HSJ Live 09.04.2015: Concerns over nurse rapist raised five years ago

2.04pm In case you missed it, earlier this week the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges published a manifesto calling for 12 key policy commitments from politicians this election.

You can see the full list here, but the policies include:

• Enabling the effective integration of primary, secondary and social care
• Putting an end to top down reorganisation
• Making sure primary care is properly resourced

Professor Dame Sue Bailey, chair of the Academy said: “As we move towards the general election it is clear that the future of the NHS is one of the most important issues for the electorate. This compendium of views sets out in clear and simple terms what the new health secretary must do if he or she is to create a sustainable NHS which can deliver the kind of service we all deserve. We know that some changes will take longer than others and will undoubtedly require investment, but in the longer term they will pay dividends. But there are other simple changes that can be made soon, that don’t require vast resources, but which will quickly bring big benefits for patients. The medical royal colleges and the medical profession as a whole are ready and willing to support the next government to overcome the challenges, but it must recognise that the system is at breaking point and we are running out of time if we are going to fix it.”

1.45pm Technology giant IBM is to be the supplier of the electronic staff record system covering 1.4 million NHS staff in England and Wales.

IBM was named as preferred supplier last December, replacing McKesson UK as supplier of the payroll and human resources computer system.

The five year contract, worth between £200m and £450m according to the original tender document, will start in June as part of a phased rollout due to be complete in December.

1.40pm Trusts have managed to meet a high profile waiting time target just weeks before the general election.

The “incomplete” target, which requires 92 per cent of patients to be waiting no more than 18 weeks to start treatment, was achieved in February at 93.1 per cent.

This comes despite a high number of cancelled elective operations because of bed shortages following what was widely thought to be the toughest winter for accident and emergency departments in recent years.

1.38pm A senior figure at Kettering General Hospital Foundation Trust has blamed the trust’s slow progress with its seven day service planning on a lack of engagement from NHS England and local commissioners.

Simon Beesley, the trust’s lead on seven day services, told directors that a lack of information from NHS England regarding which national standards to prioritise in 2015-16 had made planning difficult.

A spokesman for NHS England told HSJ it is up to local health economies to decide which standards to prioritise in their areas.

1.30pm A district general hospital has become the latest organisation to abandon plans to become a standalone foundation trust.

Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust in Harlow, Essex, is now looking to become an integrated care organisation and is investigating both “horizontal” and “vertical” integration with other health bodies.

The development was revealed in a paper presented to West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group’s board at the end of last month.

It is the first time an NHS body has said publicly that the £177m-turnover organisation would not viable as a standalone FT.

1.25pm Concerns about a nurse convicted last month of raping and photographing unconscious patients at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford were raised more than five years ago, HSJ can reveal.

A complaint of voyeurism was made against accident and emergency staff nurse Andrew Hutchinson in 2009, HSJ has learned. It is understood he was accused of “inappropriate behaviour” and taking photographs of a student nurse who was working in the department at the time.

Hutchinson last month pleaded guilty to 27 counts of rape, voyeurism and sexual assault at Oxford Crown Court, including four attacks on unconscious patients in the hospital’s A&E.

The trust confirmed to HSJ yesterday that a complaint of voyeurism was made in 2009 and that it carried out an investigation but took no action against Hutchinson, who is due to be sentenced on 27 April. It did not pass on details of the complaint to Thames Valley Police in 2009.

10.52am Here’s a few more of the findings from the BMA’s survey:

• Only 8 per cent of GPs feel that the standard ten minute consultation is adequate
• More than nine in ten GPs (93 per cent) say that their heavy workload has negatively impacted on the quality of patient services
• GPs believe that factors that could help better deliver the essentials of general practice include increased funding (76 per cent), more GPs (74 per cent), longer consultation times (70 per cebt) and a reduction in bureaucracy (64 per cent)

10.39am Trusts have managed to meet a key waiting time target just weeks before the general election

The ‘incomplete’ target, which requires 92 per cent of patients to be waiting no more than 18 weeks to start treatment was met at 93.1 per cent.

This comes despite a high number of cancelled elective operations because of bed shortages following what was widely thought to be the toughest winter for accident and emergency departments in recent years.

10.35am The Telegraph also writes that an NHS hospital has been criticised for paying an agency nurse £2,200 to work a single 12 hour shift.

The record sum - a rate of £183.33 an hour - was paid by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, a freedom of information request has disclosed

10.34am The Daily Telegraph reports that a leading facial surgeon “repeatedly punched” a patient in the face to try and correct a fracture, a medical tribunal has heard.

Ninian Peckitt, 63, was described by witnesses as punching the man but later wrote that the patient’s face had been “digitally manipulated”, it was said.

The General Medical Council said the case against the surgeon was not about the outcome of his approach, but the method of the surgery he is alleged to have used.

Professor Peckitt was working as a locum consultant in oral and maxillo-facial surgery at Ipswich Hospital in February 2012, when he was called on to treat the patient, who had suffered a fracture following an industrial accident.

10.22am The Mail also reports that GPs are in “revolt” over government plans for them to offer patients appointments seven days a week.

A survey of 15.560 GPs by the British Medical Association found that 94 were against their practice opening every day.

10.14am The Daily Mail splashes with a story today on how the NHS is spending millions on prescriptions for suncream and toothpaste.

According to figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre, in 2014 the NHS handed out 404,5000 prescriptions for suncream at a cost of £13m.

7.00am The General Medical Council is to review a decision made during its investigation into complaints against NHS England national director Dame Barbara Hakin.

The medical watchdog said Dame Barbara, a former GP, was not facing a fresh investigation, although the case made against her in 2012 could be reopened if the GMC rules it made an error when it cleared her of bullying and putting patients at risk in 2013.

Dame Barbara, NHS England’s national director of commissioning operations, was accused of disregarding patient safety at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust in 2009 while she was chief executive of the East Midlands Strategic Health Authority.