK contract. An NHS hospital has pledged to compete with Circle Partnership, the private provider appointed to run Bedfordshire’s £120m integrated musculoskeletal service, after refusing to become its subcontractor, HSJ can reveal. Bedford Hospital Trust has refused to sign the contract after seeing the number of MSK referrals plunge 30 per cent after Circle took over the service in April. The trust claims the service’s arrangement “endangers the viability” of its trauma and accident and emergency services and could undermine its capacity to retain the seven trauma surgeons it employs. Circle was awarded the five year “prime provider” contract by Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group in April. The deal consolidates 20 separate contracts into a single service and gave Circle the role of running it. Bedford Hospital’s board papers say it “would not be in the trust’s best interests to sign a contract without any mitigation to the consequent impact on trauma and linked services.The significant reduction in referrals since April, and associated potential loss of income (assuming these convert to elective work) mean a direct impact on the viability of the trauma service which in turn will undermine the ability of A&E to see and admit trauma patients,” they say. http://www.hsj.co.uk/hsj-local/acute-trusts/bedford-hospital-nhs-trust/bedford-refuses-to-sign-circle-msk-contract/5076545.article?blocktitle=News&contentID=15303#.VF_hrMmOquc CHP The risk of fraud in the new NHS: lessons from the USA and the need for a response in England. The NHS’s embarrassing failure to prevent large-scale malpractice by Serco in its out-of-hours contract in Cornwall has raised in a very public way the question of the Department of Health’s strategy for countering the risk of fraud posed by contracts with private providers. The issue has been taken up extensively in the media, reinforced by the Home Office’s even more embarrassing failure to notice that Serco and G4S had billed it for almost £200 for tagging prisoners who had already been released or had even died. The Department of Health, however, has remained silent. In July the Health Service Journal reported, based on a leaked document, that the Department of Health was planning ‘to establish its own fraud investigation function by poaching senior officers from NHS Protect, shrinking the national body’s size significantly as a result’. But the Department declined to comment and has made no further statement on the issue. The Cornwall case, however, and the reported problems of quality cuts and overbilling in Serco’s contract for diagnostic tests at Guy’s and Thomas’ hospitals in London, illustrate the way opportunities for both errors and fraud become much greater with complex and lengthy contracts. This is especially true of contracts with multifarious performance requirements linked to payments, which are typical of NHS clinical outsourcing contracts. This creates multiple opportunities for mistakes to be made which can often lead to overcharging. However, added to this complexity is the influence of profit. http://chpi.org.uk/risk-fraud-new-nhs-lessons-usa-need-response-england/ Pulse Third of CCGs have requested powers to police GP contracts. A third of CCG leaders have requested new powers to performance manage the GP contract, in a radical move that could see them taking contractual action against their member practices. A Pulse analysis of proposals submitted by 145 CCGs in June found that 32% had signalled they wanted to take on performance management of the GP contract. At least 15% of CCGs said they wanted to take over complete control of the GMS contract from NHS England and 60% said they wanted a role with regards to PMS contracts, including negotiation of terms and PMS reviews. The analysis shows that local commissioners across the country are keen to take control of huge chunks of the GP budget, when they are given the green light in April next year. NHS Leicester City CCG said that a survey of member practices and the public showed that 53% supported CCG taking on a performance management role and deciding on sanctions, while NHS Surrey Downs CCG said that ‘performance measurement tools’ would demonstrate that ‘new innovations are not impacting on core service delivery’. CCGs are expected to submit their final co-commissioning applications to local area teams in January, with the intention for level two commissioning to begin from 1 March and level three from April. But the Pulse analysis gives the first indication of what additional powers they may be asking for. http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/commissioning-news/third-of-ccgs-have-requested-powers-to-police-gp-contracts/20008425.article#.VF_hvMmOquc Mail Online Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson bids to take over cancer and end of life care in NHS privatisation deal worth £1.2billion. Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson is bidding to take over cancer and end of life care on the NHS in a privatisation deal worth more than £1.2 billion, it emerged today. The tycoon is looking to secure a controversial £689 million contract to provide treatment for terminally ill patients at four NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). It will be the first time cancer care in the NHS has ever been privatised and the move has been described as the health service’s biggest ever outsourcing of resources. The deal would see the private sector delivering all cancer and end-of-life treatment for children and adults across Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent. On Wednesday the four CCGs involved – which care for more than 767,000 patients – announced which organisations have pre-qualified for the 10-year contracts. Five bidders, including Sir Richard’s Virgin Care Ltd, have now been short-listed for cancer care-while seven companies, including Virgin Care Ltd, are in the running for end-of-life services. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2823946/Sir-Richard-Branson-bids-NHS-privatisation-deal-worth-1-2billion.html#ixzz3IbxyvoSe Tuesday 11th November 2014
Cambridge News
· Hinchingbrooke Hospital: Unison calls for health firm Circle to be ‘sacked’.
