Health Service Journal
Sally E Gainsbury

Panel to judge on NHS competition rows

29-Jan-2009
The Co-operation and Competition Panel opens for business tomorrow and both private and NHS organisations are preparing lists of the issues they want it to address in its first year.
Monitor faces review over private patient income cap

29-Jan-2009
Trade union Unison is to push ahead with its legal challenge to foundation trust regulator Monitor over its interpretation of the private patient income cap.
Outsourced NHS staff hit by pensions blow

29-Jan-2009
The Department of Health has effectively barred outsourced health service employees from the NHS pension scheme in a bid to cut the government's growing liabilities.
Providers face hefty bank charges hike

29-Jan-2009
Foundation trusts' bank charges could be as much as quadrupled over the next year as banks hike up the costs of providing overdraft facilities.
Middle managers warned not to shun private sector

22-Jan-2009
Senior NHS managers are no longer opposed to private sector involvement in the health service, but their juniors often are, according to the NHS Confederation.
NHS drug shortage looms as pound falls

22-Jan-2009
The NHS could face a shortage of drugs because the weak pound means speculators are targeting UK pharmaceutical supplies for export to more lucrative markets.Data obtained by HSJ shows there has also been a dramatic slowdown in imports of cut-price branded drugs into the UK.
Trusts call for tariff system transparency

15-Jan-2009
Hospital managers have called for greater transparency about how the 2009-10 tariff will be affected by other cost and payment changes.
Foundations face threat to joint ventures

15-Jan-2009
Foundation trusts face narrowed commercial opportunities because of a gap in the government's insolvency regime, the Foundation Trust Network has warned.
NHS archive documents: secret papers show history repeating itself

15-Jan-2009
A recession, rising unemployment, escalating demand for health services and the tricky issue of how to improve the NHS with little or no new cash.
Patients praise A&E but call for better discharge support

14-Jan-2009
Patients have praised the quality of care they receive in accident and emergency departments but raised concerns about the information they are given when discharged.
Private care home operator offers free flu jabs

14-Jan-2009
A private care home operator is offering free flu vaccinations to those who visit its home but do not qualify for a jab on the NHS.
Diabetes cases rising fast, charity warns

7-Jan-2009
Three people are diagnosed with diabetes every 10 minutes in the UK, the charity Diabetes UK has estimated.
NHS data sets under scrutiny

7-Jan-2009
The national statistics watchdog has highlighted four NHS data sets it wants to bring under its scrutiny.
Independent sector treatment centres could keep subsidies

18-Dec-2008
The Department of Health has indicated it may revisit its pledge that independent sector treatment centres will not receive subsidies over the NHS tariff when their current contracts run out.
Monitor tightens private patient income cap but calls for law change

18-Dec-2008
Regulator Monitor is to tighten the rules on the private patient income cap after the Department of Health and auditors criticised a 'loophole' in the regime.
NHS surplus will bolster restricted spending

18-Dec-2008
The NHS finished last financial year with a surplus equivalent to £2.2bn, spending watchdogs have said.
How will you lead the NHS spending revolution?

18-Dec-2008
Last week's operating framework presented managers with a 'huge leadership challenge' - juggling savings with productivity. But what problems might spending cuts put in their way, asks Sally Gainsbury
Patricia Hewitt warns of 'difficult decisions' for PCTs

17-Dec-2008
The NHS faces 'difficult decisions' in coming years as it adjusts to smaller - and possibly negative - funding growth, former health secretary Patricia Hewitt has warned.
Foundation trust failure: who's for the chop?

15-Dec-2008
As the original deadline passes, 80-odd trusts are lagging in the race to achieve foundation status. Sally Gainsbury ponders the fate of those that fail to hit the mark
Managers' responses to the NHS operating framework

11-Dec-2008
Adrian Roberts, director of finance, Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals trust"If the new tariff does what it says on the tin, specialist and tertiary acutes will be protected by it which would help us, but the efficiency savings will be even harder for district general hospitals."Denise McLellan, director of commissioning and deputy chief executive, Heart of Birmingham teaching ...
NHS could be £13bn short in five years

11-Dec-2008
There could be a £13bn gap between what the NHS has been assessed as needing and what it will get by 2013, the executive chair of the foundation trust regulator Monitor has warned.
NHS operating framework: winners and losers

11-Dec-2008
PCTs whose funding targets have increased most and least under the new formula
NHS told to cap spending as more than half of £1.8bn surplus is lost

11-Dec-2008
The dire state of public finances means the NHS will be permitted to spend less than half the surplus it has generated over the last two years.
DH looks to PCT property sales to balance its books

10-Dec-2008
The sale of up to 6.5bn of primary care trust property will help the Department of Health out of the looming 16bn hole in its capital spending limit.The limit imposed on the DH and NHS by the Treasury will be jeopardised next April when new accountancy rules mean private finance initiative debts cannot be hidden from NHS balance sheets.
Alan Johnson orders Baby P death probe

4-Dec-2008
Health secretary Alan Johnson has ordered two reports into the way NHS organisations protect vulnerable children in the wake of Baby P's death in Haringey.
David Flory: payment by results tariff will be right, not rushed

4-Dec-2008
The Department of Health will postpone plans to introduce a new payment by results tariff next year if it cannot prevent it from financially destabilising specialist hospitals.
Sir Michael Rawlins may extend tenure at NICE

3-Dec-2008
A special exemption to appointment rules has been granted to allow Sir Michael Rawlins to extend his tenure as chair of an expanded National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
NHS braced for worst of Alistair Darling's £5bn spending cuts

27-Nov-2008
The NHS must prepare for a substantial cut in planned funding from the year after next.Chancellor Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report set out plans to cut £5bn from government spending plans for 2010-11 - and the NHS is the largest of 12 areas that could be hit.
NHS procurement criticised for 'dysfuntional behavior'

27-Nov-2008
The lack of an understood and agreed strategy has caused confusion, duplication and 'dysfunctional behaviour' in the NHS's procurement efforts, says the Office of Government Commerce.
NHS property swap - from PCT to PPP

