All Finance articles – Page 514

  • News

    PCTs pull plug on £550m hospital for Hertfordshire

    2006-11-16T00:00:00Z

    Plans for new hospitals in Hertfordshire were in tatters this week after a £550m scheme to build a hospital and cancer centre in Hatfield were axed.

  • News

    NHS financial crisis squeezing medical education, BMA warns

    2006-11-14T00:00:00Z

    Patient care could be affected by cuts to medical training and education, according to the British Medical Association. Funding for study leave and academic posts in medical schools has been cut to help tackle deficits. The BMA junior doctors committee has written to health secretary ...

  • Comment

    Emma Dent on publishing pictures of NHS demonstrations

    2006-11-13T10:00:00Z

    A regular point of discussion at HSJTowers is whether we should publish pictures of demonstrations against NHS cuts and closures.

  • News

    NHS deficits to rise to almost £1.2bn

    2006-11-10T00:00:00Z

    The NHS is forecasting gross deficits for the year of £1,179m compared with £883m at quarter one and £1,312m at the end of 2005-06. Some 175 organisations are now forecasting debts compared with 120 at quarter 1.www.dh.gov.uk

  • News

    Hewitt defends NHS reform

    2006-11-08T00:00:00Z

    Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt told the New Health Network yesterday that balancing high-quality care with tight budgets was the NHS's greatest challenge.She said the increasing cost of new medical technologies and drugs and the rising expectations of patients would have to be met. Ms Hewitt acknowledged that reform is 'never ...

  • News

    Demand management ineffective and costs rise under PBR

    2006-11-07T00:00:00Z

    There is a lack of evidence around which demand management schemes make payment by results more effective.Research by the York University's Centre for Health and Public Services Management and Centre for Health Economics also found the system has increased the scope for disagreement between trusts and primary care trusts over ...

  • News

    Nicholson to give evidence to spending enquiry

    2006-11-03T00:00:00Z

    NHS chief executive David Nicholson, acting permanent secretary Hugh Taylor and finance director Richard Douglas are to give evidence to the Commons health committee on 23 November as part of its inquiry into NHS expenditure. Health secretary Patricia Hewitt will face the committee on 29 November.

  • News

    Granger tops NHS earners list

    2006-11-03T00:00:00Z

    The average salary of the 12 highest earners in the NHS is £183,000, according to an analysis of senior executives' pay in the public sector for 2004-05.The figures from the Taxpayers' Alliance show the top two NHS earners are Connecting for Health chief executive Richard Granger, with a £285,000 salary, ...

  • News

    Minister puts onus on trusts to negotiate unbundled tariff

    2006-11-02T11:00:00Z

    Primary care and acute trusts need to negotiate their own ways to unbundle the payment by results tariff, health minister Lord Warner said as he launched the 'road test' of next year's tariff.

  • News

    Burden of unbundling the tariff falls on quality of local data

    2006-11-02T11:00:00Z

    This week's 'road testing' of the payment by results tariff for 2007-08 will, the Department of Health hopes, result in considerably less noise than the late and broken one released in January. The DoH says it is not looking for any comment or complaint about what the tariff should or ...

  • News

    Troubleshooter drops in to save PCT with £43m debt

    2006-11-02T11:00:00Z

    A primary care trust with a cumulative debt of £43m has drafted in a troubleshooter to examine 'new management options', including bringing in expertise from the private sector or other NHS bodies.

  • News

    Payment by results tariff launched

    2006-10-31T00:00:00Z

    The Department of Health has published the test version of the 2007-08 national tariff. The overall uplift in prices is 2.5 per cent, net of 2.5 per cent efficiency savings.NHS chief executive David Nicholson says trusts should use the latest version to model the impact of the increased tariff.To ...

  • Comment

    Reform and instability

    2006-10-31T00:00:00Z

    'Why instability is inevitable' - Simon Stevens' article on the NHS and the J curve (page 19, 19 October) reminded me of a classic false syllogism: 'It always gets worse before it gets better.It certainly is getting worse. Therefore it will get better.'

  • Comment

    Turnaround consultants

    2006-10-31T00:00:00Z

    I am sure Malcolm Lowe-Lauri's opinion column on management consultants must have struck a chord with PCT colleagues who have been subjected to the turnaround process in recent months (page 17, 5 October). Although the consultants input has been valuable in some areas the benefits were not apparent in many ...

  • News

    NHS campaigners to hold mass demonstration outside Parliament

    2006-10-31T00:00:00Z

    Protesters are to march on Westminster tomorrow to demonstrate against NHS 'cuts'. Health unions and community groups including the Trades Union Congress and Keep Our NHS Public plan to lobby MPs at the end of the protest. To download the announcement, click ...

  • News

    NHS redundancy figures revealed

    2006-10-30T00:00:00Z

    NHS chief executive David Nicholson has published figures showing that 900 compulsory redundancies were made in the NHS in the first half of this financial year.The vast majority of those were in managerial and administrative roles and under a quarter in clinical posts.To see the figures click ...

  • News

    Lansley slams PFI 'lunacy'

    2006-10-27T00:00:00Z

    Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley has described hospital private finance initiatives as 'complete lunacy' after government responses to his parliamentary questions showed that the NHS will pay private sector contractors £53bn for hospitals worth only £8bn. Mr Lansley is calling for a 'fundamental review' of how the NHS accesses capital ...

  • News

    New pay-off packages to reflect length of service

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    New redundancy and retirement packages based on length of service rather than age have been agreed by the Department of Health.

  • Comment

    Sue Slipman on foundation trusts and the healthcheck ratings

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    'Having strengthened their financial management without comprising service quality, foundation trusts are now in a position to step up their investment in providing first class patient care'

  • News

    PbR 'fundamentally flawed' says coding chief

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    The current system of payment by results is 'fundamentally flawed and unacceptable' the head of the Professional Association of Clinical Coders warned last week.