Health Service Journal
Crispin Dowler

Crispin Dowler is HSJ's senior correspondent. Crispin's focus is on finance and the private sector.

Rules waived to cover CCG's £15.2m financial hole

23-May-2013
FINANCE: A clinical commissioning group has secured exemption from a series of national financial rules after discovering a £15.2m hole in its finances for 2013-14, it has told HSJ.
CCGs struggle to follow the money

23-May-2013
Finance chiefs are still trying to work out where the cash has gone
Lamb invites bids from 'integration pioneers'

14-May-2013
Health economies have been invited to bid to become integration “pioneers” running large-scale experiments in integrated care, in an initiative launched by health minister Norman Lamb.
Updated: NHS England and Monitor plan major reform of payment by results

13-May-2013
Clinical commissioning groups will be encouraged to experiment with different ways of paying for care next year, in what could be the start of the biggest reform of NHS payment systems since the introduction of payment by results.
Exclusive: Two hospitals to close in Fylde shake-up

10-May-2013
STRUCTURE: NHS organisations on the Fylde coast have agreed plans for a reorganisation of older people’s rehabilitation services that will involve the closure of two community hospitals.
High cost of fines for long waits revealed

9-May-2013
English hospitals would have been fined £227m in 2012 if they had been subjected to the penalty regime written into their contracts for the current financial year, according to analysis shared exclusively with HSJ.
Queen's speech: Criminal sanctions for misleading NHS providers

8-May-2013
The government will use its forthcoming Care Bill to make it a criminal offence for NHS providers to provide false and misleading information about their performance, it said today.
Exclusive: Competition ‘jeopardy’ for icon of integration

8-May-2013
Commissioners of Torbay’s pioneering integrated care organisation are taking legal advice amid fears its progress could be placed “in jeopardy” by a requirement to competitively tender some services, HSJ has learned.
Where next for competition in the NHS?

2-May-2013
A look at the practical impact of the section 75 regulations
Care claims backlog 'will take five years to clear'

1-May-2013
The deluge of retrospective claims for continuing healthcare funding that flooded into the NHS last year will take at least half a decade to be resolved, lawyers have warned.
Morecambe Bay to cut up to 230 posts in savings drive

26-Apr-2013
WORKFORCE: University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust has begun a staff consultation on plans to cut its workforce by up to 230 whole time equivalents in a drive to make savings of £30m by the end of 2013-14.
Exclusive: Experts identify urgent need for 'balanced guidance' on NHS competition

23-Apr-2013
New guidelines from the NHS’s competition watchdog may lead commissioners to “perceive the scope for regulatory action as being so wide that it inhibits service redesign”, an influential think tank has warned.
Exclusive: Key Lib Dem backs government over crunch NHS competition vote

19-Apr-2013
The Liberal Democrats’ health spokeswoman in the Lords has told HSJ she will have “no problem” asking her party to support the government in next week’s crucial vote on new NHS competition regulations.
What happened to 'any qualified provider'?

18-Apr-2013
AQP has been oddly absent from the competition debate
Exclusive: NHS England could 'ratchet up' financial pressure on private mental health providers, analysts warn

11-Apr-2013
Private mental health providers could see pressure on their profit margins “ratcheted up” by the centralisation of secure and specialised mental healthcare commissioning in the hands of NHS England, according to a new report by market analysts Laing and Buisson.
Exclusive: Monitor chief executive says it would be 'mad' to force unnecessary tendering

3-Apr-2013
The chief executive of healthcare sector regulator Monitor has rejected claims that controversial new competition regulations could lead to a sharp increase in competitive tendering for NHS services.
Fair playing field review targets commissioner behaviour

26-Mar-2013
Monitor this week published a suite of recommendations aimed at encouraging commissioners to allow providers to compete more to supply NHS care. The healthcare sector regulator concluded opportunities to compete were being “unduly limited” by existing commissioning practices.
Some commissioning groups face deficits in first year, officials admit

25-Mar-2013
Some clinical commissioning groups are forecasting they will record deficits in their first year of operation, just days before the new groups take control of NHS budgets, the NHS Commissioning Board has confirmed.
OFT extends its remit over NHS mergers

22-Mar-2013
Healthcare sector regulator Monitor has confirmed the Office of Fair Trading will in future have responsibility for assessing any merger involving an NHS foundation trust.
Morecambe Bay reveals former chief’s compromise agreement

20-Mar-2013
WORKFORCE: The foundation trust today released details of the ‘compromise agreement’ it reached with former chief executive Tony Halsall, who stepped down last February amidst a care quality scandal.
DH on course for biggest underspend this parliament

20-Mar-2013
The Department of Health is this year on course for its biggest annual underspend in the current parliament – with none of the unused budget due to be carried over for future use, today’s Budget revealed.
An idiots' guide to the NHS competition row

20-Mar-2013
Making sense of the section 75 regulations
Commissioning board and Monitor: competition 'not about ideology'

20-Mar-2013
Healthcare sector regulator Monitor and the NHS Commissioning Board this week issued a joint statement of intent on how competition would work in the reformed health service, amid continuing political controversy about the government’s NHS competition regulations.
MPs call for abolition of 'inflexible' NHS spending restraints

19-Mar-2013
An influential committee of MPs has called for “unnecessarily inflexible” restrictions on NHS spending to be “abolished”, to allow providers to invest their accumulated reserves in reforming services.
Third of foundation trusts failed A&E waiting targets in Q3

14-Mar-2013
Monitor has reported a sharp decline in performance of foundation trust accident and emergency departments, with over a third of the sector missing A&E waiting targets in the last three months of 2012.
Failure regime can't escape politics

7 March 2013
The questions are economic, but the answers are political
NHS hospitals could be paid extra under 'cherry picking' rules

4-Mar-2013
Commissioners may need to increase the prices they pay to NHS hospitals left with more complex workloads after other providers have “cherry picked” the easier patients, new Department of Health guidance shows.
Regulator moves to put Mid Staffs in administration

28-Feb-2013
Healthcare sector regulator Monitor has begun the process of putting Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust into administration.
Confed appoints GP as new policy chief

27-Feb-2013
The NHS Confederation has appointed a former chair of the National Association of Primary Care and a former NHS Direct chief executive to senior executive positions, it announced today.
Bolton FT chief steps aside amid probe of mortality coding

27-Feb-2013
PERFORMANCE: The acting chief executive of Bolton Foundation Trust has agreed to “step aside” while a probe is conducted into possible “discrepancies” in the way the trust has coded mortality information.
CCGs warn they risk being 'saddled with inherited debt'

26-Feb-2013
Clinical commissioning groups have warned they are at risk of being “saddled with an inherited debt” when they take on their new powers, as a result of an onslaught of retrospective claims for NHS continuing healthcare funding.
Analysed: The continuing care claims deluge

25-Feb-2013
PCTs face a £600m bill for backdated claims for care funding, and this is causing anxiety for clinical commissioning groups too
Competition authorities take their positions

21 February 2013
The CCP and OFT could have a major influence on NHS mergers
Exclusive: 'Gagging' agreements in numbers

20-Feb-2013
Figures obtained by Health Service Journal - presented below - paint a picture of the extent of use of compromise agreeements and confidentiality clauses - or gagging orders - in the NHS.
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.
Analysis: Francis calls for deceleration of drive towards all-FT NHS

14-Feb-2013
Robert Francis QC has called for a further deceleration of the drive for all NHS providers to become foundation trusts, in order to ensure trusts completing the process are safe.
EXCLUSIVE: NHS shake-up hampers oversight of serious incidents

14-Feb-2013
Loss of staff has left primary care trusts struggling to review thousands of serious incidents
Monitor could regulate managers in response to Francis

13-Feb-2013
Robert Francis QC’s proposal to extend the scope of the “fit and proper person” test for directors of NHS providers could lead to Monitor regulating individual managers, the chief executive of the regulator has told HSJ.
Analysis: system rejects Francis single regulator plans

12-Feb-2013
Robert Francis QC’s proposal for a single quality and finance regulator looks unlikely to be realised after key players rejected the idea. However, the government is working on plans to stiffen the consequences for boards that preside over care failures, HSJ has learned.
Commissioners intervene to prevent Furness maternity transfer

8-Feb-2013
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay has dropped plans to temporarily shut maternity and neonatal services in Furness after commissioners intervened to resolve its staffing crisis.
Real policy dilemma is about spending, not saving

7 February 2013
The future debate will be between more tax or more private healthcare
'Plethora' of NHS bodies and regulators failed to act on warning signs

6-Feb-2013
A “plethora” of agencies, commissioners, regulators and professional bodies failed for years to act on warning signs which should have alerted the NHS system to serious failings at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust, the Francis report has concluded.
Cameron: Failure regime will be for poor care, not just poor finances

