Health Service Journal
Ben Clover

Ben Clover is an HSJ reporter. His focus is on acute providers (foundation trusts and trusts).

Mental health trust admits it is unable to win FT status alone

17-May-2013
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust has become the latest NHS provider to admit it will not be able to win foundation trust status independently.
A&E performance tracker: England's hospitals miss waiting target

13-May-2013
HSJ is tracking the performance of hopsitals in England every week
Trusts submit deficit plans for 2013-14 amid 'going concern' worries

10-May-2013
The NHS Trust Development Authority has written to trusts assuring them they can be classed as “a going concern” by auditors, despite submitting deficit plans for this financial year, HSJ has learned.
Trusts ease pay savings in Francis aftermath, analysis shows

9-May-2013
Hospital trusts are disproportionately targeting non-pay costs and seeking extra income as they embark on a £2.4bn savings drive in 2013-14, an exclusive HSJ analysis reveals.
St George's breached six national standards, CQC inspection finds

2-May-2013
St George’s Healthcare Trust in London was found in breach of six national quality standards after an unannounced Care Quality Commission inspection in January.
Exclusive: A&E performance plummets as majority of trusts miss target

2-May-2013
Accident and emergency waiting time performance plummeted in April, as hospital leaders told HSJ they were grappling with the after-effects of “the worst winter anyone can remember”.
Two bidders drop out of pension fund hospital build scheme

1-May-2013
Two out of three bidders involved in an innovative scheme to use pension fund capital to finance a major hospital development have dropped out, HSJ has learned.
Exclusive: Dramatic increase in emergency 12 hours 'trolley waits' uncovered

23-Apr-2013
Pressure on accident and emergency departments has seen a large increase in the number of hospital trusts reporting patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted, an HSJ analysis has found.
London trusts fare poorly in national hospital patient survey

19-Apr-2013
London is the worst-performing region in England for treating hospital patients with dignity and respect, according to the Care Quality Commission inpatient survey.
Exclusive: Monitor reveals £15.7m consultancy spend

19-Apr-2013
Healthcare sector regulator Monitor has revealed it spent £15.7m on consultants in 2012.
Lansley intervention damaged patient care, says Carnall

17-Apr-2013
The former NHS London chief executive has said Andrew Lansley damaged patient care by halting the capital’s large-scale service change programme.
Flory: Francis has moved an all-FT NHS back two years

10-Apr-2013
The consequences of the Francis inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire care scandal have pushed back the process of getting all NHS providers to foundation trust status by two years, David Flory has told HSJ.
Flory: 'Loss of experience is greater than I’ve seen'

10-Apr-2013
David Flory has said the current NHS reforms have prompted the greatest loss of management experience of any health service reorganisation he has seen in his career.
Non-foundation trusts to face 5.1 per cent saving target

10-Apr-2013
The NHS trust sector is looking to cut £1.5bn from its cost base this year in a squeeze that could prompt questions about the viability of some organisations, David Flory has revealed.
New rulebook unveiled for would-be foundation trusts

5-Apr-2013
The NHS Trust Development Authority today releases its “accountability framework” setting out how it will work with the NHS trusts that have not yet achieved foundation status.
Orthopaedic hospital PFI a step closer after affordable housing rollback

5-Apr-2013
A London trust’s private finance initiative rebuild has moved a step closer after it secured permission to sell off some of its land with a smaller proportion than usual earmarked for affordable housing.
Congenital Cardiac Association questions Leeds service closure

2-Apr-2013
PERFORMANCE: The British Congenital Cardiac Association has criticised the release of “raw” and “unverified” data about outcomes from children’s heart surgery at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust.
Exclusive: Hospital leaders say 'chief inspector' role won't work

28-Mar-2013
73 per cent of hospital chief executives believe the government’s proposed overhaul of regulation and inspection will be ineffective
Francis response: Hunt announces simple hospital rating system

26-Mar-2013
The health secretary has promised the public there will be “a single version of the truth” about hospital performance
Exclusive: Nearly 50 trusts 'have no independent future'

25-Mar-2013
Nearly 50 NHS trusts are likely to face merger or franchised management as they are unable to gain foundation status in their current form, HSJ has learned.
Analysed: the state of the FT pipeline

25-Mar-2013
HSJ Briefing is our in-depth analysis of key issues facing some of the major NHS health economies. This week we examine the state of the foundation trust pipeline in the wake of the Francis inquiry.
NHS national communications director resigns

20-Mar-2013
Colin Douglas, director of NHS communications for the Department of Health, has resigned, HSJ has learned.
Government's competition rowback 'doesn't address fundamentals'

13-Mar-2013
The government’s changes to controversial secondary legislation covering the contracting of NHS services have sparked disagreement over the effect of the new rules.
Most chairs back Francis's recommended rules for board members

12-Mar-2013
Nearly three-quarters of hospital and mental health provider chairs back the introduction of a “fit and proper person test” for membership of trust boards
Trust chairs believe there are other Mid Staffs-type failures

12-Mar-2013
“A small number” of trusts are failing in a similar way to Mid Staffordshire, HSJ survey finds
Government drops controversial clause from NHS competition rules

11-Mar-2013
The Department of Health has amended key sections of controversial secondary legislation covering the contracting out of NHS services.
Hospital trust chooses merger partner

6-Mar-2013
A west London district general hospital has snubbed a merger bid from Imperial College Healthcare Trust, opting instead to join with an established foundation trust, HSJ understands.
Council to seek judicial review over Lewisham downgrade

6-Mar-2013
STRUCTURE: Lewisham Council has voted unanimously to seek judicial review of the trust special administration process that saw Lewisham Hospital recommended for downgrade.
Monitor advised to downgrade Mid Staffs services

5-Mar-2013
STRUCTURE: A report to Monitor from consultants Ernst and Young has recommended cutting expenditure on Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust by half, as services are moved to other trusts.
Government to amend controversial competition rules

5-Mar-2013
The government will amend its controversial competition regulations, minister Norman Lamb has said.
Exclusive: Fewer doctors per bed at death-rate investigation trusts

4-Mar-2013
An analysis of the 14 hospital trusts being investigated by the Department of Health over higher than expected death rates has highlighted medical staffing as a possible cause.
Labour moves to kill off controversial competition regulations

28-Feb-2013
Labour is calling on peers to reject controversial secondary legislation governing competition and the tendering of NHS services.
Less than two thirds of NHS staff would recommend their trust, staff survey shows

28-Feb-2013
Less than two-thirds of staff would be happy to recommend their trust to a friend or relative, according to the latest NHS staff survey.
Largest hospital reconfiguration in England signed off by commissioners

27-Feb-2013
The most significant proposed acute services reconfiguration in England has been approved by commissioners.
Community services to be focus of extended competition

27-Feb-2013
Community services worth billions of pounds are likely to be made subject to increased competition by guidance to be developed under controversial new secondary legislation, HSJ has learned.
Government tendering rules will lead to big shake-up in services, lawyers warn

22-Feb-2013
Lawyers have warned that new procurement rules due to come into force in April could see significant changes in the provision of NHS services.
College of Emergency Medicine raises concern over Lewisham A&E plan

21-Feb-2013
The College of Emergency Medicine has raised concerns over proposals for changes to Lewisham Hospital’s accident and emergency unit, and indicated they do not fit its definition of an emergency department.
Exclusive: Major London trusts unveil cancer and cardiac shake-up

20-Feb-2013
Three major teaching hospitals have unveiled a ground breaking service reorganisation under which they will exchange responsibility for providing key specialised services.
Compromise agreements 'should not silence safety concerns'

20-Feb-2013
The vast majority of compromise agreements in the NHS are not the result of whistleblowing disputes, while confidentiality clauses cannot be used to directly prevent patient safety concerns being raised, HSJ has been told.
Analysis: Confidentiality deals a perennial controversy in the NHS

20-Feb-2013
Confidentiality clauses in severance settlements are not a new source of controversy in the NHS.
DH releases Health Act competition rules

19-Feb-2013
The government has published details of how competition and procurement rules will operate under the Health Bill.
Dame Ruth Carnall tells London chief execs gagging clauses 'unacceptable'

18-Feb-2013
The head of NHS London, England’s largest strategic health authority, has said she will write to all chief executives in the capital to remind them gagging clauses in severance deals are “unacceptable”.
Francis proposes criminal offence to drive cultural change

14-Feb-2013
Major changes will be required in the way all parts of the NHS handle serious patient safety incidents if a legally binding duty of candour is imposed, HSJ has been told.
Nine more trusts face Keogh death probe

11-Feb-2013
The scope of the NHS medical director’s review of hospitals with high mortality rates has widened to include another nine trusts, it has been announced.
Lawyers and managers concerned as Francis recommends criminalising 'duty of candour' failures

6-Feb-2013
Robert Francis QC has recommended it be made a crime to obstruct the duty of candour or make an “untruthful statement to a commissioner or regulator”.
Francis response: ‘immediate’ probe ordered into hospitals with high death rates

6-Feb-2013
The NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh is to investigate trusts with high death rates “and check remedial action is being taken”, the prime minister has told Parliament.
Medics question rationale of Lewisham downgrade

5-Feb-2013
The health secretary has approved plans to downgrade the first hospital using failure regime legislation. However, the downgrade is subject to conditions, the details of which remain unclear.
Selbie: 'The NHS is not the same as health'

5-Feb-2013
The chief executive of Public Health England has urged a fundamental rethink of how illness and wellbeing are perceived, stating: “The NHS is not the same as health.”
Regulator to cap Queen's Hospital A&E admissions

1-Feb-2013
The Care Quality Commission is to place a restriction on the number of patients that can be treated at an east London emergency department.
Hunt compromises on Lewisham Hospital downgrade

31-Jan-2013
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced a compromise solution to the downgrade of services at Lewisham Hospital.
'No correlation found' between quality and responsiveness to online complaints

31-Jan-2013
Researchers have found no correlation between trusts’ responsiveness to online complaints and the quality of patients’ experience.
Grounds for legal action if hospital downgrade approved, critics claim

29-Jan-2013
A judicial review is likely if health secretary Jeremy Hunt approves plans to downgrade Lewisham Hospital, HSJ has learnt.
Analysed: The fate of Lewisham Hospital

29-Jan-2013
This week’s HSJ Local Briefing looks at the south east London health economy, which is the first to be subject to the failure regime.
Burnham plans £60bn NHS cash handover to councils

24-Jan-2013
The vast majority of NHS funding would be handed to councils under radical proposals being developed by the shadow health secretary.
Analysed: Labour's health blueprint

24-Jan-2013
What would be the impact of Andy Burnham’s proposals?
NHS earmarks £300m to put hospitals through failure regime

18-Jan-2013
Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority are planning a £300m joint contract to pay for failing trusts to go through the special administration regime.
Mid Staffs Foundation Trust 'too small' to be sustainable

17-Jan-2013
Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust - the first organisation to be taken through Monitor’s failure regime - will not be able to sustain its current services in the future, investigators have found.
Nineteen trusts will have less than a year to become FTs

17 January 2013
The NHS Trust Development Authority has conceded that more than a third of the organisations which intend to become standalone foundation trusts will not have submitted their applications to it by April.
Trust failed to check paediatric staff criminal records for three years

15-Jan-2013
Managers at Barts and the London Trust were unable to guarantee paediatric staff had passed Criminal Records Bureau checks for three years, following a series of human resources failings, HSJ has learned.
Trust found to have altered waiting times figures

14-Jan-2013
A large hospital trust has been caught altering waiting time figures to avoid breaches of the four-hour accident and emergency target.
Epsom hospital pulled into A&E reconfiguration programme

10-Jan-2013
Another hospital has been added to the list of those on the south west London and Surrey borders that could lose their accident and emergency and maternity facilities, HSJ can reveal.
Trusts get chance to push back FT application dates

10-Jan-2013
Trusts are being asked to re-submit their target dates for attaining foundation status amid new evidence that significant numbers will fail to complete the process by the original deadline.
Kershaw backs dissolution of South London Healthcare

8-Jan-2013
South London Healthcare Trust should be dissolved, its special administrator recommended this morning.
Social enterprise consults lawyers over lost out-of-hours contract

7-Jan-2013
A social enterprise has consulted lawyers after losing the contract to supply GP out-of-hours services in two London boroughs to a Bristol-based company.
Trust refers 248 staff to debt collectors following salary overpayments

4-Jan-2013
Barts and the London Trust referred 248 of its staff to debt collectors after overpaying them by a total of £1m last year, documents obtained by HSJ reveal.
Chief executives and chairs in New Year's Honours list

3-Jan-2013
Three hospital trust chief executives have received New Year’s honours.
Chief executives not confident on out-of-hours safety

2-Jan-2013
Chief executives have significant doubts their hospitals are as safe at weekends as they are in the week, the latest HSJ/Capsticks survey reveals.
FT wins Ministry of Defence contract to serve British troops

11-Dec-2012
England’s largest foundation trust has won a £365m contract to continue providing healthcare services to the British army in Germany.
Next generation of PFI announced by Osborne

5-Dec-2012
“Soft facilities management” services like cleaning and catering will be excluded from future NHS private finance projects, new government guidance reveals.
District general hospitals top efficiency league

3-Dec-2012
District general hospitals are the most clinically efficient in the NHS, a major study has revealed.
'Significant' risk in specialised services upheaval, says board

27-Nov-2012
The new commissioning system for the £12bn specialist services budget in 2013-14 will be “radically different” but its introduction involves a “significant” risk, the NHS Commissioning Board has said.
New chief executive for London trust as another steps down

23-Nov-2012
North Middlesex University Hospital Trust has a new chief executive, HSJ can reveal. It comes as the head of a neighbouring trust steps down.
How treatment centres have driven competition

21-Nov-2012
An Institute for Fiscal Studies report makes interesting reading
'Prime contractors' could run pathways for decade

20-Nov-2012
Commissioners could be freed to award work to a “prime contractor” over five to 10 years from 2014-15, the Department of Health has indicated.
Bidders for DGH takeover revealed

20-Nov-2012
One of England’s biggest hospital trusts and one of its highest performing foundation trusts are battling to take over a district general hospital, HSJ can reveal.
Analysed: The London FT pipeline and its hotspots

20-Nov-2012
HSJ Local Briefing is our in-depth analysis of key issues facing the NHS or major health economies. This week we examine the foundation trust pipeline before the capital’s strategic health authority disappears next year
Mike Farrar and Sir Andrew Cash set up consultancy supergroup

14-Nov-2012
A five-person group including some of the most senior figures in the NHS have set up a management consultancy.
Trusts to be rewarded for friends and family test success

13-Nov-2012
For all the talk of easing top-down control of trusts, the mandate mentions some levers that could hit providers.
Carnall calls for service reconfigurations to be accelerated

9-Nov-2012
The head of NHS London has warned the government risks “stifling the ambition” of clinical commissioning groups if it does not find a way to speed up service reconfigurations.
Commissioner behaviour is main barrier to independent sector providers

8-Nov-2012
Tendering behaviour is preventing a more diverse provider landscape, Monitor has indicated.
Has payment by results had its day?

