All articles by Crispin Dowler – Page 13
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NewsEXCLUSIVE: NHS shake-up hampers oversight of serious incidents
Loss of staff has left primary care trusts struggling to review thousands of serious incidents
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NewsAnalysis: Francis calls for deceleration of drive towards all-FT NHS
Robert Francis QC has called for a further deceleration of the drive for all NHS providers to become foundation trusts, in order to ensure trusts completing the process are safe.
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NewsMonitor could regulate managers in response to Francis
Robert Francis QC’s proposal to extend the scope of the “fit and proper person” test for directors of NHS providers could lead to Monitor regulating individual managers, the chief executive of the regulator has told HSJ.
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NewsAnalysis: system rejects Francis single regulator plans
Robert Francis QC’s proposal for a single quality and finance regulator looks unlikely to be realised after key players rejected the idea. However, the government is working on plans to stiffen the consequences for boards that preside over care failures, HSJ has learned.
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NewsCommissioners intervene to prevent Furness maternity transfer
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay has dropped plans to temporarily shut maternity and neonatal services in Furness after commissioners intervened to resolve its staffing crisis.
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CommentReal policy dilemma is about spending, not saving
The future debate will be between more tax or more private healthcare
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News'Plethora' of NHS bodies and regulators failed to act on warning signs
A “plethora” of agencies, commissioners, regulators and professional bodies failed for years to act on warning signs which should have alerted the NHS system to serious failings at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust, the Francis report has concluded.
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NewsCameron: Failure regime will be for poor care, not just poor finances
David Cameron today said the government would extend the NHS “failure regime” to allow trust boards to be suspended for failures of care, as well as financial management failures.
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NewsNHS should have done more to manage hospital consultants, NAO reports
The NHS should have made more progress in improving its management of hospital consultants since the introduction of a 2003 contract giving them a significant pay increase, the National Audit Office has found.
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NewsAt least 10 PCTs to be bailed out by peers in 2012-13
At least 10 primary care trusts would face finishing 2012-13 in the red without loans or bailouts from their neighbouring commissioners, HSJ research has found.
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CommentThe NHS cannot ignore DH underspends
The NHS must decide what has to go unspent if providers are to spend their surpluses
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NewsNHS austerity drives income fall for private mental health hospitals
The income of privately-run mental health hospitals fell by 3.3 per cent in 2011, driven by the start of the NHS’s unprecedented savings drive, according to a new report by market analysts Laing & Buisson.
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NewsHospital trusts lack 'top drawer' leaders
The NHS’s ability to make significant savings over the next two years through service change could be limited by its problems recruiting “top drawer” hospital leaders, the health service’s chief executive has suggested.
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NewsCommissioners have rationed cataract surgery on inferior evidence, Keogh admits
Around half of all primary care trusts have restricted access to cataract surgery, with the majority basing their decisions on inferior clinical evidence, the medical director of the NHS has told MPs.
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NewsMonitor unveils shake-up of financial risk ratings
Monitor will no longer use foundation trusts’ operating profitability or surpluses as measures of the financial risk they are carrying, under proposals unveiled by the regulator.
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CommentCommissioning board makes its move
Is the board’s rejection of the CCG funding formula a declaration of independence?
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NewsOFT moves to extend its jurisdiction over NHS mergers
The Office of Fair Trading has moved to take over responsibility for assessing mergers between NHS trusts and foundation trusts, in a development which could have significant implications for the “pipeline” of aspirant FTs.
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NewsCompetition Commission to review first FT merger
Merger between Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals and Poole Hospital FTs in the spotlight
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NewsEXCLUSIVE: MPs to probe policy of health budget underspending
The chair of the health select committee has warned that there could be a “significant danger of perverse incentives” if the health service remains unable to carry over unspent funds from one financial year to the next.
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NewsFoundation trusts still lagging on savings targets in Q2
Regulator Monitor today urged foundation trusts to plan “sooner and more effectively” for future financial pressures, as its latest quarterly report showed the sector had made little progress in closing the gap between planned and actual savings.