HSJ’s second BME Pioneers list revealed, plus the rest of today’s news and comment
4.25pm The political significance of waiting times is such that the NHS will have to hit the 18 week target and then hold it at least until the post-election spending review reveals whether the NHS will get the extra money it needs, say James Thompson and Richard Murray, both from the King’s Fund.
3.18pm Medway Foundation Trust could see some of its work moved to a neighbouring trust to relieve pressure on the struggling organisation.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust is considering taking on outpatient work from patients in Swale in respiratory, cardiology and elderly care.
Extra support is also being put in place at Medway Maritime Hospital’s beleaguered accident and emergency department.
3.07pm Following a successful launch last year,HSJ in partnership with Celesio is again celebrating the up and comers who are making a real difference to healthcare.
We will name our latest collection of Rising Stars as the new year starts, and we are looking for your nominations.
Our aim is to celebrate the people whose work and decisions are already improving healthcare, and who are considered likely to be the NHS leaders of the future. A panel of expert judges will decide on the final 25.
You can make nominations now using the form here. Please be sure to give the individual’s name, job title, organisation and a short description of why you think the person should be considered as an HSJ Rising Star.
The closing date for nominations is Monday 10 November.
3.03pm Charity leaders body ACEVO and the Central Southern Commissioning Support unit today promised to work together to ensure the future of the NHS.
Their new report ‘Working in Partnership’ sets out seven principles to break down the perceived barriers to partnership working between health and social care commissioners and the voluntary sector.
The report’s framework follows last week’s publication of the NHS Five Year Forward View, a high-level strategy document on the future of the NHS. It also emerges in the wake of comments by Shadow Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham, who reiterated his stance in Health Service Journal on 30 October that the NHS should be the ‘preferred provider’ of health services.
Bosses urged healthcare commissioning units across the country’s health service to follow the report’s principles and work closely with the third sector in the design and delivery of a new generation of health and care services.
The report’s seven principles are:
1. Sustainability - Organisations should seek to build partnerships through jointly committing leadership time and resource to understanding each other’s operating environments and contexts.
2. Transparency - Organisations should be open with each other and clear about the purpose and benefits of the partnership for partners, patients and the public.
3. Joint Vision - Organisations should share their vision and plans as early as possible so that they can identify synergies and opportunities to develop a joint partnership vision.
4. Joint Capability - Organisations should seek to enhance each other’s capability through, for example, knowledge transfer or the joint provision of services.
5. Proportionality - Both partners should be equal in the partnership but should be proportionate in their requirements of each other.
6. Innovation and improvement - Organisations should seek to share, develop and implement innovative solutions.
7. Accountability and governance - Be clear about how decisions are taken within each organisation and within the partnership. Agree how you will hold each other to account.
The report’s framework follows last week’s publication of the NHS Five Year Forward View, a high-level strategy document on the future of the NHS. It also emerges in the wake of comments by Shadow Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham, who reiterated his stance in Health Service Journal on 30 October that the NHS should be the ‘preferred provider’ of health services.
Commenting on the launch of the framework, ACEVO Chief Executive Sir Stephen Bubb said: “ACEVO and the CSCSU’s vision is clear. We want commissioners across the UK to adopt the principles of working in partnership in today’s report, and commit to giving the third sector a seat at the top table when designing and delivering NHS services.”
1.38pm The health service is “absolutely on the knife edge” with no reserve left to cushion against unforeseen pressures, NHS England officials have warned.
Speaking at the organisation’s board meeting yesterday, chief finance officer Paul Baumann said there was “no reserve left which will cater for things which we haven’t anticipated in the risk and mitigation analysis we’ve done”.
He described 2014-15 as “the year in which we are absolutely on the knife edge of balancing or not balancing against the position we’ve got”.
1.26pm Cambridge University Hospital Foundation Trust has recorded the worst weekly accident and emergency waiting time performance by any NHS provider for three and half years, a statistician has calculated.
The trust only hit the four hour benchmark in 60 per cent of cases against a target for 95 per cent for the week ending 2 November, meaning 40 per cent of patients waited longer than four hours before they were treated, discharged or admitted.