8 November 2012
King’s Fund report says tariff system is not fit for purpose
Monitor vows to improve 'not fit for purpose' pricing system

2-Nov-2012
Monitor has vowed to improve the NHS treatment pricing system after a King’s Fund report said the payment by results system was “not fit for purpose”.
NHS London reviews controversial hospital productivity analysis

1-Nov-2012
NHS London is re-examining a controversial analysis which concluded the capital’s hospital sector was “not sustainable in [its] present form”.
Epsom and St Helier may be next for failure regime after merger talks fail

1-Nov-2012
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust may be the next to enter the failure regime, HSJ has learned.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust seeks £9m bailout

1-Nov-2012
A hospital trust struggling with its finances has lodged an application for a £9m loan from the Department of Health.
Private providers see 11 per cent growth in NHS elective work

1-Nov-2012
The number of NHS-funded elective procedures carried out in the private sector rose 10.5 per cent last year, NHS Information Centre data shows.
Monitor and DH work on bailout formula

1-Nov-2012
Monitor and the Department of Health are working to devise a formula determining when troubled foundation trusts receive financial bailouts.
Bennett appointed to permanent chief executive role at Monitor

30-Oct-2012
The Monitor board has appointed interim chief executive David Bennett to the permanent role at the foundation trust regulator.
UPDATED: Hunt advised to break up South London Healthcare

29-Oct-2012
The trust special administrator this morning issued his draft report into the first organisation to face the NHS’s failure regime, recommending the trust is broken up.
CCG veto kills off trust's FT application

25-Oct-2012
The chief executive of a community services trust has spoken of his “bitter disappointment” after a clinical commissioning group vetoed his organisation’s foundation trust bid.
SHA halts hospital takeover

25-Oct-2012
NHS London has halted the takeover of a district general hospital by a foundation trust in a neighbouring strategic health authority.
Productivity is low at urgent care centres

25-Oct-2012
Urgent care centres appear to have low productivity rates and lack clear data allowing commissioners to tell whether they are value for money, according to a report published today.
Monitor has 'concerns' over pension plan

24-Oct-2012
Monitor has revealed it has “significant concerns over the affordability” of a plan to build a new hospital with a ground-breaking loan from a pension fund.
Major reconfiguration delayed by neighbouring PCT

23-Oct-2012
Plans for a major reconfiguration of services in London have been halted after a neighbouring primary care trust said it wanted to become more involved in the process.
NHS predicts 25pc lower surplus for 2012-13

19-Oct-2012
Strategic health authorities and primary care trusts are predicting a fall in their combined surplus of 25 per cent this financial year.
Hospital activity 'will rise'

17-Oct-2012
Four out of five hospital chief executives believe their trust will do more work this financial year than it did in 2011-12. The finding casts doubt on commissioners’ hopes of controlling demand.
Flory: trusts still face April 2014 target for FT status

4 October 2012
NHS Trust Development Authority chief executive David Flory insists there has been “no change” to the policy of driving trusts through the foundation trust pipeline by April 2014.
EXCLUSIVE: Worst performing London boroughs for GP outcomes revealed

2-Oct-2012
An internal report on the quality of GP practices in London has found one cluster performing significantly worse than the other five.
Exclusive: South London Healthcare Trust's suitors revealed

1-Oct-2012
Details have emerged of the plans of many of the 39 bodies that have written to South London Healthcare Trust’s special administrator to express an interest in running trust services.
Burstow admits to budget cuts

20 September 2012
Former health minister Paul Burstow has admitted there were cuts to mental health services under his watch at the Department of Health.
Community trusts in FT delay

20 September 2012
More than half of the community trusts hoping to achieve foundation status have had their authorisation applications delayed, HSJ analysis reveals.
Two of George Eliot's suitors announce alliance

19-Sep-2012
Two of the bidders to take over the management of a district general hospital trust have announced a partnership deal.
Smaller FTs face viability reviews

12-Sep-2012
Monitor has ordered a review of the financial viability of a number of small and medium-sized foundation trusts, in a process described by one chief executive as “cloak and dagger”, HSJ can reveal.
Cuts in jobs and pay loom in savings proposals

12-Sep-2012
Service redesign, headcount reduction and a lower average wage will be the three biggest contributors to trusts’ savings plans this year, a survey reveals.
District general hospital trust forced to look for merger partner

6-Sep-2012
A £145m-turnover district general hospital is the latest to concede it cannot become a foundation trust on its own and look for a merger partner.
Care centres lighten load

6 September 2012
The savings schemes set out by the London clusters entail significant reductions in work carried out by provider trusts, with urgent care centres picking up the slack.
Urgent care centres to lighten London providers' workload

6 September 2012
Savings schemes set out by the London clusters entail significant reductions in work done by provider trusts.
Accuracy of tariff improved, Audit Commission finds

31-Aug-2012
The accuracy of a key component of the payment by results system has improved since 2007-08, according to a report from the Audit Commission.
Child abuse risk at walk-in centres

23 August 2012
“Significant and worrying gaps” in the way some NHS walk-in centres operate risks child abuse going undetected, a study obtained by HSJ has warned.
Exclusive: NHS or private expressions of interest sought to run 'failing' trust

23-Aug-2012
The special administrator for the first hospital to be subjected to the failure regime has invited expressions of interest from the NHS and private sector to take over all or part of the organisation.
FTs expect CCGs to reverse activity growth next year

22-Aug-2012
Foundation trusts expect clinical commissioning groups to oversee an unprecedented reduction in activity in 2013-14, Monitor has revealed.
Only 50 admissions for 'Olympic family' during games

16-Aug-2012
London’s NHS saw only a minimal impact from the Olympic games, HSJ has discovered.
Circle outlines £8bn 'NHS growth opportunity'

16-Aug-2012
Private health provider Circle named 32 trusts it viewed as constituting an “NHS growth opportunity” of more than £8bn in presentation to investors last year.
FTN wins bid to develop governors

16-Aug-2012
The Foundation Trust Network has won a contract to lead the development and training of governors at England’s foundation trusts.
EXCLUSIVE: Cost revealed of PR battle over children's heart surgery

15-Aug-2012
The public relations battle between the NHS and trusts that stood to lose services under the national reconfiguration of paediatric heart surgery cost nearly three-quarters of a million pounds, HSJ can reveal.
Pension funds to bankroll £298m hospital in finance first

8-Aug-2012
Two pension funds have offered to finance a foundation trust’s new hospital in what could emerge as an alternative to conventional sources of private capital.
Sutton GPs oppose downgrade of local hospital

3-Aug-2012
GPs are opposing a proposed downgrade of accident and emergency and maternity services at St Helier Hospital in south London, it has emerged.
Most powerful hospital trusts ask for more funding

2 August 2012
England’s 10 most prestigious teaching and research hospital trusts have asked the Department of Health and the Treasury for a 10 per cent top-up to their tariff payments, HSJ can reveal.
Commissioners delay cuts to practices’ income

2 August 2012
Commissioners in south-west London are delaying significant cuts to the income of some overfunded GP practices in Wandsworth and Croydon to avoid “destabilising” them.
Hospitals face 'voting booths' in A&E to measure patient experience

30-Jul-2012
Hospitals may have to install voting booths in inpatient wards and A&E to measure patient experience, HSJ can reveal.
Boards approve case for £2.1bn merger

27-Jul-2012
The boards of three foundation trusts in London have agreed a strategic outline case for a merger that would create the largest trust in England.
FT framework would award staff ratings

26-Jul-2012
A foundation trust is tendering for a “performance management framework” under which its staff would receive ratings.
National authority chief nurse was criticised at Mid Staffs inquiry

25-Jul-2012
The nursing director of the new organisation charged with making sure all NHS providers become foundation trusts was criticised at the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust inquiry, it has emerged.
Trust chiefs fear regulators would not spot scandal

25-Jul-2012
Nearly half of hospital chief executives believe regulators and the NHS governance system would miss a Mid Staffordshire-style care scandal if it occurred today.
Royal Free 'strongest candidate' to take over Barnet and Chase Farm

24-Jul-2012
Senior sources have told HSJ that The Royal Free London Foundation Trust is the best candidate to take over Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals Trust.
Analysed: the future of Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals Trust

24-Jul-2012
HSJ Local Briefing is our new in-depth analysis of key issues facing some of the major NHS health economies. This week we examine the options for Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals Trust as it seeks a merger partner.
'Significant deficiencies' in emergency surgical care at trust

19-Jul-2012
“Significant deficiencies” have been found in the emergency surgical care offered by a trust that is part of a regional trauma network.
Exclusive: trust development body appoints senior NHS staff to top team

13-Jul-2012
The NHS Trust Development Authority has appointed a series of senior NHS staff to its top team, HSJ can reveal.
DH pipeline tsar appointed special administrator at failure regime trust

12-Jul-2012
Matthew Kershaw has today been confirmed as trust special administrator at South London Healthcare Trust.
More than half of FTs behind plan on 2011-12 savings

12 July 2012
More than half of foundation trusts missed their savings plan targets, according to Monitor’s review of last financial year.
Royal Brompton rules out merger after losing heart services

11-Jul-2012
STRUCTURE: The specialist hospital at the centre of a High Court battle over paediatric heart surgery has ruled out merging with a large London neighbour.
Media Watch: Lansley's failure regime process

5 July 2012
Last week was a big one for hospital news in the national papers, with a trust finding itself declared “bankrupt” for the first time.
New interim chief executive for troubled teaching hospital

5 July 2012
An interim chief executive started work today at University Hospitals of Leicester Trust.
Revealed: DH warnings to pipeline laggards

4-Jul-2012
Delays and failure revealed in warning letters sent after trusts fall behind in attempts to achieve foundation trust status.
Exclusive: Hospital trust announces it is seeking merger partner to make FT status

2-Jul-2012
Barnet and Chase Farms Hospitals Trust has announced it is seeking a merger partner to become a foundation trust.
Monitor 'could not have prevented' oversized PFI

28-Jun-2012
A report into how a foundation trust came to be burdened with a large private finance initiative agreement has found Monitor was unable to prevent the deal – but said it could have spotted its slide into deficit earlier.
Exclusive: FT earned £450m from armed forces work in Germany

27-Jun-2012
A foundation trust which could face a bill for underpaid tax from the German authorities was paid £454m for providing services to the Ministry of Defence, HSJ can disclose.
Government action on South London Healthcare a 'signal of intent'

27-Jun-2012
The government has been praised for beginning to “grasp the nettle” on downgrading hospital services in troubled health economies.
Confederation reveals commercial innovation fund

27-Jun-2012
The NHS Confederation has announced the creation of a fund that matches cash put up by teaching trusts with backing from institutional investors to spread innovation across the NHS.
Failure regime looms as trust faces bankruptcy

25-Jun-2012
Health secretary Andrew Lansley has this evening begun the process of placing an NHS trust in administration for the first time, which would effectively declare it bankrupt.
Academic health science network plans given 20 July deadline

25-Jun-2012
The Department of Health has asked for expressions of interest to form academic health science networks by 20 July.
Senior hospital boss leaving for KPMG job

25-Jun-2012
Malcolm Lowe-Lauri, chief executive of University Hospitals Leicester Trust, is taking up a new job with the consultancy firm.
NHS has to change attitude to private sector - Carruthers

21-Jun-2012
One of the most senior figures in the NHS told a conference session the service “had to change its attitude” to the private sector.
Exclusive: London chief executive regrets 'compromise' that created biggest deficit trust

20-Jun-2012
The chief executive of NHS London Ruth Carnall has told HSJ she regrets the “compromise” that created South London Healthcare Trust in its current form.
Exclusive: Hospitals aim to save £2.35bn on costs in 2012-13