A union is calling on the NHS to end the controversial contract which put private health firm Circle in charge of Hinchingbrooke Hospital. Unison, the biggest health union which represents staff at the Huntingdon hospital, said Hinchingbrooke was facing penalty payments running into hundreds of thousands of pounds for missing targets. But Circle said the union had misinterpreted the figures and offered to meet representatives to discuss the situation. Tracey Lambert, Unison’s regional head of health, said: “It is time for NHS England to step in and sack Circle. The whole franchise has been a farce from the beginning. The franchising experiment is now damaging staff, patients and the reputation of a previously well-respected local hospital.” Circle was brought in to run the hospital which had been branded a “basket case” with £40 million debts. The union said papers for the Hinchingbrooke health trust’s October meeting showed potential penalties of up to £200,000 a month for failure to meet targets for patients waiting longer than four hours in the accident and emergency department, more big penalties for failing to reach electronic discharge summary targets which already stand at £138,000 and £150,000 for failing to increase the number of patients discharged at weekends. Unison said the trust estimated that contract penalties and deductions could add up to £1.6 million over a full year, a further £800,000 could be clawed back if the trust lost out on validation of invoices and that a rising caseload in accident and emergency could trigger more penalties. It said this could push Circle’s support payment above a £5 million ceiling which could trigger a renegotiation of the contract or Circle’s withdrawal. Unison also said that staff were demoralised and leaving, with a turnover of more than 13 per cent. It said spending on agency staff could reach £2.4 million by the end of the year. Unison is calling for the hospital to be taken over by the Trust Development Agency and returned to professional NHS managers. But a spokesman for Circle said: “We would be happy to meet with Unison as we are sure this is an honest misinterpretation of Circle’s track record.” Read more … Huddersfield Examiner
· Private firms battling for £284,000,000 NHS deal for Huddersfield and Kirklees.
NHS activists in Huddersfield have said there “is no place for private profit in the provision of health and social care” and called on Kirklees and Calderdale councils to use their powers to stop the tendering process. A host of private health firms are battling for a £284m NHS contract for Kirklees. Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group (GHCCG) and North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group (NKCCG) have embarked on a project to overhaul how health services are provided. They have now put out the multi-million tender for the so called “Care Closer to Home” community health services. NHS activists in Huddersfield have said there “is no place for private profit in the provision of health and social care” and called on Kirklees and Calderdale councils to use their powers to stop the tendering process. The new scheme will expand on the services currently provided by Batley-based community nursing firm Locala, whose contract expires in March next year. The CCGs held a “market sounding” open day for potential providers last week in a bid to probe what services could be provided as part of the £284m contract. The identities of companies competing for the five to seven year deal are not being revealed for commercial reasons. NHS organisations such as Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT), which runs the hospitals, are also allowed to compete for the lucrative deal. CHFT recently lost a contract to continue to run wheelchair services for Kirklees and Calderdale after it was undercut by private firm Opcare by several million pounds. Read more … Independent
· NHS facing £700m black hole over failing Better Care Fund.
A pioneering plan to save the health service £1 billion a year by keeping patients out of hospital has been branded a “shambles” after the Government’s spending watchdog found at best it would save less than a third of the amount projected at best. In a highly critical report, the National Audit Office said proposals to transfer nearly £2 billion of NHS funding to social care in a bid to reduce hospital admissions had been inadequately thought through and could have left the health service with a massive budget black hole. It added the plans had been based on “optimism rather than evidence”. Even after the scheme was redesigned to reduce the financial risk to the NHS, the NAO said it was still far from convinced that the Better Care Fund would result in its primary aim of reducing emergency admissions to hospital. The report is embarrassing for ministers as the Better Care Fund is seen as critical to the Government’s attempt to control rising healthcare costs, reduce waiting times for operations and plug the gaps in social care resulting from cuts to council budgets. But the NAO found early local plans for the fund, which will pool £5.3 billion of existing NHS and local authority funding from next year, would only deliver £55 million of deliverable financial savings compared to the £1 billion factored in by the Treasury. Read more … |
Thursday 13th November 2014
Nursing Times
· NHS ‘not for sale’ boards go up in protest at international trade talks.