6-Feb-2013
David Cameron today said the government would extend the NHS “failure regime” to allow trust boards to be suspended for failures of care, as well as financial management failures.
NHS should have done more to manage hospital consultants, NAO reports

6-Feb-2013
The NHS should have made more progress in improving its management of hospital consultants since the introduction of a 2003 contract giving them a significant pay increase, the National Audit Office has found.
At least 10 PCTs to be bailed out by peers in 2012-13

31 January 2013
At least 10 primary care trusts would face finishing 2012-13 in the red without loans or bailouts from their neighbouring commissioners, HSJ research has found.
The NHS cannot ignore DH underspends

24 January 2013
The NHS must decide what has to go unspent if providers are to spend their surpluses
NHS austerity drives income fall for private mental health hospitals

18-Jan-2013
The income of privately-run mental health hospitals fell by 3.3 per cent in 2011, driven by the start of the NHS’s unprecedented savings drive, according to a new report by market analysts Laing & Buisson.
Hospital trusts lack 'top drawer' leaders

16-Jan-2013
The NHS’s ability to make significant savings over the next two years through service change could be limited by its problems recruiting “top drawer” hospital leaders, the health service’s chief executive has suggested.
Commissioners have rationed cataract surgery on inferior evidence, Keogh admits

15-Jan-2013
Around half of all primary care trusts have restricted access to cataract surgery, with the majority basing their decisions on inferior clinical evidence, the medical director of the NHS has told MPs.
Monitor unveils shake-up of financial risk ratings

14-Jan-2013
Monitor will no longer use foundation trusts’ operating profitability or surpluses as measures of the financial risk they are carrying, under proposals unveiled by the regulator.
Commissioning board makes its move

9-Jan-2013
Is the board’s rejection of the CCG funding formula a declaration of independence?
OFT moves to extend its jurisdiction over NHS mergers

9-Jan-2013
The Office of Fair Trading has moved to take over responsibility for assessing mergers between NHS trusts and foundation trusts, in a development which could have significant implications for the “pipeline” of aspirant FTs.
Competition Commission to review first FT merger

8-Jan-2013
Merger between Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals and Poole Hospital FTs in the spotlight
EXCLUSIVE: MPs to probe policy of health budget underspending

3-Jan-2013
The chair of the health select committee has warned that there could be a “significant danger of perverse incentives” if the health service remains unable to carry over unspent funds from one financial year to the next.
Foundation trusts still lagging on savings targets in Q2

20-Dec-2012
Regulator Monitor today urged foundation trusts to plan “sooner and more effectively” for future financial pressures, as its latest quarterly report showed the sector had made little progress in closing the gap between planned and actual savings.
Dalton interview: 'I don't see it as a provider vs commissioner thing'

19-Dec-2012
NHS Commissioning Board deputy chief executive Ian Dalton has rejected the suggestion that its plans for 2013-14 will place disproportionate financial pressure on providers, in an exclusive interview with HSJ.
Commissioning board's funding formula move was not 'political', says Dalton

18-Dec-2012
The NHS Commissioning Board’s deputy chief executive has insisted it was not making a “political point” in declining to implement a new formula for allocating health funding across England.
Commissioning board orders urgent review of NHS allocations

18-Dec-2012
The NHS Commissioning Board has ordered an “urgent, fundamental review” of the NHS allocations process after concluding that the formula devised for deciding commissioning groups funding appeared “inconsistent” with the goal of reducing health inequalities.
Financial squeeze on NHS providers to continue in 2013-14

18-Dec-2012
NHS hospital trusts and other providers face another tough financial year in 2013-14 with the NHS Commissioning Board unveiling plans for further cuts to tariff income and the introduction of new contractual penalties.
Licensing regime could tilt playing field against NHS providers, Confed warns

13-Dec-2012
Aspects of the new system for licensing providers of publicly funded healthcare risk unfairly disadvantaging NHS organisations, the NHS Confederation has warned.
Bennett moots PFI buyout for Peterborough

11-Dec-2012
The chief executive of health sector regulator Monitor has said he wants to examine the possibility of a public sector buyout of the huge private finance initiative contract encumbering Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals Foundation Trust.
Manchester review examines contractual levers for primary care reform

11-Dec-2012
Clinicians involved in a major review of healthcare services across Greater Manchester have begun to examine how “contractual tools” could be used to encourage closer working between GP practices, HSJ has learned.
Analysed: The case for changing primary care in Greater Manchester

11-Dec-2012
Clinicians and commissioners are considering a controversial model for reform of Greater Manchester’s primary care
Regulator's hit squad brands Mid Staffs 'unviable' in current form

10-Dec-2012
The hit squad sent into Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust by regulator Monitor has concluded the troubled trust is unable to achieve long-term financial or clinical sustainability “in its current form”.
Monitor sends hit squad into Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals

10-Dec-2012
Health sector regulator Monitor is to send a hit squad into Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals Foundation Trust to develop a “long-term solution for the financial viability” of the foundation trust.
Health budget ringfence extended to 2015-16

5-Dec-2012
George Osborne today committed to extending the health budget’s relative protection from government spending cuts to 2015-16 – the first year of the next spending review period.
Circle chief executive Ali Parsa steps down

4-Dec-2012
Ali Parsa has stepped down from his role as chief executive of Circle, the private healthcare provider that runs Hinchingbrooke Health Care Trust, it was announced today.
Exclusive: Nearly £3bn returned to Treasury

31-Oct-2012
The Department of Health has returned nearly £3bn of its funding to the Treasury over the past two years, despite facing its tightest financial settlement for five decades.
A perverse take on incentives

24-Oct-2012
There is a new twist to the long-running debate about perverse incentives in the NHS
Competition watchdog clears merger of Kent trusts

19-Oct-2012
The NHS Co-operation and Competition Panel has approved the merger of two Kent acute trusts despite concluding it offered “no benefits” to offset its costs to patients and taxpayers.
FTs 20pc short of savings target

18-Oct-2012
Monitor will today reveal that foundation trusts missed savings targets by nearly 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2012-13.
Acute FTs push their workforce reductions back to 2013-14

18-Oct-2012
Acute foundation trusts are planning to increase staff numbers by more than 2,500 this financial year, latest figures released to HSJ show.
DH unveils rules for objecting to Monitor tariff proposals

9-Oct-2012
Commissioners will only be able to force Monitor to reconsider its approach to price setting for an NHS service if more than half of them object, under latest Department of Health proposals.
Manchester’s major shake-up revealed

4 October 2012
HSJ can reveal details of a major review of healthcare across Greater Manchester which makes the clinical case for a radical redesign of services. It is believed this could prompt some leaders to argue for the removal of acute surgery from four hospitals.
Serco questions 'bullish' forecasts for community services growth

3-Oct-2012
The managing director of outsourcing giant Serco’s health business has cast doubt on “bullish” forecasts of a rapid expansion of private sector provision of NHS community services.
New FTN chief calls for big cut in commissioner underspends

1-Oct-2012
The new chief executive of the Foundation Trust Network has called for NHS commissioners to significantly cut the proportion of health funding they leave unspent.
New Monitor board structure unveiled

26-Sep-2012
Foundation trust regulator Monitor has announced a restructure of its executive team in preparation for its new responsibilities as a regulator for the entire healthcare sector.
Go-ahead imminent for £425m PFI rebuild

26-Sep-2012
NHS North of England this week said it hoped to see final government approvals secured by the end of this month for a £425m rebuild of the Royal Liverpool Hospital, funded largely through the private finance initiative.
Hinchingbrooke falls again in patient satisfaction rankings

25-Sep-2012
Privately-run Hinchingbrooke Health Care Trust has fallen again in the monthly league table of hospital patient satisfaction being piloted across the Midlands and East of England.
NHS North West faces fresh probe over Morecambe Bay scandal

21-Sep-2012
PERFORMANCE: NHS North West is facing formal investigation over allegations that it failed to respond adequately to a series of infant and maternal deaths at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust, HSJ understands.
Growing gap between rich and poor trusts

20 September 2012
An audit of NHS organisations’ 2011-12 accounts has found a widening gap between the trusts with healthy finances and those that are struggling.
Patient data may give NHS an unfair edge

20 September 2012
Powerful patient-level costing systems may give NHS hospital providers an unfair advantage in contract negotiations unless they are required to share their data with commissioners.
Too many 'risk pools' could force organisations into failure, Nicholson warns

18-Sep-2012
The decentralising of financial control under the NHS reforms poses a risk that agencies could hold too much funding back from frontline care and force organisations “into failure”, Sir David Nicholson has warned.
Vascular controversy spreads to Lancashire

18-Sep-2012
Discontent over the Cheshire and Merseyside vascular reconfiguration has spread across the North West
Analysed: North West’s vascular controversy spreads to Lancashire and Cumbria