20-Jun-2012
Hospital trusts intend to take £2.35bn out of their cost base this financial year, an HSJ investigation reveals.
Clustering in part to blame for PCT's £28m blackhole

19-Jun-2012
The move from primary care trusts to clusters was in part to blame for a £28m black hole opening up in the books of a PCT, a report has found.
Exclusive: chief executive of the biggest-deficit trust stands down

14-Jun-2012
The chief executive of the trust with the biggest deficit in the NHS has resigned, HSJ has learned, while another troubled trust is losing five of its eight directors.
University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire FT application date slips

14 June 2012
A West Midlands teaching hospital has seen its application date for applying for foundation trust status put back.
In-house consultancy saves NHS £7.1m in fees

14 June 2012
The NHS’s in-house consultancy says it saved the service an estimated £7.1m in consultancy fees in 2011-12.
Hospital trust chief executive appointed as Monitor director

13-Jun-2012
Heather Lawrence, boss of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Foundation Trust, has been appointed as a non-executive director at Monitor.
FT applications given higher risk rating

7-Jun-2012
The efforts of three London trusts to achieve foundation status have been given a higher risk rating HSJ has learned.
UCLH joint venture aims to reduce PFI costs

7-Jun-2012
One of the NHS’s most prestigious foundation trusts is spearheading a joint venture to drive down PFI costs.
DH tells would-be FT application delay 'cannot happen again'

6-Jun-2012
PERFORMANCE: A West Midlands teaching hospital has seen its application date for applying for foundation trust status delayed in the face of falling revnues ansd “numerous performance issues”.
Lawyers warn largest foundation trust it could face German tax bill

31-May-2012
Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust has been advised it could face a significant tax-bill from the German authorities.
Foundation trust pipeline agency studies franchise and risk-share routes

31 May 2012
The agency responsible for pushing trusts through the foundation authorisation pipeline will look at private sector management franchises and “risk-sharing agreements” for NHS hospitals.
Improved NHS procurement could save £1.2bn - Burns

30-May-2012
Health minister Simon Burns has said the NHS can save “at least” £1.2bn over the next four years if it improves the way it handles procurement.
Nicholson calls for 'leap forward' in management style

30-May-2012
The NHS chief executive said the management style of the service will have to make a “great leap forward” if it is to survive with little or no investment in the future.
Overnight discharge data questioned as hospitals hit back

24-May-2012
Misleading data has emerged as a possible explanation for claims that hospitals discharge large numbers of patients in the middle of the night.
Expand independent sector provision, says 'most powerful' hospital chief

23-May-2012
The NHS’s most powerful hospital trust chief executive has used a HSJ interview to call for an expansion of independent sector provision.
GP quality monitoring project under threat from reform

23-May-2012
PERFORMANCE: A groundbreaking project monitoring the quality of GPs faces an uncertain future once its host strategic health authority is abolished.
Trusts needing bailout support almost double in 2011-12

17 May 2012
Thirty-one trusts received bailout payments in 2011-12, information released to HSJ under the Freedom of Information Act reveals.
Royal college criticises SHA for moving mental health funds

17-May-2012
FINANCE: The president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists has said she is “deeply concerned” by a strategic health authority’s decision to cut a mental health budget in favour of cancer spending.
Analysed: reform of education and training budgets in London

15-May-2012
HSJ Local Briefing is our new in-depth analysis of the key issues facing the NHS’s major health economies. This week, HSJ looks at reform of education and training budgets in London.
Burstow attacks move to close his local A&E

9-May-2012
A panel appointed to look at the options for downgrading a hospital in south west London has recommended closing health minister Paul Burstow’s local A&E and maternity department.
Monitor admits credit ratings agency plan may not be feasible

9-May-2012
Monitor is reviewing its controversial proposals to require key service providers to receive external credit ratings or have limits placed on their debts.
Trusts reveal further delays to the FT pipeline

30-Apr-2012
Four more trusts have confirmed delays in their dates for submitting applications to become foundation trusts, HSJ has discovered.
'In 10 years' time, doctors will require a second opinion from a computer'

26-Apr-2012
Devi Shetty – nicknamed the Henry Ford of heart surgery – believes developments such as computerised diagnoses and technicians doing the work of highly trained medics are just around the corner. Ben Clover hears his ideas for the future of medicine.
SHA's proposed cut to mental health funding 'disgraceful'

26-Apr-2012
FINANCE: A strategic health authority has asked staff to plan for a cut of nearly two-thirds in its mental health research and analysis budget to make up a shortfall on cancer projects.
NHS Trust Development Authority chair appointed

25-Apr-2012
The body responsible for pushing NHS trusts through the foundation trust authorisation process has appointed a chair.
Libyan injured 'brought dangerous bacteria to UK hospitals'

24-Apr-2012
Civilian patients who were injured in the Libyan conflict last year and taken to the UK for treatment brought a dangerous bacteria with them, newly released documents reveal.
New chief executive for the NHS Litigation Authority

20-Apr-2012
The NHS Litigation Authority has a new chief executive.
Royal Brompton loses reconfiguration case at the High Court

19-Apr-2012
A foundation trust has lost a High Court case it brought against a consultation on the national configuration of paediatric heart surgery services.
London acute joins UCL Partners academic health science centre

18-Apr-2012
RESEARCH: The board of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust has agreed to become part of a north London academic health science centre.
Monitor tightens efficiency targets for acute trust

18-Apr-2012
Monitor has issued a bleak assessment of the efficiency savings acute trusts must prepare to make over the next three years.
King's Health Partners chief calls for academic health groups' protection

18-Apr-2012
The head of a leading academic health science centre has called for the partnerships’ status to be protected ahead of the publication of authorisation conditions for a new wave of academic health science networks.
London trusts could cut nurse expenditure by up to half

11-Apr-2012
Some London hospital trusts could safely cut their spending on nurses by half, NHS London documents have claimed.
Larger trusts warn over C difficile rules

11-Apr-2012
New Monitor rules on C difficile infections could still mean foundation trusts are downgraded by the regulator for relatively small outbreaks, HSJ has been told.
Information tribunal judgment says DH should have released risk register

5-Apr-2012
An information tribunal has ruled the Department of Health’s transition risk register should have been released because of the “general alarm at what was happening”.
Exclusive: London and Manchester to get beam therapy investment

4-Apr-2012
Andrew Lansley will tomorrow announce two hospitals that will offer Proton Beam Therapy for the treatment of cancer.
Exclusive: Lansley rejects hospital merger case

3-Apr-2012
The health secretary has ruled there is insufficient evidence of the benefits of formally merging Chase Farm Hospital with North Middlesex University Hospital, HSJ understands.
Exclusive: mental health FT is first to quit clinical negligence scheme

2-Apr-2012
Lancashire Care Foundation Trust this morning confirmed to HSJ it had given the NHS Litigation Authority notice it was leaving its clinical negligence scheme.
DH sets out FT pipeline escalation framework

29-Mar-2012
The Department of Health has re-iterated that if trusts miss their targets for applying for foundation trust status they face an “escalation process”.
Acute sector faces wave of mergers and reconfigurations

29-Mar-2012
The English NHS hospital sector is facing a wave of mergers, acquisitions and reconfigurations, HSJ’s extensive survey of trust chief executives has revealed.
Quarter of trusts consider negligence scheme exit

29-Mar-2012
Seventy-two NHS trusts have consulted with a private insurance broker over leaving the NHS Litigation Authority for a commercial alternative, it has been claimed.
Trust's bid to run disability services 200 miles away damaged risk rating

23-Mar-2012
An NHS learning disability trust’s unsuccessful bid to take over the running of a similar service nearly 200 miles away led to its financial risk rating with Monitor deteriorating.
York FT must change gatekeeping role, says competition panel

22-Mar-2012
The competition regulator has ruled against a deal between a primary care trust and a hospital which saw the latter refer some patients who it went on to treat itself.
Mental health trust set to leave litigation scheme

22-Mar-2012
A trust providing mental health and community services looks set to be the first in England to opt out of the NHS Litigation Authority’s clinical negligence scheme - while a hospital trust has backed away from choosing a commercial insurer despite also looking for an alternative.
Monitor: governors should step in earlier to address problems

20-Mar-2012
Monitor’s chief operating officer has told foundation trust governors they should step in earlier if there are quality problems at their trust.
Analysed: acute reconfiguration in North West London

20-Mar-2012
HSJ Local Briefing is our new in-depth analysis of the key issues facing the NHS’s major health economies. This week: acute reconfiguration in north-west London.
£1.1bn Barts merger gets Lansley sign-off

16-Mar-2012
The health secretary has approved the merger of three London hospital trusts to create an organisation with an estimated turnover of £1.1bn.
FTN fails to appoint new chief executive after second batch of interviews

16-Mar-2012
The Foundation Trust Network has failed to appoint a new chief executive after interviewing a second group of candidates earlier this month.
Improvements in ‘harm free’ older patient care

15 March 2012
A significant improvement has been recorded in the proportion of older patients receiving “harm free” care following a major patient safety trial, HSJ can disclose.
Telehealth cost-effectiveness questioned by researchers

7-Mar-2012
UPDATED: The cost effectiveness of a key part of the government’s innovation strategy has been called into question in an official evaluation.
Private heart clinic refers FT to competition panel

1-Mar-2012
COMMERCIAL: A foundation trust has been referred to the Cooperation and Competition Panel by a private heart clinic.
Exclusive: FT pipeline delays threaten boards with the sack

1 March 2012
Board members are being replaced and organisational autonomy is at risk at trusts lagging behind in the drive to reach foundation trust status.
Unique hybrid finance model planned for trust's PFI

29-Feb-2012
A foundation trust is in talks about combining a “bullet payment” from the Department of Health with its own surplus and charity funds to make a private finance initiative rebuild more affordable.
Finance director appointed to commissioning board

27-Feb-2012
A strategic health authority’s finance director has been given the top finance post at the NHS Commissioning Board.
Permanent chief at deficit trust confirmed

23 February 2012
Imperial College Healthcare Trust now has a permanent chief executive.
Competition panel approves two hospital mergers and will look at two more

22-Feb-2012
The Co-operation and Competition Panel has approved two hospital mergers, called another in for further scrutiny and opened a file on a fourth.
Exclusive: Most troubled trust could be allowed to go bankrupt

21-Feb-2012
The most financially troubled hospital trust in England could effectively be allowed go bankrupt and see its work redistributed between the independent sector and other trusts.
£1.9bn hospital and mental health merger a step nearer

20-Feb-2012
The boards of three trusts have moved a step closer to creating a single organisation with a turnover of roughly £1.9bn.
Private sector competition 'leaves NHS with more costly patients'

20-Feb-2012
Competition between NHS and private providers has seen the NHS left with the more expensive and complex cases, new research has claimed.
Exclusive: London lost over 70 emergency calls after clocks went back

16 February 2012
PERFORMANCE: London Ambulance Service Trust lost dozens of 999 calls after an IT problem caused by the switch from British Summer Time, it has been revealed.
Trust backtracks on umbilical blood collections

15-Feb-2012
A foundation trust has seemingly backtracked on a scheme to offer mothers a private facility to collect blood from their baby’s umbilical cord.
London FT to replace private patients' PIP implants free of charge

10-Feb-2012
Patients treated privately with PIP breast implants at a London foundation trust will have them removed and replaced free of charge if necessary, it has been confirmed.
Imperial reduces deficit forecast to £19m

9-Feb-2012
FINANCE: One of the capital’s most financially challenged trusts is now reporting a significant reduction in its predicted deficit.
CCP recommends biggest acute merger go ahead despite 'reducing patient choice'

8-Feb-2012
The Co-operation and Competition Panel has recommended England’s biggest hospital merger should be allowed to go ahead - but only because there is no alternative.
Government estimates central bail-out of seven trusts will cost £1.5bn

3-Feb-2012
The government has estimated that bailing out hospital trusts with large PFI repayments could cost £1.5bn.
CQUIN and CQC quality results don't match, report finds

3-Feb-2012
Trusts are improving the patient experience in areas where they receive financial incentives while neglecting others, a study suggests.
Revealed: all but six of London's non-FT hospital trusts unviable by 2014-15

3-Feb-2012
Only six of London’s 18 non-foundation hospital trusts will be viable in their current form in 2014-15, HSJ can reveal.
Flory to lead NHS Trust Development Authority

2-Feb-2012
NHS deputy chief executive David Flory is to become the first head of the body charged with creating an all-foundation-trust provider sector.
Imperial suspends reporting on waiting lists

2-Feb-2012
One of England’s largest hospital trusts has taken the rare step of suspending its reporting of three key performance measures as it is “unable” to determine how many patients are waiting for treatment.
Healthcare trust facing deficit considers 'wholesale' outsourcing

2-Feb-2012
The trust predicting the largest deficit in the country is considering a “wholesale approach to outsourcing corporate functions”, HSJ has discovered.
Croydon out-of-hours care failures exposed

2-Feb-2012
PERFORMANCE: Serious care and accountability failures in an out-of-hours GP service have been highlighted in a report from a London primary care trust.
London ambulance service facing new investigation on performance

2 February 2012
Difficult times for the London Ambulance Service as it faces a fresh investigation into its performance.
Exclusive: St George's drops out of St Helier merger bid