Campaigners are to erect estate agency-style boards across the country today, as part of protests against a controversial trade deal. Houses in nine constituencies will display the boards opposing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is currently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States. Groups, including the Royal College of Nursing, have previously claimed that the deal would lead to more privatisation of health services and argued that the NHS should be excluded from any agreement. In the latest move, campaign group People’s NHS has erected “stop the sale” boards. Spokesman Brian Colman said: “Thousands of households across the UK are delivering a clear message by raising ‘stop the sale signs’ outside their homes in protest over the sell-off of their health services and David Cameron’s refusal to veto the NHS from the dangerous trade deal called TTIP. David Cameron never told us on the campaign trail in 2010 that his party was going to embark on the mass privatisation of the NHS. The government had no mandate to sell off the NHS,” he said. “This is a clear message to our MP and to the government that it’s time to take the ‘for sale’ sign down from our hospitals and GP services and put our cherished NHS back into public hands,” he added.
Read more …
Campaigners are to erect estate agency-style boards across the country today, as part of protests against a controversial trade deal. Houses in nine constituencies will display the boards opposing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is currently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States. Groups, including the Royal College of Nursing, have previously claimed that the deal would lead to more privatisation of health services and argued that the NHS should be excluded from any agreement. In the latest move, campaign group People’s NHS has erected “stop the sale” boards. Spokesman Brian Colman said: “Thousands of households across the UK are delivering a clear message by raising ‘stop the sale signs’ outside their homes in protest over the sell-off of their health services and David Cameron’s refusal to veto the NHS from the dangerous trade deal called TTIP. David Cameron never told us on the campaign trail in 2010 that his party was going to embark on the mass privatisation of the NHS. The government had no mandate to sell off the NHS,” he said. “This is a clear message to our MP and to the government that it’s time to take the ‘for sale’ sign down from our hospitals and GP services and put our cherished NHS back into public hands,” he added.
Read more …
GP Online
· Practices to be paid £16 per appointment for out-of-area patients.
Practices will be awarded £15.87 per in-hours GP consultation and £60 per home visit for patients registered away from where they live, under the out-of-area registration DES. The enhanced service, designed by NHS England, will support the updated choice of GP practice arrangements that will be introduced from 5 January 2015. From this date, all practices will be able to register patients who live outside of their traditional boundaries, without being required to provide home visits or out-of-hours care. Practices will not be obliged to participate in the scheme, and will remain able to refuse registrations from out-of-area patients. They will also not be obliged to offer home visits for patients registered elsewhere. The GPC warned it had ‘lots of concerns’ about the plans and said practices would have to ‘carefully consider’ whether the remuneration on offer was ‘enough to cover their costs’. NHS England expects around 0.4% of the population – 200,000 people – to register with a practice outside of their local area, ‘although this might grow over time’. Any patient who requires ‘urgent and local care’ and cannot reasonably travel to their out-of-area practice will be able to access primary medical services nearer their home, under the new enhanced service. Practices participating in the DES will be expected to provide home visits to registered out-of-area patients in their appointed boundary area, where it is clinically required. If any practice chooses not to sign up for the DES, neighbouring practices that have signed up may have to provide services for wider areas. Patients registered out-of-area will be given a review to decide whether it would be more appropriate for them to be registered with a practice nearer their home, should they arrange at least four consultations under the DES within a 12-month period. This will also be triggered if they receive two home visits within the same period. GPC deputy chairman Dr Richard Vautrey said: ‘Those practices that have lost patients, but are then invited to look after them again when they are too sick to travel to their new practice, will have understandable concerns about doing so.’