18-Sep-2012
Discontent over the Cheshire and Merseyside vascular reconfiguration has spread across the North West
New health ministers' portfolios unveiled

17-Sep-2012
The Department of Health has announced the full ministerial portfolios for its new team of junior ministers.
Tenders for sexual health contracts could leave HIV services 'unviable'

7-Sep-2012
Plans to put sexual health services out to competitive tender could make it “unviable” for some NHS trusts to continue offering HIV treatment and care, the Department of Health has warned.
Struggling FTs may face insolvency regime in 2013-14 - Hay

7-Sep-2012
Monitor may need to place some NHS foundation trusts in administration as soon as 2013-14 – the first year its powers to do so take effect, the regulator’s chief operating officer has suggested.
Yorkshire savings rely on reconfiguration

6-Sep-2012
Two of the most challenged health economies in the country are relying on reconfigurations for savings.
Private providers in NHS 'likely' to escape toughest regulatory controls

20-Aug-2012
Only a “very small” number of NHS services provided by private firms face the toughest regulatory controls, sector leaders have insisted following the publication of new Monitor guidance.
OFT investigates NHS hospitals sharing price data

16-Aug-2012
The Office of Fair Trading has obtained assurances from eight NHS trusts that they will cease sharing commercially sensitive information about their private patient unit prices, it revealed this morning.
DH unveils licensing and competition plans

16-Aug-2012
Healthcare sector regulator Monitor will have the power to direct commissioners to “withdraw or vary” tenders that breach competition rules, under regulations proposed by the Department of Health.
Regulator grants conditional approval for ground-breaking PFI buyout

14-Aug-2012
An NHS foundation trust has been given conditional approval for a “novel and contentious” plan to buy out its private finance initiative contracts with a £120m loan from a local authority.
FTs with heavy PFI burdens could face ratings downgrade

7-Aug-2012
Foundation trusts could in future have their financial risk rating downgraded if their private finance initiative payments amount to more than 10 per cent of income, NHS sector regulator Monitor has mooted.
Monitor installs new chairman at Bolton as major failings uncovered

2-Aug-2012
Foundation trust regulator Monitor this afternoon moved to install a new chairman of Bolton FT after a major hole was uncovered in the finances of the troubled hospital trust.
NHS regulator drops 'Chinese walls' plan

31-Jul-2012
Foundation trust regulator Monitor has scrapped its plan to build “Chinese walls” within its organisation to separate its existing role from its future responsibility to regulate the entire NHS healthcare sector.
Commissioners could be incentivised not to give services additional protection

31-Jul-2012
Commissioners may be given a “financial incentive” not to designate large numbers of NHS services for extra regulatory protection, future sector regulator Monitor has suggested.
Monitor drops controversial credit rating plan

31-Jul-2012
Future healthcare sector regulator Monitor has scrapped many of the controversial restrictions it had proposed placing on providers of essential NHS services, including debt caps, external credit ratings, and curbs on dividend payments.
Morecambe Bay faces loss of vascular services

27-Jul-2012
STRUCTURE: University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust could lose up to £2m a year through commissioner plans to transfer its complex vascular surgery work to another trust, its board was warned last week.
The argument over NHS competition isn't settled yet

26 July 2012
How strong is the evidence in support of increased competition in the NHS? The question was raised again last week, with the publication of a paper by the NHS Co-operation and Competition Panel.
DH to consult on extent of regulator's powers

25-Jul-2012
The Department of Health will consult next month on rules setting out when regulator Monitor can intervene to prevent anti-competitive behaviour by clinical commissioning groups or the NHS Commissioning Board.
Controversial vascular reorganisation referred to health secretary

20-Jul-2012
Local authorities last night agreed to refer plans for a controversial reorganisation of vascular services across Cheshire and Merseyside to health secretary Andrew Lansley.
Exclusive: CCP research suggests competition improves hospital services

19-Jul-2012
Research by the NHS Cooperation and Competition Panel, shared exclusively with HSJ, claims to provide new insight into the mechanism by which competitive pressure improves hospital services.
Curbs proposed on council powers over NHS reconfiguration

18-Jul-2012
The Department of Health has begun consultation on regulations that would significantly check local government’s power to refer controversial NHS reconfigurations to the health secretary.
Bidders compete to take over contract of 'first' ever NHS social enterprise

16-Jul-2012
The contract of the “first” social enterprise to be formed out of the NHS has been put out to tender, with commissioners set to shortlist bidders within the next three weeks.
NHS North moves to downgrade Trafford General A&E

13-Jul-2012
NHS North of England has approved plans to remove accident and emergency services and all inpatient surgery from Trafford General Hospital, known as the “birthplace of the NHS”.
FTN appoints new chief executive

13-Jul-2012
The Foundation Trust Network has appointed Chris Hopson, former communications director of HM Revenue and Customs, to be its new chief executive.
Competition panel to probe referral management

11-Jul-2012
The NHS Cooperation and Competition Panel has begun a probe of the competition implications of providers operating systems to manage patient referrals.
Burns details plans to close Trafford General A&E

10-Jul-2012
PERFORMANCE: NHS North of England will this week consider proposals to remove accident and emergency services, acute surgery and inpatient surgery from Trafford General Hospital, health minister Simon Burns said today.
Analysed: reconfiguration planned for Merseyside vascular services

10-Jul-2012
HSJ Local Briefing is our new in-depth analysis of key issues facing some of the major NHS health economies. This week’s HSJ Local Briefing looks at proposals to reconfigure vascular services in Cheshire, Warrington and the Wirral.
Controversial vascular services restructure gets green light

10-Jul-2012
Primary care trust cluster NHS Cheshire, Warrington and Wirral has approved a controversial plan for the reconfiguration of vascular services across Cheshire and Merseyside.
Morecambe Bay withheld damning report from regulators, probe finds

10-Jul-2012
Monitor is to toughen disclosure rules for would-be foundation trusts, after a probe found University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay withheld information that could have led regulators to discover its major care failures sooner.
NHS Propco could 'destabilise' local health economies, social enterprises warn

9-Jul-2012
Department of Health plans to create an independent property company to take over primary care trusts’ estate are likely to have a “considerable destabilising effect on local health economies”, social enterprises have claimed.
NHS may need to reduce range of free health services after 2015, IFS warns

4-Jul-2012
The most comprehensive analysis yet published of the prospects for health funding after 2015 has warned that politicians may need to increase taxes or “reconsider” the range of free services the NHS provides.
Monitor: patient costs could inform national prices

27-Jun-2012
Monitor could use the cost of individual patients to set national prices for NHS acute care as early as 2016-17.
PFI does not explain variations in financial performance, research finds

26-Jun-2012
The presence of expensive private finance initiative hospitals is not statistically linked to persistent financial problems in health economies, preliminary findings of new research suggest.
2011-12 saw biggest number of trust deficits for half-decade

21-Jun-2012
Ten NHS hospital trusts recorded deficits in 2011-12 – the largest number to finish a year in the red for more than half a decade, Department of Health figures published today show.
Health insurer Benenden makes bid for NHS co-payment role

21-Jun-2012
Mutual health insurance society Benenden Healthcare has voted to open its membership to the general public, in anticipation that shrinking NHS budgets will drive increased demand for individual “top up” payments for care.
McKinsey partner: 'Women could do most antenatal care themselves'

21-Jun-2012
The NHS could make huge savings on doctors and midwives wages’ by enlisting patients to input their own health records and conduct their own antenatal care, a McKinsey partner suggested last week.
Hospital trust asks DH to back franchise proposals

20-Jun-2012
George Eliot Hospital Trust has applied for Department of Health permission to franchise its management.
Revealed: highest-paid interim NHS chiefs on over £1k per day

20-Jun-2012
The going rates for the health service’s most highly paid interim executives have been revealed as a result of a Treasury review of how public sector executives are employed.
FTs warn of 'regulatory driven failure' under NHS reforms

19-Jun-2012
Foundation trusts are lobbying Monitor to ensure financially challenged providers will be able to “temporarily” close protected NHS services under their new regulatory regime.
Watchdog backs merger of Ealing and North West London hospitals

14-Jun-2012
The health service’s competition watchdog has cleared proposals for a merger of NHS trusts Ealing Hospital and North West London Hospitals.
Exclusive: Monitor to launch major review of barriers to NHS competition

13-Jun-2012
Future “sector regulator” for healthcare Monitor will tomorrow issue a call for evidence for a major review of all barriers to a “level playing field” for competing providers of NHS-funded healthcare, HSJ has learned.
Conflict of interest concerns in new Monitor role - report

13-Jun-2012
There are “a number” of potential conflicts between Monitor’s new responsibilities to enable integrated healthcare and to prevent anti-competitive behaviour, a new report prepared for the regulator concedes.
Unequal GP access could hamper NHS reforms, MPs warned