30-Jan-2012
Mergers affecting £1bn of NHS services have been thrown into doubt after a key participant pulled out of the running to take over a neighbour.
Two London mental health trust bosses announce departure

26-Jan-2012
WORKFORCE: Two of London’s three non-foundation trust mental health organisations have announced the departure of their chief executives.
Devon hospital trust chair announces departure

24-Jan-2012
WORKFORCE: The chair of Plymouth Hospitals Trust has announced he is stepping down to spend more time on his work as a military strategist.
Exclusive: police investigating fraud claim at foundation trust

24-Jan-2012
A police investigation has been launched into an allegation of fraud at a foundation trust, HSJ can reveal.
Two more hospital trusts placed in significant breach by Monitor

23-Jan-2012
Two more foundations trusts have been placed in significant breach of their terms of authorisation, taking the total to 15 of the 78 acute trusts regulated by Monitor.
Question marks over Imperial chief executive advertisment

19-Jan-2012
Imperial College London Trust’s advertisement for a new chief executive could mean one of two things.
Trusts hoping to balance finances now predict huge deficits

18-Jan-2012
Huge deficits have opened up at two trusts that were last month predicted to balance their books at the end of the financial year.
Two new Monitor non-executive directors appointed

16-Jan-2012
The Department of Health this morning announced the appointment of Keith Palmer and Sigurd Reinton to the Monitor board.
Burnham urges medical colleges to demand bill is dropped

13-Jan-2012
Representatives from the main royal medical colleges have met shadow health secretary Andy Burnham to discuss the possibility of a issuing a joint call for the Health Bill to be dropped.
DH considers year-of-care tariff for patients with long term conditions

12-Jan-2012
The Department of Health is considering a year-of-care tariff for telehealth technology which varies according to the number and severity of a patient’s long-term conditions.
London queries whether CCG staff loans lead to 'unfair advantage'

12-Jan-2012
WORKFORCE: NHS London has taken legal advice on whether members of primary care trust staff who are “loaned” to clinical commissioning groups have an unfair advantage when the CCG posts are advertised.
Hospital mergers have little benefit, study suggests

12-Jan-2012
Waiting times have risen and financial performance has declined at NHS hospitals following mergers, a study has found.
FT director dismissed after disciplinary investigation

6-Jan-2012
An IT director at a foundation trust has been dismissed after a disciplinary investigation.
Exclusive: trusts given days to apply for £300m capital fund

6-Jan-2012
The Department of Health has confirmed the existence of a surprise £300m fund for capital projects that some trusts had seven working days to apply for - and others have still not been told about.
Exclusive: contractual penalties to combat ‘hidden waits’ will not take effect until 2013-14

4-Jan-2012
The government has said new contractual penalties to tackle “hidden” waits for elective procedures will not be introduced nationally for 15 months, HSJ can reveal.
EU proposals would 'change the way commissioners' tender for services

20-Dec-2011
A new EU procurement directive could see the NHS have to advertise all contracts over 500,000 Euros in the Official Journal of the European Union.
CCP rules against largest acute merger plan in the country

15-Dec-2011
The Cooperation and Competition Panel has said plans to create the biggest single trust in the NHS would break competition rules.
NHS trust sector in England 'heading towards deficit'

15-Dec-2011
The NHS trust sector could be “heading for deficit” in 2011-12. Health economists made the warning after HSJ research revealed deepening problems among the financially weakest providers.
All eyes on London's billion-pound merger after SHA sign off

15 December 2011
By the time you read this, NHS London will almost certainly have signed off the Barts/Whipps Cross/Newham merger.
Monitor to review FT assessment process but 'the bar will remain high'

8 December 2011
Monitor is to review its assessment process for applicant foundation trusts but has stressed that “the bar will remain high”.
Academic health science partnerships take shape in London

8 December 2011
Lord Darzi’s phoenix-from-the-ashes academic health science partnership Imperial Health Partners has got off to a flying start, but one name was conspicuous by its absence on its list of potential partners.
Penalties for providers and commissioners failing to innovate

7-Dec-2011
Providers and commissioners face significant financial penalties if they fail to innovate in six “high impact” areas or follow National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on drugs and best practice.
Nicholson predicts between 14 and 18 academic health science networks

6-Dec-2011
Academic health science networks could be set up in between 14 to 18 health economies in England, the NHS chief executive has said.
Industry will meet start-up costs for telehealth, Nicholson says

5-Dec-2011
Private sector leaders have agreed to “put their hands in their pockets” to fund the initial investment in telehealth, the chief executive of the NHS has told HSJ.
Nicholson: providers and commissioners will be fined for not meeting NICE guidance

5-Dec-2011
Providers and commissioners will face significant financial penalties if they do not implement National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence rules on drugs and best practice.
Exclusive: London's paediatric emergency services not 'safe or sustainable'

2-Dec-2011
London has too few paediatric doctors to staff paediatric emergency services to safe levels and “an unsustainable ratio” of trainees to consultants in the departments, an internal document obtained by HSJ reveals.
Nicholson: electoral cycle means we have to do service changes in next 18 months

1-Dec-2011
Sir David Nicholson has said the “electoral cycle” means NHS managers were “much more likely to get through” service changes in the next 18 months than later in the parliament.
Operating framework piles pressure on hospital sector

1-Dec-2011
The NHS’s financial plans for 2012-13 will further concentrate pressure on acute providers and could force a wave of hasty mergers, experts have warned.
London practices readying for first GP outcomes scorecard

1 December 2011
Next week sees the unveiling of the capital’s GP performance scorecard, after much to-ing and fro-ing over the data between NHS London and the GPs.
Patients' right to alternative provider should be 'publicised'

1 December 2011
Commissioners must “publicise” a patient’s right to an alternative provider if a trust is at risk of missing the 18-week referral-to-treatment time target.
Price competition fears over provider penalties

29-Nov-2011
New rules requiring NHS commissioners to penalise healthcare providers that “cherry pick” easier cases will be difficult to enforce and will encourage price competition, experts have warned.
Leading teaching hospital may have to outsource long-waiters

25-Nov-2011
PERFORMANCE: One of London’s biggest teaching hospitals has called in the Department of Health’s intensive support team after experiencing significant problems hitting the 18-week wait for elective procedures target.
DH denies tariff adjustment rule revives price competition

25-Nov-2011
The Department of Health has been forced to deny that a measure in the NHS Operating Framework 2012-13 could introduce price competition on elective procedures.
New duties on waiting times and readmissions for providers in Operating Framework

24-Nov-2011
The operating framework has set out new duties around waiting times and readmissions, as well as holding the line on existing targets.
Debt deferral measures to support would-be foundation trusts

24-Nov-2011
The Department of Health has indicated that the vast majority of trusts needing financial support to achieve foundation trust status will receive it through the deferral of their loan repayments.
Foundation trust director suspended

24-Nov-2011
WORKFORCE: An associate director of Royal Surrey County Hospital Foundation Trust has been suspended while allegations of impropriety are investigated.
'Top leaders' to help trusts get through FT pipeline

24 November 2011
The NHS Top Leaders programme has launched a drive to send senior managers into NHS trusts needing help with savings plans or getting through the foundation trust pipeline.
Exclusive: London cluster to consult on 'ambitious' reconfiguration plans

21-Nov-2011
NHS North West London will next June consult on “ambitious” reconfiguration plans to move the local health economy “to a more sustainable clinical and financial basis”, HSJ has learned.
Revealed: the six trusts that need DH support with their PFI

18-Nov-2011
Six hospital trusts have been identified as needing Department of Health cash support with their private finance initiative payments in order to make foundation trust status, HSJ can reveal.
Monitor to keep financial risk register for every licensed provider

16-Nov-2011
Monitor will operate a financial risk register of every organisation it licenses to provide NHS services, it has revealed.
Review of London trusts reveals fears for safety

10 November 2011
By now everyone in London’s heard of the SaFE review. NHS London commissioned consultants McKinsey to put together the Safe and Financially Effective paper and it has sat on desks for a few weeks at Southside. It’s explosive.
FTN fails to appoint new chief executive

8-Nov-2011
Sue Slipman has agreed to stay on as Foundation Trust Network chief executive until the organisation finds a new full-time replacement.
FTs consider merger that would create largest trust

8-Nov-2011
Three London foundation trusts are considering a merger that would create the single biggest trust, with a turnover of £1.9bn.
Judge rules cardiac review consultation unlawful

7-Nov-2011
A High Court judge has quashed the national consultation into the reconfiguration of paediatric cardiac services, ruling it was conducted unlawfully.
East London trust to receive extra 'Darzi fellow' support

3 November 2011
WORKFORCE: A troubled east London trust is to get extra support from clinicians on the capital’s Fellowships in Clinical Leadership scheme, formerly known as the Darzi Fellowship.
Monitor examines FTs' patient guarantees loophole

2-Nov-2011
Monitor has revealed it is examining a potential loophole that could allow foundation trusts to escape the patient guarantees laid out in the NHS constitution.
Troubled trust gets fourth chair in two years

1-Nov-2011
WORKFORCE: Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust has announced the appointment of its fourth chair since January 2010.
Integrated care organisation proposes bundled tariff for services

1-Nov-2011
A hospital trust that took on community services in two London boroughs is looking to offer all its services on a bundled tariff in 2012-13.
Exclusive: inquiry launched as £25m black hole opens up in PCT accounts

1-Nov-2011
An independent “forensic” inquiry has been launched after a £25m financial black hole opened up in NHS Croydon’s accounts.
Lansley hails Academic Health model as 'wealth-creator' for UK

27-Oct-2011
The health secretary has given his backing to an expanded “Academic Health Science System” in London, saying the model would “create wealth” for the country.
Second London reconfiguration approved

27-Oct-2011
COMMERCIAL: The health secretary has approved the closure of services at King George Hospital in Ilford.
Lansley sets out 'four tests' for hospital bailout and threatens to sack boards

27-Oct-2011
Andrew Lansley has said trusts who want loans as they try to achieve foundation status will have to pass four tests.
Exclusive: trusts demand £350m to get through FT pipeline

27-Oct-2011
Hospital trusts have asked for over £300m in loans by April 2012 to remain within the foundation trust pipeline, HSJ can reveal.
London community trust faces loss of quarter of turnover

27 October 2011
COMMERCIAL: An aspirant community foundation trust could be stripped of a quarter of its business to support a new hospital trust emerging from demerger of Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals.
London's hospital trusts set to miss waiting time targets

27 October 2011
PERFORMANCE: London’s hospital sector is on track to miss its inpatient waiting time targets because trusts “took their foot off the accelerator” after being told the targets would be scrapped.
Exclusive: new academic health science partnership planned

24-Oct-2011
Imperial College Healthcare Trust plans to launch a new academic health science partnership covering north-west London - but its architects insist Imperial’s existing AHSC will continue to function alongside the new body.
NHS Blood and Transplant part-privatisation plans dropped

20-Oct-2011
The government has dropped proposals to part-privatise NHS Blood and Transplant.
Bristol trusts discuss £1bn merger

17-Oct-2011
Two acute trusts in Bristol are in “ongoing discussions” about merging to create an organisation with a turnover close to £1bn.
Thirty trusts set to miss aspirational target for FT status

13-Oct-2011
Nearly 30 trusts are unlikely to hit the government’s intended date for them to become foundation trusts, the National Audit Office has warned.
Nicholson: trusts' procurement costs will have to be 'explained'

13-Oct-2011
NHS trusts that spend more on goods and services than their peers will have to “grow up” and justify why they are doing so, under a scheme announced last week by Sir David Nicholson.
London mental health trusts 'unfairly targeted' for savings

13-Oct-2011
FINANCE: London’s mental health services are seeing a relative disinvestment while the acute sector “overheats”, according to a leaked report.
Lansley identifies 20 'unsustainable' trusts

11-Oct-2011
The government has identified 20 trusts whose “clinical and financial stability is at risk” because of “cash-flow shortages” and legacy debt.
Ban commissioners from setting minimum waiting times - CCP

5-Oct-2011
The Cooperation and Competition Panel has told health secretary Andrew Lansley that commissioners should be banned from setting minimum waiting times for procedures.
Growing financial pressure on most-challenged acutes

5-Oct-2011
The financial position of the most challenged acute providers is falling further behind that of their peers, the first NHS-wide financial reports for 2011-12 reveal.
Circle pulls out of bid to run hospital

4-Oct-2011
Private healthcare firm Circle has pulled out of a bid to run a hospital in Surrey.
CCP puts patient benefit over patient choice in acute merger

30-Sep-2011
The Co-operation and Competition Panel has advised, for the first time, that a merger between two rival providers can go ahead, because the potential benefits outweighed the reduction in patient choice.
Southampton gets FT status after DH promise of 'restructured' debt

30-Sep-2011
STRUCTURE: A large hospital trust on the south coast has achieved foundation status, after being told its debt would be “restructured” by the Department of Health.
Number of financially troubled FTs doubles

29-Sep-2011
The number of foundation trusts with serious financial problems has doubled since the last quarter, new data shows.
Circle-style deal for London specialist?