27-Nov-2008
Plans to transfer billions of pounds of PCT property to public-private partnerships are one of the chancellor's initiatives to increase efficiency.
Warning that cuts will come as recession pushes up demand

27-Nov-2008
Cuts to the planned NHS allocation for 2010-11 will come at a time of increased demand for health services caused by the ill effects of recession, managers are warning.
Chancellor unveils plans for NHS cost savings

25-Nov-2008
Primary care trusts will be asked to contribute to an extra £5bn of annual public sector efficiency savings by 2010-11, today's pre-Budget report saysThe report also says an extra £100m in capital funds will be spent upgrading up to 600 GP practices into 'training practices' as part of chancellor Alistair Darling's £3bn attempt to stimulate the economy by bringing forward planned investment from 2010-11 into the next two years.
Audit Commission slams £37.9m deal at Whipps Cross University Hospital trust

20-Nov-2008
The Audit Commission has issued a public interest report outlining 'serious concerns' about a £37.9m back-dated procurement deal at Whipps Cross University Hospital trust.
PbR tariff for next year delayed until January

20-Nov-2008
The final payment by results tariff for 2009-10 will be published in January, around three months late.
UK risks a weaker role in EU health decisions

20-Nov-2008
Devolution is weakening the UK's ability to influence the EU's growing hold over health policy, a report from the Nuffield Trust warns.
Quality and outcomes framework 'distracts GPs'

19-Nov-2008
The quality and outcomes framework has been criticised as offering 'inappropriate financial incentives' to GPs that can 'distract' them from offering the best care.
£400m spending limit forced on NHS

13-Nov-2008
NHS organisations will be permitted to spend just 400m of their 1.7bn surplus next financial year and will not get the full increase in resources pledged to them by the Treasury.
Dr Foster to take on NHS Choices with rival site

13-Nov-2008
A private company is about to launch a free hospital data website for patients which could be more comprehensive than the £20m a year NHS Choices site.
Governance body slams NHS records sift

13-Nov-2008
The health and social care information watchdog has raised concerns that the smallprint in the draft NHS constitution could undermine patient confidentiality.
Readmissions not driven by incentives

13-Nov-2008
Shorter stays in hospital do not appear to have led to an increase in avoidable readmissions, Department of Health research has found.
University College London Hospitals ploughs surplus into cancer centre

13-Nov-2008
The foundation trust with the biggest surplus is about to start spending it.
Department of Health and Capita sign website contract

12-Nov-2008
The Department of Health and Capita have finally signed a contract that will see the outsourcing specialists run the 'front door' to the NHS through the website www.nhs.uk.
Baby dies after NHS misses eight chances to stop abuse

12-Nov-2008
NHS professionals had eight opportunities in just one month to spot that a 17-month-old baby was being seriously abused.
GP pay to reflect outcomes

6-Nov-2008
The GP bonus scheme will be reformed to better link GP earnings to outcomes for patients under proposals outlined by the Department of Health.
NHS trusts may face charges for 'never events'

6-Nov-2008
Politicians have urged health officials to make hospital trusts bear the full cost of so-called 'never events' to help redress the imbalance between weak commissioners and strong providers.
PCTs outsource provider arms to foundation trust

6-Nov-2008
Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees teaching primary care trusts have outsourced their entire provider arms to a local foundation trust.
PCTs to share £3m to tackle alcohol misuse

5-Nov-2008
The Department of Health has announced which 20 primary care trusts in the most deprived areas will receive a share of a £3m pot to tackle alcohol misuse.
North East Ambulance Service reform plans 'can go ahead'

5-Nov-2008
The Independent Reconfiguration Panel has thrown out an attempt by Tees Valley councillors to halt plans to reform the North East Ambulance Service.
NHS managers support top-up payments, HSJ poll reveals

5-Nov-2008
NHS managers support the decision to allow top-up payments but believe it will make the NHS less equal and doubt it will work as a long-term solution.
Health inequalities could be forgotten as cash gets tight

30-Oct-2008
Tighter NHS finances could mean the quest to reduce health inequalities will either get nasty - or be forgotten altogether.
Health inequalities: wealthiest overfunded as the poor lose out

30-Oct-2008
NHS services in the poorest and most needy parts of the country are being systematically underfunded to the benefit of the healthiest and wealthiest.
Monitor chair calls on PCTs to set out plans for services

30-Oct-2008
The coming years will see an increase in foundation trusts running primary care services, as well as culls of failing hospitals, executive chair of the regulator Monitor Bill Moyes has predicted.
PCTs say realpolitik is behind unequal healthcare

30-Oct-2008
Primary care trusts claim confusion, self-interest and realpolitik lie at the heart of the unfair distribution of NHS resources.
Hold-up: Treasury eyes NHS surplus

23-Oct-2008
The Treasury is in talks with the Department of Health over the NHS's £1.7bn surplus and when the service will be able to spend it.
New formula spells end for minimum practice income guarantee

23-Oct-2008
GPs and NHS Employers have agreed a formula that could phase out the minimum practice income guarantee. The guarantee has been strongly criticised, as it means GP practices suffer no financial penalty if patients choose to go elsewhere.
City shockwaves threaten NHS budget

16-Oct-2008
Economists are warning this week's£38bn rescue plan for UK banks creates a "structural hole" in public finances that will make NHS funding cuts and claw-backs inevitable.
Foundations bear brunt of crisis

16-Oct-2008
£7.5m lost in Icelandic banking collapseFears over the safety of surpluses from Treasury claw-backsBut opportunities for vertical integration
Treasury eyes hidden PCT surpluses

16-Oct-2008
Increased demand for health services as recession bitesTwo-year timetable for service reconfiguration and investmentSurpluses vulnerable
Trusts expect tight pinch from 2010

16-Oct-2008
Real terms cuts expected to payment by results tariffTough road ahead for aspirant foundationsQuery over future of capital investmentStaff costs may fall in real terms
Foundation trusts get £300m in a year-end spending rush

9-Oct-2008
Foundation trusts were handed up to £300m in advance payments by primary care trusts towards the end of the last financial year, HSJ has been told. The prepayments were made as some primary care trusts struggled to keep 2007-08 surpluses below 'control totals' set by the Department of Health.
Killer health conditions go unseen by GPs