6-Jun-2012
The continued “severe iniquity” in the geographical distribution of GPs threatens to place clinical commissioning groups in poor areas at a “large disadvantage”, MPs have been told.
Reconfiguration high on Monitor's agenda after FT breach

31-May-2012
STRUCTURE: Monitor’s response to financial problems at a struggling foundation trust has offered the first example of the watchdog’s new readiness to push for reconfiguration of services.
Circle asks investors for £46m to support NHS expansion plans

30-May-2012
Private healthcare provider Circle has reported a pre-tax loss of £32.9m for 2011 and announced plans to raise around £46m through the issue of around 68m new shares to institutional investors.
Cameron introduces 'family and friends' hospitals rating

30-May-2012
A system for ranking NHS hospitals by patient satisfaction in “real time” will be introduced across England from April next year, the prime minister has announced.
Social enterprises face losing core contracts

30-May-2012
Social enterprises set up by former NHS staff must improve their commercial skills or risk losing their contracts in the next two or three years, a key Department of Health official has told HSJ.
Providers sceptical on extending mental health choice

30-May-2012
Proposals to extend competition between any qualified provider for mental health have been greeted with scepticism.
Author of seminal NHS funding review Sir Derek Wanless dies

25-May-2012
Sir Derek Wanless, the former banker whose seminal 2002 report laid the theoretical foundations for the following decade’s huge increases in NHS funding, has died.
Ombudsman's claims on care quality complaint 'did not stand up '

24-May-2012
An apparent failure to fully investigate a high profile complaint has led to a renewed call for changes to the system.
DH unveils plans for increased competition in diagnostics and mental health

24-May-2012
The Department of Health has unveiled its strategy for extending competition from any qualified provider to new areas of NHS care, including mental health and diagnostic tests.
Exclusive: acutes' deficit and savings performance worsens, DH figures show

24 May 2012
Plans to cut deficits in the acute trust sector fell further behind in the third quarter of 2011-12 as hospitals struggled to make up lost ground on challenging savings targets.
PCTs to pay GPs an extra £1.1m following system error

23-May-2012
The Department of Health has told primary care trusts to make an additional £1.1m of payments to GPs by the end of June, to correct an error dating back to 2004.
Morecambe Bay 'not sustainable' without reconfiguration, says new chief

22-May-2012
Troubled foundation trust University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay “can’t work” in the future without the reconfiguration of key services, its new chief executive has told HSJ.
Analysed: a healthcare crisis facing Cumbria

22-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 the healthcare crisis in Cumbria.
Information Centre to focus on cost of over-60s hospital care

21-May-2012
Patients aged 60 and over account for more than half of the income hospitals receive under the payment-by-results tariff, the Health and Social Care Information Centre has reported.
Monitor directs foundation trust to tackle A&E performance

9-May-2012
PERFORMANCE: The foundation trust regulator has stepped in at Gloucestershire Hospitals in a bid to redress its “persistent failures” to tackle long waits for accident and emergency treatment.
Exclusive: Circle deal means Hinchingbrooke needs over £70m to clear debts

3-May-2012
The deal struck between Hinchingbrooke Health Care Trust and its private sector operator means the trust needs surpluses of at least £70m over the next decade to pay off its £40m debts.
Franchise deal could deter NHS bidder from hospital partnership

2-May-2012
An NHS contender to partner with George Eliot Hospital Trust has said it may have to withdraw its bid, following signals that the trust might opt for a Hinchingbrooke-style franchise deal.
Commissioners back trust's FT bid despite previous concerns

24-Apr-2012
STRUCTURE: East Cheshire Trust has secured its commissioners’ backing to make a bid for foundation trust status, just months after they expressed doubts about its survival as an independent organisation.
Trust put finances ahead of waiting lists, Monitor suggests

24-Apr-2012
The foundation trust regulator has voiced “concern” that the Royal Bolton Hospital placed finance ahead of tackling its burgeoning waiting list problems.
NHS data skewed by efforts to protect trust finances

23-Apr-2012
The “disproportionate” financial implications of changes to the way the NHS classifies patients have led it to maintain “inaccurate recording and inaccurate payments”, the Audit Commission has reported.
Blocking dialysis contract could risk EU law challenge, trust warns DH

19-Apr-2012
COMMERCIAL: The Department of Health has been warned that forcing Nottingham University Hospitals Trust to reconsider its recent award of a dialysis contract could place the government “in conflict” with international competition law.
NHS private patient units let down by 'customer service'

19-Apr-2012
Weak customer service is a greater obstacle to NHS hospitals increasing their private work than the “barriers” being investigated by competition authorities, the UK’s largest medical insurer has claimed.
There are no clear winners from the new price-setting regime

12 April 2012
Who stands to gain most from Monitor’s new power to dictate “local modifications” to the price of NHS services?
Private hospital will offer ‘the only’ tertiary care beds in Kent

11-Apr-2012
A private hospital in Kent will claim to offer NHS and private patients “the only” cardiothoracic and neurosurgery tertiary care beds in the county, helping to reduce referrals to London trusts.
All-foundation trust NHS plans are 'at significant risk'

5-Apr-2012
The government’s plan to see all NHS providers attain foundation trust status remains “at significant risk”, foundation trust regulator Monitor has warned.
Private healthcare market referred to Competition Commission

5-Apr-2012
The Office of Fair Trading yesterday confirmed that it would refer the private healthcare market for in-depth investigation by the Competition Commission.
Foundation trusts cannot use bailouts to hide financial failings, regulator warns

5-Apr-2012
Monitor has warned foundation trusts it may disregard bailout payments when assessing their financial health, in a move which could allow earlier regulatory intervention in troubled organisations.
Market competition test proposed for trusts seeking extra funding

4-Apr-2012
Monitor might refuse to allow local increases to the prices paid to NHS trusts unless commissioners have proven they could not buy the services more cheaply elsewhere, an independent report for the regulator has suggested.
Probe into Nottingham University Hospitals dialysis deal

2-Apr-2012
The NHS competition watchdog is investigating the trust’s award of two dialysis contracts, after a bidder accused it of a “blatant attempt to retain the incumbent provider”.
Penalise poor performers 'robustly', Flory demands

28-Mar-2012
The NHS’s deputy chief executive has used his latest quarterly report to direct the health service to “robustly bear down” on “persistent poor performer” organisations.
Regulator's dual role still unclear

28-Mar-2012
Monitor is still unclear about how it can justify its additional powers over foundation trusts once it becomes healthcare sectorregulator, its executive chair has told HSJ.
Monitor should toughen assessments following scandal - Bennett

28-Mar-2012
Monitor’s executive chair has admitted it is “very likely” University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay had “deep-seated problems” at the time his organisation granted the trust foundation status.
Exclusive: Treasury claws back £0.5bn from health budget

23-Mar-2012
The Treasury has clawed back half a billion pounds that was allocated for health spending this year, prompting fears that the punishing NHS savings drive will go towards “general deficit reduction”.
Manchester CCGs to take on acutes with united commissioning pact

22-Mar-2012
STRUCTURE: Greater Manchester’s clinical commissioning groups are developing a pact to work collectively after April 2013, to ensure they are strong enough to deal with powerful hospital providers.
Serco is preferred bidder to take over Suffolk community services

22-Mar-2012
Private sector outsourcing giant Serco has been selected as preferred bidder to take over nearly all NHS community services in Suffolk in a deal worth £140m to the company over three years.
Osborne: government departments face greater austerity after 2015 without welfare cuts

21-Mar-2012
Chancellor George Osborne today warned that without further reductions in welfare spending government departments will face even deeper austerity after 2015 than in the current period.
Exclusive: regulator mulls new squad of fixers for most-troubled trusts

20-Mar-2012
Struggling foundation trusts may be forced to take on new Monitor troubleshooters who will advise trust boards and inform the regulator about weak board members, HSJ has discovered.
New Morecambe Bay chair reports gulf between clinicians and managers

16-Mar-2012
WORKFORCE: The newly-installed chairman of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay this week said he had found a “massive gulf” between clinicians and managers at the troubled foundation trust.
NHS annual reporting 'inaccurate or incomplete'

13-Mar-2012
NHS organisations are presenting an “inaccurate or incomplete” picture in their annual reports, with some failing to disclose the key risks they face, according to a review by auditors Grant Thornton.
Monitor reports sharp deterioration in foundations' A&E performance

13-Mar-2012
Monitor has reported sharp increases in the numbers of foundation trusts breaching accident and emergency targets or attracting the worst risk ratings for governance.
Analysed: the reconfiguration plan for Greater Manchester's hospitals

12-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 Greater Manchester.
North Cumbria takeover bidder estimated it would need £78m over two years

