Senior MPs and activists to pressure Liberal Democrat leader to support the repeal of the government’s NHS reforms at party conference.
5.14pm Charlotte Leslie, Conservative MP and member of the Commons health committee, has written a column for The Guardian to coincide with a Dispatches documentary tonight which examines the “misuse” of NHS services.
Ms Leslie says: “An NHS free at the point of use is one thing but can we afford it to be free at the point of ‘no use’? Could we charge for misuse of the NHS – perhaps £10 for a missed GP appointment?”
4.03pm The public may be sceptical about a tax increase, but it could play a significant and immediate role in the NHS to reduce the funding gap while maintaining quality of care and keeping the NHS free at the point of need, writes Nick Pearce of the Institute for Public Policy Research.
3.28pm As the government presses on with plans for online health services by 2015, Shaun O’Hanlon, chief medical officer at EMIS Group, has written for HSJ on how we can all seize control of our health and care through technology.
2.05pmThe Guardian reports demands from an influential MP that ministers should end the “scandal” of vulnerable children and young people suffering a mental health crisis being assessed in a police cell because of a nationwide shortage of proper psychiatric facilities.
Dr Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the Commons health select committee, said it was “wholly unacceptable” for under-18s who are picked up by the police because they are having a breakdown to be taken into cells rather than to a specialist medical unit.
1.48pm The five year strategy being developed by NHS England will set out ‘a range of care models’ aimed at putting the service on a sustainable financial footing, it has said.
The organisation published an overview of the strategy on Friday called the “NHS Five Year Forward View” or the “5YFV”.
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens is likely to use it to set out many of his main proposals for the service. It is expected to be highly influential.
1.03pm A former lead governer of the trust recommended for special measures last week has accused its senior management of repeatedly brushing aside his and fellow governors’ concerns.
Ken Rogers, who quit as lead governor at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust six weeks ago, said he had “got fed up with banging my head against a brick wall” and felt managers were “not listening to patients’ views”.
2.30pm Some failing NHS hospitals are “in denial” about the inadequate care and services offered for patients, a top medical watchdog has said.
Chief inspector of hospitals Mike Richards, who was installed last year in the wake of the mid-Staffordshire crisis, also said some “have not realised the world has moved on” and that there are “unacceptable” discrepancies in care across the country.
11.36am In The Times, a 10p treatment tax should be added to every bottle of wine sold in supermarkets and off-licences to help to tackle alcohol addiction, according to a think tank.
The proposal would also result in 2p being added to the average bottle of beer bought in stores.
Money raised from the tax would fund a new generation of centres to treat alcohol and drug addiction, the Centre for Social Justice said.
11.25am The Daily Telegraph reports that death rates for four cancers which account for half of all cancer deaths in the UK have declined by almost a third since the early 1990s, figures show.
Over the past two decades the combined death rates for breast,bbowerl, lung and prostate cancer have falled by 30 per cent, according to data from Cancer Research UK.
10.45am Heart of England Foundation Trust will consult on controversial proposals to reshape surgical services across its three main hospitals.
The West Midlands trust wants to create “centres of surgical excellence” at Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull hospitals, with each taking the lead in providing surgery for a range of specialties.
10.42am The Observer reported over the weekend that Nick Clegg faces a challenge from senior MPs and activists at his party conference who plan to force the Liberal Democrat leader to back a repeal of the government’s NHS reforms.
The rebels will pressure the party to outflank Labour on the NHS and further condemn the role of market forces and competition in the health service. They are being supported by senior figures in the sector, including Dr Clare Gerada, former chair of the Royal College of GPs.
10.17am A West Midlands trust has agreed a package of support for the financially troubled George Eliot Hospital Trust, months after its bid to take over the organisation was scuppered.
According to its July board papers, South Warwickshire Foundation Trust has “agreed a number of projects” to help George Eliot.
The offer comes just months after the NHS Trust Development Authority ditched a procurement aimed at finding a healthcare provider to take over the ailing organisation. South Warwickshire was the only trust left in the running when the process was abandoned in March.
10.00am: Good morning. Today on hsj.co.uk NHS Confederation chief executive Rob Webster has called more a new approach to efficiency savings in the service.
He says: “Alongside the debate over the amount of money we have at our disposal, we must now shift the debate to how that money is spent if we are to sustain the NHS into the future. A new, more sophisticated remedy that moves beyond punishing price cuts is needed.”
He goes on to says that politicians need to start talking about the “technical mechanisms” with which the NHS can meet its financial challenge, not just about “winners and losers”.
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