29 September 2011
Most regions have a few smaller specialist trusts and London is no exception.
Monitor could suspend competition to encourage integration models

29 September 2011
Monitor’s chief executive has set out a range of measures the future regulator will consider as it works to reconcile competition and service integration.
Nicholson says only 'small number' of PFI hospitals need extra funds

28-Sep-2011
NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson appeared to contradict Andrew Lansley today when he told the Mid Staffs inquiry most PFI hospitals were “not in financial difficulty”.
£700m estates contract links primary and secondary care

28-Sep-2011
FINANCE: A contract worth up to £700m is up for grabs in what is thought to be the first tender to provide estate and facilities management across primary and secondary care.
New chief executive appointed to key London trust

26-Sep-2011
WORKFORCE: A new chief executive has been appointed to a large non-foundation trust in London.
Exclusive: top teaching hospitals under threat from tariff system

22-Sep-2011
The payment by results tariff system could tip England’s elite teaching hospitals into deficit and damage the country’s medical research industry, their chief executives have warned.
Super merger plans let down by £116m PFI shortfall

22-Sep-2011
STRUCTURE: A planned merger that would create England’s largest NHS trust would require £116m of support in its first year.
Readmissions policy costing hospital trusts £2.3m a year 'should change'

22 September 2011
Hospital trusts are being unfairly penalised by bearing the cost of readmissions which are not their fault, according to the Foundation Trust Network.
Exclusive: fifth acute trust says it is considering private franchise management

16-Sep-2011
A fifth hospital trust has said it will consider private franchise management.
Exclusive: ambulance service investigates link between software failure and patient death

15 September 2011
A heart attack victim died during a software failure that saw an ambulance service have to revert back to a paper-and-pen system, HSJ can reveal.
Fun run field hospital blown into quarry

15 September 2011
A marquee set up to house a field hospital was blown into a quarry by high winds last week.
DH paid £8m to exit private contract following suspension of services

15 September 2011
The Department of Health paid £8m to end early a contract with a private health provider whose services had twice been suspended.
Will Lansley be red-faced after rubber-stamped reconfiguration in London?

15 September 2011
By the time you read this there may have been news on a most contentious reconfiguration in the capital – namely whether the health secretary has found a way to rubber-stamp the downgrading of Chase Farm without losing face (which he has, just about - ed.).
CCP backs commissioners in care home procurement row

15 September 2011
The Cooperation and Competition Panel has ruled against care home associations in two regions after they claimed procurement rules and prices for continuing healthcare were too low.
German firm linked to DH hospital plan down-plays involvement

7-Sep-2011
Helios Healthcare, the company mentioned in correspondence between the Department of Health and McKinsey in recently released emails, said its “strategic focus [would remain] on the German hospitals market” .
Health Bill amendments could add 'political pressure' to reconfiguration decisions

7-Sep-2011
Service reconfigurations following the failure of a foundation trust could be open to “political pressures” as a result of a proposed change to the Health Bill, lawyers and think tanks have warned.
Exclusive: 500 avoidable deaths a year in London due to understaffing

7-Sep-2011
There are more than 500 avoidable deaths a year in emergency care each year in London, a report obtained exclusively by HSJ reveals.
London trust wide of the mark on waiting times

7-Sep-2011
PERFORMANCE: More than half of patients seen at North Middlesex University Hospital Trust in June had waited more than 18 weeks for treatment.
FT plans 20 per cent growth in private patient income

1-Sep-2011
FINANCE: The Royal Marsden Foundation Trust, Britain’s biggest specialist cancer trust, is planning to increase its private patient income by 20 per cent this year.
Cameron’s flagship cancer treatments fund ‘could prove insufficient’

1-Sep-2011
The value of David Cameron’s pledge to fund pioneering treatments for cancer – a showpiece of the Conservatives’ general election campaign – has come under fire from oncologists, HSJ has discovered.
Imperial's new chief pledges 'evolution'

1-Sep-2011
PERFORMANCE: The new head of Imperial College Healthcare Trust has used an HSJ interview to promise “evolution” at the leading teaching hospital.
FT predicting significant fall in MoD income

1 September 2011
FINANCE: The main provider of acute healthcare for the armed forces is predicting a significant fall in Ministry of Defence income as the UK scales back its deployment in Afghanistan.
First large hospital merger approved by CCP

31-Aug-2011
A plan to shake up hospital care in Hampshire has become the first merger of large acute trusts to pass a key test designed to enshrine competition in the NHS.
Grounds for optimism at last over London reconfiguration

25 August 2011
It appears the NHS in London might get its wish on downgrading two hospitals.
Trust access to PFI funding could be constrained by Treasury rule change

25 August 2011
NHS trusts could find it harder to secure badly needed private finance initiative funding after chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander ordered the Department of Health to review how it authorises potential schemes, HSJ has learned.
Channel islands shift cardiac business from London specialist hospital to Southampton

25-Aug-2011
COMMERCIAL: The health authorities of Guernsey and Alderney are moving roughly £1.3m of specialist treatment from a London teaching hospital to a trust on the south coast.
Lansley 'will back merger of Chase Farm and North Middlesex hospitals'

18-Aug-2011
STRUCTURE: HSJ understands Andrew Lansley will recommend Chase Farm Hospital is merged with a neighbouring trust.
Fifteen per cent of patients wait more than year at hospital

18-Aug-2011
Fifteen per cent of patients faced waits of more than a year to receive elective treatment at one hospital trust, Department of Health figures reveal.
Foundation trusts reveal new merger ideas to survive

18 August 2011
Three acute foundation trusts have revealed plans to ensure their survival through mergers, plans submitted to Monitor show.
Stroke metric could show cost of whole care pathway

18 August 2011
Proving that better stroke care can have a positive impact on the economy is one of the goals of a new research project..
Fourteen FTs ended 2010-11 in deficit

16-Aug-2011
Fourteen foundation trusts finished 2010-11 in the red, with their combined deficit totalling £66m for the year, according to data from Monitor.
First foundation trust authorised in four months announced

4-Aug-2011
STRUCTURE: The first organisation to receive authorisation to become a foundation trust in four months was announced on Friday.
More district generals predicting financial problems

4-Aug-2011
The number of district general hospitals predicting the lowest finance ratings has almost tripled in the space of a year, prompting a call for them to consider redesigning their processes.
Lansley condemns commissioners as 'cynical' over choice restrictions

29-Jul-2011
Health secretary Andrew Lansley today said primary care trusts “game the system” to “delay treatment”, in response to the Co-operation and Competition Panel’s investigation of choice in elective care.
Commissioners 'excessively constraining' patient choice

28-Jul-2011
Commissioners are restricting patient choice and choking competition in routine elective care, the Cooperation and Competition Panel has found.
Lansley's delay to reconfiguration 'risks patient safety'

28-Jul-2011
A London acute trust chair has said “specious” delays to a reconfiguration have increased risks to patient safety.
Reconfiguration pressures mounting in London

28 July 2011
A report is sat on Andrew Lansley’s desk offering recommendations about the future of Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield.
CCP calls in London mega-merger for scrutiny

27-Jul-2011
The Co-operation and Competition Panel today called in the merger of Barts and the London, Whipps Cross and Newham hospitals for further scrutiny.
District general hospital selects FT as takeover partner

27-Jul-2011
STRUCTURE: Trafford Healthcare Trust, with a turnover of £96m, has selected a takeover partner from bids submitted by two nearby foundation trusts.
Private hospital spend varies widely, study shows

26-Jul-2011
Significant variations exist in the proportion of work primary care trusts commission from independent sector providers, a study shared with HSJ reveals.
Two foundation trusts breach private patient cap

22-Jul-2011
FINANCE: Two trusts breached their private patient caps in 2010-11, Monitor’s annual report on foundation trusts has revealed.
Health minister calls for pause to 'reckless' reconfiguration of his local trust

22-Jul-2011
Health minister Paul Burstow has said services could be put “at risk” by a hospital merger proposed near his constituency on the Surrey and London border.
McKinsey appointed to acute reorganisation contract

21-Jul-2011
STRUCTURE: Management consultancy McKinsey has been contracted to examine the future of two hospital trusts.
PCT rapped over skin cancer service standards

21 July 2011
COMMERCIAL: A dermatology contract negotiated by a primary care trust did not meet National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence standards and left patients at greater risk of cancer, a report has concluded.
Trust pins hopes on merger to avoid referral over deficit

21 July 2011
FINANCE: Auditors are considering reporting Whipps Cross University Hospital to the health secretary for failing to break even last year.
Sir David made colonel in Territorial Army

14-Jul-2011
NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson has been made honorary colonel in the 306 Hospital Support Medical Regiment (Volunteers).
Overview and scrutiny panel responsible for 'a tragedy', councillor says

8-Jul-2011
The former chair of a county council’s health overview and scrutiny committee has described the delayed reconfiguration of a trust as “a tragedy”, and blamed the local HOSC.
FTN: the DH needs to explain where the money has gone

8-Jul-2011
The Department of Health needs to explain to trusts working on their savings targets where the money has gone, the head of the FTN has said.
Monitor directors say FTs 'opportunistic' in acquiring community services

8-Jul-2011
The foundation trust regulator has criticised the “opportunistic” approach of trusts to absorbing community services.
Aspirant FTs to have debt 'restructured'

7-Jul-2011
Aspirant foundation trusts with liquidity or debt problems could have their debt restructured, the Department of Health’s head of provider development has said.
DH to review FT application process to avoid 'embarrassment'

7 July 2011
The Department of Health is overhauling the process for checking whether a trust is ready to apply for foundation status to avoid “embarrassing” the health secretary, HSJ has discovered.
Trust sells half its beds to rent them back

7 July 2011
FINANCE: A hospital trust has sold half of its beds to a Dutch company for half a million pounds and is leasing them back, HSJ has discovered.
London trusts fail ambulance handover targets

6-Jul-2011
PERFORMANCE: Ambulance handover times have deteriorated across the capital since the government relaxed accident and emergency targets last year, a report has said.
Foundation trusts borrowing over £1bn from DH

6-Jul-2011
Foundation trusts have secured loans worth more than £1bn from the Department of Health, HSJ can reveal, prompting concern about the impact of increased debts on foundation trust independence.
Seven trusts and two primary care trusts finished 2010-11 in deficit, DH says

30-Jun-2011
Two primary care trusts and seven trusts finished the year in deficit, according to figures released by the Department of Health.
District general hospital confirms it is going for independent foundation trust status

30-Jun-2011
A financially-challenged district general hospital has confirmed that it will attempt to get to foundation trust status independently.
In-house consultancy saves NHS £2.5m

30-Jun-2011
The NHS’s in-house consultancy service says it saved trusts an estimated £2.5m in consultancy fees in 2010-11.
Giant trust could emerge from London merger plan

30 June 2011
STRUCTURE: Two London trusts have asked management consultants to assess their future configuration options, including a potential merger that would create one of the biggest providers in England.
District generals face questions over their survival

24-Jun-2011
The Department of Health’s head of provider development has questioned whether district general hospitals can survive within their present “organisational boundaries”.
London trusts encouraged by delayed 'drop dead' date for FT status

23 June 2011
So what does the slackening off of the pressure behind the foundation trust pipeline mean for London, the most stubborn of regions in resisting an all-FT health service?
London consortium writes to CCP over 'monopoly' merger

23 June 2011
STRUCTURE: A London commissioning consortium has complained to the Co-operation and Competition Panel about a merger that would create the biggest provider organisation in England.
Exclusive: NHS efficiency drive won’t close whole hospitals, says Sir David

22-Jun-2011
No “whole hospital” will have to close as a result of the drive to find £20bn of efficiencies from the NHS budget, NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson has insisted to HSJ.
DH denies FT momentum will be lost

22-Jun-2011
The Department of Health has denied that the impetus behind achieving foundation trust status for all trusts would evaporate after the dropping of the 2014 deadline.
Trusts missing NICE guidelines on stroke treatment

21-Jun-2011
“Considerable variation” exists in the time taken to provide stroke prevention surgery, data from the Royal College of Physicians and the Vascular Society has shown.
Royal colleges to be enlisted to identify procedures at risk of 'cherry picking'

20-Jun-2011
The Department of Health command paper on choice, competition and a failure regime for trusts sets out some specifics but leaves many questions unanswered.
London's commissioner-provider relationships set on edge

16-Jun-2011
Which bit of London has the worst commissioner/provider relationships?
Commissioners to investigate 'disproportionate' activity rise

16 June 2011
PERFORMANCE: Commissioners in west London ordered a report into short stay emergency admissions at their main hospital after becoming suspicious about an activity rise in the run-up to the trust’s Monitor application.
Local authorities to have 'formal role' in authorising Clinical Commissioning Groups

14-Jun-2011
Local authority health and wellbeing boards will have a formal role in authorising consortia, the coalition response to the Future Forum has said.
In full: government responds to NHS Future Forum

14-Jun-2011
The government has responded to the NHS Future Forum, confirming agreed changes to its overhaul of the service.
Government scraps 'pipeline' deadline to become a foundation trust

14-Jun-2011
The government has ducked a self-imposed deadline for creating an all-foundation trust provider sector, and scrapped its proposals for safeguarding specific services.
Quality premiums and Any Qualified Provider supported by Future Forum

13-Jun-2011
Quality premiums for commissioning consortia and the “any qualified provider” policy both escaped censure or proposed modification in the Future Forum’s report.
Councils poised to scale back consortia freedoms

13-Jun-2011
Councils will eat into the freedoms commissioning consortia expected to gain if the recommendations of the patient involvement and public accountability group are implemented.
PFI 'barriers' to FT status affecting fewer than 10 trusts

