HSJ readers may have been forgiven for getting a sense of déjà vu when reading the national press this week. The Daily Telegraph front page on Saturday warned its readers to expect “Hospital wards to shut in secret NHS cuts”.

The paper claimed it had uncovered documents showing that, as well as wards closing, 10 per cent of staff might be cut in some areas. Sound familiar? That’s because HSJ ran the same story in February.

One disgruntled SHA press officer grumbled to HSJ that someone on work experience had done the research for the article

Still, the need to find savings has also affected the Telegraph it seems, as one disgruntled SHA press officer grumbled to HSJ that someone on work experience had done the research for the article.

“Basic surgery denied by NHS trusts to cut costs” was the headline in The Guardian on Monday. A group of eminent surgeons wrote to the paper warning that they had witnessed a reduction in procedures identified as those ripe for savings in last year’s controversial McKinsey report. What the paper did not mention was that before it could get the Basildon Bond out, the Royal College of Surgeons had phoned HSJ to ask what procedures McKinsey had identified.

Back to the Telegraph: “Hospitals paying for police in A&E” it reported with apparent indignation, before going on to tell its readers that Dixon was not on Dock Green because he was at the local hospital protecting doctors and nurses from Friday and Saturday night attacks.

The Daily Mail meanwhile concerned itself with the growing pressure from military patients on Selly Oak Hospital and Headley Court rehabilitation centre. In its article “Military hospitals at ‘breaking point’”, it said any further increase in casualties from Afghanistan would “force soldiers to be treated in the NHS”. But NHS staff already work alongside their military colleagues in the military ward at Selly Oak.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror reported that seven staff from St Luke’s Hospital in Middlesbrough had been sacked for emailing each other porn. Incidentally one of the top features currently on the Mirror’s website is a charity picture shoot, where “we get to look at pretty ladies in the buff”.