Frimley Park Foundation Trust’s takeover of Heatherwood and Wexham Park signed off by Monitor, plus the rest of today’s news and comment.
5.30pm In our latest video, members of the HSJ Future of NHS Leadership inquiry will look at how the service and attract and retain strong leaders from the bedside to the boardroom.
5.00pm Here are few points from UKIP health spokeswoman Louise Bours’ address to the party’s annual conference:
Ms Bours proposed a reorganisation of the health service where ‘county health boards’ would replace the exisiting roles of Monitor’ and the Care Quality Commission. The boards would be run by clinicians.
She also claimed that the managers outnumber clinical staff in the health service. UKIP would be a licencing system for NHS managers, similar to registration for clinical staff. Managers found to be incompetent would be ‘struck off’.
The NHS under UKIP would remain free at the point delivery, she said, contrary to claims that the party would introduce GP charges.
Ms Bours voiced UKIP’s opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Partnership Agreement – and called for the NHS to be exempt from it
UKIP would introduce mandatory health insurance for visitors and migrant workers, which would be checked at the point of visa application, she added. The party claimed that £200m from this would go towards abolishing hospital car parking charges.
4.56pm NHS Employers has expressed disappointment over Unite’s decision go ahead to strike action over NHS pary.
Gill Bellord, the body’s director of employment relations and reward, said: “Employers are concerned and disappointed that Unite intends to join Unison in strike action in the NHS. Unite has yet to reveal details of how many of its members voted, while a very small proportion of members had voted for strike action in Unison’s ballot.
“Thousands of patients now face uncertainty and delays to treatment. We are asking unions to coordinate closely with employers right now, well ahead of the mandatory seven days minimum notice, so that hospitals and other health providers can start planning care.
“This is not the patients’ dispute and we strongly urge unions to take them out of it entirely, by instead returning to discussions on ways out of this troubling period of pay restraint. We completely understand the frustration of many staff but patient safety must always be our first priority.”
4.29pm Members of the union Unite have voted to take strike action over NHS pay.
It comes after Unison members voted in favour of industrial action last week.
Unite members working within the NHS will begin a four hour strike between 7am and 11am on 13 October.
They also plan to work only 37.5 hours a week between 13 October and 9 November, while ambulance staff will impose an overtime ban in their respective trusts between 13-19 October.
Unite said the members voted in favour of the strike by the 62 per cent margin in favour of strike action, and 77 per cent for industrial action short of a strike.
The union’s head of health Rachael Maskell said: “As David Cameron gathers for his party conference in Birmingham this weekend, he can contemplate the damage he and his party has wrought on the NHS in the last four years.
“One of his most destructive actions has been how he and his health secretary Jeremy Hunt have targeted NHS staff to bear the brunt of the austerity measures. Our members have seen their incomes fall by up to 15 per cent in real terms since May 2010.
“Now our members have given a resounding rejection to Cameron and his government who vetoed the one per cent pay rise, as recommended by the independent Pay Review Body. This meant that 600,000 NHS employees received no cost of living pay rise in April.
“The calibrated industrial action is designed to achieve three objectives; to get the one per cent rise paid to all 1.3 million NHS staff; respect future PRB recommendations; and obtain the ‘living wage’ to the 40,000 NHS staff being currently paid below that level.”
HSJ reported earlier today the NHS Confederation has questioned the legitimacy of next month’s strike after it emerged that just 16 per cent of Unison members took part in the vote.
4.05pm The Faculty of Public Health has announced that its president, Professor John ston, has return to his position.
Professor Ashton has took a voluntary leave of absence following which he was deemed to have used “inappropriate and offensive language” on a Twitter exhange.
!Professor Ashton and FPH have apologised unreservedly for the comments made,” the body sad in a statement.
“FPH’s board of trustees has discussed the matter at length, given the nature and seriousness of the situation. The board has registered its strong disapproval of Professor Ashton’s comments, noted the mitigating circumstances and given clear direction on the necessary steps to support Professor Ashton’s return.
“We look forward to Professor Ashton’s continuation in the role of president, so that both he and FPH can focus on championing FPH’s vision of delivering “better health for all”.”
3.30pm The Daily Telegraph reports that UKIP are attempting to overtake Labour as the party of the NHS.
At its annual conference in Doncaster, the party announced it would block the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
2.46pm Contrary to popular opinion, the NHS has not been cut to the bone, our latest leadership survey suggests. Meanwhile, managers continue to be concerned about quality, safety and the forthcoming election – and are still waiting for the ‘Simon Stevens’ effect. Alison Moore reports.
2.00pm By squeezing end of life care contracts or bundling services together with older people’s services, commissioners risk undermining the quality of end of life care for the people that need it, writes Phil McCarvill, senior research fellow for health at the Institute for Public Policy Research.
1.28pm The NHS Confederation has questioned the legitimacy of next month’s planned NHS strike after it emerged that just 16 per cent of Unison members took part in the vote.
Thousands of NHS staff are due to walk out for four hours on 13 October between 7am and 11am following a dispute with the government over pay - the first time unions have taken industrial action over pay in 32 years.
12.55pm A financially troubled trust in the West Midlands has failed to recruit a new chief executive after failing to find candidates with suitable experience.
11.53am This week’s issue of HSJ magazine is now available to read on our tablet app.
In this week’s issue HSJ analysis reveals one in 10 trusts do not have a permanent finance director. Plus:
- Ed Miliband pledges £2.5bn in funding to transform the NHS at the Labour Party conference
- Exclusive HSJ/FTI Consulting poll shows public approval for the government’s handling of the NHS is increasing
- Dudley Group Foundation Trust becomes the first trust to be granted a formal review of its Care Quality Commission rating
- NHS providers have suffered “unprecedented” financial problems for Q1 2014
- Mike Birtwistle says Mr Miliband must show his commitment to the NHS to shore up public trust
To find the latest issue, simply navigate to “This week’s issue” on the app, or tap on the cover image on the homepage.