9-Oct-2008
Only half of all patients with some killer conditions have been diagnosed and treated by their doctor.
NHS could be sued under free market

9-Oct-2008
Plans to create a European Union free market in public healthcare could open the health service to legal challenges from patients demanding treatments that are not available in the UK.
Adult mental health spend stays patchy

2-Oct-2008
NHS spending on adult mental health services increased by 3.7 per cent in real terms last year to £5.5bn, but is still unequal between regions.
Tories: Labour using NHS money for votes

2-Oct-2008
The government is 'manipulating' the NHS funding allocation formula to 'shore up' votes in areas loyal to Labour, the Conservatives have claimed.
Foundation trust row over corporation tax

25-Sep-2008
Foundation trusts are wrangling with HM Revenue and Customs over its plan to levy the 28 per cent corporation tax on their commercial profits.
Trusts on edge as draft payment by results tariff runs into trouble

25-Sep-2008
The Department of Health could be heading for a re-run of the chaos that saw the publication of the 2006-07 payment by results tariff just one week before the start of the financial year.A draft tariff for 2009-10 is being road tested in secret in the West Midlands, but sources suggest it is so inaccurate it is causing trust income to fluctuate by up to 18 per cent.
Ben Bradshaw: NHS top-up debate will never be resolved

24-Sep-2008
Health minister Ben Bradshaw has said the dilemma of whether to allow co-payments will never be resolved but that a compromise may be found in adjusting the way drug effectiveness is measured.
Learning disability housing plans at risk

18-Sep-2008
The pledge to shut all 'outmoded' NHS homes for adults with learning disabilities by 2010 is at risk, HSJ has learnt. Poor quality local proposals have been blamed for slow progress on the commitment.
NHS failure regime: up to 92 trusts may be culled

18-Sep-2008
The Department of Health expects to cull up to six hospital trusts a year under its new failure regime, figures in its impact assessment reveal.The document shows the DH expects to save £200m a year under the plans, which are out for consultation. It focuses on six trusts affected by long-term deficits and designated as 'financially challenged' to model potential savings resulting from slashing the length of time they are in deficit by three years.
Foundation trusts may fight private patient income cap

11-Sep-2008
Foundation trusts could challenge the cap on earnings from private patients under EU law, the Foundation Trust Network has warned.
NHS inequalities row is shrouded in secrecy

11-Sep-2008
The question of whether poor urban areas should continue to get the most funding is about fundamental NHS principles - so why is it being discussed behind closed doors? Sally Gainsbury reports
NHS managers get surplus checklist

11-Sep-2008
NHS organisations in London were issued with a 21-point checklist earlier this year to assist them in keeping their surpluses within a level acceptable to the Department of Health, HSJ has learnt.
£1.75bn NHS surplus predicted

4-Sep-2008
The NHS is set to finish this financial year with a £1.75bn surplus. The projection, based on estimates from the three months since April, is equivalent to just over 2 per cent of NHS revenue funding this year.
Doctors' memory sticks threaten data security

4-Sep-2008
Hospital doctors are carrying 'hundreds of thousands of kilobytes' of sensitive and identifiable patient information around on memory sticks with no security protection, a survey has found.
Fujitsu may bring £700m action over IT deal

4-Sep-2008
The Department of Health has refused to comment on reports that former national IT programme contractor Fujitsu is considering suing over the business it lost when its contract was terminated in March.
PFI plan could keep debts off NHS trusts' balance sheets

4-Sep-2008
NHS trusts may hand their private finance initiative hospitals over to specially created charities to avoid reporting PFI debts on their balance sheets, HSJ has learned.The controversial plans would involve trusts ceding control of the hospitals to a third party.
Coding errors distort bills for PCTs

28-Aug-2008
Up to £1bn of the bills hospital trusts sent primary care trusts last year could be wrong, tests by the Audit Commission have suggested.
Huge contrasts found between UK nations

28-Aug-2008
Patients in the UK’s four nations have dramatically different experiences of the NHS, HSJ can reveal.
IT may change funding plans

14-Aug-2008
A new IT system could pave the way for a substantial change in the way primary care trusts and GPs are funded, HSJ has been told.
PCTs suspect trusts may be allowing top ups

14-Aug-2008
Primary care trusts have received few requests from patients wishing to 'top up' their care but are concerned that hospitals are doing so without their permission.
'Struggling' coders threaten tariff improvements in 2009

14-Aug-2008
Research commissioned by the Department of Health has warned of huge problems in the way hospital services are measured and costed, saying they could undermine payment by results.
DH announces new IT and information leads

7-Aug-2008
The Department of Health has appointed the former IT chief for Cadbury Schweppes as the chief information officer for the NHS. Christine Connelly will lead the overall information strategy across the NHS.
£550m set aside to fund Darzi

7-Aug-2008
The Department of Health has set aside £150m from next year's NHS budget and £400m in 2010-11 to pay for the commitments set out in health minister Lord Darzi's review.
Accounting rule changes to cost hospitals £146m

7-Aug-2008
New accountancy rules will bring up to 16bn of extra debt onto the NHS balance sheet and cost hospitals 146m a year.
BBC to take a role in NHS Choices site

7-Aug-2008
The BBC and Picker Institute are preparing to play a role in the running of the NHS Choices website, alongside outsourcing giant Capita.
Media Watch: Is Johnson leaving the DH?