9-Mar-2012
FINANCE: The preferred bidder to take over North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust has estimated it needs the government to pump £78m of financial support into the troubled trust over the next two years.
PM reveals details of £330m NHS capital funding

6-Mar-2012
Prime Minister David Cameron today announced details of £330m of funding allocated for NHS capital projects.
Labour of love: making a maternity services reconfiguration successful

6-Mar-2012
The reconfiguration of Manchester’s maternity services may have been a long time coming, but it has lessons for the rest of the country, finds Crispin Dowler.
Exclusive: two in three hospital trust savings plans in trouble

29-Feb-2012
More than two thirds of NHS hospital trusts fell behind on their savings plans in the first half of 2011-12 as the sector slipped deeper into the red, HSJ can reveal.
Council plans £100m loan to buy out foundation's PFI contracts

22-Feb-2012
A local authority is in negotiations to lend up to £100m to a foundation trust seeking to buy out its private finance initiative contracts, HSJ has learned.
Competition watchdog clears Trafford Healthcare takeover

17-Feb-2012
STRUCTURE: The NHS competition watchdog has approved Central Manchester University Hospitals’ proposed takeover of Trafford Healthcare Trust, the hospital known as the “birthplace of the NHS”.
DH: hospitals must be fined for readmissions caused by others

17-Feb-2012
Hospitals will be fined for emergency readmissions in 2012-13 even if they can prove that they are not responsible for them, according to rules published by the Department of Health this afternoon.
Monitor intervenes to replace chair at underperforming trust

15-Feb-2012
Monitor has stepped in to replace the chair of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust after three separate independent reviews last week revealed a catalogue of leadership and governance failures.
Lansley remains defiant as pressure grows over competition

15-Feb-2012
An embattled Andrew Lansley makes a staunch defence of the importance of greater competition in the NHS this week, as Liberal Democrat peers pressed to further reduce its importance in the Health Bill.
Healthcare trust hopes to nationalise second-ever PFI hospital

9-Feb-2012
The foundation trust poised to take over one of England’s first ever private finance initiative hospitals hopes to renationalise it, HSJ has learned.
Debt cap proposed for private providers to NHS

9-Feb-2012
Monitor has proposed to set a cap on the level of debt carried by any organisation providing essential healthcare services to the NHS.
'Hinchingbrooke model' still an option for struggling trust

2-Feb-2012
A financially challenged hospital is considering partnering with the private sector, despite government claims that no NHS trusts planned to follow the “Hinchingbrooke model”.
Confed warns Monitor off credit ratings plan

2 February 2012
Most NHS providers are “extremely unlikely” to be able to obtain a credit rating, and the proposal is likely to be unacceptably costly to the health service, the NHS Confederation has warned.
Fears over 'destabilising' C difficile fines to be investigated

2 February 2012
The possibility that fines for C difficile infections will have a “destabilising” effect on some hospitals next year is to be investigated by the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
Private providers attack Monitor failure regime

1-Feb-2012
Private mental health firms are lobbying for deep changes to Monitor’s proposed failure regime, claiming rules putting “patients ahead of creditors” will prevent them from borrowing.
Fixed NHS prices could become 'increasingly problematic' commission warns

31-Jan-2012
The use of fixed prices to prevent competition driving down care quality could become “increasingly problematic”, a “seminal report” warned this week.
Private patient income continues to fall

26-Jan-2012
The NHS’s real terms income from treating private patients declined in 2010 for the fifth year, according to market analysts Laing and Buisson.
Exclusive: private acute providers warned over slowing NHS-funded work

26-Jan-2012
The UK’s private acute healthcare industry shrank in 2010 for the first time in at least three decades despite continued growth in its NHS-funded business, according to a new report by analysts Laing and Buisson.
Cumbrian cause for concern in the North West

26 January 2012
Will Andrew Lansley stick with his habit of using Cumbria as poster child for GP commissioning?
Monitor could advise commissioners on reconfiguration to combat financial difficulties

25-Jan-2012
Monitor is considering changes to its regulatory strategy as it believes some foundation trusts may face financial problems so profound they cannot be fixed by the providers alone.
Trusts facing 'difficult choice' over service provision

19-Jan-2012
NHS trusts face “difficult choices about the services they provide” as they fight to sustain savings programmes of 5 per cent a year, according to a report by Monitor and the Audit Commission.
Competitive tendering will be ‘as important’ as any qualified provider

18-Jan-2012
Competitive tendering will be as significant as the use of any qualified provider in the reformed NHS, an influential commission is expected to conclude at the end of the month.
Revealed: Bennett's plan to split Monitor board

13-Jan-2012
Monitor is likely to face “numerous” allegations of improper conduct unless it can clearly separate its future healthcare regulatory role from its responsibility for foundation trusts, its chairman has warned.
North West savings progress still leaves room for trusts to improve

12-Jan-2012
Christmas may seem like a distant memory, but it’s worth recalling that the North of England went home for the break with a big gold star on its Department of Health report card.
Leadership and staff engagement 'critical' to hospital savings challenge - study

12-Jan-2012
Effective leadership and staff engagement will be “critical” if hospitals are to achieve the lion’s share of the £20bn NHS savings goal by 2015, a new Nuffield Trust study has found.
Amazon-style site launched in response to NHS's purchasing woes

12-Jan-2012
A new Amazon.com-style price comparison website for NHS supplies will be launched today in a bid to capitalise on the service’s need to drive down its spending on procurement.
Patient reported outcome measures methodology queried by 'negative outlier'

11-Jan-2012
A specialist orthopaedic hospital is reviewing the methodology used for patient reported outcome measures after it was identified as a possible “negative outlier” by the Department of Health.
Amended private patient income cap 'will have little impact'

4-Jan-2012
A government proposal to cap the amount of private income foundation trusts can earn at 49 per cent will have little practical impact on the health reforms, experts have claimed.
NHS market could fragment further, warns Supply Chain CEO

4-Jan-2012
The “fragmented” way the NHS is developing could make it harder for it to make savings on procurement, the chief executive of NHS Supply Chain has warned.
QIPP progress revealed after DH publishes cash savings

22-Dec-2011
The NHS saved around £2.5bn in the first half of this financial year, or 42 per cent of its target for the year, the Department of Health reported today.
Exclusive: foundation trusts plan deepest workforce cuts in a generation

15-Dec-2011
Foundation trusts are planning to cut at least 30,500 staff over the coming two years in what would be the steepest fall in NHS workforce since modern records began, an HSJ investigation has found.
Revealed: the foundations predicting steepest pay bill cuts

15-Dec-2011
At least four acute foundation trusts have forecast wage bill cuts of 10 per cent or more over the coming two years, an HSJ analysis has found.
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.
Private sector faces referral to Competition Commission

13-Dec-2011
The NHS reforms would have “blown up in people’s faces” without last week’s decision to refer the private healthcare market to the Competition Commission, the boss of Circle has told HSJ.
NHS Wirral announces first ever private maternity deal

7-Dec-2011
COMMERCIAL: A primary care trust has become the first in the country to sign a contract with a private company to provide maternity care.
Flory plans CCG finance chief 'accreditation' process

7-Dec-2011
It will be “very, very difficult” to find chief financial officers for all of the 200-plus clinical commissioning groups that will take over NHS commissioning from 2013, David Flory has warned.
Flory: commissioners' savings plans on course

1-Dec-2011
Commissioners made almost 45 per cent of their planned savings in the first half of 2011-12, but the already weakened finances of NHS trusts deteriorated further in the past three months, David Flory said today.
Exclusive: publishing FT redundancy plans could harm competitiveness, warns Monitor

1-Dec-2011
Foundation trust regulator Monitor is withholding information on foundations’ forecast headcounts for coming years on grounds that news of “significant” redundancy plans could harm their competitiveness.
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.
Private health market faces referral to the Competition Commission

1 December 2011
The Office for Fair Trading has “provisionally” decided to refer the private healthcare market to the Competition Commission, after finding a “number of features” that could distort or restrict competition.
Lansley defends pensions offer but says still space for negotiation

1 December 2011
The health secretary has said he hoped for a resolution to the pensions dispute which this week triggered the biggest public sector walkout in generations “by the end of this year”.
More funding pledged to help oncology centre across the Mersey

1 December 2011
STRUCTURE: Commissioners in Merseyside have pledged £6.5m a year towards a proposed relocation to central Liverpool of the Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology Foundation Trust’s main facility.
New inflation measure boosts 'real terms' increase in NHS funds

1 December 2011
Technical changes to the way the Office for National Statistics calculates inflation have pushed up the “real terms” funding increase the NHS will receive over the life of this parliament, the King’s Fund’s chief economist said today.
Private sector could take £2bn slice of community services