Read more …
Practices will be awarded £15.87 per in-hours GP consultation and £60 per home visit for patients registered away from where they live, under the out-of-area registration DES. The enhanced service, designed by NHS England, will support the updated choice of GP practice arrangements that will be introduced from 5 January 2015. From this date, all practices will be able to register patients who live outside of their traditional boundaries, without being required to provide home visits or out-of-hours care. Practices will not be obliged to participate in the scheme, and will remain able to refuse registrations from out-of-area patients. They will also not be obliged to offer home visits for patients registered elsewhere. The GPC warned it had ‘lots of concerns’ about the plans and said practices would have to ‘carefully consider’ whether the remuneration on offer was ‘enough to cover their costs’. NHS England expects around 0.4% of the population – 200,000 people – to register with a practice outside of their local area, ‘although this might grow over time’. Any patient who requires ‘urgent and local care’ and cannot reasonably travel to their out-of-area practice will be able to access primary medical services nearer their home, under the new enhanced service. Practices participating in the DES will be expected to provide home visits to registered out-of-area patients in their appointed boundary area, where it is clinically required. If any practice chooses not to sign up for the DES, neighbouring practices that have signed up may have to provide services for wider areas. Patients registered out-of-area will be given a review to decide whether it would be more appropriate for them to be registered with a practice nearer their home, should they arrange at least four consultations under the DES within a 12-month period. This will also be triggered if they receive two home visits within the same period. GPC deputy chairman Dr Richard Vautrey said: ‘Those practices that have lost patients, but are then invited to look after them again when they are too sick to travel to their new practice, will have understandable concerns about doing so.’
Read more …
Exeter Express and Echo
· A letter from Ben Bradshaw: Worrying health cuts on horizon.
The size of the financial black hole facing the NHS in Devon – £430 million – is staggering. That is more than 5% of the total £8bn national funding shortfall the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, recently warned would hit the NHS in the next Parliament if the next Government fails to act. The consequences for Devon are here already: worrying proposals to ration some services and end or close others completely. Now Devon Clinical Commissioning Group – the body now responsible for commissioning or “buying” services on behalf of the public, is planning to deny operations to people who are overweight or smoke, restrict treatment for varicose veins, only allow cataract operations in one eye and end all IVF treatment for couples desperate to have children. National guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence says people should be entitled to three courses of IVF. The CCG is also proposing to close our very popular and well used Walk-In Centre in Sidwell Street. This, despite the fact it has seen big increases in patients every year since it opened and it reduces pressure on our hard pressed A& E and local GPs. I haven’t spoken to a single local GP who thinks closing the Walk-In Centre is a good idea. They also tell me that the weight criteria proposed for operations would, in some cases, affect more than half of their patients and even some GPs themselves. The national Royal College of Surgeons has condemned the plan as “unacceptable”. We also had the decision by North Devon NHS, who, under the new structures, run community services in Exeter, to centralise stroke services in Ottery St Mary, not Exeter. Everyone agrees it makes sense to have stroke services as close to the RD& E as possible, yet now stroke patients and their families from as far away as Okehampton are going to have to trek to Ottery.
Read more …
The size of the financial black hole facing the NHS in Devon – £430 million – is staggering. That is more than 5% of the total £8bn national funding shortfall the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, recently warned would hit the NHS in the next Parliament if the next Government fails to act. The consequences for Devon are here already: worrying proposals to ration some services and end or close others completely. Now Devon Clinical Commissioning Group – the body now responsible for commissioning or “buying” services on behalf of the public, is planning to deny operations to people who are overweight or smoke, restrict treatment for varicose veins, only allow cataract operations in one eye and end all IVF treatment for couples desperate to have children. National guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence says people should be entitled to three courses of IVF. The CCG is also proposing to close our very popular and well used Walk-In Centre in Sidwell Street. This, despite the fact it has seen big increases in patients every year since it opened and it reduces pressure on our hard pressed A& E and local GPs. I haven’t spoken to a single local GP who thinks closing the Walk-In Centre is a good idea. They also tell me that the weight criteria proposed for operations would, in some cases, affect more than half of their patients and even some GPs themselves. The national Royal College of Surgeons has condemned the plan as “unacceptable”. We also had the decision by North Devon NHS, who, under the new structures, run community services in Exeter, to centralise stroke services in Ottery St Mary, not Exeter. Everyone agrees it makes sense to have stroke services as close to the RD& E as possible, yet now stroke patients and their families from as far away as Okehampton are going to have to trek to Ottery.
Read more …
Guardian
· NHS must use fewer temporary staff and sell land to save £10bn, says Hunt.