7-Aug-2008
Alan Johnson's days at the Department of Health may be numbered. The Labour leadership crisis sparked by David Miliband and bored lobby correspondents has led to speculation the health secretary will be elevated either to the top job or deputy prime minister.
Survey finds foundation trusts' hidden private income

24-Jul-2008
Foundation trusts earned up to £70m more income from private patients last year than their accounts show, a confidential report for the regulator Monitor suggests.
Massive variation in Ritalin prescribing

17-Jul-2008
There is a 23-fold difference in the rate at which children in different parts of England are prescribed Ritalin to control their behaviour, figures seen by HSJ reveal.
Summer of suspense for PCTs awaiting funding allocations

17-Jul-2008
Primary care trusts will need to wait until at least October to hear what their funding will be for the next two years.
Trust says go-it-alone plan is reinforced by IT review

17-Jul-2008
The chief executive of a foundation trust installing IT outside the national programme has said its actions are validated by last week's informatics review.
Trusts stare published death rates in the face

17-Jul-2008
Hospital public relations departments have given the Department of Health a mixed review after it published mortality rates for four kinds of operation last week.
Royal colleges call talks to confront academy failings

16-Jul-2008
A 'crisis meeting' has been called over the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges' future amid infighting between member organisations.
Cancer firm expects NHS to fall short

10-Jul-2008
A private company has invested around £30m in three new private cancer centres, underlining its belief that the NHS will fail to meet the rising demand for cancer treatments.
Economist calls for NHS Bank to hold foundation surpluses

10-Jul-2008
Foundation trusts should be able to store their £2.3bn surpluses in an 'NHS bank' for use by rest of the health service, MPs have been told.
Euro providers could claim place on choose and book

10-Jul-2008
European health providers could launch claims to be included in GP choose and book systems to give them the same access to the NHS market as those in the UK.
Hospital death rates published

10-Jul-2008
Death rates for four hospital procedures will be published by the Department of Health today in a move designed to help patients make more informed choices.
Shift in IT policy as trusts told they can develop their own system

10-Jul-2008
The Department of Health has signalled a shift in the national programme for IT that will see it supporting NHS organisations that want to develop their own systems.
Treasury set to rein in public spend

10-Jul-2008
The Treasury has launched a fresh public sector efficiency review in a bid to keep an ever tighter rein on the public sector finances.
Darzi quality incentive puts £1bn at stake

3-Jul-2008
Up to £1bn - or 3 per cent - of annual hospital trust income will be contingent on meeting service quality requirements by 2010-11.
Hospitals may lose out in plan to make funds follow student

3-Jul-2008
The shake-up of education and funding for training proposed by Lord Darzi could have a 'major destabilising impact' on established teaching hospitals.
Leadership roles for clinicians get a boost from Darzi

3-Jul-2008
Lord Darzi's workforce strategy unveils sweeping reforms to workforce planning and education.
EU law gives patients right to charge for overseas care

2-Jul-2008
The rights of patients to charge the NHS for care they receive abroad will be set out for the first time in a European Commission directive due to be published this week.
Darzi turns up heat on clinical leadership and training

30-Jun-2008
Health minister Lord Darzi has put clinical leadership at the centre of his next stage review.
DH aims to slash commissioning support delay

26-Jun-2008
The Department of Health plans to slash the time it takes primary care trusts to engage commissioning support by cutting its own commercial directorate out of the process.
Lansley slates DH regionalisation policy

26-Jun-2008
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley has criticised the Department of Health's attempt to shift performance management down to strategic health authorities.
Nicholson denies 'swipe' at foundation regulator Monitor

26-Jun-2008
NHS chief executive David Nicholson has played down comments that appeared to criticise the foundation trusts' regulator Monitor.
Private care poses little threat to the NHS, finds IPPR report

26-Jun-2008
The private healthcare industry poses little threat to the NHS, but the government should act to safeguard consumers and calm residual fears, a think tank has concluded.
Lansley outlines Conservatives' plans for NHS

20-Jun-2008
A future Conservative government would state the outcomes it wanted the NHS to achieve, but would largely leave NHS managers and clinicians to decide how that was delivered, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley told the NHS Confederation conference on Friday.
FT governors must balance role, Confed hears

19-Jun-2008
The key to establishing a successful role for foundation trust governors is to strike a balance between a flexible and standardised governance structure, the chair of the Foundation Trust Governors' Association has told the NHS Confederation conference.
Managers raise concerns over new local assessments

19-Jun-2008
Primary care managers at the NHS Confederation annual conference have expressed concern about the lack of baseline data for some of the indicators they have chosen as part of the new comprehensive area assessment.
DH backs down on care record consent

19-Jun-2008
The Department of Health is considering making it easier for patients to opt out of the electronic care record service, officials told a Commons committee this week.
Foundation says it will use surplus to loosen PFI ties

19-Jun-2008
The chief executive of the foundation trust with the biggest cash surplus has said his organisation will use its £120m to minimise its dependence on the private finance initiative.
Top-up review set to question core NHS principles

19-Jun-2008
The 'founding principles of the NHS' are to be revisited after the government launched a review of the ban preventing patients making 'top-up' payments for drugs.
Confed votes Nye Bevan biggest NHS hero

18-Jun-2008
Nye Bevan has been voted the biggest 'NHS hero' by attendees at the NHS Confederation's most-attended conference yet.
Confed chair opens annual conference

18-Jun-2008
NHS managers must 'make the weather' in the health service themselves, rather than wait for it to be done to them, NHS Confederation chair Bryan Stoten told the body's annual conference in his opening address.
DH evades Treasury cap on central budgets

13-Jun-2008
The Department of Health will use part of its own internal underspend to release itself from Treasury-imposed cut backs in administrative spending. As part of the comprehensive spending review the Treasury imposed a two per cent (£5m) reduction each year to the DH’s central ...
Confed warns of globalisation risks

12-Jun-2008
The long-term sustainability of the NHS faces multiple threats from globalisation, the NHS Confederation has warned.
DH warns Treasury of chaos after accountancy rule changes

12-Jun-2008
Department of Health officials warned the Treasury that accountancy rule changes affecting the private finance initiative would ‘throw the NHS system into chaos’.
GP incentives are not needed, 'inverse care' doctor tells MPs

12-Jun-2008
The GP who developed the 'inverse care law' - which says those most in need of healthcare are least likely to receive it - has told MPs he objects to giving family doctors financial incentives to do their job.
Labour's NHS vision let down by reforms

12-Jun-2008
New Labour's reforms have failed to deliver its vision to transform the health service, a major report has concluded.The joint Audit Commission and Healthcare Commission report finds the overhaul of the health service under the 2000 NHS Plan has, in many areas, fallen well short of expectations.
Trust financial forecasts prove wide of mark