30-Nov-2011
The private sector could secure a fifth of the annual £8.5bn market for NHS community services by 2016, analysts have predicted.
Pay awards to be held at 1pc for two years

29-Nov-2011
NHS employees can expect a prolonged wage squeeze and a possible end to national NHS terms and conditions, the government has signalled.
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.
DH tightens the screws with uncompromising NHS operational plan for 2012

24-Nov-2011
NHS providers face increased strain next year, with the price for their services cut by at least another 1.5 per cent and commissioners obliged to strictly enforce financial penalties and to clear their own debts.
Most commissioners see readmissions rate rise despite harsh penalties

23-Nov-2011
Most commissioners have seen an increase in emergency readmission rates despite the imposition of new penalties that are set to cost providers more than £400m this year, an HSJ investigation has found.
Rise in PCTs reporting above-average costs

22-Nov-2011
The past financial year saw a sharp rise in the proportion of primary care trusts reporting above-average costs for providing NHS services, new Department of Health figures show.
Integrated care plans 'will not save money for three years'

17-Nov-2011
Integrated care systems are unlikely to demonstrate financial savings for at least three years, a Nuffield Trust study into Trafford’s pioneering work in the field has said.
Circle's risk on historic Hinchingbrooke deal capped at £7m

11-Nov-2011
Circle Health’s potential loss on its contract to run Hinchingbrooke Health Care Trust has been capped at £7m.
Ratings agency predicts more government bailouts for loss-making trusts

11-Nov-2011
There is a “very high likelihood” of continued government bailouts for struggling providers, according to ratings agency Standard and Poor’s.
Circle chief backs Hinchingbrooke management as deal finally signed

10-Nov-2011
The chief executive of the private company which last night concluded a deal to take over the running of Hinchingbrooke Health Care trust has said its management team has his full support.
North Cumbria clinicians were failed by management, new chief says

10 November 2011
The man brought in to lead a Cumbrian trust through a takeover process has said it would have kept its independence if managers had tackled financial problems two years earlier.
Assura Medical staff told to give chlamydia tests to family and friends

10 November 2011
A private company which has taken over NHS sexual health services in Teeside instructed staff to hand out chlamydia tests to family and friends in a bid to hit screening targets, a leaked memo has revealed.
Royal Liverpool innovation centre plans get boost from Heseltine report

9-Nov-2011
A Liverpool trust is to seek Department of Health investment in a “bio-innovation centre” on its site, after a report commissioned by the prime minister endorsed the proposal.
Exclusive: Mid Staffs needs £80m to avoid financial collapse

21-Oct-2011
Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust may need as much as £80m government support to pull it out of the financial hole created by its care quality scandal, HSJ has learned.
Finance directors 'optimistic' on savings plans but local fears persist

20 October 2011
NHS finance directors are “cautiously optimistic” about their savings plans but increasingly pessimistic about the finances of their local health economies, a King’s Fund survey has revealed.
NHS savings measures needed until 2020, King's Fund warns

19-Oct-2011
The financial squeeze driving the NHS’s £20bn savings programme will not end in 2015, and the service faces a “productivity gap” of half as much again in the subsequent five years, the chief economist of the King’s Fund has warned.
New Labour competition reforms did not increase health inequalities

13 October 2011
The pro-competition NHS reforms introduced over the past decade of Labour governments did not affect deprived communities’ access to healthcare, a York University study has found.
Lansley: QIPP savings £1bn lower than expected

12-Oct-2011
The savings the NHS estimates it will need over the next four years are more than £1bn lower than the often-quoted £20bn target, the health secretary said this week.
Change plans grind to a halt in the North West

6 October 2011
Change takes forever in the NHS. So long, sometimes, that by the time your plan is finally agreed it is out of date, or there are different people in charge and they want to develop a new plan.
'No evidence' that collaborative procurement lowers prices, FT Network says

6 October 2011
The Foundation Trust Network has published a study which it says found “no evidence” that collaborative purchasing leads to lower prices for medical supplies.
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.
Number of trusts predicting 2011-12 deficit trebles compared with last year - DH report

30-Sep-2011
The number of NHS trusts predicting a full year deficit at the end of the first quarter of 2011-12 trebled compared with the same period last year, new Department of Health figures show.
Monitor threatens collective punishment for Greater Manchester over cancer

29-Sep-2011
Monitor has threatened to downgrade the governance ratings of nine foundation trusts in Greater Manchester if waiting times at the Christie Foundation Trust do not improve in the next six months.
Exclusive: government funding changes 'will transfer £700m from poor to rich areas'

29-Sep-2011
The government’s decision to give less weight to health inequalities when allocating NHS funds will ultimately lead to £718m a year being transferred from areas with poor health to those with good health, research suggests.
'No conflict' in contract awarded to private company associated with commissioners

29-Sep-2011
COMMERCIAL: A clinical commissioning group in the Wirral has awarded a place on a register of “any qualified providers” to a private company associated with most of the GP practices on the group’s board.
Businesses call for Osborne to dip into health budget if economy worsens

26-Sep-2011
An influential business lobby group is calling for the Treasury to consider “dismantling” the ring fence protecting health spending if the economy has not improved “significantly” by the 2012 Budget.
Poor NHS cost data will delay national pricing, Audit Commission warns

22-Sep-2011
Costing data in the NHS is too poor to establish fixed national prices for new acute and community services, an Audit Commission review has found.
Mid Staffs seeks bailout to avert cash crisis

22-Sep-2011
FINANCE: Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust has sunk so much money into resolving its care quality failures it will run out of cash by December unless it secures a bailout.
'Raid' FT finances to protect DH budget, ministers were advised

21-Sep-2011
Top civil servants advised government ministers that they could “raid” foundation trusts’ surpluses to prevent them from blowing the Department of Health’s budget, the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust inquiry has learned.
CCP to investigate attempts to close walk-in centre

21-Sep-2011
The Cooperation and Competition Panel is to investigate a complaint that NHS Peterborough breached competition rules in attempting to close a primary care access centre.
Foundation trusts consider moving away from national pay deal

14-Sep-2011
Foundation trusts are showing an unprecedented willingness to publicly consider moving away from nationally negotiated staff terms and conditions.
Exclusive: Circle in running to take on management of a second NHS hospital

13-Sep-2011
The private company expected to become the first to manage an NHS hospital is preparing a bid to take over a second NHS site, in partnership with a foundation trust.
Commercial-only finance plans for FTs scaled back

7-Sep-2011
The government has pulled back from plans to stimulate a market for private sector lending to foundation trusts, under which they would have been cut off from all finance other than commercial loans.
MPs call for PFI deals to be subject to FOI requests

2-Sep-2011
The Commons’ public accounts committee has called for private finance initiative companies to be made subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
Warrington and Halton Hospitals fights to retain vascular services

1-Sep-2011
STRUCTURE: Warrington and Halton Hospitals Foundation Trust has vowed to fight a recommendation to reject its bid to become a high volume centre for arterial surgery, as part of a regional reorganisation of vascular services.
Struggling providers to get above-tariff payments

1-Sep-2011
Struggling providers will be able to ask Monitor for permission to raise their prices above nationally set “tariff” rates, under proposed government changes to the Health Bill unveiled today.
NHS estate wrangles in the North West

1 September 2011
What do you do with a private finance initiative hospital when it becomes the subject of service reconfiguration?
OFT issues warning on private providers' sweetener payments to consultants

31-Aug-2011
The incentives used by private healthcare providers to attract consultants to their hospitals may be driving up prices without increasing quality, the Office for Fair Trading has warned.
Trust wins backing to vacate £3.6m PFI unit

25-Aug-2011
Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust has won backing for its controversial plan to vacate the £3.6m-a-year PFI building it occupies in the grounds of Manchester Royal Infirmary.
'Crude' spending estimates risk CCGs' funding

25 August 2011
Future commissioners could face “catastrophic consequences” if a rushed attempt to map current spending on GP practice populations leads to inaccurate funding allocations, experts have warned.
PFI deals should be used 'sparingly', Treasury warns

24-Aug-2011
FINANCE: The government is in danger of wasting £175m on the private finance initiative rebuild at Royal Liverpool University Hospital, the Treasury select committee has warned.
Commissioners ordered to redo public health accounts amid 'gaming' concerns

16-Aug-2011
Sir David Nicholson has ordered NHS commissioners to submit complete spending returns for 2010-11 in just six weeks amid controversy as “unexpected values and omissions” relating to public health were uncovered.
Exclusive: the Christie plans national 'chain' of cancer centres

16-Aug-2011
Specialist cancer hospital The Christie Foundation Trust is considering plans which could see it open branded treatment and diagnostic centres across England, in partnership with a private sector provider.
Quarter of NHS trusts 'have weaknesses in securing financial resilience'