Jeremy Hunt is to tell the NHS to save £10bn a year by using fewer temporary staff and management consultants, selling off unused buildings and reducing drug errors. The health secretary will warn an audience of NHS leaders on Thurday that the service must undertake a “fundamental rethink” of how it spends its £110bn budget in order to remain viable in the face of unprecedented demand for care. He will demand action to tackle the soaring cost of hospitals’ use of temporary staff – mainly nurses – who have been supplied by employment agencies to cover shifts in order to ensure wards are fully-staffed and patients receive good quality care. The bill has risen by £1bn under the coalition to almost £2.5bn a year as hospitals have increasingly struggled to recruit enough staff at a time of greater scrutiny of care standards and demands to provide “safe staffing”.Speaking to the Guardian, Hunt said: “[Then NHS chief executive] David Nicholson came up with the ‘Nicholson Challenge’ in 2009 to save £20bn by 2015. That has more or less been delivered. We now need to have a £22bn ‘Forward View challenge’.” However, while freezing staff pay and awarding them 1% pay rises has helped deliver that £20bn, Hunt said that saving the extra £10bn would have to come through innovation and greater use of technology to improve healthcare.
Read more …
Jeremy Hunt is to tell the NHS to save £10bn a year by using fewer temporary staff and management consultants, selling off unused buildings and reducing drug errors. The health secretary will warn an audience of NHS leaders on Thurday that the service must undertake a “fundamental rethink” of how it spends its £110bn budget in order to remain viable in the face of unprecedented demand for care. He will demand action to tackle the soaring cost of hospitals’ use of temporary staff – mainly nurses – who have been supplied by employment agencies to cover shifts in order to ensure wards are fully-staffed and patients receive good quality care. The bill has risen by £1bn under the coalition to almost £2.5bn a year as hospitals have increasingly struggled to recruit enough staff at a time of greater scrutiny of care standards and demands to provide “safe staffing”.Speaking to the Guardian, Hunt said: “[Then NHS chief executive] David Nicholson came up with the ‘Nicholson Challenge’ in 2009 to save £20bn by 2015. That has more or less been delivered. We now need to have a £22bn ‘Forward View challenge’.” However, while freezing staff pay and awarding them 1% pay rises has helped deliver that £20bn, Hunt said that saving the extra £10bn would have to come through innovation and greater use of technology to improve healthcare.
Read more …
· Film shows Nigel Farage calling for move away from state-funded NHS.
Nigel Farage has been caught on camera telling Ukip supporters that the state-funded NHS should move towards an insurance-based system run by private companies. The recording shows Farage saying he believes the marketplace could deliver better value for money when it comes to spending on the NHS. Farage’s remarks, made in September 2012 on his Common Sense tour of the UK, contrast with Ukip’s new claims that it is opposed to privatisation of the NHS. The Guardian examined videos of Farage touring the country in an effort to establish some of the Ukip leader’s views on issues other than immigration or Europe. Other footage showed him proposing that the BBC should not be completely dismantled but slimmed down to concentrate on radio rather than television, with a licence fee slashed to £40 or £50. He also suggested that benefit claimants could be made to clean up litter after six months, and that there was a big problem with employee rights and protections such as maternity leave for small firms. However, his comments about the NHS were the most striking, leading Labour to claim it was now “plain for all to see that a vote for Ukip is a vote for the privatisation of the NHS”. Speaking at a meeting in East Sussex, Farage said: “Frankly, I would feel more comfortable that my money would return value if I was able to do that through the market place of an insurance company than just us trustingly giving £100bn a year to central government and expecting them to organise the healthcare service from cradle to grave for us. But a Ukip spokesman said the NHS was an area where the party’s policy has developed the most over the past few years and Farage’s comments in East Sussex no longer represented his views. He also pointed out Ukip had taken the radical step of aligning with the trade unions to oppose TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) – a US-EU trade deal that its opponents say could allow American private health firms into the NHS. Farage’s party fought the Heywood & Middleton byelection and is battling to win Rochester & Strood next week on a platform of protecting the NHS. However, Labour has pointed out in its leaflets that Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall posted a letter on his website a few years ago praising the coalition for bringing a “whiff of privatisation to the NHS”.
