All articles by Sally E Gainsbury – Page 9

  • News

    Department stays silent on Connecting for Health savings

    2008-03-20T09:00:00Z

    The Department of Health will not use the £208m saved by the national programme for IT last year to estimate the total potential savings of NHS-wide implementation.

  • News

    PCTs pressured to lose provider arm

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    Strategic health authorities are forcing primary care trusts to divest themselves of their provider functions, PCT chiefs have claimed.

  • News

    Treasury puts off plan to move PFI schemes on balance sheet

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    The Treasury has given the NHS a year's stay of execution over changes to accountancy rules with major implications for private finance initiative schemes. The move to international financial reporting standards was due to be implemented across the public sector from this April.

  • News

    FESC is thrown open without Treasury probe

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    The Department of Health has extended its commissioning support programme without carrying out an expected value-for-money assessment of the scheme, HSJ has learned.Health secretary Alan Johnson announced last week that the framework for procuring external support for commissioners, FESC, is now open to all primary care trusts to buy in ...

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Poet's play gets to bottom of prostate cancer

    2008-03-07T10:55:00Z

    A new play by the popular poet Benjamin Zephaniah is helping to spread the word about cancer screening, particularly among African-Caribbean men

  • News

    £80.4m cost of 8,000 staff hurt at work

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Just over 8,000 NHS staff were seriously injured at work last year, figures published in Parliament show.

  • News

    ISTC contract guarantees will saddle NHS with a £187m bill

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Deals with private contractors have left the NHS facing a hidden 187m bill to buy back some of the controversial independent sector treatment centres, HSJ has learned.

  • News

    England's waiting times no better than Wales

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Statistics on waiting times in England and Wales have led to questions over the value for money of initiatives to reduce waiting times in England.

  • News

    PCTs cut continuing care packages

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    More than a quarter of primary care trusts have cut the number of adults they give NHS 'continuing care', despite guidance intended to boost provision.Figures published by the Department of Health show 44 PCTs reduced the number of people to whom they give the care package between April and December ...

  • News

    Surplus forecast by HSJ still on course

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    The NHS is still on track to make a £1.8bn surplus at the end of this financial year, as first revealed by HSJ.

  • News

    Credit crunch puts Kent PFI under threat

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Plans by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust for a new private finance initiative hospital were dealt a blow this week when the bonds intended to finance the deal were downgraded.

  • News

    ISTC contract guarantees will saddle NHS with a £187m bill

    2008-03-05T17:45:00Z

    Deals with private contractors have left the NHS facing a hidden £187m bill to buy back some of the controversial independent sector treatment centres, HSJ has learned.

  • News

    Eleventh-hour changes to GP contract left PCTs with bill

    2008-02-28T09:00:00Z

    The introduction of the new GP contract led to a 57 per cent increase in payments to practices in just three years, the National Audit Office has found. The huge increase was fuelled by a last-minute concession to the British Medical Association that sidelined the government's own priority to tackle ...

  • News

    Scottish budgets reworked

    2008-02-28T09:00:00Z

    Scottish health and well-being secretary Nicola Sturgeon has unveiled a new funding formula that will see substantial redistribution of funds between health boards.

  • News

    Monitor fights shy of legal tussles

    2008-02-28T09:00:00Z

    Monitor will seek to avoid tightening the rules on income from private patients because it fears legal reprisals from foundation trusts, HSJ has learned.

  • News

    Monitor challenges DH on freedoms

    2008-02-22T09:00:00Z

    Battle lines are hardening between foundation trusts and the Department of Health over the trusts' future, following a series of leaked letters between the leaders of the NHS and regulator Monitor, reports Sally Gainsbury. The correspondence has exposed a gulf between their positions on New Labour's flagship hospitals.

  • News

    Accounting change could strain PFI

    2008-02-21T09:00:00Z

    The Department of Health has refused to say whether or not it has set aside any resources to help trusts cope with a major change to private finance initiative schemes later this year.

  • News

    Dr Foster admits flaws in east London report

    2008-02-14T09:00:00Z

    Doctor Foster Intelligence has admitted that a £47,000 report it prepared for a London council was seriously flawed, following an investigation by the information company's own ethics committee.

  • News

    Breakdown of cross-border agreements is costing English trusts millions

    2008-02-14T09:00:00Z

    Diverging health policies in England and Wales are causing English hospitals to lose millions of pounds.

  • News

    Auditor finds PbR has 'questionable' impact on efficiency

    2008-02-14T09:00:00Z

    Payment by results has had a 'questionable' impact on driving up efficiency in the NHS, the Audit Commission has concluded.