HSJ’s tablet app is free to download for both iPad and Android devices. iPad users can download it directly here, Android users will need to download it from the Google Play store.
11.26am Monitor has closed an investigation into mental health services at Central and North West London Foundation Trust.
The regulator launched an investigation into the trust April, after concerns were raised by the Care Quality Commission.
Monitor statement issued today stated: “After reviewing the evidence, Monitor has decided that the issues raised by the CQC do not indicate wider problems with how the trust is run and therefore no further formal regulatory action is being taken at this time.
“However, the regulator will monitor the trust’s progress in putting in place robust systems for identifying and fixing problems across the trust.
Monitor’s regional director Mark Turner said: “I am pleased that patients at Central and North West London Foundation Trust are receiving better care.
“The trust has worked hard to address the concerns raised by the CQC and we are satisfied that these issues aren’t symptomatic of wider problems at the trust.”
“We will continue to monitor the trust’s progress in improving services for patients.”
11.20am Health Education England plans to spend almost £5m to attract thousands of nurses back into the NHS, HSJ can reveal.
The funding will be used by the national education and training body to cover the full cost of return to practice courses and offer guaranteed placements in NHS trusts.
It will also be used to cover expenses for returning nurses including travel, childcare and books.
11.06am EXCLUSIVE: The Care Quality Commission has raised serious concerns about care quality, management and culture at the UK’s only privately run NHS hospital, HSJ can reveal.
The regulator’s concerns about Hinchingbrooke Health Care Trust include allegations of patients being treated in an “undignified and emotionally abusive manner”, hygiene failures, staffing problems and “a blame approach”.
They were raised in a letter sent by the regulator to the trust this week, outlining “early feedback” from an inspection which took place between 15 and 18 September.
10.52am Also in the FT, the number of centenarians in Britain has more than quadrupled in 30 years to almost 14,000, a relatively large share of the population compared with countries such as the US and Germany.
The ranks of “very old” people in the UK, as official statisticians label the over 90s, have been increasingly rapidly because of better medicine, housing, nutrition and changes in smoking habits, with the rising numbers straining the NHS and public finances.
10.46am The Financial Times reports that UKIP will promise to protect the NHS and keep it free at the point of access in a rejection of Labour claims that his party would introduce charges for GPs.
10.34am More from The Guardian, an NHS nurse who was convicted of sexual grooming after plotting to behead and eat a girl has been jailed for nine years (paper only).
Dale Bolinger, 58, brought an axe from a DIY shop in Broadstairs, Kent, the day before he tried to meet the 14-year-old whom he had groomed online.
10.25am The Guardian reports that intolerably long waiting times to see a GP have become a national disgrace that could endanger people’s health, according to the chair of the Royal College of GPs.
Maureen Baker said increasingly unacceptable waits for an appointment risk illnesses not being spotted quickly enough and chances to prevent them being missed.
Dr Baker spoke out as NHS figures showed that one in six patients have to wait at least a week before they see a GP or practice nurse.
10.16am A third of cancer patients say they are not getting enough support from their GPs, The Telegraph reports.
A national survey of 70,000 people with the disease show slight improvements in patient satisfaction about NHS care in hospitals.
But since 2010, satisfaction with GPs has seen the greatest decline of the areas examined with 66 per cent of patients saying family practices did everything they could to give them support, compared with 69 per cent four years ago.
10.07am The Telegraph reports that GPs are increasingly handing out antibiotics that fail and simply lead to further treatment, a study has found.
Scientists called the findings “bleak” after noting that one in six courses of drugs over 2012 was unsuccessful, while for some it rose to more than one in two.
Researchers from Cardiff University scrutinised 11m doses of antibiotics prescribed to patients over the past 22 years for4 conditions such as tonsillitis, pneumonia and ear infections.
10.01am In response to Andy Burnham’s speech at the Labour Party conference, NHS Clinical Commissioners co-chair Steve Kell argues that clinical commissioning and a sense of continuity should be at the heart of the NHS’s future.
9.47am The penalty for treating a long waiting patient is four times bigger than the penalty for letting them wait, writes waiting times expert Rob Findlay.
He says there is a fairer, more effective way of holding trusts to account than this perverse system.
9.33am The Conservatives will be under pressure next week to respond to Labour’s conference announcements, says Bill Morgan, a founding partner of Incisive Health and a former special adviser to Andrew Lansley, over in our comment section.
Speculating on the content of their speeches next week is a mug’s game, but they could well focus on ‘Labour waste’, he suggests.
9.09am Almost one in 10 trust boards does not have a permanent finance director amid one of the biggest ever NHS funding squeezes, HSJ analysis has revealed.
A near comprehensive study of executive board posts by HSJ found that 9 per cent of provider trusts had a vacancy or the critical post was filled by an interim staff member.
This fresh evidence of weaknesses in providers’ leadership structures has sparked concern among healthcare commentators. The figures will feed into HSJ’s ongoing Future of NHS Leadership inquiry and inform a report on leadership by the King’s Fund, which is due to published this December.
7.00am Good morning and welcome to HSJ Live. We begin the day with the news that the first successful takeover of one foundation trust by another has received final approval.
Frimley Park Foundation Trust’s takeover of neighbouring Heatherwood and Wexham Park has been signed off by Monitor, with final formalities set to be completed before the end of the week.
It was also announced today that Frimley Park has become the first trust to be rated “outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission.
No comments yet