1.17pm Interserve has signed a shared services deal worth up to £700m with a group of Leicestershire NHS trusts. It sees Interserve working with Leicestershire Partnership Trust, University Hospitals of Leicester Trust and the Leicester City, Leicestershire County and Rutland primary care trust cluster, in what the protagonists say is the first joined up deal of its kind in the NHS.
12.45pm The Foundation Trust Network has issued a response to HSJ’s exclusive, MPs to probe policy of health budget underspending, which was published this morning. FTN chief executive Chris Hopson said: “Stephen Dorrell is absolutely right. Given that NHS finances are so tight, as much money as possible should stay in the health service and be spent on health.
“We understand that in a system with 400 different organisations it’s a difficult task to land a jumbo jet on a postage stamp and have no underspend at all. But there are innovative solutions that can be used to reduce the overall Departmental underspend such as risk pooling across these organisations.”
He added: “We are keen to work with the Department and the NHS to ensure that the overall underspend is closer to the 0.5 per cent incurred by the Education and Defence Departments, rather the current 1.5 per cent”.
10.39am The work of three hospital chief executives and other senior NHS figures has been acknowledged in the New Year’s Honours awards. Find out who they are here.
10.38am About 100,000 people were struck down with the winter vomiting bug over Christmas, with confirmed cases 72 per cent higher than this time last year, according to the Health Protection Agency. A total of 3,877 laboratory-confirmed cases of norovirus have now been recorded in England and Wales - up on the 2,255 of last year.
10.31am The Prince’s Trust has undertaken research into young people’s mental health. While more than one in four young people in work admits to feeling down or depressed “always” or “often”, this figure rises to nearly half of unemployed young people.
9:59pm The Guardian carries the story of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman finding a foundation trust guilty of maladministration, saying it had made highly misleading statements and its head of midwifery had been dishonest with a couple over a stillbirth.
The case relates to the Leighton Hospital in Crewe, part of Mid Cheshire Hospitals Foundation Trust and dates back to 2009.
The PHSO does not release its reports but a part of it quoted by The Guardian said: “During their reviews the trust identified several failings in [the mother’s] antenatal care. However I have found that [the trust]] subsequently gave [the parents] information that contradicted their findings and were inaccurate”.
The inaccuracies were only revealed when the couple took legal action against the trust.
The trust was lead by Phil Morley at the time, who is now chief executive of Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, who did not comment on the case.
It is worth adding that an earlier report in the paper on a death at the Yorkshire trust said Mr Morley deserved “great credit” for his openness in dealing with it.
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