9-Jun-2011
Claims by more than half of the trusts that argued private finance initiatives were a barrier to their obtaining foundation trust status cannot be justified, an insider has revealed to HSJ.
Exclusive: dozens of trusts missed savings targets in 2010-11

9 June 2011
Trusts missed 2010-11’s efficiency targets by nearly 10 per cent before even tougher demands came into force this year, an HSJ analysis reveals.
Exclusive: FT income busts target as pay drives costs over plan

8-Jun-2011
Foundation trusts took more than half a billion over-plan in income in 2010-11, a Monitor report seen by HSJ reveals.
Organisational reform poses 'catastrophic' information risk

2-Jun-2011
Managers could “stumble into illegality” by breaching the Data Protection Act as a result of the rapid structural reforms to the NHS, HSJ has learned.
Cluster considering centralising pathology services across five PCTs

2 June 2011
STRUCTURE: The south west London primary care trust cluster is looking to centralise the procurement of pathology services as part of a wider review of care.
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare eyed for potential takeover

2-Jun-2011
FINANCE: Expectation is growing that Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust may be one of the next acute trusts put up for takeover.
Struggling trusts owe DH quarter of a billion in bailout cash

26-May-2011
Trusts owe the Department of Health a quarter of a billion pounds, with most of the debt resulting from mass bailouts made during the financial crisis of 2006, DH figures reveal.
NHS South West overrules PCT in 'any qualified provider' and ISTC conflict

26 May 2011
FINANCE: NHS South West has overruled commissioners who were restricting use of the “any qualified provider” policy to avoid the risk of paying for work carried out by private providers.
Screening programmes under threat in London

26 May 2011
Chlamydia screening is not a big outlay for commissioners but they are measured on it, along with other screening programmes.
Shared support services arm up for sale

26 May 2011
COMMERCIAL: Trusts in the East of England region are selling a support services body that serves primary and mental health services in two counties.
HPA report finds weaknesses in London emergency preparedness

20-May-2011
PERFORMANCE: The NHS in London must improve cross-boundary working, review staff contracts and enlist the help of the third sector to better meet emergencies, a report uncovered by HSJ reveals.
Monitor urges trusts to use service line system

19-May-2011
Monitor is encouraging trusts to use service line management to improve quality and control costs, amid evidence that senior management is taking back control of trust finances.
Providers warn over dangers of PCT ‘war chest’

19-May-2011
NHS commissioners are building a “war chest” to fund service reorganisation and deal with financial emergencies. But providers are warning the move risks “unnecessary cuts to jobs and services”.
Competition of services could have 'unintended consequences', warns FTN

19 May 2011
“Unbundling” services to subject them to competition will be “very difficult” for the new NHS economic regulator, the head of the Foundation Trust Network has warned.
Senior medical figures criticise post-discharge care

12-May-2011
Senior medical figures have attacked the quality of care for patients coming out of hospital following an operation.
Exclusive: care quality variations revealed in Dr Foster data

12 May 2011
Large disparities in key patient care indicators across trusts in England have been revealed in data shared exclusively with HSJ.
Hospital doctors set to have role in consortia authorisation

11-May-2011
The Department of Health is considering giving hospital doctors a say in the authorisation of GP consortia, the NHS medical director has said.
Mental health FT set to become London's largest community service provider

9-May-2011
STRUCTURE: A mental health trust is set to become the largest provider of community services in the capital following the takeover of a primary care trust provider arm.
Hospital chief executive steps down after board delays FT application

6-May-2011
STRUCTURE: A London hospital trust chief executive has stepped down, saying the trust board’s decision to delay its foundation application “has led me to consider my position”.
Minister announces merger option for non-FT acute

6-May-2011
STRUCTURE: A merger or independent franchise are among the options for a hospital trust which has a private finance deal preventing it from achieving foundation status.
Smaller trusts forced to rethink FT plans

5-May-2011
STRUCTURE: Several smaller trusts that could not confirm the date on which they will apply for foundation status had previously been confident of achieving it.
Acute trusts' FT plans slip back a year

4-May-2011
More than a quarter of the acute trusts still bidding for foundation status have seen their application date slip by over a year.
Monitor increases efficiency target to 'reflect the economic outlook'

28-Apr-2011
Foundation trusts may have to make significant increases in efficiency savings if a “worst case” scenario predicted by the regulator hits the sector.
Londonwide GP council to represent capital's pathfinders

27-Apr-2011
STRUCTURE: A single forum now represents all of London’s 38 pathfinder consortia.
Joint pathology venture fairly awarded, CCP decides

26-Apr-2011
A foundation trust did not breach competition principles in selecting a public/private partnership for its pathology services, the NHS market regulator has found.
Exclusive: hospital trust considers private franchise

21-Apr-2011
The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital has become the third NHS trust to consider becoming privately managed after admitting it cannot achieve foundation status in the short term.
A chief executive merry-go-round in London

21 April 2011
It appears to be poacher turned gamekeeper season among the capital’s chief executives.
Trusts set 'unlikely' savings targets for 2011-12

20-Apr-2011
England’s acute trusts have increased the scale of their cost improvement programmes by nearly a third in 2011-12, an HSJ analysis reveals.
Exclusive: government admits PFI deals mean 22 trusts will struggle to meet foundation status target

15-Apr-2011
The Department of Health has named 22 hospitals with private finance deals that are “an obstacle to them achieving FT status by April 2014”.
'Any qualified provider' guidance to slow market expansion

14 April 2011
Forthcoming guidance on the “any qualified provider” policy will see competition phased in more slowly than expected and the creation of a national register of private providers authorised to bid for NHS work, HSJ can reveal.
Reconfiguration threatening to derail London service level agreements

14 April 2011
No sooner were service level agreements more or less signed off by London acutes and commissioners, than reconfiguration issues reared their head.
Ambulance trust announces 890 post cuts

12-Apr-2011
London Ambulance Service Trust has said it expects to cut 890 posts over the next five years to save £53m.
Exclusive: SHA troubleshooter now confirmed in turnaround role at England's biggest trust

8-Apr-2011
As reported by HSJ earlier this week Mark Davies has now been confirmed as interim chief executive at Imperial College Healthcare Trust.
Exclusive: Two more directors to leave Imperial following announcement of chief exec's departure

7-Apr-2011
One of the largest NHS trusts in England has confirmed it is set to lose its chief financial officer and chief information officer, two days after HSJ revealed its chief executive is moving on.
Burns care across three regions 'unsustainable'

7 April 2011
STRUCTURE: The burns care system across three regions is “unsustainable in the long term”, according to a report revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.
London consortium board to include non-GPs

7 April 2011
WORKFORCE: A commissioning consortium in the capital has set out plans to give a range of non GPs a place on its board, including a nurse.
Monitor's intervention threshold lowered in new framework

7 April 2011
Monitor is set to intervene in more foundation trusts that are in danger of breaching their authorisation.
Exclusive: national social enterprise could handle communications for GP consortia

5-Apr-2011
The Department of Health is considering setting up a national social enterprise to handle communications for commissioning consortia, HSJ can reveal.
'GPs run the risk of alienating themselves from their colleagues'

10 March 2011
As the BMA gears up for a crisis meeting to debate the Health Bill, the chair of its consultant and specialists committee voices his fears of a huge split between members - and a ‘seething cauldron’ of competing providers in the future.
Competition panel to rule on pathology deal

10 March 2011
A foundation trust’s £300m deal with another trust and a private company to outsource pathology services has been challenged under procurement rules.
Mental health merger ruled against over competition concerns

10 March 2011
The Cooperation and Competition Panel has ruled outright against a merger between two trusts for the first time.
Moorfields abandons Abu Dhabi expansion plan

10 March 2011
COMMERCIAL: Moorfields Eye Hospital Foundation Trust has abandoned a plan to expand its Dubai operation into Abu Dhabi.
Lansley fights back on competition

3-Mar-2011
Andrew Lansley has replied to shadow health secretary John Healey attacking Labour’s record on competition and saying amendments to his bill would be tabled to make clear that there will be no price competition.
Government amends Health Bill

3-Mar-2011
*** UPDATED*** The government has laid an amendment to its Health and Social Care bill removing the previous reference to the tariff being the “maximum” price.
'Stark' differences in capital's chlamydia screening effectiveness

3 March 2011
PERFORMANCE: An NHS London report has highlighted “stark” differences in the effectiveness of chlamydia screening programmes across its primary care trusts.
Tariff weighting could 'reduce' trust mergers - King's Fund

3 March 2011
Paying a higher tariff rate to trusts with larger capital costs could reduce the need for hospital reconfigurations, a report from the King’s Fund has claimed.
Readmissions penalties surpass savings target

2-Mar-2011
The tougher non-payment policy for emergency readmissions could cost some hospitals even more in 2011-12 than the planned 1.5 per cent cut in tariff prices.
New chair designate for super-cluster appointed

25-Feb-2011
A chair designate has been appointed for one of the largest primary care trust clusters in the country.
Healey asks Lansley for clarity on price competition

24-Feb-2011
Shadow health secretary John Healey has written to Andrew Lansley asking for clarity on price competition.
Commissioners flouting patient choice rules

24 February 2011
NHS commissioners have been routinely depriving patients of their entitlement to choice of hospital for several years and may be in breach of competition rules, regulators have found.
Transparency in London reveals hive of activity

24 February 2011
Are the GPs in south-west London the most proactive in the capital?
Compensation danger over LIFT contract transfers

24 February 2011
The impending abolition of primary care trusts has made the NHS vulnerable to claims totalling in the “high hundreds of millions” from companies that hold local improvement finance trust contracts.
Kingston consortium demands fair play from PCT cluster

24 February 2011
CHANGE IN STRUCTURE: A GP consortium in south-west London has written to its primary care trust cluster chief executive demanding to be “dealt with fairly” and revealing it intends to use the consultancy KPMG for their 2011-12 development plan.
Barts double merger moves a step closer

23-Feb-2011
The creation of a new £1.1bn turnover organisation has moved a step closer after NHS London ruled an acute trust could merge with two smaller hospitals.
Circle refers two PCTs to Cooperation and Competition Panel

22-Feb-2011
An independent hospital group has referred two primary care trusts to the Co-operation and Competition Panel over claims of unfair procurement policy, including sub-tariff pricing.
Lansley U-turn on price competition

18-Feb-2011
The government has performed a significant U-turn on allowing price competition between NHS trusts and independent providers.
'Challenged' acute trusts abandon independent FT status plans

17 February 2011
More than half of the Department of Health’s seven financially “challenged” trusts appear to have abandoned plans to become foundation trusts.
FT governors calls for CQC quality assessment

17 February 2011
The Foundation Trust Governors Association has called for the Care Quality Commission to assess the quality of governors.
PCTs agree to consult on children's congenital heart services

16-Feb-2011
A joint committee of primary care trusts has given the go-ahead for a consultation on plans for greater centralisation of paediatric cardiac care.
New chief executive for integrated care organisation

11-Feb-2011
A new chief executive has been announced for a London integrated care organisation.
Lansley: Competition will protect commissioners from 'abusive relationships'

11-Feb-2011
Andrew Lansley has defended the competition agenda set out in the Health Bill during the committee stage its passage through Parliament.
South west London cluster negotiates below-tariff prices for urgent admissions

10 February 2011
FINANCE: Commissioners in London plan to shave millions off what they pay for urgent care with a package of measures including locally-negotiated below-tariff prices.
Trusts court GPs ahead of consortia engagement

10 February 2011
WORKFORCE: Hospital trusts in London are investing in courting GPs ahead of policy changes which will see consortia take over commissioning NHS services.
PCT non-execs to hold clusters to account

10 February 2011
The Department of Health has had to revise its guidance on primary care trust non-executive directors amid concerns their role is being squeezed in the move to group 151 PCTs into clusters.
Primary care trusts set to defy DH over IVF policy

10 February 2011
Commissioners have ignored the Department of Health’s plea to follow National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on fertility treatment.
Bailouts, arbitration and postcode lotteries in London

10 February 2011
The higher than expected workload of the capital’s acute trusts has now seen bailouts, at least one arbitration and an intra-London postcode lottery as primary care trusts struggle to cope.
Two more trusts achieve foundation status

3-Feb-2011
Monitor has confirmed two more trusts have achieved foundation status.
Flory tells PCTs to give providers leeway over winter pressures

3 February 2011
Commissioners have been urged to adjust their payments to hospital trusts struggling to deal with winter pressures on emergency care.
Three per cent of public health funds could go to Mayor

3 February 2011
The Mayor of London could take three percent of the money allocated to councils for public health in the capital.
Procurement inefficiencies costing £500m, report finds

2-Feb-2011
Providers could save £500m by standardising orders of products like paper and gloves and sharing the savings made by purchasing in bulk across a group of trusts, according to a National Audit Office report.
NHS trust buys back its PFI debt

1-Feb-2011
A mental health trust is believed to be the first NHS organisation to have bought back its private finance initiative debt from its private sector partner.
Monitor may pay private providers more

25-Jan-2011
Private providers could be paid 14 per cent more than NHS competitors to encourage a fairer playing field, under changes in the Health Bill.
Last of London's contentious reconfigurations set to be approved

21-Jan-2011
The last of the capital’s contentious hospital reconfiguration plans is due to be approved by its strategic health authority next week.
Trusts battle for right to absorb smaller non-FTs

