Live logo

5.36pm: The chair of Gloucestershire Care Services Trust, Ingrid Barker, has been elected as community trust chair representative on the Foundation Trust Network board. More information at www.glos-care.nhs.uk

5.33pm: The NHS could end up having to foot the bill for an immigration surcharge imposed on foreign visitors to limit their impact on the NHS when it recruits staff from overseas, it has emerged. The Immigration Bill is currently passing through Parliament and proposes a fee be payable by all immigrants from outside the European Economic Area who are given a temporary visas for more than six months before the enter the country.

4.11pm: We have three Amazon vouchers worth £100 each to give away to anyone who tries the HSJ tablet app. To be in with a chance of winning, simply download the app to your iPad or Android device and sign in with the same username and password you use for hsj.co.uk. We will pick three winning users from random after the draw closes on 31 October.

4pm: Readers have been weighing in with their views after Mark Britnell announced he would not be running for the top job at NHS England. Check out their comments at the foot of the story here or just enjoy this sample…

So it’s Simon Stevens then….

Really disappointed. Was looking forward to Mark coming back so he could tell us all what “world class commissioning” meant. And what went wrong.

Although Mark is indeed like Marmite i haven’t heard many people question his drive, vision, passion for the NHS and leadership skills.

Thank goodness we have ruled out one disaster waiting to happen!

Is this the start of a debate about whether the job is actually doable for anyone who actually wants to make change for the better?

Those of us know him, know that no matter what he’ll be batting for the NHS every day. That’s what he does. So while he might be ruling himself out of the job, I doubt he’ll be ruling out his commitment.

3.45pm: Care homes should be able to access and update the GP records of their residents, the health secretary has said to the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Harrogate. Jeremy Hunt said he wanted to see “a system where residential care providers can access GP records and update how a person is so the GP can go round or send a practice nurse around”.

3.40pm: Cambridgeshire Community Services Trust’s attempt to avoid abolition has been dealt a blow after the consortium it joined to bid for a £800m older people’s services contract withdrew from the process. The bid by the Capita led consortium, which also included the NHS trust and private health firm Circle, was withdrawn after Capita raised “affordability” concerns over the high-profile deal.

3.20pm: The chair of a major teaching hospital trust has said Jeremy Hunt is responsible for a “toxic culture” which has made it harder to recruit senior staff from outside the sector. Jane Ramsey, chair of Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust, said the criticism of the NHS from the secretary of state had created problems “at a national level”.

1.38pm: 41 per cent of new mothers and pregnant women are not aware of group B strep, which is the most common cause of life-threatening infection in babies, according to research published by the consumer research company Bounty Media and reported in The Daily Telegraph. More than 2,000 mothers-to-be and new mothers were surveyed and it was found that only a third had been told about the infection.

1.30pm:The Times reports that medical errors cause more than 300 patient deaths each month, according to figures from NHS England. In the year to the end of March 3,588 patients died from errors made. The safety study found that 683,883 patients suffered harm or were at risk of it, which is a 6.4 per cent rise on last year.

The newspaper also reports that the NHS is too slow to adopt new medicines, according to a Japanese drugs company. Eisai is a developer of medicines for Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and gastrointestinal  illnesses and has invested more than £100 million in the UK since 2006 but they are now threatening to pull their investment if more of their drugs are not adopted by the NHS.

1.08pm: Private care providers are avoiding millions of pounds in tax through a legal loophole, according to an investigation by the Independent and Corporate Watch. Nine providers have been identified, which are avoiding tax by taking out high-interest loans from their owners through the Channel islands Stock Exchange. These providers are Partnerships in Care, Healthcare at Home, Independent Clinical Services, Spire Healthcare, Lifeways, Priory Group, Acorn Care, Care UK and Tunstall.
 
1.03pm: The Daily Telegraph reports that a Christian care worker will go to the Court of Appeal this week to argue that she has the right not to work on a Sunday. Her employer offers 24-hour care for disabled children and Celestina Mba brought the claim after her employer refused to promise her that she would never have to work on that day of the week.

1pm: Clinical commissioning groups have been asked to present a business case to NHS England if they want to bring support service functions in house. The policy is intended ensure the stability of the wider commissioning system by preventing a situation where one commissioner stops using a commissioning support unit, undermining its viability even if other CCGs wish to continue using it.

12.53pm: Hospitals will be banned from refusing to investigate complaints from patients harmed by poor care who may also sue for damages, after campaigners condemned the practice as an illegal and unfair denial of patients’ rights, reports the Guardian.

11.30am: The NHS in England is being handed to “profiteers” while its patients are struggling to pay for prescription charges which are “a tax on ill health”, according to Scottish health secretary Alex Neil. An independent Scotland would keep the NHS in public hands and free from prescription charges, Mr Neil pledged at the SNP Conference in Perth.

11.21am: The man responsible for England’s accident and emergency departments has called for a seven-day service throughout hospitals to stem a jump in weekend deaths. Keith Willett warns he would be worried if one of his family received hospital treatment at a weekend,The Express reports.

10.50am: “Are we to assume that all so-called whistleblowers are saints? We know that many are themselves sinners that managers have challenged?” Reader reaction to our story saying all whistleblowers to be interviewed by the CQC.

10.32am: Jan Filochowski, chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children Foundation Trust, has been confirmed as a speaker at HSJ’s free webinar on regulation. Mr Filochowski has also built a big reputation for turning around failing trusts. Read more here and find out about the webinar - Are You Ready For The CQC? - here.

10.02am: A pioneering operation to improve the function of failing hearts while they are still beating has taken place in the UK for the first time, reports the BBC. Surgeons used a form of “cardiac sewing” to remove scar tissue and reduce the size of the heart so it pumps more efficiently.

9.56am: Scientists have devised a biological clock using DNA and hope to use it to slow ageing and fight cancer, writes the Mirror. The clock compares the biological “age” of body tissue to a person’s age in years. And if you’re still confused, you can read the full story here.

9.43am: The Daily Mail reports that the NHS chief responsible for A&E services has said he would be unhappy if one of his own relatives was admitted to hospital over the weekend - because of a shortage of consultants. Professor Keith Willett said his concerns were shared by other senior medical staff.

The Mail also says that hospitals must investigate allegations of medical blunders - even if it exposes them to the threat of legal action. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the NHS was obliged to respond to all patient complaints of poor care, reports the paper.

9.32am: If you want to check out the second best rolling blog of health news, there’s always Guardian Professional.

And in the newspaper’s news coverage it reports that charities, human rights bodies and the care industry have rounded on the government for a U-turn over its decision to let the health regulator hold councils to account for 15-minute care visits. Read that here.

9am: Good morning and welcome to a fresh week of HSJ Live, where you’ll find rolling coverage of the latest news and opinion from HSJ and the wider world of healthcare leadership.

New on hsj.co.uk today is an opinion piece with a simple message: don’t close smaller hospitals, transform them. Ian Philp, Charles Alessi, John Randall and John Myatt argue that this type of district general hospital can play a vital role in the future, but they and those around them must change. Read it here.

New in our Resource Centre, Dinesh Sinha puts the case for the power of the lay board member. “The strength of lay and independent clinical members can be in their capacity to maintain the sensitivity of the board to the impact of their decision and guard against any tendency to develop a thick skin such as in Mid Staffordshire.”

And there’s a new blog from Blair McPherson, who was baffled and then inspired by the “relentless optimism” coming from the children and adult services leaders’ conference. Why were they so upbeat? Find out here.