Exclusive: Just three NHS finance staff reported to professional body in six years
Only three NHS finance staff have been referred to their professional body over breaches of its code in the past six years, HSJ can reveal.
National audits 'drain' NHS resources
The national audit programme is a “drain” on hospital trusts’ resources when projects are “poorly designed or insufficiently robust”, a regional audit network has warned.
More trusts with financial concerns
The number of NHS trusts referred to the health secretary over financial concerns increased almost three-fold in a year, a report has revealed.
Growing gap between rich and poor trusts
An audit of NHS organisations’ 2011-12 accounts has found a widening gap between the trusts with healthy finances and those that are struggling.
Accuracy of tariff improved, Audit Commission finds
The accuracy of a key component of the payment by results system has improved since 2007-08, according to a report from the Audit Commission.
Monitor: patient costs could inform national prices
Monitor could use the cost of individual patients to set national prices for NHS acute care as early as 2016-17.
PFI does not explain variations in financial performance, research finds
The presence of expensive private finance initiative hospitals is not statistically linked to persistent financial problems in health economies, preliminary findings of new research suggest.
Clustering in part to blame for PCT's £28m blackhole
The move from primary care trusts to clusters was in part to blame for a £28m black hole opening up in the books of a PCT, a report has found.
NHS data skewed by efforts to protect trust finances
The “disproportionate” financial implications of changes to the way the NHS classifies patients have led it to maintain “inaccurate recording and inaccurate payments”, the Audit Commission has reported.
NHS annual reporting 'inaccurate or incomplete'
NHS organisations are presenting an “inaccurate or incomplete” picture in their annual reports, with some failing to disclose the key risks they face, according to a review by auditors Grant Thornton.
GPs overpaid millions for 'ghost patients'
Doctors have received millions of pounds in payment for patients who have moved practice, died or been forced to leave the country, according to a new report.
Trusts facing 'difficult choice' over service provision
NHS trusts face “difficult choices about the services they provide” as they fight to sustain savings programmes of 5 per cent a year, according to a report by Monitor and the Audit Commission.
Rise in PCTs reporting above-average costs
The past financial year saw a sharp rise in the proportion of primary care trusts reporting above-average costs for providing NHS services, new Department of Health figures show.
Primary care spend fell fastest last year - Information Centre
Spending on primary care last year fell more quickly than expenditure on the rest of the NHS, figures from the NHS Information Centre reveal.
Poor NHS cost data will delay national pricing, Audit Commission warns
Costing data in the NHS is too poor to establish fixed national prices for new acute and community services, an Audit Commission review has found.
Quarter of NHS trusts 'have weaknesses in securing financial resilience'
Almost a quarter of NHS trusts have notable weaknesses in their arrangements for securing financial resilience or challenging how they secure value for money, their auditors have warned.
Commissioners 'excessively constraining' patient choice
Commissioners are restricting patient choice and choking competition in routine elective care, the Cooperation and Competition Panel has found.
Data shows mixed results in reducing 'low value' treatments
The NHS has reduced activity related to some “ineffective” treatments, but has not managed to stop the rise in other “low clinical value” procedures, according to data analysed for HSJ.
Auditors to query use of foundations’ resources
A number of foundation trusts are likely to face “qualifications”, querying the accuracy of their 2010-11 accounts, because of questions over their use of resources, auditors have warned.
DH to 'rely' on local pricing to extend community services competition
The Department of Health will be “heavily reliant” on locally set prices to encourage competition from “any qualified provider” in community services, it said this week.
Putting patients in the centre: the whole person approach to integrated care
Safer passage: how care navigators help improve mental health services
A hire price to pay: how leasing equipment saves money and improves service quality
Payment by Results - conference sessions
Payment by Results
Mental health innovation: how to drive quality from pilot to practice