London’s wealthy boroughs have been given more money than poorer areas to tackle smoking and obesity
via Jeremy Hunt accused of ‘grossly unfair’ allocation of public health funding | Society | The Guardian.
The UK government is to withdraw and rewrite controversial legislation that critics feared would greatly increase the role of private operators in the NHS in England
via Government is to rewrite competition legislation | BMJ.
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The leading commercial eyecare provider Specsavers has been criticised for directly marketing its NHS funded hearing care services to patients, amid fear of a surge in demand that could destabilise NHS finances.
via GPs face pressure from patients after Specsavers markets its NHS audiology service | BMJ.
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Primary care trusts in England spent 10.7% more on services commissioned from independent healthcare providers in 2011-12 than in the previous year, new data show. This compares with a 3.5% rise in total healthcare spending.
via NHS spending on independent services is up by more than 10% | BMJ.
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Exposing more of the NHS to private competition could cause a “dangerous” fragmentation of health services in England , the chairman of the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges has said.
via BBC News – NHS ‘privatisation’ reform ‘could place people in danger’.
Labour is calling on peers to reject controversial secondary legislation governing competition and the tendering of NHS services.
via Labour moves to kill off controversial competition regulations | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
Opening most of the NHS in England to private firms could alienate doctors and render the reforms “a complete waste of time”, a GP who helped draft the plans has warned.
Community services worth billions of pounds are likely to be made subject to increased competition by guidance to be developed under controversial new secondary legislation, HSJ has learned.
via Community services to be focus of extended competition | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
The UK government has come under fire after publishing legislation this month that compels the new clinical commissioning groups in England to place the bulk of NHS services on the open market.
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via Vast majority of NHS services must go out to tender, health minister says | BMJ.
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Background It has been suggested that to meet information needs of multiple stakeholders, evaluation of public health interventions should specify a broader range of outcomes, evaluate a wider range of interventions and use more varied methods, in particular for dealing with complexity. Current outcomes approaches in public policy are potentially fertile ground for addressing these challenges and embedding evaluation in processes for reporting on public health outcomes. This paper describes work by NHS Health Scotland to realize this potential.
A growing number of local NHS managers in England believe that the quality of care in their organisation is worsening as the effects of the drive to make £20bn (€23bn; $31bn) in NHS efficiency savings begin to bite, says the latest quarterly monitoring survey by the health think tank the King’s Fund.
via Cuts are putting quality of care at risk, say NHS managers | BMJ.
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The independent peer David Owen is introducing a bill in the House of Lords to reinstate the secretary of state for health’s legal duty to provide and secure the NHS in England, which he says was abolished by the Health and Social Care Act last year.
via Peer publishes bill to reinstate legal duty of health secretary to provide NHS | BMJ.
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The NHS made a substantial amount of efficiency savings in 2011-12. These will need to be sustained and built on if savings targets are to be met.
via Progress in making NHS efficiency savings – National Audit Office.
The first ever NHS trust in England to be franchised out to the private sector will succeed in the long term, despite making much slower than expected progress in cutting its large deficit, MPs have been assured.
via Privately managed NHS trust will survive despite slow progress in cutting deficit, Circle says | BMJ.
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The NHS in England has been warned it must raise its game if it is to hit the ambitious savings targets it has been set and maintain services to patients.
The UK government has been asked to correct claims that spending on the NHS in England has increased since the coalition came to power, after the official statistics watchdog ruled that funding had in fact fallen.
via Government is urged to stop claiming spending on NHS has risen | BMJ.
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Chancellor George Osborne has abandoned plans to introduce regional pay in the NHS. However, he accepted the NHS Pay Review Body’s call for the Agenda for Change pay framework to be altered in order “to meet the challenges and cost pressures in the NHS.”
via Chancellor abandons regional pay | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
Social enterprises and charities are being squeezed out of the market to provide public services by a small number of private companies that dominate the sector and have “become too big and too complex to fail,” says a new report.
via Outsourcing favours private companies and is unsustainable, says report | BMJ.
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The close relations between private healthcare lobbyists and the prime minister’s office during the “pause” in the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill last year is revealed by a document published this week.
via Lobbyists’ document shows close working between private sector and government over health bill | BMJ.
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The government is not sufficiently prepared to deal with any NHS trust in England that is facing serious financial problems such as bankruptcy and is making up rules and processes “on the hoof,” MPs have said.
via Government makes up hospital bailout policies “on the hoof,” say MPs | BMJ.
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Healthwatch England will not be a “megaphone” for local interest groups, the body’s chair has told HSJ in her first interview since taking up the post.
via Healthwatch chief sets out plans | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
There could be “massive” industrial unrest if health workers are not given a decent pay rise after being hit hard by the government’s wage freeze, unions have warned.
via Warning over NHS industrial unrest | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
Half of the latest £5.8bn (€7.1bn; $9.3bn) in efficiency savings made by the NHS in 2011-12 was the result of staff’s pay being frozen, MPs have heard.
via Half of latest NHS efficiency savings came from staff pay freeze | BMJ.
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A £132m (€160m; $210m) contract awarded to Richard Branson’s healthcare company to run children’s health and social care services in Devon failed to comply with the law but can still go ahead, a judge has ruled.
via Virgin contract to run children’s services to go ahead despite non-compliance with law | BMJ.
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Around 20 000 medical assessments of benefit claimants by the private company Atos Healthcare in 2010-11 failed to meet basic standards, the UK government’s public spending watchdog has disclosed in a highly critical report
via UK government’s contract with Atos is “unacceptably loose,” MPs say | BMJ.
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There could be “massive” industrial unrest if health workers are not given a decent pay rise after being hit hard by the government’s wage freeze, unions have warned.
via Warning over NHS industrial unrest | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
Professional organisations and interest groups could take on a formal role producing clinical commissioning guidance – potentially sidestepping the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
via Outside groups could vie with NICE over guidance | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
A warning by the head of the NHS that the government’s controversial health reforms could end in “misery and failure” sparked fresh Labour calls for parts of the shake-up to be halted.
via Nicholson fears ‘carpet bombing’ privatisation | News | Health Service Journal.
This article is solely the work of the HSJ. For a full copy of the article please contact the library.
Implementing the Health and Social Care Act in England is likely to cost between £1.5bn (€1.8bn; 2.4bn) and £1.6bn, £300m more than originally estimated, the health secretary has said.
via NHS changes in England are likely to cost more than £1.5bn | BMJ.
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Community health services in Gloucestershire are to stay in the NHS after legal action by a patient to stop outsourcing to a community interest company, in the first decision of its kind.
via NHS Gloucestershire keeps £80m community services in public hands | BMJ.
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