Across England, trusts are struggling against the four hour target. Ninety-one per cent of type 1 patients attending A&E were seen within four hours.
1.23pm A South West clinical commissioning group has agreed to award community services contracts worth more than £90m without going out to tender.
At a meeting on Wednesday, Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG’s governing body backed controversial plans to award three community service contracts to the providers identified as “most capable”.
This approach scored the highest in an options appraisal, which also considered either going out to open competition or awarding the contracts to existing providers.
1.20pm An NHS hospital has pledged to compete with Circle Partnership, the private provider appointed to run Bedfordshire’s £120m integrated musculoskeletal service, after refusing to become its subcontractor, HSJ can reveal.
Bedford Hospital Trust has refused to sign the contract after seeing the number of MSK referrals plunge 30 per cent after Circle took over the service in April.
The trust claims the service’s arrangement “endangers the viability” of its trauma and accident and emergency services and could undermine its capacity to retain the seven trauma surgeons it employs.
11.23am Yvonne Coghill, senior programme lead for inclusion at the NHS Leadership Academy, says we need to nurture the talent that exists in the system.
11.00am Dr Kailash Chand, deputy chair of the BMA Council, talks about inspiring more people from BME backgrounds to succeed. He writes: “Since the inception of the NHS, BME doctors have provided a range of essential services, including care and support, for some of the most vulnerable sections of our community, often working in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation and in less popular areas of healthcare.”
For his full view - click here.
10.40am The chief financial officer of Hinchingbrooke Healthcare Trust has stepped down from her position.
Jenny Claire has left the trust to become bursar of Newnham College, Cambridge.
The trust has appointed an interim and is currently recruiting for a full time replacement.
10.25am In the foreword to HSJ’s BME Pioneer list, editor Alastair McLellan writes that the health service has far to go to ensure its leadership is reflective of the ethnic mix of the population it serves, but there is still plenty to celebrate about diversity in the NHS.
10.20am The Telegraph reports that a grieving son has been ordered to pay thousands of pounds in legal fees after he was sued by the foreign doctor who killed his father.
Daniel Ubani killed David Gray, a pensioner, with a massive drug overdose on his first shift after arriving from Germany to work as a locum doctor.
Although Ubani was struck off the medical register in the UK, he continues to practice in Germany.
Mr Gray’s two sons confronted Ubani at a medical conference in Germany, calling him a charlatan, a killer and an animal.
Rory Gray was sued in a German court by Ubani over the incident. The court ruled that Mr Gray should pay three quarters of the court costs.
10.10am Here’s our 50 BME Pioneers list in full.
10.07am In a letter in The Times the Specialised Healthcare Alliance write that the decision to transfer responsibility for specialised services from local commissioners to NHS England was “a sensible step”.
They argue that while NHS England has faced problems with taking over specialised services, these can be overcome.
They are concerned about plans for NHS England to co-commission specialised services with CCGs as it could “muddy” budgets and responsibility and create a postcode lottery.
10.00am Last night we announced our BME pioneers.
The 50 people on the list include Dr Shreelata Datta, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at King’s College Hospital; Ludlow Johnson, equality and human rights manager at South Central Ambulance Service Trust; Tiritega Mawaka, manager of continuing health care at Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge clinical commissioning groups; and Jagtar Singh, chair of Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust.
The National Audit Office report found the “worsening” position and “growing financial stress” experienced by hospitals made the health service unsustainable as a public service.
Its analysis found trusts expect to receive £2.2bn more than healthcare commissioners plan to spend in 2015-16 – a funding gap predicted to quadruple to almost £9bn by 2018-19.
7.00am Good morning and welcome to HSJ Live. We begin the day with the clinicians, managers, patient advocates, academics and diversity champions who number HSJ’s second BME Pioneers list.
The 50 people on the list include Dr Shreelata Datta, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at King’s College Hospital; Ludlow Johnson, equality and human rights manager at South Central Ambulance Service Trust; Tiritega Mawaka, manager of continuing health care at Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge clinical commissioning groups; and Jagtar Singh, chair of Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust.
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