Lobby opposes NHS Bill. . . Managers want reforms scaled down. . .£103m for IT. . . New DoH deputy secretary. . . Hospital plan opposed

Nursing and medical professional bodies are to lobby backbench Conservative MPs in a bid to amend the NHS Bill, following prime minister Margaret Thatcher's refusal to agree to a meeting with the medical royal colleges, the joint consultants committee, the Royal College of Nursing and the British Medical Association. JCC chair Sir Anthony Grabham said: 'When we cannot even put our views to the prime minister we have reached a very sorry state.'

A group of managers is to lobby senior Department of Health officials to scale down the reforms. The group emerged after a week-long seminar on purchasing organised by the King's Fund College, and aims to set out what managers believe can be sensibly achieved before the 18-month deadline.

NHS finance director Sheila Masters has announced£103m for information technology in 1990-91. Junior health minister Roger Freeman has revealed that the internal market will be 'supported at the outset by existing information systems', while the resource management project would allow more precise contracts 'in due course'.

Civil servant Mike Malone-Lee, currently at the Home Office, is to take over from Graham Hart as DoH deputy secretary with a seat on the NHS Management Executive.

He described the timetable for the reforms as 'very ambitious', adding: 'I think carrying it through will require a lot of determination'.

Plans to make the public raise funds towards a£38m children's hospital in Manchester are facing widespread resistance. The city's 19 community health councils are calling public meetings to oppose the scheme. Meanwhile, a report on charities and the NHS warns that health authorities and hospitals are using charitable assets 'inefficiently and improperly', and that relying on them to top up government funding 'could be illegal'.