21-Jan-2011
Two London hospital trusts, one of which is struggling with a large private finance initiative, are competing to swallow up two smaller trusts.
Tribunal to have responsibility for settling disputes over protected services

20-Jan-2011
A tribunal will be set up to adjudicate when a provider wants to remove a “designated service” status granted by Monitor.
Framework for FT no-hopers 'in the coming weeks'

20-Jan-2011
The Department of Health’s managing director of provider development has said the new arrangements for getting non-foundation trusts authorised will be published soon.
New freedoms set out for NHS foundation trusts

19-Jan-2011
Mergers will be considerably easier for foundation trusts under the rules set out in the health bill.
Audit Commission issues public interest report on struggling acute trust

19-Jan-2011
The Audit Commission today issued a public interest report declaring an acute trust had “failed to meet its statutory financial duty” to break even over the five-year period ending last March.
Innovation Expo to profile QIPP programme

19-Jan-2011
Sir David Nicholson and health minister Earl Howe are spearheading the Department of Health’s support for the 2011 Healthcare Innovation Expo, which takes place in London’s Docklands on 9-10 March.
Nicholson: NHS commissioning board will step in if consortia falter

19-Jan-2011
In the first interview since his appointment as chief executive of the NHS Commissioning Board, Sir David Nicholson has outlined the measures it could take against poorly performing commissioning consortia.
Trust in breach of six CQC standards

19-Jan-2011
One of the Department of Health’s seven “financially challenged” trusts has been found in breach of standards in six separate areas by the Care Quality Commission.
'Direct management' of under-par consortia an option, says Nicholson

13-Jan-2011
NHS chief executive David Nicholson has set out the measures he anticipates using on commissioning consortia that are not competent by the go-live date.
Readmission savings plan softened

13 January 2011
Commissioners face having to redraw their budgets after changes to emergency readmission policy.
Chief execs at two "challenged trusts" change roles

12-Jan-2011
The leaders at two of the capital’s “challenged trusts” have changed roles, with one leaving for the strategic health authority and the other taking his place.
Community foundation trusts may buy premises with Treasury cash

12-Jan-2011
Aspirant community foundation trusts will be able to acquire the primary care trust estate they operate from with Treasury resources, the Department of Health has said.
PCT restricts doctors from making 'expensive, non-urgent referrals' to London providers

11-Jan-2011
A primary care trust has told clinicians it must approve any referrals to London trusts because of the extra expense involved.
Monitor issues list of lessons to be learnt from failed FT bids as list of planned mergers grows

10-Jan-2011
Monitor has published a list of lessons to be learnt from recent failed foundation trust applications.
Acute trust chief executive steps down

7-Jan-2011
The chief executive of a hospital trust has resigned with immediate effect.
Five trusts now predicting year-end deficits

23-Dec-2010
Four primary care trusts and one hospital trust who were predicting year-end surpluses in the first quarter of 2010-11 are now predicting deficits.
CCP to investigate PCTs 'restricting choice and competition'

17-Dec-2010
The Co-operation and Competition Panel is to investigate complaints that primary care trusts are restricting choice and competition, and setting discriminatory contracts.
Service reconfiguration at London trust a step closer

16-Dec-2010
Plans to close a hospital’s emergency and maternity services came a step closer last night after a joint committee of primary care trusts approved the proposals.
Productivity gains elude NHS trusts

17 December 2010
The NHS failed at the twin challenges of reducing emergency admissions and providing more care outside hospital in the last financial year, according to an Audit Commission report.
Hereford integrated care organisation approved

17 December 2010
A new form of integrated care organisation has received approval from the cooperation and competition panel.
Another reconfiguration passes Lansley's 'four tests'

15-Dec-2010
One of the reconfigurations stopped under Andrew Lansley’s post-election moratorium on hospital closures has been approved by a strategic health authority.
NHS operating framework reasserts central 'grip'

15-Dec-2010
Strategic health authorities will hold back 2 per cent of primary care trusts’ allocations next year to ensure funds are available to meet the “costs of change”.
New Provider Development Authority to govern non-FTs

15-Dec-2010
All non-foundation trusts will be governed and performance managed by a new central agency by April 2012.
Providers freed to set their own referral to treatment targets and set prices below tariff

15-Dec-2010
The revised operating framework has freed providers to set prices below the tariff and set their own referral to treatment targets, opening the field further to competition.
NHS given another year to hit £20bn savings target

15-Dec-2010
The NHS will have another year to achieve the quality, innovation, productivity and prevention savings target of £20bn, the operating framework has announced.
Dorrell's committee warns about impact of 'unprecedented' efficiency target

14-Dec-2010
The Commons health committee has warned real terms cuts to adult social care will almost inevitably translate into unfunded extra demand on the NHS.
IRP to review ward closure

13-Dec-2010
The Independent Reconfiguration Panel is to review the closure of a single ward at a troubled acute trust.
Merger plans announced as FT deadline looms

9 December 2010
A rush of acute hospital mergers have been announced in the wake of the Department of Health deadline for submitting plans to become a foundation trust.
CQC to scan Twitter for care complaints

9 December 2010
The Care Quality Commission is working on an IT system to monitor social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for complaints about care homes and healthcare providers.
Hospital trust announces merger proposals

6-Dec-2010
A second non-foundation trust has this morning announced plans to merge with a foundation trust.
Trafford forced to drop integration plans in favour of merger with FT

3-Dec-2010
A Manchester hospital trust has had to abandon its plans to become an integrated care trust in order to attain foundation status.
Letwin called in to scrutinise Lansley's plans

2-Dec-2010
Cabinet minister Oliver Letwin is to re-examine Andrew Lansley’s plans for the NHS, prompting Labour to claim it is a sign of “how isolated the health secretary has become”.
NHS Partners in row over ‘cosy’ deal

2 December 2010
The carve-up of primary care trust provider arms has seen mental health and acute trusts pick up the greatest amount of work while the private sector will secure the least.
Circle wins battle to run hospital

2 December 2010
Private provider Circle is set to run Hinchingbrooke Health Care Trust in Cambridgeshire for 10 years under an operating franchise.
NHS London gives hundreds of staff at-risk notices

25-Nov-2010
NHS London has begun alerting hundreds of staff internally and across the capital’s 31 primary care trusts that their jobs are at risk.
Commissioning consortia told to buy in admin support

24-Nov-2010
Department of Health commissioning lead Dame Barbara Hakin has said commissioning consortia should outsource many of the responsibilities inherited from primary care trusts.
Hint at debt free start for commissioning consortia

24-Nov-2010
A minister and senior Department of Health official both hinted that strategic health authority surpluses will be used to ensure commissioning consortia do not start life saddled with primary care trust debts.
Academics criticise the pace of change

19-Nov-2010
Academics have warned MPs the pace of the government’s reforms on commissioning will endanger the NHS, even if they are good policies in principle.
SHAs to set senior managers' pay at aspirant CFTs

17-Nov-2010
NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson’s decision to leave aspirant community foundation trust pay decisions with strategic health authorities could be a barrier to appointments, unions have warned.
Olympics corporate sponsorship a 'challenge' to public health

9-Nov-2010
The line-up of likely fast food and alcohol sponsors to the London 2012 Olympic Games represents a public health “challenge”, the NHS lead for the event has said.
Patients Association rubbishes local invovement networks

9-Nov-2010
The Patients Association has criticised the current patient involvement system and expressed doubt about white paper plans to reform it.
Trust plans closure of seven wards

4 November 2010
A hospital trust plans to close the equivalent of seven wards to get back into financial balance.
GP commissioner groups ‘will be size of PCTs’

3-Nov-2010
One of NHS London’s leading GPs has said most of the capital’s commissioning groups will be the same size as primary care trusts.
Voluntary MARS pay-off plan attracts very few takers

3-Nov-2010
A key government initiative to reduce NHS management costs is heading for failure, HSJ research suggests
NHS estate and hotel services heavily outsourced

28 October 2010
Almost one third of NHS estate and hotel service costs are now provided through contracts with the private sector, latest figures show.
Outsourcing quotas to drive mixed health services provider market

27-Oct-2010
The Treasury has announced plans to “explore” setting quotas for outsourcing key health services.
Midlands trusts plan joint pathology service

27-Oct-2010
The 2008 Lord Carter of Coles review of NHS pathology services was the trigger for a steady reconfiguration of the market and consolidation of providers.
PCTs differ widely over antibiotics prescription

21 October 2010
There are wide disparities in antibacterial drugs prescribing by primary care trust area, figures shared exclusively with HSJ reveal.
Bad referrals waste district nurses’ time

21 October 2010
Every mismanaged referral to a district nurse wastes five hours of their time, research by the provider arm for three London primary care trusts has found.
NHS capital spending to fall by 17 per cent

20-Oct-2010
NHS capital spending will fall by 17 per cent in real terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15, the chancellor said today.
MP calls for NAO investigation into 'misguided' halting of reconfiguration plans

19-Oct-2010
An MP has asked the National Audit Office to investigate health secretary Andrew Lansley’s decision to order a review of a reconfiguration consultation.
Private companies gear up to take stake in stalled community hospitals

19-Oct-2010
A private firm is planning to step in to fund 28 stalled community hospital projects, HSJ has learned.
NHS London volunteers external oversight in 'Lansley tests' over reconfiguration plans

19-Oct-2010
NHS London could lose its responsibility for applying the four tests Andrew Lansley has ordered all hospital reconfiguration plans to meet.
‘Nearly £2bn could be saved’ in NHS property sell-offs

14 October 2010
The NHS owns empty or under-used buildings and land that could be sold for £1.45bn, saving a further £521m in revenue costs each year, according to a new study seen exclusively by HSJ.
NHS estate services costs vary widely

14 October 2010
The EC Harris study found significant variations between the best and worst performing trusts on estate costs.
SHAs contrast sharply on community proposals

14 October 2010
The Transforming Community Services programme is taking primary care in different directions at opposite ends of the country, research by HSJ shows.
Unison's white paper legal challenge heard in the High Court

13-Oct-2010
A Department of Health legal team is in the High Court today to defend against claims the white paper broke consultation rules.
Transforming Community Services: PCTs step closer to deciding fate of provider arms

7 October 2010
Primary care trusts are edging closer to determining the future of their provider arms.
NHS London to speed up management cost reductions

4-Oct-2010
London strategic health authority is bringing forward a planned £50m cut in its management costs by a year.
DH to pay £18m to stricken FT

23-Sep-2010
The Department of Health has agreed to lend £18m to a struggling foundation trust.
Midwife workloads too high to be safe

23 September 2010
Midwives in some regions of England have workloads more than a third higher than hospital safety standards recommend, official figures have suggested.
Nursing regulator to explore extension of powers

23 September 2010
The Nursing and Midwifery Council plans to explore how to monitor “systemic failure” in NHS trusts.
Eight PCTs to share single management

22-Sep-2010
Representatives of eight London primary care trusts have agreed to put their organisations into three clusters under one management framework, saving £48m.
LIFT planners try to beat project clampdown date

16 September 2010
Around £300m worth of agreed primary sector capital projects are at risk if next month’s spending review scraps the projects in the local improvement finance trust programme pipeline.
King’s Fund criticises GPs on dementia diagnosis

16 September 2010
GPs are “unable or unwilling” to recognise dementia symptoms, evidence presented to the King’s Fund suggests.
Bacteria linked to sink misuse

16 September 2010
The Department of Health has set up a working group to look at the safety of hospital taps following reports of antibiotic resistant infections tracked to bacteria found in wash basins.
DH critical of loophole in pension rules

16 September 2010
The Department of Health has said community service social enterprises should not exploit a loophole that would allow them to give new staff access to the NHS pension scheme.
Private company to run community hospital

16 September 2010
A primary care trust has said it is the first in the country to appoint a private company to run a community hospital.
Chief executive of NHS Scotland stepping down

15-Sep-2010
The chief executive of the NHS in Scotland is quitting to take up the equivalent job in New Zealand.
Mental health patients do not know who to call in emergency

14-Sep-2010
Nearly half of mental health service users do not know who to contact in a crisis outside office hours, a major Care Quality Commission survey has revealed.
White paper leads to shake up in top posts at SHAs

10-Sep-2010
UPDATED: Department of Health announces managers who will lead the transition implementing the white paper.
Primary finance body divides into three arms

9 September 2010
The Department of Health owned company that arranges private finance deals for the primary care sector is to be divided into regional arms.
DH consults on prescribing powers in community services

8-Sep-2010
The Department of Health is consulting on whether physiotherapists and podiatrists should be given prescribing powers.
Superbug risk from hospital sinks

3-Sep-2010
The Department of Health has issued an alert warning that hospital wash basins have been identified as a source of gram negative bacteria.
Social enterprise bid rethink by North East PCTs

1-Sep-2010
A ballot on whether to turn three primary care trust provider arms in the North East into a social enterprise has been suspended.
Bids deadline nears for PCT social enterprises

26 August 2010
Primary care trusts wanting their provider arms to become social enterprises will have to get their bids in by the end of next month, HSJ has learnt.
North East PCTs to vote on forming social enterprise

25-Aug-2010
Around 2,500 staff at three primary care trust provider arms in the North East are to be balloted about becoming the largest social enterprise in the health sector.
Transforming community services 'a mistake', says top PCT chief exec

25-Aug-2010
The NHS will regret the rush to vertically integrate community services with acute trusts, the chief executive of England’s top performing primary care trust has warned.
Inequality fears over patient ID guidance