11-Aug-2011
Almost a quarter of NHS trusts have notable weaknesses in their arrangements for securing financial resilience or challenging how they secure value for money, their auditors have warned.
Emergency readmissions payment ban being ignored

21-Jul-2011
The way NHS commissioners are acting on the ban on payment for emergency readmissions varies widely, with some declining to impose the controversial new rule, an HSJ investigation has revealed.
One in five organisations who failed April waiting times targets are in North West

21 July 2011
A few days after NHS deputy chief executive David Flory issued a curt letter warning the health service not to allow any further failures to hit waiting time targets, an NHS North West board meeting considered the problem.
Private providers demand end to DH 'bureaucracy'

21 July 2011
Private healthcare providers are calling for a review of the recent transfer of their Department of Health contracts to primary care trusts, saying the negotiations were an “enormous waste” of time and money.
The North West's performance problems

14 July 2011
A few days after NHS deputy chief executive David Flory issued a curt letter warning the health service not to allow any further failures to hit waiting times targets, an NHS North West board meeting considered its own share of the problem.
Easton: no quality in many savings plans

13-Jul-2011
The man responsible for driving the NHS’s £20bn quality, innovation, productivity and prevention savings plan has warned that some schemes being pursued under its banner have “no semblance of quality in them at all”.
Southern Cross failure could speed handover of social care regulation to Monitor - Bennett

12-Jul-2011
The collapse of care homes operator Southern Cross is likely to prompt the government to hand healthcare regulator Monitor responsibility for social care “sooner rather than later”, Monitor’s interim chief executive said on Tuesday.
Easton: QIPP can provide 'crisis' needed to break hospital dependence

8-Jul-2011
The NHS’s £20bn savings drive can provide the “crisis” it needs to transform physical healthcare in the same way it has transformed mental health services, Jim Easton said yesterday.
Easton warns some QIPP schemes are just 'red-lining' budget cuts

7-Jul-2011
The man responsible for driving the NHS’s £20bn quality, innovation, productivity and prevention savings plan today warned that some schemes being pursued under its banner had “no semblance of quality in them at all”.
Exclusive: speech and language therapy suffers drop in scope and quality of services

7-Jul-2011
Speech and language therapists across the UK are reporting serious falls in the scope and quality of their services, as they sustain a “double whammy” of NHS and local authority cuts.
Northern hospitals group collaborate to cut deaths

30 June 2011
PERFORMANCE: A group of hospitals that have worked together to reduce death rates say they achieved above-average reductions in mortality ratios last year.
Flory: NHS should prepare for further deep savings drive after Qipp

24-Jun-2011
The deep cuts now being made to other public services could force an end in 2015 to the 30-year trend of above-average public investment in the NHS, NHS deputy chief executive David Flory has warned.
A daunting savings picture emerges in North West

23 June 2011
As heavy as it is, there is little doubt that the burden of delivering the NHS’s £20bn savings target rests more heavily on the shoulders of some than others. Specifically, it rests heaviest on London and Manchester.
Greater Manchester unveils plans to meet £400m savings target

23 June 2011
FINANCE: Greater Manchester is to appoint a single office to take the reins of the £400m savings programme that must be delivered by its commissioners by 2015.
Auditors to query use of foundations’ resources

23 June 2011
A number of foundation trusts are likely to face “qualifications”, querying the accuracy of their 2010-11 accounts, because of questions over their use of resources, auditors have warned.
DH to 'rely' on local pricing to extend community services competition

22-Jun-2011
The Department of Health will be “heavily reliant” on locally set prices to encourage competition from “any qualified provider” in community services, it said this week.
Lower qualified pathology workforce ‘could make 25 per cent savings’

16-Jun-2011
The government’s pathology tsar has said the discipline could save 15-25 per cent of its costs by reducing the proportion of highly qualified staff it uses to perform junior tasks.
Brakes on competition draw private sector complaints

14-Jun-2011
Private sector players have accused the government of “very significantly” putting the brakes on its plans to extend competition from “any qualified provider” to new areas of the NHS.
Government to scrap 2014 'drop dead' deadline for foundation trust status

14-Jun-2011
NHS trusts will no longer be required to reach foundation status by a deadline of April 2014, according to the government policy statement issued this morning.
Monitor's role to be softened in bid to quell competition fears

14-Jun-2011
The government has backed proposals to strike Monitor’s duty to “promote competition” from the Health and Social Care Bill, and to give the NHS Commissioning board a mandate to determine how competition applies in the health service.
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.
Future Forum proposes to hand competition powers to Nicholson's commissioning board

13-Jun-2011
The NHS commissioning board should be handed the power to set the rules for competition in the health service, the expert panel set up to examine the government’s health reforms has recommended.
Media Watch: elderly care abuse revelations dominate discussion

9 June 2011
The Daily Telegraph started the weekend with a rare morsel of good news for Andrew Lansley.
Fawcett makes sudden exit from General Healthcare

2-Jun-2011
Adrian Fawcett has suddenly stepped down from his role as chief executive of General Healthcare Group, the UK’s biggest private healthcare provider.
FT to survey staff on plans to trade restricted terms for job cuts

2 June 2011
WORKFORCE: A Surrey foundation trust is to poll its staff on whether they would accept watering down their nationally agreed terms and conditions in exchange for fewer job cuts.
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.
Capita grabs toehold in HR as preferred supplier for twelve trusts

2 June 2011
COMMERCIAL: Capita has been named “preferred supplier” of HR services for 12 north Merseyside NHS organisations. The deal gives the outsourcing firm a toehold in NHS human resources.
Royal Cornwall reveals chief exec dismissal costs

31-May-2011
Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust spent nearly £380,000 on a legal battle with its former chief executive, it admitted this week.
'I'm more excited than ever about the healthcare marketplace'

25-May-2011
Competition on everything including price is not only the most practical solution to the growing pressures facing the NHS, it is also virtually inevitable, according to the chief executive of the UK’s largest private healthcare provider.
Head of UK's biggest private provider 'more excited than ever' about NHS reforms

25-May-2011
The head of the UK’s largest private healthcare group has insisted it would be “madness” to prohibit price competition in the NHS, and insisted he does want to compete on price with NHS hospitals.
Blackpool and North Lancs to consult on four hospital closures

23-May-2011
STRUCTURE: Primary care trusts in Blackpool and North Lancashire are preparing to consult local residents on the possible closure of four hospitals across the Fylde coast, board documents reveal.
Foundation trusts give out £5.7m in severance pay-outs

20-May-2011
Foundation trusts have spent more than £5.7m on pay-offs to departing staff over the past three years, figures made public today for the first time show.
Surrey consortium petitions Lansley over handover legal hurdles

19-May-2011
COMMERCIAL: A commissioning consortium last week pulled health secretary Andrew Lansley into its struggle to take on commissioning powers from primary care trust NHS Surrey.
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”.
Private provider bosses confident of reform opportunities

19-May-2011
Private healthcare chief executives have remained confident their firms will profit from NHS reform even as political controversy has stalled the Health Bill, a survey shows.
Lansley reveals his struggle over father's NHS treatment

18-May-2011
Andrew Lansley last night revealed his personal difficulties navigating the NHS’s palliative care services when his father died last year.
Clamour for local involvement rising in North West

12 May 2011
The question of how much influence local people should have on changes to NHS services is concentrating minds in the North West.
General healthcare boss backs price competition

12 May 2011
The head of the UK’s largest private healthcare group has insisted he does want to compete on price with NHS hospitals, and it would be “madness” to prohibit price competition.
Under pressure trusts prepare financial cuts

4-May-2011
The impact of this year’s significant savings plans on wards, beds, pay bills and staff at some of England’s most financially vulnerable trusts have been revealed in an analysis of 2011-12 business plans.
NHS outsourcing shows significant savings, lobby group claims

20-Apr-2011
NHS data shows commissioners save significant amounts on support services when they buy most of their hotel and estates management from the private sector, a lobby group for the outsourcing industry has claimed.
UnitedHealth pulls out of UK primary care provision

20-Apr-2011
American private health insurance giant UnitedHealth is pulling out of the UK market for primary care provision, saying it wants to focus on its commissioning support business.
MP calls for DH to investigate Wesham Hospital closure

18-Apr-2011
STRUCTURE: An MP is to call for an urgent Department of Health investigation into a Lancashire hospital closure, after HSJ uncovered legal advice encouraging the foundation responsible to “run down” the facility.
'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.
Milton backs increments freeze deal amid congress heckles

14 April 2011
Health minister Anne Milton drew heckles at the Royal College of Nursing congress after insisting a national pay increments freeze rejected by the union would remain on the table at local level.
Foundation trust advised to 'run down' hospital

14 April 2011
Lawyers advised a cash-strapped foundation trust wanting to close a community hospital that it could bypass public consultation by “running down” the service on “efficiency” grounds.
Earl Howe orders break-up of North West's 'anti-competitive' four year contract