12-Jun-2008
Scores of NHS organisations reported end-of-year financial surpluses that were at least 25 per cent wide of their initial forecasts.
Auditors query PCT attempts to reduce last year's surplus

5-Jun-2008
Auditors are querying NHS organisations' attempts to minimise the surpluses they have reported in their 2007-08 accounts.Analysis by HSJ suggests new accountancy policies and provisions allowed NHS organisations to deflate their surpluses by up to £1.3bn.
Governors want more contact with the board

5-Jun-2008
A review by foundation trust regulator Monitor reveals the trusts have some way to go before they are fully accountable organisations.
Commercial directorate's future in the air

29-May-2008
The future of the Department of Health's commercial directorate is in doubt following the resignation of its director general Channing Wheeler.
Councils could lose social care funds to DWP

29-May-2008
Local councils could be stripped of their control over the 7bn adult social care budget under proposals being explored for the forthcoming social care green paper.
Neglect of records departments puts patient safety at risk

22-May-2008
HSJ's investigation into missing patient records has prompted calls for enforceable standards on their availability.
Centralisation gains fresh research support

22-May-2008
Top health economists have given validity to Department of Health policies on centralisation of specialist services and reducing MRSA rates.
Missing: the notes of more than a million outpatients

22-May-2008
Hundreds of thousands of NHS patients are seen each year without the clinician having their medical records, an HSJ investigation has found.
Suppliers could challenge PCTs under European rules

22-May-2008
An EU directive due to be implemented in the UK next year could leave primary care trust contracts open to challenge through the courts.
Brown rethinks social care policy

15-May-2008
Prime minister Gordon Brown has suggested an insurance model may not be a reliable way to fund future social care provision.
Darzi review: Clinicians to be consulted on service redesign

15-May-2008
The mantra for the reconfiguration of specialist care services is 'centralised where necessary, localised where possible'. Clinicians will play a lead role in determining what is possible under the proposals.
Darzi tells PCTs to involve public at each stage of process

15-May-2008
Primary care trusts will be expected to take the lead in developing proposals for local service redesign and ensuring patient and public involvement at all stages under Lord Darzi's proposals.
SHAs to oversee delivery of Darzi reforms

15-May-2008
Strategic health authorities will be responsible for ensuring there is 'appropriate capability and capacity' in the NHS to deliver 'robust, evidence-based proposals', produce effective consultations and implement changes successfully, Lord Darzi's framework document says.
Channing Wheeler's plans for market end rumours of commercial break

8-May-2008
Reports of the demise of private sector involvement in the NHS last year were premature, as Department of Health commercial director Channing Wheeler is developing the tools to allow local managers to turn the service into a market. He talks to Sally Gainsbury
Community services tariff opens way to private provision

8-May-2008
The Department of Health is to develop a tariff for community services - paving the way for foundation trusts and the private sector to offer services until now provided by primary care trusts.
Monitor plans for foundation trust failures

8-May-2008
Foundation trust regulator Monitor is anticipating that some 47 acute and mental health trusts will not make it to foundation trust status by 2010.
Frustration over advance GP appointments

1-May-2008
Nearly three quarters of England's GP practices have left at least one in 10 patients dissatisfied because of the difficulties of making appointments more than two days in advance.
GPs paid £20m for sickness and maternity cover

1-May-2008
GP practices in England were paid more than £20m last year for locums to cover sickness and maternity leave in their practices, HSJ has learnt.
Lib Dems scrap free social care promise

1-May-2008
The Liberal Democrats have formally ditched their policy of free social care in England. The party has opted instead for a co-payment system based on the one set out by Sir Derek Wanless for the King's Fund.
Guy's may lay off poisons advice staff

24-Apr-2008
Staff at Guy's and St Thomas' foundation trust could face redundancy following the conclusion of a four-year dispute with the Health Protection Agency.
London must focus on prevention

24-Apr-2008
Service reform in the capital must go beyond Healthcare for London proposals and focus on prevention if fatal strokes are to be avoided, the London health observatory has warned.
Surprise hygiene checks for every acute trust

24-Apr-2008
The Healthcare Commission will this week begin conducting spot checks of acute trusts to ensure that they are adhering to the government's hygiene code.
Trusts encouraged to foster patient loyalty

24-Apr-2008
NHS trusts that do not grasp marketing opportunities in this era of free patient choice risk becoming 'sink hospitals, withering on the vine', marketing experts have warned.
Inappropriate A&E use could mean fines for family doctors

17-Apr-2008
The Department of Health is considering proposals to charge back to GPs the treatment cost of patients who visit accident and emergency departments instead of their family doctor, HSJhas learned.The proposals could emerge as part of the Darzi review this summer.
NHS funds exclusive GP practices

17-Apr-2008
HSJ has uncovered further evidence of NHS-funded GP practices in prestigious institutions which are not accessible to ordinary members of the public.
Alliance - let firms help PBC

10-Apr-2008
Consortia of practice based commissioning GPs should be able to bypass primary care trusts and buy commissioning support from the private sector, the NHS Alliance is demanding.
Concern at slow response to review of brutal murder

10-Apr-2008
The chair of an inquiry into the brutal murder of a man with learning disabilities has said she is 'hugely disappointed' by the NHS's failure to address the problems it identified.
DH poaches GP guarantee payments to fund pay rise

10-Apr-2008
The Department of Health has begun its clawback of the controversial minimum practice income guarantee by accepting a pay recommendation for GPs that would give practices an average net increase of 0.2 per cent.The move came as other NHS staff groups were offered a three-year pay deal worth 2.75 per cent this year, 2.4 per cent in 2009-10 and 2.25 per cent in 2010-11.
New release date for commissioning review

10-Apr-2008
The long-awaited value for money assessment of the framework for procuring external support for commissioners will now be completed next spring, the Treasury has revealed.
QOF harms inequality progress

10-Apr-2008
The freedom of GPs to 'exception report' patients may be undermining efforts to reduce health inequalities, experts have told the Commons health select committee.
Swindells to go private with Tribal

10-Apr-2008
The Department of Health's interim chief information officer Matthew Swindells is to leave the department and the NHS for the private consultancy Tribal.
High exception rate worth £15k income

