Barts Health NHS Trust

Revealed: Trusts pay £15m to Serco in fallout from pathology deal

Two trusts have paid an outsourcing firm £15m to leave the joint venture which has provided their pathology services over the last 10 years, HSJ can reveal.

Trust with ‘suffocating prohibition on speaking plainly’ loses case against senior manager

A tribunal has ruled a senior manager with a ‘blemish-free’ record was unfairly sacked, with the judge raising concerns about the trust’s ‘policing of language’.

Tribunal ‘astonished’ by trust’s handling of legitimate race discrimination concerns

A children’s nurse who raised legitimate concerns over racial discrimination at a major London trust was suspended and victimised by her managers for doing so, an employment tribunal has ruled.

31 Jan update: London and south east set to see low levels of covid hospital admissions by end of Feb

Admissions of covid positive patients in London and the south east are on course to fall to a managable level by the end of February.

Trust accused of ‘emotional blackmail’ after asking junior doctors to work unpaid in covid-hit units

London’s largest acute trust has been accused of ‘emotional blackmail’ by suggesting junior doctors could do voluntary shifts in its ‘really short staffed’ critical care unit.

What bereaved relatives told a trust with 1,300 covid deaths

At the peak of the pandemic, Barts Health Trust conducted a survey of bereaved relatives to ask about their experience, with the results offering valuable learnings for providing better bereavement care, write Alison Hill, Jan Annan, Thalia Lajara and Georgios Ketsetzis

Two hospitals ‘decanting’ to central London trust amid ‘extreme’ pressures

A pair of major London hospitals are decanting patients to central London sites as the region asks trusts to ‘super surge’ their critical care capacity, HSJ understands.

Exclusive: Medical leaders seek to ‘shame’ private hospitals and their staff into supporting NHS

NHS England and senior clinical leaders in London are ‘profoundly uncomfortable’ that some routine elective care is continuing in private hospitals, while the NHS faces ‘unthinkable’ pressures from coronavirus.

London’s largest trust reconfigures to give covid-swamped hospitals ‘breathing space’

Barts Health Trust has declared the sickest covid-19 patients along with emergency care and trauma admissions will be seen at the Royal London Hospital to give other hospitals in the group ‘breathing space’.

Revealed: the nine hospital trusts where covid patients fill at least half the beds

Nine English NHS trusts now have at least half their adult acute beds occupied by covid-positive patients, with admissions still growing in every case.

Exclusive: Leaks reveal record waits for emergency care due to covid pressures

Very long waits for emergency hospital care have surged in London since mid December, due to a rapid rise in covid-19 admissions combined with limited capacity, according to figures leaked to HSJ.

Trust chief made a dame as NHS staff dominate new year’s honours

Hospital chief executives and senior NHS workers were among those included in the New Year’s Honours list.

Exclusive: Cancer care under threat as NHS loses covid private sector back-up

Cancer surgery in London is under threat as rising covid admissions put pressure on services that no longer have back-up capacity from the independent sector, HSJ has learned.

Covid infections caught in hospital rise by a third in one week

The number of people likely to have caught covid-19 in NHS hospitals in England has risen by more than a third in the last week.

Hour-plus ambulance to A&E transfers double in a week

The number of ambulance handovers taking longer than an hour have almost doubled in just one week, the latest figures have revealed.

Major trust diverts ambulances and cancels electives after covid surge

One of England’s largest hospital trusts has been forced to divert ambulances and cancel operations, after seeing a very steep increase in covid-19 admissions over the past week.

Revealed: Nearly 10,000 year-long waiters at major acute trust

Nearly 10,000 patients have been waiting more than a year for treatment at a major London trust, with a further 10,000 waiting between nine and 12 months, leaked data shows.

London Eye: Here's your baby... and the bill

Essential insight into England’s biggest health economy, by Ben Clover.

Exclusive: Taxpayers cash could be used to fill hole created by fall in NHS private work

Taxpayers may have to make up for millions of pounds lost in NHS private patient income during the covid pandemic, HSJ can reveal.

Trust becomes the first to record 1,000 covid-19 deaths

University Hospitals Birmingham FT has become the first trust to record more than 1,000 deaths from covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, new data has revealed.

Exclusive: Capital to centralise elective care in new ICS hubs

London’s NHS is attempting to fast track the creation of centralised surgical hubs for each of its five health systems in a bid to recover spiralling waiting lists and long waits, HSJ understands.

HSJ80 full list: The most influential people in health

The HSJ80 lists the figures who will exercise the most power and/or influence in the English NHS and health policy over the next 12 months

Webinar: What has the NHS learnt from the pandemic and how will it shape future practice?

Alwen Williams, the chief executive of Barts Health Trust, was part of an expert panel that discussed what the NHS has learnt from the pandemic and how it will shape future practice.

Revealed: the trusts getting a share of the £300m winter pressures fund

Over one hundred trusts will share a £300m capital fund to support coronavirus-related upgrades to emergency departments ahead of winter, the prime minister has announced today.

NHS England warned fixing e-referral system now ‘critically urgent’

Hospital and GP leaders in east London have warned problems with the capital’s e-referral system have become a ‘critically urgent matter’.

Three trusts agree pathology 'hub' model expected to save £51m

Three trusts in east London have agreed to consolidate much of their routine pathology work on a single “hub” site.

Revealed: £350m for first three months of Nightingale hospitals

Nearly £350m was earmarked by NHS England/Improvement for spending on England’s Nightingale hospitals, according to newly published contracts.

Medics demand better terms for 'less valued colleagues'

A third of the doctors employed by Homerton University Hospital Foundation Trust have written to management calling on them to rethink a controversial outsourcing deal.

Flagship Nightingale hospital to be mothballed until second peak

London’s Nightingale Hospital is to be mothballed until a second peak, after seeing only a fraction of the patients first envisaged.

Intensive care capacity must be permanently doubled, says Nightingale chief

Intensive care capacity in London will be doubled on a permanent basis following the coronavirus pandemic, according to the chief executive of the city’s temporary Nightingale hospital.

UPDATE: Govt alerts trusts over ‘critical’ shortage of dialysis kit for covid patients

The availability of dialysis equipment used to treat more than a quarter of ventilated covid-19 patients has reached “critical” levels, HSJ has learned.

Oxygen supply problems ‘the new PPE’, warn hospital bosses

Oxygen shortages and difficulties in expanding storage quickly are now a major problem for hospital bosses dealing with covid-19 patients, HSJ has been told.

Exclusive: Details of Nightingale’s clinical model revealed

Extensive details of the clinical model for the new Nightingale Hospital in east London have been seen by HSJ — including the criteria for admitting patients and expected difficulties in transferring patients from other acute sites.

The Ward Round: Staffing The Nightingale

Staffing is the issue keeping NHS leaders awake at night — and which consumes two-thirds of trusts’ spending. The fortnightly The Ward Round newsletter, by HSJ workforce correspondent Annabelle Collins, will make sure you are tuned in to the daily pressures on staff, and the wider trends and policies shaping ...

US firm to provide tech for first Nightingale hospital

NHS chiefs have chosen Cerner as the electronic record provider for the new Nightingale Hospital in London.

Nightingale top leadership revealed

The first members of the leadership team at the NHS’ flagship covid-19 treatment centre have been revealed.

Revealed: The challenges and dilemmas as NHS Nightingale prepares to open

The NHS and Army’s project to convert London’s ExCel into a 4,000-bed field hospital — a plan of unprecedented scale for this country — is grappling with major clinical and cultural tensions, as well as the huge logistical challenge, ahead of its official opening next week.