Read more …
Nigel Farage has been caught on camera telling Ukip supporters that the state-funded NHS should move towards an insurance-based system run by private companies. The recording shows Farage saying he believes the marketplace could deliver better value for money when it comes to spending on the NHS. Farage’s remarks, made in September 2012 on his Common Sense tour of the UK, contrast with Ukip’s new claims that it is opposed to privatisation of the NHS. The Guardian examined videos of Farage touring the country in an effort to establish some of the Ukip leader’s views on issues other than immigration or Europe. Other footage showed him proposing that the BBC should not be completely dismantled but slimmed down to concentrate on radio rather than television, with a licence fee slashed to £40 or £50. He also suggested that benefit claimants could be made to clean up litter after six months, and that there was a big problem with employee rights and protections such as maternity leave for small firms. However, his comments about the NHS were the most striking, leading Labour to claim it was now “plain for all to see that a vote for Ukip is a vote for the privatisation of the NHS”. Speaking at a meeting in East Sussex, Farage said: “Frankly, I would feel more comfortable that my money would return value if I was able to do that through the market place of an insurance company than just us trustingly giving £100bn a year to central government and expecting them to organise the healthcare service from cradle to grave for us. But a Ukip spokesman said the NHS was an area where the party’s policy has developed the most over the past few years and Farage’s comments in East Sussex no longer represented his views. He also pointed out Ukip had taken the radical step of aligning with the trade unions to oppose TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) – a US-EU trade deal that its opponents say could allow American private health firms into the NHS. Farage’s party fought the Heywood & Middleton byelection and is battling to win Rochester & Strood next week on a platform of protecting the NHS. However, Labour has pointed out in its leaflets that Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall posted a letter on his website a few years ago praising the coalition for bringing a “whiff of privatisation to the NHS”.
Read more …
Keep Our NHS Public 14/11/2014
Frome Times
Protect our NHS new Frome group launched to save the local NHS. A ‘Protect Our NHS’ group has been launched in the town and is already gaining wide support. Local campaigns have been set up in cities and communities across England and Wales to defend what they see as the growing privatisation of the publicly-owned and publicly-accountable NHS. Now, support has gathered enough locally for a Frome ‘Protect our NHS’ group to be formed. Last week Mike Campbell, coordinator of the Bristol ‘Protect our NHS’ group, joined the audience at the Westway Cinema to see Ken Loach’s ‘Spirit of ’45’ and to support the launch of a ‘Protect Our NHS’ group in Frome. Mike said, “It is fantastic that towns such as Frome with its local community hospital are forming campaigning groups. “It’s essential that local community NHS services are defended as they are equally vulnerable to privatisation. Many of us close to the health service believe that bad press is also deliberately orchestrated by the government to undermine the service’s credibility.” The Frome group is being supported by the mayor, cllr Peter Macfadyen, who believes that Frome is “fantastically” served by the NHS and the Frome Medical Practice. Rebecca Yea from Frome is also supporting the new group. She said, “The group is still forming but the support from the town has been very encouraging and it seems there is a lot of people who want to be involved. At the recent Ken Loach talk more than 100 people showed an interest.
http://www.frometimes.co.uk/2014/11/04/protect-our-nhs-new-frome-group-launched-to-save-the-local-nhs/
The Independent
Hospitals and A&Es to get extra £300m to combat ‘unprecedented’ winter pressure. Suffers of coughs and colds are being urged to visit their high street pharmacy instead of using their GP or attending their local A&E unit, as part of plan to help the NHS manage unsustainable pressures this winter. The call for patients to take the pressure off doctors came as the Health Secretary announced that hospitals and A&E units across England will receive £300m to help see them through “unprecedented extra demand” this winter. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the new funding could provide the equivalent of up to 1,000 extra doctors, 2,000 extra nurses and 2,500 extra bed spaces. With many A&E units already running at “full stretch”, the injection of funds and call for patients to turn to their pharmacies reflects ongoing anxiety among health officials that the NHS is set to face a challenging winter with rising levels of flu and ward closures from norovirus outbreaks. Mr Hunt said: “Winter has always been particularly challenging for the NHS. We have been thinking about it particularly hard this year because of the growing pressure on A&E departments. ”Emergency admissions are growing about three to four per cent year in, year out. We are very aware that over this winter there is going to be some real pressure there.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/department-of-health-earmarks-300m-to-combat-unprecedented-winter-pressure-9859261.html?origin=internalSearch
The Guardian
The National Audit Office’s (NAO) forensic dissection of the Better Care Fund fiasco is a harsh lesson in the dangers of ministerial interference in health and care systems under stress. Its report Planning for the Better Care Fund – published this week – exposes how the government mishandled the entire project. The fund was the coalition’s gambit in the battle with Labour over who would integrate the NHS and social care. Launched as a flagship policy in the 2013 Autumn Statement, it was a triumph of presentation over strategic thinking – big, bold, long on rhetoric, short on delivery detail and recycling old money as extra funding. It soon hit trouble. NHS England and the Local Government Association (LGA) published guidance on how it would work that December, and all local areas submitted bids by April on how they would spend their cut in 2015-16. Ministers then scrapped the guidance, dumped the bids and restarted the whole process. The broken wire at the heart of the machine was that the Department of Health and NHS England were planning on securing £1bn of savings on the back of the £3.8bn Better Care Fund, but robust thinking to achieve this was not put at the core of guidance for the 151 local bids.