3-Apr-2008
High exception reporters could be gaining more than £15,000 a year through their exception reporting - approximately 12 per cent of their total funds from the quality and outcomes framework.
PCTs face tough questions on QOF reporting

3-Apr-2008
Data published for the first time today by HSJ reveals the GPs who exclude the most patients from their quality incentive scheme.
GPs in poorer areas 'prescribe fewer drugs'

27-Mar-2008
GPs in poorer areas prescribe fewer drugs and spend less on them than GPs in richer areas, research by Suffolk primary care trust has found.
Huge variation in GP practice pay regardless of size of list

26-Mar-2008
Figures obtained by HSJ reveal the extent to which the national GP contract has driven inequity across the country, with huge variations in payments to practices, regardless of the number and need of their patients.
DH response to Monitor under wraps

20-Mar-2008
The Department of Health has refused to release correspondence to Monitor regarding its legal dispute over the cap on income from private patients.
Auditors concerned over Hinchingbrooke's £38.7m deficit

20-Mar-2008
Auditors for Hinchingbrooke Health Care trust have raised 'serious concerns' over its projected £38.7m deficit for 2007-08, as the trust's savings plans are not sufficient to cover it.
Department stays silent on Connecting for Health savings

20-Mar-2008
The Department of Health will not use the £208m saved by the national programme for IT last year to estimate the total potential savings of NHS-wide implementation.
DH admits target on health inequalities is hard to meet

20-Mar-2008
The Department of Health has admitted that it will be 'difficult' to meet its target to reduce health inequalities.
Foundation trusts query accounting changes

20-Mar-2008
Foundation trusts have raised concerns that forthcoming changes to accounting rules could undermine efforts to get hospitals to focus on where they make and lose money.
PCTs may call for foundation style freedoms

20-Mar-2008
Primary care trusts could push for freedom to determine senior managers' pay as a reward for becoming world class commissioners.
FESC is thrown open without Treasury probe

13-Mar-2008
The Department of Health has extended its commissioning support programme without carrying out an expected value-for-money assessment of the scheme, HSJ has learned.Health secretary Alan Johnson announced last week that the framework for procuring external support for commissioners, FESC, is now open to all primary care trusts to buy in external support from the list of 14 approved private providers.
PCTs pressured to lose provider arm

13-Mar-2008
Strategic health authorities are forcing primary care trusts to divest themselves of their provider functions, PCT chiefs have claimed.
Treasury puts off plan to move PFI schemes on balance sheet

13-Mar-2008
The Treasury has given the NHS a year's stay of execution over changes to accountancy rules with major implications for private finance initiative schemes. The move to international financial reporting standards was due to be implemented across the public sector from this April.
Poet's play gets to bottom of prostate cancer

7-Mar-2008
A new play by the popular poet Benjamin Zephaniah is helping to spread the word about cancer screening, particularly among African-Caribbean men
£80.4m cost of 8,000 staff hurt at work

6-Mar-2008
Just over 8,000 NHS staff were seriously injured at work last year, figures published in Parliament show.
Credit crunch puts Kent PFI under threat

6-Mar-2008
Plans by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust for a new private finance initiative hospital were dealt a blow this week when the bonds intended to finance the deal were downgraded.
England's waiting times no better than Wales

6-Mar-2008
Statistics on waiting times in England and Wales have led to questions over the value for money of initiatives to reduce waiting times in England.
ISTC contract guarantees will saddle NHS with a £187m bill

6-Mar-2008
Deals with private contractors have left the NHS facing a hidden 187m bill to buy back some of the controversial independent sector treatment centres, HSJ has learned.
PCTs cut continuing care packages

6-Mar-2008
More than a quarter of primary care trusts have cut the number of adults they give NHS 'continuing care', despite guidance intended to boost provision.Figures published by the Department of Health show 44 PCTs reduced the number of people to whom they give the care package between April and December 2007.
Surplus forecast by HSJ still on course

6-Mar-2008
The NHS is still on track to make a £1.8bn surplus at the end of this financial year, as first revealed by HSJ.
ISTC contract guarantees will saddle NHS with a £187m bill

5-Mar-2008
Deals with private contractors have left the NHS facing a hidden £187m bill to buy back some of the controversial independent sector treatment centres, HSJ has learned.
Eleventh-hour changes to GP contract left PCTs with bill

28-Feb-2008
The introduction of the new GP contract led to a 57 per cent increase in payments to practices in just three years, the National Audit Office has found. The huge increase was fuelled by a last-minute concession to the British Medical Association that sidelined the government's own priority to tackle health inequalities and left primary care trusts facing bills £406m higher than expected.
Monitor fights shy of legal tussles

28-Feb-2008
Monitor will seek to avoid tightening the rules on income from private patients because it fears legal reprisals from foundation trusts, HSJ has learned.
Scottish budgets reworked

28-Feb-2008
Scottish health and well-being secretary Nicola Sturgeon has unveiled a new funding formula that will see substantial redistribution of funds between health boards.
Monitor challenges DH on freedoms

22-Feb-2008
Battle lines are hardening between foundation trusts and the Department of Health over the trusts' future, following a series of leaked letters between the leaders of the NHS and regulator Monitor, reports Sally Gainsbury. The correspondence has exposed a gulf between their positions on New Labour's flagship hospitals.
Accounting change could strain PFI

21-Feb-2008
The Department of Health has refused to say whether or not it has set aside any resources to help trusts cope with a major change to private finance initiative schemes later this year.
Auditor finds PbR has 'questionable' impact on efficiency

14-Feb-2008
Payment by results has had a 'questionable' impact on driving up efficiency in the NHS, the Audit Commission has concluded.
Breakdown of cross-border agreements is costing English trusts millions

14-Feb-2008
Diverging health policies in England and Wales are causing English hospitals to lose millions of pounds.
Dr Foster admits flaws in east London report

14-Feb-2008
Doctor Foster Intelligence has admitted that a £47,000 report it prepared for a London council was seriously flawed, following an investigation by the information company's own ethics committee.
Monitor blocks Unison court move on private patient income