7-Apr-2011
Health minister Earl Howe has told NHS North West to break up a four year “framework” deal between the region’s specialised commissioning group and mental health service providers.
Consortia to handle PCTs' savings burden

7 April 2011
Primary care trusts with some of the toughest financial challenges in England are handing responsibility for the huge savings they must make this year to pathfinder commissioning consortia.
'Clarity' needed on consortia public health rules

7 April 2011
A public health leader has called for commissioning consortia to be compelled to “work through” health inequality plans with public health specialists once they transfer to local councils.
Government has not done enough to prevent price competition - Confed

31 March 2011
The government must set prices across most aspects of health service provision to prevent price competition accelerating under its reforms, the NHS Confederation has warned.
Private sector incident data sharing deal stalls

31 March 2011
A long-awaited deal to feed private providers’ safety incidents into a national database has been delayed since last July by plans to abolish the National Patient Safety Agency.
NHS Bury lifts IVF ban, despite continued overspending

29-Mar-2011
FINANCE: A financially challenged primary care trust has lifted the bar it placed on IVF services, despite continuing to overspend at a rate of £600,000 a month.
Inflation figures suggest £857m NHS cut next year

24-Mar-2011
Inflation forecasts in yesterday’s budget show Department of Health funding will drop by £857m in real terms next year compared with planned 2010-11spending set out in October.
Funding formula change boosts South

24 March 2011
A ministerial decision to give less weight to health inequalities when allocating £85bn of NHS funds has privileged the South over deprived northern areas, an HSJ investigation has found.
Osborne backs Hutton on pensions but promises 'no cherry picking'

23-Mar-2011
Chancellor George Osborne has accepted Lord Hutton’s recommendations on public sector pensions as a “basis for consultation” with unions.
NW commissioners to pool buying power for continuing care

22-Mar-2011
COMMERCIAL: Primary care trusts in the North West are close to concluding a framework agreement which will establish a single list of approved continuing healthcare providers for the region..
FT severance payouts to come under scrutiny

17 March 2011
The NHS chief executive has promised MPs to do all he can to provide details of severance payouts made by foundation trusts.
Labour tables amendments to planned Monitor role

17 March 2011
Labour has put forward amendments to the Health Bill to remove Monitor’s planned powers as an enforcer of competition law.
Challenged hospitals funds used to bail out PCTs

17 March 2011
Nearly 40 per cent of a £392m fund set up to pay off the historic debts of London’s financially challenged organisations has been used to bail out commissioners.
Commissioning Support for London to be closed

11-Mar-2011
An agency that has received nearly £70m to support London’s commissioners is being shut down after just two years in existence.
Women’s hospitals hit by tariff change

10 March 2011
Hospitals are planning to lobby the government over the steep cuts to maternity income expected in 2011-12.
Confed warns over EU purchase rule change

3 March 2011
Proposals to scrap the barrier protecting health services from European procurement rules could place a “significant administrative burden” on NHS organisations, the NHS Confederation has warned.
Wirral strikes early commissioning support deal with GPs

3 March 2011
STRUCTURE: NHS Wirral has struck a deal to provide nearly 120 of its staff as “commissioning support” for GP consortia. It has told those employees their future could be in a private sector joint venture.
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.
GP commissioners' management time 'will cost £300m'

1-Mar-2011
Taking GPs out of their consulting rooms to run commissioning consortia will cost the health service around £300m a year in GPs’ time, MPs have heard.
Targets in sharp focus for the North West

24 February 2011
The Department of Health might appear to hate targets these days, but you could be forgiven for thinking the news has not travelled north.
PCTs fail to make half of savings targets

23-Feb-2011
Primary care trusts are predicting they will miss their savings targets by up to 56 per cent this year, analysis by HSJ has found.
Trusts' safety alert compliance still short despite improvements

21-Feb-2011
There has been a 50 per cent improvement in compliance with patient safety alerts over the last six months.
Readmissions payment ban will cost hospitals £790m and create 'perverse incentives' - Confed

18-Feb-2011
NHS hospitals stand to lose around £790m next year from the ban on payment for emergency readmissions, a study by the NHS Confederation has found.
Cancer tsar offers risk sharing deal for Manchester cancer network

17 February 2011
PERFORMANCE: Greater Manchester’s hospitals could share responsibility for meeting cancer hospital the Christie’s 62 day waiting target, under a deal proposed by the government’s cancer tsar.
Local government steps in to resolve PCT leadership

17 February 2011
STRUCTURE: Local authority chief executives have been drafted in to help fill a leadership vacuum in the North West.
Anti-trespass laws to be used to shift bed blocking patients

15-Feb-2011
Hospitals in north Merseyside are planning to use the anti-trespass powers used to ban “hoodies” from shopping centres to shift patients who are blocking beds.
NHS treatment of elderly failing 'basic human needs' - ombudsman

15-Feb-2011
NHS treatment of older people is “failing to meet even the most basic standards of care” in some areas, a report published today by the health service ombudsman has found.
PCT overspending sparks fresh efficiency fears

3 February 2011
Twenty-five primary care trusts have overspent their 2010-11 budgets by a total of £145m so far this financial year, an HSJ investigation has found.
NHS medical trials among best in Europe

3 February 2011
A programme in the North West which aimed to show the NHS could be a first class environment for commercial pharmaceutical research has reported results matching the best in Europe.
Humana 'assured' client it was committed to UK market

27 January 2011
US health insurance giant Humana gave a major NHS client “personal assurances” it was committed to the UK just months before it announced plans to exit the market, the client said this week.
Bill may open up bank lending market to NHS hospitals

25-Jan-2011
Government plans to make it easier for foundation trusts to use their property as loan security may open up a market for private sector lending to NHS hospitals, lawyers say.
Private patient income cap ditching leaves FTs open to legal challenge

20-Jan-2011
Government plans to lift the cap on private income for foundation trusts pose a “high” risk of NHS hospitals being challenged under state aid rules, lawyers say.
Department of Health: 'Staff may lose focus on patients during reforms'

20-Jan-2011
The Department of Health has acknowledged that Andrew Lansley’s sweeping NHS reorganisation risks distracting staff from their £20bn savings target, and from patient care.
NHS market faces closer EU attention

19-Jan-2011
Government plans to allow “any willing provider” to compete for most NHS clinical contracts could expose the health service to challenge under European competition law, experts warn.
US health giant Humana to pull out of UK

18-Jan-2011
The giant American private healthcare firm Humana plans to pull out of the NHS commissioning support market and wind down its UK business within six months, HSJ has learned.
Nicholson warns price competition could be 'extremely dangerous'

18-Jan-2011
Allowing NHS hospitals to compete on price will be “extremely dangerous” without strong safeguards to protect quality, Sir David Nicholson told MPs this week.
London reviews future of PCT support body

13 January 2011
An agency launched less than two years ago to support London’s primary care trusts could be shuttered in March, after nearly £70m of public investment.
‘Rise in cancer breaches’ by foundations

6 January 2011
The number of acute and specialist foundation trusts that missed cancer treatment targets rose by a third to 28 out of 90 in the past three months, their regulator Monitor has revealed.
Price rivalry ‘could raise death rates’

6 January 2011
The decision to let NHS hospitals compete with each other on price from next year threatens to harm care and raise death rates, experts warn.
Monitor plans tougher standards for FTs

4-Jan-2011
Foundation trusts will face tougher standards from next year on tracking and reporting care quality, under new proposals published by their regulator Monitor.
Price competition could raise death rates, experts warn

17-Dec-2010
The decision to let NHS hospitals compete with each other on price from next year threatens to harm care and raise death rates, experts warn.
Rise in cancer target breaches among foundation trusts, new Monitor report shows

16-Dec-2010
The number of foundation trusts that missed cancer treatment targets rose by a third to 28 out of 130 in the past three months, their regulator Monitor has revealed.
Commissioning group rapped for rules breach

17 December 2010
The NHS competition watchdog has recommended the North West specialised commissioning group is barred from entering into long term “framework agreements” with providers.
Computer models could help NHS save £20bn

17 December 2010
The NHS could use computer simulations to help find £20bn savings needed by April 2015.
Tariff to be cut by 1.5 per cent

15-Dec-2010
The tariff, which prices thousands of procedures commissioned in the NHS, will be cut in cash terms by 1.5 per cent in 2011-12 compared with this year, the Department of Health has revealed.
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”.
Clinicians put forward ideas on where to save £20bn

15-Dec-2010
Senior clinicians have called on the NHS to cut unnecessary surgical interventions, lab tests, and referrals to help meet its challenging £20bn savings target.

Alastair McLellan

Health Service JournalCrispin Dowler

Health Service Journal
Crispin Dowler