http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2014/nov/13/nhs-national-audit-office-better-care-fund
Hospital Doctor
“Clinical need not cost should determine routine NHS surgery”. A royal college has called on NHS England to investigate a CCG which is proposing to limit access to surgical services. Devon CCG has said it will deny routine surgery to smokers and the morbidly obese unless they quit or lose weight. The GP-led Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group says the measures are “urgent and necessary” as it faces a £14.5m deficit and needs to reduce costs. However, Miss Clare Marx, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: “Access to routine surgery should always be based on an individual’s clinical need. “The government has been clear that restricting clinically necessary treatment on the basis of financial considerations is unacceptable. We urge the Department of Health and NHS England to review the situation in Devon if the CCG is indeed intending to deny patients treatment without enabling the clinicians and patients involved to make informed choices about their care.” Rebecca Harriott, the Devon CCG chief officer, said it would be prioritising services in the NHS Constitution. The group says hernia treatment, botox injections and cataract operations are also under review. Ms Harriott said: “We must act to protect essential services through our busiest winter months and ensure that care is there for our patients when they really need it.
http://www.hospitaldr.co.uk/blogs/our-news/clinical-need-not-cost-should-determine-routine-nhs-surgery
Our NHS
This morning Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told NHS leaders that the service must undertake a ‘fundamental rethink’ of how it spends its £110bn budget. He has warned that the NHS needs to save £10bn a year by using fewer temporary staff and management consultants. Just how much NHS leaders are spending on, for example, management consultants is something that Hunt knows, but we don’t… yet. NHS England, unlike all other government agencies, does not make public how it spends our money. A petition launched this week, which has so far been signed by 68,000 people, is demanding that NHS England publishes its spending data without delay. (It said it would publish its receipts in September, then October. It has yet to). This would reveal how much of NHS funds are going on management consultants, lawyers, accountants, PR campaigns and private healthcare companies. Is Hunt trying to distance himself from NHS England by calling now for a “fundamental rethink” of how it spends our money? Hunt cannot absolve himself of responsibility, however. It was the reforms brought in by this government that created NHS England, stewards of the NHS budget. The policies it has since pursued have been set out and encouraged by the Coalition. Whatever NHS England is doing with our money is Hunt’s responsibility. We just now need to find out what Hunt knows and we don’t. Sign the petition here.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/tamasin-cave/does-jeremy-hunt-know-something-we-don%E2%80%99t
Frome Times
Protect our NHS new Frome group launched to save the local NHS. A ‘Protect Our NHS’ group has been launched in the town and is already gaining wide support. Local campaigns have been set up in cities and communities across England and Wales to defend what they see as the growing privatisation of the publicly-owned and publicly-accountable NHS. Now, support has gathered enough locally for a Frome ‘Protect our NHS’ group to be formed. Last week Mike Campbell, coordinator of the Bristol ‘Protect our NHS’ group, joined the audience at the Westway Cinema to see Ken Loach’s ‘Spirit of ’45’ and to support the launch of a ‘Protect Our NHS’ group in Frome. Mike said, “It is fantastic that towns such as Frome with its local community hospital are forming campaigning groups. “It’s essential that local community NHS services are defended as they are equally vulnerable to privatisation. Many of us close to the health service believe that bad press is also deliberately orchestrated by the government to undermine the service’s credibility.” The Frome group is being supported by the mayor, cllr Peter Macfadyen, who believes that Frome is “fantastically” served by the NHS and the Frome Medical Practice. Rebecca Yea from Frome is also supporting the new group. She said, “The group is still forming but the support from the town has been very encouraging and it seems there is a lot of people who want to be involved. At the recent Ken Loach talk more than 100 people showed an interest.
