NHS Co-operation and Competition Panel
CCP recommends biggest acute merger go ahead despite 'reducing patient choice'
The Co-operation and Competition Panel has recommended England’s biggest hospital merger should be allowed to go ahead - but only because there is no alternative.
Competition panel highlights GP conflict concern
A primary care trust has been criticised by the Cooperation and Competition Panel for giving GPs leading roles in a decision to close a rival primary care centre.
CCP rules against largest acute merger plan in the country
The Cooperation and Competition Panel has said plans to create the biggest single trust in the NHS would break competition rules.
Private sector faces referral to Competition Commission
The NHS reforms would have “blown up in people’s faces” without last week’s decision to refer the private healthcare market to the Competition Commission, the boss of Circle has told HSJ.
FTs consider merger that would create largest trust
Three London foundation trusts are considering a merger that would create the single biggest trust, with a turnover of £1.9bn.
Bennett warns against 'second guessing' merger rulings
Trusts involved in mergers should not “second guess” Monitor’s decisions or they risk having to “unwind” arrangements at taxpayers’ expense, the regulator’s boss has warned.
Ban commissioners from setting minimum waiting times - CCP
The Cooperation and Competition Panel has told health secretary Andrew Lansley that commissioners should be banned from setting minimum waiting times for procedures.
CCP puts patient benefit over patient choice in acute merger
The Co-operation and Competition Panel has advised, for the first time, that a merger between two rival providers can go ahead, because the potential benefits outweighed the reduction in patient choice.
DH still learning "whether we got it right" with CQC
The permanent secretary to the Department of Health has admitted the regulatory system failed patients and relatives at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust.
CCP backs commissioners in care home procurement row
The Cooperation and Competition Panel has ruled against care home associations in two regions after they claimed procurement rules and prices for continuing healthcare were too low.
First large hospital merger approved by CCP
A plan to shake up hospital care in Hampshire has become the first merger of large acute trusts to pass a key test designed to enshrine competition in the NHS.
Lansley condemns commissioners as 'cynical' over choice restrictions
Health secretary Andrew Lansley today said primary care trusts “game the system” to “delay treatment”, in response to the Co-operation and Competition Panel’s investigation of choice in elective care.
Patient operations deliberately delayed, CCP claims
Patients are being forced to wait for treatment in the hope they will remove themselves from waiting lists by either going private or dying, a report has suggested.
Commissioners 'excessively constraining' patient choice
Commissioners are restricting patient choice and choking competition in routine elective care, the Cooperation and Competition Panel has found.
Minister sets out OFT's role in hospital mergers
The Office of Fair Trading will consider most foundation trust mergers under the terms of the Health Bill, it has emerged.
Exclusive: ministers set to overrule Future Forum
A new coalition agreement on NHS reform will put the Competition and Co-operation Panel on a statutory footing, leaving Monitor with a duty to “protect and promote patients’ interests”, HSJ understands.
Joint pathology venture fairly awarded, CCP decides
A foundation trust did not breach competition principles in selecting a public/private partnership for its pathology services, the NHS market regulator has found.
Earl Howe orders break-up of North West's 'anti-competitive' four year contract
Health minister Earl Howe has told NHS North West to break up a four year “framework” deal between the region’s specialised commissioning group and mental health service providers.
PCT Network responds to choice complaints
Commissioners accused of breaking competition rules were either abiding by guidance or justified by an obligation to “maximise benefits to patients and taxpayers”, according to the Primary Care Trust Network.
Competition panel to rule on pathology deal
A foundation trust’s £300m deal with another trust and a private company to outsource pathology services has been challenged under procurement rules.
More on the Panel
How to avoid legal pitfalls when procuring goods and services
Goods and services must be procured by the book if healthcare organisations are to avoid costly challenges. Hill Dickinson LLP partner Mark Fitzgibbon explains.
Compete or collaborate? The policy dysphoria facing NHS organisations
The buzzword in the NHS is collaboration, but with the Health Bill steeped in competition, despite significant amendments, realising integrated care still seems a long way away. It’s time to focus, says Professor Bob Hudson.
What the realities of competition mean for organisations' sustainability
While the theory of competition in healthcare drives up quality, the pragmatics mean commissioners should keep a close eye on whether their services remain sustainable in the long term, warns NHS Tameside and Glossop chief executive Tim Riley.
Media Watch: deliberate delays report provokes fury in the press
The furore over the Cooperation and Competition Panel’s report suggesting primary care trusts were making patients wait longer in the hope they would die or go private was going strong when the weekend papers went to press.
Michael White: the strange landscape of US healthcare
Where else but the US should this column spend a few days as punishment for not understanding how inappropriate a mechanism competition is for driving efficiency and innovation in healthcare?
Why competition still has its place in NHS
Competition in the NHS is nothing new - and the more measured approach outlined in the Health Bill’s amendments this week will better preparing the health service to fully function with competition working alongside integration, argues Wragge and Co partner Simon Taylor.