14-Feb-2008
Monitor has attempted to block Unison's judicial review by launching a three-month consultation into its interpretation of the foundation trust private patient income cap.
Monitor takes third way on private patient income

11-Feb-2008
The foundation trust regulator Monitor has revealed it will take action in response to the threat of a judicial review over its guidance to trusts on expanding private patient work.
DH vows to right chaos in IT strategy management

7-Feb-2008
No one is taking responsibility for the NHS's information strategy, the Department of Health's informatics review has been told.
Low pay rates blamed for shortage of clinical coders

7-Feb-2008
Trusts have complained that they cannot recruit and retain enough qualified clinical coders because Agenda for Change pay rates do not let them offer attractive wages.
Sharp rise in untreated hypertension

7-Feb-2008
The annual health survey for England has revealed that 2006 saw a large rise in the number of people with high blood pressure going untreated.
Unison takes Monitor to court in wake of income cap silence

7-Feb-2008
Unison has launched judicial review proceedings against foundation trust regulator Monitor in a bid to stop trusts using arm's-length organisations to expand private patient work.
UnitedHealth wins more GP deals

7-Feb-2008
UnitedHealth has been awarded a second contract to run a GP surgery in Derbyshire and contracts to run three surgeries in north London.
Hospitals are 'fast tracking' elderly into care, CSCI finds

31-Jan-2008
A damning report by the Commission for Social Care Inspection has implicated NHS hospitals in an unfair tendency to 'fast track' elderly people into care homes.
Market slows as Peterborough PFI deal closes

31-Jan-2008
Peterborough's £505m private finance initiative deal was the fifth largest UK public-private partnership to reach financial close last year, analysis by Infrastructure Journal has found.
Unions agree on unsocial hours pay proposals

31-Jan-2008
NHS Employers and unions representing staff on Agenda for Change contracts have agreed joint proposals for unsocial hours pay.
Watchdog gives maternity services a 'wake-up call'

31-Jan-2008
NHS trusts have accepted that last week's Healthcare Commission report into maternity services should serve as a 'wake-up call' but have complained that the review's methodology may have treated them unfairly.
DH breakdown still shows up unallocated millions

24-Jan-2008
A breakdown of NHS allocations for 2008-09 provided to HSJ by the Department of Health continues to suggest that a significant amount of resources are not yet allocated.
Private patients' unpaid bills leave trusts chasing millions

24-Jan-2008
NHS trusts and foundation trusts are owed millions in outstanding fees from private patients, HSJ has learned.
Why achieving equality in healthcare is proving tricky

24-Jan-2008
Spending on heart disease detection and treatment perfectly illustrates how the neediest patients often get the rawest deal. Could local scrutiny ensure fair play? Sally Gainsbury reports
GPs failing to pick up patients at most risk of heart disease

17-Jan-2008
GPs in some of the poorest areas of the country are failing to identify patients with coronary heart disease and treat them effectively, HSJ’s analysis suggests.
Heart death rates show a nation of inequalities

17-Jan-2008
Research by HSJ has revealed the huge inequalities between healthcare need and NHS spending throughout England.An HSJ analysis of the latest data on coronary heart disease premature death rates and primary care trust heart disease spending shows that some of the PCTs with the greatest health need spend the least.
NICE could rate all drugs for extra £1m a year

17-Jan-2008
Proposals to extend the work of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence would cost just £1m extra a year, or 3.5 per cent of its budget, its chief executive Andrew Dillon has estimated.
Questions over infection control funds

17-Jan-2008
The NHS Confederation has questioned Department of Health claims that its infection control strategy is being supported by £270m of new money.
Audit Commission finds payment coding errors

11-Jan-2008
Inaccurate payment by results coding by hospitals has led to primary care trusts being overcharged by as much as 6 per cent, the Audit Commission has found.
Dixon warns of 'two-tiers' risk in latest operating framework

11-Jan-2008
The NHS Alliance has warned the operating framework issued in December could lead to a 'two tier' NHS as it exempts foundation trusts from tighter quality standards expected of other hospital trusts.
Private treatment centre to go ahead despite local critics

11-Jan-2008
NHS South Central has said it will press ahead with controversial plans for a new independent sector treatment centre despite local concerns that added capacity is not needed.
Social care users want free basic service but will pay top-up

11-Jan-2008
Up to three quarters of social care service users support radical reform of the funding system, a multi-agency survey has revealed.
Cost-benefit thresholds are outdated, says MPs' report

10-Jan-2008
The health select committee has recommended sweeping changes to the way the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence assesses what drugs and treatments should be available on the NHS.
NICE must reform say MPs

8-Jan-2008
The health select committee has recommended sweeping changes to the way the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence assesses what drugs and treatments should be available on the NHS.In their report published today the committee says that NICE’s cost threshold of£30,000 per quality life year gained, which it uses to determine the cost effectiveness of treatments, is “of serious ...
Fears DoH could claw back foundation trust surpluses

20-Dec-2007
A dispute between University College London Hospitals foundation trust and the Department of Health has fuelled fears that the government will claw back surpluses from foundation trusts.
Hunt on for missing £870m as DoH accused of hoarding cash

20-Dec-2007
The Department of Health is keeping back up to £870m in NHS funding, HSJ has been told - and is suspected of hoarding the cash to pay for extra initiatives next year.
Operating framework reasserts DoH's central control

20-Dec-2007
NHS chief executive David Nicholson's exhortation to look out to communities, not up to the DoH at Richmond House, is starting to look like lip service, given the new operating framework's raft of extended targets, writes Sally Gainsbury
new community hospital schemes announced

18-Dec-2007
Just over one third of the£750m announced in 2006 to modernise community hospitals has now been allocated, the Department of Health has said. The£750m was due to be ...
Foundation trusts are breaking law on private income, says union

13-Dec-2007
Foundation trusts seeking to maximise income from private patients have been dealt a blow this week by legal actions involving their regulator Monitor and the Charity Commission.
Hidden PFI debts to be declared

13-Dec-2007
New guidance on accounting rules for the private finance initiative could cost the NHS up to £342m a year.
Private sector reassured over future in NHS

