Half of all maternity wards turn women away in labour, claims union and the rest of today’s news and comment
16.52pm A foundation trust has taken the unusual step of revealing details of a 14-year disoute over harm to patients.
The HSJ’s David Williams reveals the extrodinary feud between clinical staff and 48 cases of possible harm to patients that were never investigated.
16.46pm: Jeremy Hunt has called on GPs to “rediscover family doctoring”, Press Association report.
15.23pm: Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has written to the chairman of the BBC trust Lord Patten asking him to review the corporation’s coverage of a pro-NHS demonstration in Manchester yesterday.
Mr Burnham quoted Greater Manchester Police estimates of 50,000 people on the march but complained the reporting seemed to mention it only in the context of the Conservative Party conference.
15.12pm: The CQC is asking for responses to its proposals to raise the fees charged to providers by 2.5 per cent. There are also plans to change the way care homes are charged.
13.57pm: HSJ’s news editor is covering the Conservative Party conference. He tweets: “Dan Poulter demands evidence on plain fag packets” he says “The worst thing you can do is something that looks right then find it isn’t (right)”. Follow him at @nickgolding.
11.49am: Got an opinion on what we do? Join the HSJ reader panel here.
11.45am: More on the cancer drugs fund, this time from a consultant who argues the policy has been Lansley’s greatest policy success.
11.25am: The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry says the government’s decision to extend the cancer drugs fund by £400m is “good news for NHS cancer patients in England”.
ABPI chief executive Stephen Whitehead said: “The cancer drugs fund has had an incredibly positive impact for NHS cancer patients, with its availability bringing England closer to levels of access patients in comparable countries routinely experience.”
“And whilst it is unfortunate that a special fund is needed to bridge this gap with other countries, we welcome the contribution this will make to further improving English cancer outcomes - an area where we have lagged historically.”
11.14am: Half of all maternity wards turn women away in labour, reads a headline on page 30 of the Daily Mailthis morning.
The story is based on a survey of 91 senior midwives by their royal college. Almost half reported their unit had been forced to close to women in labour during the past 12 months while while more than a quarter had had to restrict their home-birthing services to free up midwives to work on the wards.
11.08am: The British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee has elected Dr Kitty Mohan and Dr Andrew Collier as new co-chairs. They take over from Dr Ben Molyneux.
Dr Mohan is a public health trainee and Dr Collier is psychiatry trainee.
10.54am: HSJ’s Ben Clover reports on the first use of the government’s failure regime powers, at South London Healthcare Trust.
The trust is due to be formally dissolved as a legal entity tomorrow and its partner trusts have already taken over the running of services.
The partner trusts have also bargained up NHS England, the NHS Trust Development Authority and commissioners from a three-year integration plan and £266m in “transitonal funding” to a five-year integration plan and £466m in transitional funding.
10.24am: One of the larger GP groups have attacked some of Mr Burnham’s plans.
In a press release Dr Michael Dixon of the NHS Alliance said: “[We are] very concerned by statements made at the Labour Party conference that seem to undermine the role of GPs as commissioners and the right of Clinical Commissioning Groups to make decisions as to the best use of public resources and healthcare.
“We are equally concerned by reports that the Labour policy review group is to consider ‘ditching the GP gatekeeper’s role’. Both reports imply a lack of understanding of the NHS in terms of its strength and its potential, especially with regard to primary care.”
10.19am: Meanwhile HSJ’s Sarah Calkin reports the detail on Andy Burnham’s plans to repeal the Health and Social Care Act if Labour win the next election.
10.11am: HSJ’s news editor Nick Golding is at the Conservative conference. Sources have told him that Hunt’s speech tomorrow is likely to focus on frail older people’s care and the cancer drugs fund (which was trailed on Saturday). There will apparently be nothing on competition. Follow @NickGolding for more details.
9.57am: Ad-man Maurice Saatchi writes today about the Medical Innovation Bill he hopes will change the way cancer is treated in Britain.
Lord Saatchi’s proposal would give doctors more of a legal defence if they embarked on unorthodox course of treatment for patients.
8:16am: The National Institute for Health Research set up the Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care programme in 2008 to explore how to bridge the “second translational gap”: embedding research evidence into routine clinical practice. Nine collaborations were funded for five years as partnerships between at least one university and surrounding NHS and other partner organisations.
Today on HSJ’s innovation and efficiency channel, Susan Mayor talks to these leaders of the first wave of collaborations on how the NHS can translate research evidence into better patient care.
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