http://www.frometimes.co.uk/2014/11/04/protect-our-nhs-new-frome-group-launched-to-save-the-local-nhs/
The Independent
Hospitals and A&Es to get extra £300m to combat ‘unprecedented’ winter pressure. Suffers of coughs and colds are being urged to visit their high street pharmacy instead of using their GP or attending their local A&E unit, as part of plan to help the NHS manage unsustainable pressures this winter. The call for patients to take the pressure off doctors came as the Health Secretary announced that hospitals and A&E units across England will receive £300m to help see them through “unprecedented extra demand” this winter. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the new funding could provide the equivalent of up to 1,000 extra doctors, 2,000 extra nurses and 2,500 extra bed spaces. With many A&E units already running at “full stretch”, the injection of funds and call for patients to turn to their pharmacies reflects ongoing anxiety among health officials that the NHS is set to face a challenging winter with rising levels of flu and ward closures from norovirus outbreaks. Mr Hunt said: “Winter has always been particularly challenging for the NHS. We have been thinking about it particularly hard this year because of the growing pressure on A&E departments. ”Emergency admissions are growing about three to four per cent year in, year out. We are very aware that over this winter there is going to be some real pressure there.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/department-of-health-earmarks-300m-to-combat-unprecedented-winter-pressure-9859261.html?origin=internalSearch
The Guardian
The National Audit Office’s (NAO) forensic dissection of the Better Care Fund fiasco is a harsh lesson in the dangers of ministerial interference in health and care systems under stress. Its report Planning for the Better Care Fund – published this week – exposes how the government mishandled the entire project. The fund was the coalition’s gambit in the battle with Labour over who would integrate the NHS and social care. Launched as a flagship policy in the 2013 Autumn Statement, it was a triumph of presentation over strategic thinking – big, bold, long on rhetoric, short on delivery detail and recycling old money as extra funding. It soon hit trouble. NHS England and the Local Government Association (LGA) published guidance on how it would work that December, and all local areas submitted bids by April on how they would spend their cut in 2015-16. Ministers then scrapped the guidance, dumped the bids and restarted the whole process. The broken wire at the heart of the machine was that the Department of Health and NHS England were planning on securing £1bn of savings on the back of the £3.8bn Better Care Fund, but robust thinking to achieve this was not put at the core of guidance for the 151 local bids.
http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2014/nov/13/nhs-national-audit-office-better-care-fund
Hospital Doctor
“Clinical need not cost should determine routine NHS surgery”. A royal college has called on NHS England to investigate a CCG which is proposing to limit access to surgical services. Devon CCG has said it will deny routine surgery to smokers and the morbidly obese unless they quit or lose weight. The GP-led Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group says the measures are “urgent and necessary” as it faces a £14.5m deficit and needs to reduce costs. However, Miss Clare Marx, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: “Access to routine surgery should always be based on an individual’s clinical need. “The government has been clear that restricting clinically necessary treatment on the basis of financial considerations is unacceptable. We urge the Department of Health and NHS England to review the situation in Devon if the CCG is indeed intending to deny patients treatment without enabling the clinicians and patients involved to make informed choices about their care.” Rebecca Harriott, the Devon CCG chief officer, said it would be prioritising services in the NHS Constitution. The group says hernia treatment, botox injections and cataract operations are also under review. Ms Harriott said: “We must act to protect essential services through our busiest winter months and ensure that care is there for our patients when they really need it.
http://www.hospitaldr.co.uk/blogs/our-news/clinical-need-not-cost-should-determine-routine-nhs-surgery
Our NHS
This morning Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told NHS leaders that the service must undertake a ‘fundamental rethink’ of how it spends its £110bn budget. He has warned that the NHS needs to save £10bn a year by using fewer temporary staff and management consultants. Just how much NHS leaders are spending on, for example, management consultants is something that Hunt knows, but we don’t… yet. NHS England, unlike all other government agencies, does not make public how it spends our money. A petition launched this week, which has so far been signed by 68,000 people, is demanding that NHS England publishes its spending data without delay. (It said it would publish its receipts in September, then October. It has yet to). This would reveal how much of NHS funds are going on management consultants, lawyers, accountants, PR campaigns and private healthcare companies. Is Hunt trying to distance himself from NHS England by calling now for a “fundamental rethink” of how it spends our money? Hunt cannot absolve himself of responsibility, however. It was the reforms brought in by this government that created NHS England, stewards of the NHS budget. The policies it has since pursued have been set out and encouraged by the Coalition. Whatever NHS England is doing with our money is Hunt’s responsibility. We just now need to find out what Hunt knows and we don’t. Sign the petition here.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/tamasin-cave/does-jeremy-hunt-know-something-we-don%E2%80%99t
Keep Our NHS Public Cornwall 