13-Dec-2007
Private healthcare providers have been 'reassured' of their future role in the NHS after health secretary Alan Johnson pledged to rectify an IT problem that has prevented patients knowing about their right to choose private care.
Trusts urged not to 'fritter away' £1.8bn surplus

13-Dec-2007
NHS managers must 'up their game' to earn autonomy and win the respect of their communities, the NHS chief executive has warned.
Doctors doubt intellect of managers

6-Dec-2007
Clinicians regard NHS managers as committed and trying hard but 'poorly trained and not always of a high intellectual calibre', the Audit Commission has found.
PCT annual health checks may include green targets

6-Dec-2007
Primary care trusts' green credentials could be assessed as part of their annual health check from next year. It follows an Audit Commission consultation on how PCTs' annual performance is to be rated.
Plunging waiting times reopen dispute over clinical benefits

6-Dec-2007
The government's focus on cutting waiting lists can lead to resources being drained away from treatments for those in the greatest medical need, academics have claimed.
Trusts hit back over budget surpluses

6-Dec-2007
NHS organisations predicting large underspends have defended themselves following Alan Johnson’s suggestion that large surpluses are ‘unreasonable’.
top up reversal

4-Dec-2007
TheLondonspecialist commissioning group has reversed its decision to deny six hospitals tops ups for their specialist spinal surgery.
In-house turnaround team to cut NHS's £36m consultants' bill

29-Nov-2007
The Department of Health is preparing to launch its own team of troubleshooters to assist NHS organisations facing clinical or financial problems.
SHAs slash top-up payments for complex care

29-Nov-2007
Strategic health authorities have slashed the number of hospital providers eligible for 'top-up' payments for specialist treatment after coming under pressure from the Department of Health.
Surplus-rich PCTs anxious of cuts in new allocations

29-Nov-2007
Surplus-rich primary care trusts have expressed fears that a one-year funding allocation signals greater financial turbulence ahead.
£98m parking fees 'immoral'

22-Nov-2007
NHS trusts earned £98m from car parking charges in 2005-06 - a 26 per cent increase on the year before, figures presented to the Commons health select committee have revealed.
Audit office eyes fate of ISTCs

22-Nov-2007
The National Audit Office has confirmed that it is 'watching with interest' the Department of Health's cancellation of at least seven of the planned new independent sector treatment centre schemes.
Millions have undiagnosed lung disease

22-Nov-2007
Almost 3 million people in the UK have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - more than three times those diagnosed, the British Lung Foundation has estimated.
NHS underspends by £1.8bn

22-Nov-2007
The NHS is heading for a record 1.8bn underspend this financial year, HSJ can reveal.The total surplus will be almost 2 per cent of the NHS budget. It is understood to be causing embarrassment at the Department of Health amid concerns that it will be accused of presiding over a ‘bust and boom’ health economy, coming just two years after the NHS was more than 500m in the red.
Patients could commission own healthcare, says Nicholson

22-Nov-2007
Patients could soon be handed responsibility for commissioning their own care through individual budgets, the NHS chief executive has revealed.
Practice-based commissioning: PCTs blamed for sticking to old practices

22-Nov-2007
Practice-based commissioning is being undermined by primary care trusts allocating funds to practices on a historical, rather than needs, basis, the Audit Commission has concluded.
Proposal to cut benefits to pay for care

22-Nov-2007
Support for Sir Derek Wanless's proposals for a new social care funding system is growing and attention is now shifting to cutting a £3.7bn benefits bill to help pay for it.
Banks threaten to hit FTs with rate hike over debt guarantees

15-Nov-2007
Banks have threatened to hike up the interest rates they charge foundation trusts in the absence of a guarantee that the government will underwrite their debts.
Call to reward patients using cheaper care

15-Nov-2007
NHS patients should be given financial incentives to choose the most cost-efficient providers or treatments, a leading US academic has told officials.
ISTC second wave faces cuts

15-Nov-2007
The government is expected to announce significant cuts to the planned second phase of its independent sector treatment centre programme.
PFI debt fears as district general hospitals feel the squeeze

15-Nov-2007
District generals' income is set to take a hit as specialist hospitals and primary care trusts move in on their territory. How will they pay PFI debts of £28.5bn, asks Sally Gainsbury
Delayed discharge of elderly blamed on funding gap

8-Nov-2007
Bed-blocking is being driven up because hospitals are discharging patients earlier and social services do not have the resources to cope, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services has claimed.
District general hospitals face heavy specialist service losses

8-Nov-2007
District general hospitals face handing their specialist services to regional centres of excellence because they will no longer be paid the services' full cost, HSJ has learned.
Trusts doing well will not be penalised for historic deficits

8-Nov-2007
Hospitals working hard to address historic deficits have been given a reprieve by the Audit Commission: they will no longer automatically score 'inadequate' in the resources element of the health check.
Deficit crisis warning over Scotland's PFI expansion

1-Nov-2007
Plans to more than quadruple the size of NHS Scotland's private finance initiative programme risk creating a deficit crisis akin to that in England, researchers have warned.
GPs 'cheating' bonus scheme, study finds

1-Nov-2007
GPs excluded almost 6 per cent of eligible patients from their quality and outcomes framework last year claiming their cases did not suit the bonus scheme indicators.
PCTs and hospitals dispute millions of pounds of debts

1-Nov-2007
Trusts ended the last financial year in dispute over internal debts of millions of pounds - around 1 per cent of their turnover - analysis by HSJ has revealed.
NHS Scotland to face independent scrutiny

25-Oct-2007
The Scottish government has outlined its plans for independent scrutiny of reconfiguration and service changes in NHS Scotland.
Private provision: Lamb calls for probe into ISTC waste

25-Oct-2007
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb has called for a formal investigation of independent sector treatment centres after HSJ revealed that the NHS paid for 50,000 operations last year that did not take place.
'Urgent action' needed on poor money management, says Audit Commission

25-Oct-2007
One-third of NHS organisations are still in poor financial health - and a hard core requires 'urgent action'.

Editor's Comment

Health Service JournalSally E Gainsbury

Health Service Journal
Sally E Gainsbury