19 August 2010
Guidance recommending GPs ask patients for a proof of their address or other identity before registering will block disadvantaged patients from accessing primary care, HSJ has been told.
NHS service reconfigurations 'surge' expected

5 August 2010
The NHS looks set to see a “surge” of major changes to hospital services in the next 18 months after the government effectively lifted its moratorium on reconfiguration.
GPs overlook public health for QOF cash

5 August 2010
The quality and outcomes framework has resulted in GPs focusing too narrowly on certain conditions to the detriment of their wider public health role, the King’s Fund has warned.
Media Watch: NHS trusts may soon be courting oligarchs

5 August 2010
A front page on the financial arrangements of foundation trusts? Well it wasn’t likely to be The Sun.
Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trusts paediatric cardiac surgery unit to remain closed

5 August 2010
The paediatric cardiac surgery unit at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust should remain closed, according to a report published last week.
Personal health budget pilots raise concerns

4-Aug-2010
Managers involved in the pilots for personal health budgets have expressed concerns over equity and increased cost, a report commissioned by the Department of Health says.
SHA report calls for unit to remain closed after paediatric deaths

29-Jul-2010
A report has called for the smallest paediatric cardiac surgery unit in the country to remain closed.
Monitor says FT in 'significant breach' of its authorisation

29-Jul-2010
Monitor has declared Poole Hospital Foundation Trust to be in breach of its terms of authorisation.
NHS technology uptake ‘slow’

28-Jul-2010
NHS managers are still slow to adopt new technology that can save money.
Organ transfer taskforce pays trusts £1.8m

28-Jul-2010
Payments have been made to 178 trusts in the UK to keep ventilators switched on after patients have died so their organs can be harvested.
£50m interim cancer drugs fund announced

27-Jul-2010
Ministers have announced a £50m interim cancer drugs pot before the creation of the fully-fledged fund promised before the election.
Don’t sideline sexual health, warn clinicians

22 July 2010
Leading figures in sexual health have called on health secretary Andrew Lansley not to ignore the sector.
IT upgrade gains DH data security confidence

15 July 2010
The Department of Health has given the green light to an IT upgrade delayed by concerns about allowing a US contractor to access UK health records.
GP commissioners warned to heed EU law

15 July 2010
The GP commissioning groups planned by health secretary Andrew Lansley will need to be aware of how EU procurement law could affect the way they purchase services, a law firm has warned.
Emergency care support teams called to help one in five trusts

15 July 2010
Around one in five eligible NHS organisations have called in an expert team to help resolve emergency care problems.
HealthWatch to be part of the CQC

12-Jul-2010
The new body to “strengthen the collective voice of patients” in the NHS will be part of the Care Quality Commission, the white paper announced.
Broadmoor trust makes ‘significant progress’

8 July 2010
A mental health trust has made “significant improvements” since a Care Quality Commission report last year which criticised it for delays in investigating incidents.
Health inequalities spearheads wavered on targets

7-Jul-2010
Effective action on reducing health inequalities did not begin until nine years after the election of the Labour government, according to the National Audit Office.
Lost theatre time opportunity

1 July 2010
Acute foundation trusts lose a third of their operating theatre time to late starts and early finishes by clinical teams, according to research presented by the Foundation Trust Network.
DH to consult on cutting its supplied staff

1 July 2010
A consultation on job cuts at the Department of Health will be announced on Thursday, HSJ has been told.
Future NHS accountability unclear, warns think tank

25-Jun-2010
The head of the King’s Fund Chris Ham has told delegates at the NHS Confederation annual conference that a test of health secretary Andrew Lansley’s commitment to taking the politics out of the NHS could come as the first big crisis.
Third of operating time lost to late starts and early finishes

25-Jun-2010
Acute foundation trusts lost a third of their operating theatre time to late starts and early finishes by the clinical teams, according to research presented by the Foundation Trust Network (FTN) at the NHS Confederation annual conference.
Managers must not underestimate effect of EU law

24-Jun-2010
NHS managers should not underestimate the effect EU law could have on the supply and organisation of their services, a NHS Confederation session was told.
DH raises cost-cuts target by a third

24 June 2010
The Department of Health has increased the size of the reduction in NHS management costs by March 2012 by more than a third.
‘HCAs can help boost satisfaction ratings’ claim

24 June 2010
A three-year study into the role of healthcare assistants funded by the Department of Health suggests their strong connection to patients can help trusts improve satisfaction ratings.
Sir Michael Marmot 'nervous' about health equalities implications of budget

23-Jun-2010
Sir Michael Marmot, author of the “Fair Society, Healthy Lives” report published earlier this year, has told a plenary session of the NHS Confederation conference that the changes to the benefits system made him “nervous about the redistribution” of wealth, and the effects that would have on health.
NHS Choices 'saves £44m a year in unnecessary consultations'

17 June 2010
The website NHS Choices saves the NHS £44m a year by reducing “avoidable and unnecessary consultations” an unpublished report for the Department of Health says.
Risk linked to surgery volume

10 June 2010
Mortality rates can be up to three times higher for a common operations at smaller, low volume acute trusts than at their larger neighbours in the same region, research published by NHS London suggests.
Data security fears hold up trusts' IT upgrades

10 June 2010
Concern over the security of patient data stored outside of the UK has left IT upgrades at seven trusts in limbo since February, HSJ has learned.
DH launches release of weekly infection rates

10 June 2010
The Department of Health has asked the Health Protection Agency to publish weekly figures for MRSA and C difficile infections.
Trusts to report weekly on infection

7-Jun-2010
The Department of Health has asked the Health Protection Agency to publish hospital infection reports on a rolling basis.
Huge A&E attendance gaps revealed

3 June 2010
The proportion of patients attending accident and emergency departments who are not sick enough to require an admission varies widely across England, unpublished data seen exclusively by HSJ reveals.
‘In intervention’ PCT is to investigate failings

3 June 2010
NHS Portsmouth City has been placed “in intervention” by its strategic health authority.
Lorenzo goes live at Morecambe Bay

1-Jun-2010
A contentious IT system has gone live at its first trust, officials confirmed this morning.
HSJ Awards increase scope

27 May 2010
There are four new categories at this year’s HSJ Awards which opened for entries this week.
Portsmouth City PCT faces external investigation

26-May-2010
A strategic health authority is considering using its strongest powers against a primary care trust, rated as “underperforming” for the seventh consecutive month.
Suicide details hard for mental health commissioners to obtain

26-May-2010
Mental health commissioners are struggling to extract data on suicide prevalence from coroners, HSJ has been told.
GP commissioning and NHS board spelled out in Queen's Speech

25-May-2010
Two central planks of coalition health policy will be in the first wave of the new government’s legislation.
Social care commission launched by Queen's Speech

25-May-2010
The Queen’s Speech confirmed there will be a commission reporting within a year on the funding of long term social care.
Health bill announced in Queen's speech

25-May-2010
The Queen’s speech has prepared the way for a new health bill, the draft text of which was leaked two days ago.
Quangos to be slashed and administration cut

20-May-2010
The coaltion document released on Thursday promised a large-scale redistribution of NHS funds from adminstration to the “front line”.
Reform of NICE, value-based drug pricing and a 'cancer drugs fund' confirmed

20-May-2010
The coaltion government has announced the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence will face “reform”.
Changed role for Monitor and expansion for CQC

20-May-2010
The role of the Care Quality Commission will be “strengthened” and that of Monitor altered, the coalition government announced this morning.
Lib Dems win ground on directly elected PCT boards

20-May-2010
The Liberal Democrats have achieved one of their manifesto pledges by getting a commitment to elected members of PCT boards.
GPs to get commissioning powers - but scant details so far

20-May-2010
The government’s formal coalition agreement confirms GPs will be given commissioning powers - but leaves unanswered questions over their precise responsibilities.
Coalition document sets out raft of NHS reforms

20-May-2010
The government has published a detailed blueprint of its plans for the NHS, bringing together previous policy commitments from the Lib Dems and Conservatives.
Lansley to slash NHS management costs

20 May 2010
Andrew Lansley, the new health secretary, has warned Department of Health staff to brace themselves for a significant cut in their budget this year.
Chief resigns after CQC fears

20 May 2010
The chief executive of Milton Keynes Hospital Foundation Trust, which was recently reprimanded by the Care Quality Commission and Monitor, has resigned.
Midlands trust explores John Lewis staff model

20 May 2010
A Midlands acute trust is investigating a staff ownership model as an alternative to becoming a foundation trust.
GUM data ruled off limits to commissioners

20 May 2010
Commissioners have no right to check where the users of their local acute trust’s genito-urinary medicine service are resident for billing purposes, according to a recent arbitration.
Lansley promises real terms NHS budget increases and greater say for clinicians over reconfiguration

13-May-2010
The new health secretary has said the NHS might face greater efficiency savings than the 3 per cent planned for and that GPs would have a say on hospital reconfiguration.
Monitor to authorise another FT

7-May-2010
Airedale Trust is to become the 130th to achieve foundation status.
Hospital campaign MPs retain seats by small margin

7-May-2010
Two Liberal Democrat MPs who fought a five year battle to preserve an emergency unit in south west London have been returned with majorities of around 2,000.
Warwickshire result casts doubt on NHS reconfiguration proposals

7-May-2010
Chris White has won Warwick and Leamington for the Tories, casting further doubt on proposals to centralise specialist care.
MP who branded hospital downgrade 'barking mad' returned

7-May-2010
Conservative Grant Shapps won his Welwyn Hatfield seat after promising a Tory government would call a moratorium on the closure of a local accident and emergency and maternity unit.
Labour keeps seat where they accused Conservatives of 'scare' tactics on hospital

7-May-2010
Alan Campbell won Tynemouth after challenging the Tories over leaflets suggesting accident and emergency and other services at North Tyneside General Hospital could be cut if Labour won.
PFI revelation fails to tip balance to Lib Dems in North East battleground seat

7-May-2010
Labour’s Roberta Blackman-Woods retained City of Durham after beginning the campaign lauding County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust’s “state of the art £91m hospital”.
Shadow health minister pledging fresh look at hospital configuration elected

7-May-2010
Mike Penning has retained Hemel Hempstead for the Conservatives, leading to a potential conflict with Andrew Lansley.
Tories take seat facing maternity unit closure

7-May-2010
Conservative David Nuttall has taken Bury North.
Lib Dems take target seat where Clegg promised a re-opened A&E

7-May-2010
Lib Dem Gordon Birtwistle has taken Burnley.
Conservative who decried regional reconfiguration wins Ipswich

7-May-2010
Conservative Ben Gummer has taken Ipswich.
General hospital at heart of three-way battle in Watford

7-May-2010
Conservative Richard Harrington has taken Watford in a close race against Labour and the Lib Dems.
MP who fought reconfiguration returned

7-May-2010
Conservative MP Tony Baldry has held his Banbury seat.
Campaigning doctor loses seat

7-May-2010
Richard Taylor, who took Wyre Forest in 2001, pledging to fight the downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital, has been defeated by the Conservatives.
Labour cling onto Tooting after trust chair criticises Tory candidate

7-May-2010
Sadiq Khan has retained Tooting for Labour.
Labour MP opposing A&E closure returned

7-May-2010
Mike Gapes has won Ilford South for Labour.
Conservative who campaigned to stop maternity service move wins seat

7-May-2010
Helen Grant has won Maidstone & the Weald for the Conservatives with a majority of nearly 6,000.
Monitor discusses clinician business academy

6 May 2010
Monitor has been in talks with foundation trusts and the Treasury over funding for a business academy to train clinicians for senior NHS management roles.
Media Watch: the end of purdah

6 May 2010
Tomorrow sees the beginning of the end of a word journalists loathe.
Ambulance trusts shun urgent care centres

29 April 2010
Commissioners have criticised ambulance trusts for not delivering appropriate patients to urgent care centres instead of A&E departments in some parts of the country.
Monitor to look harder for FTs in financial trouble

29 April 2010
Monitor has signalled it will become more aggressive in its scrutiny of foundations trusts over the next 12 months in order to identify early those in financial difficulties.
NHS trust pioneers land purchase

29 April 2010
An acute trust is set to become the first in the country to use compulsory purchase powers to acquire land.
Monitor director makes SHA move

29 April 2010
The policy director for Monitor, Robert Harris, is leaving to take a new post with a strategic health authority.
Bart's finance director resigns

22 April 2010
The finance director at a trust facing a multibillion pound private finance initiative bill has resigned.
Joint services may reshape NHS regulation

22 April 2010
NHS regulators will “no longer be sustainable” in their present form if the trend to partnership working between trusts and councils continues, according to a report from the Centre for Public Scrutiny.
Media Watch: volcanic ash and manifesto launches

22 April 2010
They did their best but so far no one has found a splash-worthy NHS angle to the dust cloud story.
PCT faces protest over historic building sell-off

15 April 2010
A London primary care trust is facing criticism from the chair of a neighbouring acute trust over plans to sell off a pre-war health centre.
Media Watch: NHS managers' pay

15 April 2010
Grim reading for managers returning to work on Monday as virtually all the papers ran with a report on managers’ pay increasing faster than nurses’.
Conservatives launch election manifesto

13-Apr-2010
The Conservatives have launched their election manifesto.

Alastair McLellan

Health Service JournalBen Clover

Health Service Journal
Ben Clover