Monthly Archives: December 2011

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There’s a non story today about GPs salaries being set to rise by 25%. The non story is that GPs who do commissioning will be paid for participating in Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). Yawn.

GPs ‘will be paid twice’ under NHS reforms – Telegraph

GPs paid £115 an hour just to go to talks on NHS reform on top of their six-figure salary | Mail Online

In other news bankers get honours by David Cameron’s shit Con-Dem coalition government.

New Year Honours 2012: Controversy over honours for Conservatives’ ‘friends in the City’ – Telegraph

New Year Honours for the great, the good – and the Tory donors – Home News – UK – The Independent

New Year honours list reflects my aims for ‘big society’, says David Cameron | UK news | The Guardian

27/11/13 Having received a takedown notice from the Independent newspaper for a different posting, I have reviewed this article which links to an article at the Independent’s website in order to attempt to ensure conformance with copyright laws.

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
a. Only a small portion of the original article has been quoted satisfying the fair use criteria, and / or
b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

Please be assured that this blog is a non-commercial blog (weblog) which does not feature advertising and has not ever produced any income.

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Care services for the elderly cut.

Phone line for NHS whistleblowers.

Lansley claims that there are huge increases in readmittance to hospitals under the previous government. He says “These figures show how Labour’s obsession with waiting time targets meant that patients were treated like parts on a production line to be hurried through the system rather than like people who need to be properly cared for.” I’m not convinced by these figures and need to see the bigger picture e.g. where twice as many people treated, were they older or sicker, etc?

Conservative election poster 2010

A few recent news articles about the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat (Conservative) coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

Elderly care at risk due to local cuts / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Care services for the elderly are being put in jeopardy due to government cuts trickling down to local councils, a leading charity warned yesterday.

Age UK director Michelle Mitchell said reductions in council social care budgets risked leaving an increasing number of elderly people with “absolutely no support at all, or poor quality and limited support.”

Research by the King’s Fund showed that by 2015 estimates suggest that there will be one million older people needing significant care but without assistance, a figure that is up from almost 900,000 in 2012.

And Ms Mitchell warned in an interview with the Guardian: “Care is in crisis and it is getting worse. We have evidence to show that local authorities have cut care for older people by 4.5 per cent this year, and this at a time when social care is chronically underfunded anyway.”
…

BBC News – NHS whistleblowers helpline due to be launched

A free helpline for whistleblowers in the NHS and social services is to be launched on Sunday.

The move is part of Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s drive to ensure staff can raise “genuine concerns” about standards “without fear of reprisal”.

But a whistleblowers’ group said the announcement was an “admission of failure” that existing internal processes were not working.
…

Lansley slams Labour’s NHS ‘production line’ as figures show emergency readmissions have surged over past decade | Mail Online

Hundreds of thousands of patients every year are readmitted to hospital after being sent home too soon, figures suggest.

Alarming figures show that over a decade the number of NHS patients who were readmitted to hospital in an emergency within a month of being discharged soared – rising by more than 75 per cent in the past decade.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley last night accused hospitals of treating patients ‘like parts on a production line’ as they tried to hit Labour’s waiting list targets.
…

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Conservative election poster 2010

A few recent news articles about the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat (Conservative) coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

Docs: NHS care hit by Tory cuts / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Doctors slammed the Con-Dems’ NHS cuts today, warning that patients were being hit hard by longer waiting times and worse care.

Four in five GPs and hospital doctors have said that the cutbacks had already started to bite – resulting in fewer hospital beds, pressure to prescribe cheaper drugs and cuts to occupational and community health services.

The poll, conducted by the Guardian, makes a mockery of the coalition’s claims that it would protect the NHS from cuts.

And doctors’ representatives warned that there would be worse to come.

“The government is asking the NHS to save £20 billion in an extremely short space of time. It is inevitable that this will lead to the NHS contracting and offering the patient less as a service,” said Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s consultants committee.

He warned that the cuts would hit both patient care and investment in hospitals and local health services.

“Doctors and other healthcare professionals are working hard with managers to try and find greater ways of being efficient so that the impacts on patient care is reduced. However, the NHS does face an extremely tough financial future,” he said.

…

NHS computer system firm in £1bn climbdown | Business | The Guardian

Computer Sciences Corporation admits it may have to write off entire value of its investment in the delayed Lorenzo system for health service

Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), the American IT group, has admitted that eight years of delays and setbacks on its disastrous NHS contract have left little or no value for shareholders, as the company prepares to write off almost £1bn.

The colossal write off — equivalent to 40% of the CSC’s market value — comes after years of delays and IT glitches, centred on a new software system called Lorenzo. It was supposed to be ready in 60% of English hospitals more than four years ago, but was installed in its first acute hospital in June last year.

CSC’s failing contract has been one of the biggest challenges for Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who has been reviewing large government contracts.

In September a heavily edited internal Cabinet Office report revealed the CSC contract remained a “major problem”, noting existing plans for Lorenzo were “not deliverable”. It described the software as “a long way short of the full functionality of the contracted solution” and “not proved to be wholly fit for purpose”.

Maude and the Department of Health have been deliberating on whether to continue with CSC or risk the US firm joining fellow failed NHS IT contractor Fujitsu in costly and protracted legal disputes.
…

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A poll of GPs and hospital doctors confirms that the ConDem coalition government is cutting the health service contrary to its promise not to impose cuts on the NHS.

Conservative election poster 2010

A few recent news articles about the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat (Conservative) coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

NHS cuts have affected patient care say four out of five doctors | Society | The Guardian

Exclusive poll backs up consultants’ protests over bed closures and longer waiting times for surgery

The coalition’s pledge to protect the NHS is in fresh doubt after four out of five doctors said they had seen patient care suffer as a result of health service cuts during 2011.

A poll of GPs and hospital doctors, carried out for the Guardian, challenges David Cameron’s promise to “cut the deficit, not the NHS”.

Doctors cite hospital bed closures, pressure to give patients cheaper, slower-acting drugs, cuts to occupational health support, and reductions in community health services as examples of recent cost-cutting measures.

Doctors.net.uk, a professional networking site to which almost all British doctors belong, asked medics: “Have cuts to staff and/or services affected patient care in your department, area or surgery during the last 12 months?” Of the 664 doctors who responded, 527 (79%) said yes and 137 (21%) said no.

Among 440 hospital doctors, 359 have seen cuts, while 168 of the 224 family doctors said the same.

Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s hospital consultants and specialists committee, said the poll findings confirmed that the NHS was now “retracting” and doing less for patients, contradicting repeated ministerial pledges that frontline NHS services would escape the government’s deficit reduction programme.

“The reality is that whether you look at it from the point of view of a doctor, another clinician or a patient, there are NHS cuts ongoing and it adds up to a picture where the NHS is now retracting. So it’s hard to marry that back to the original statement ‘I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS’,” he said.

“The evidence all around us of cuts that are being made adds up to a picture where the government has failed to deliver on the promises it made to people on coming into office.”
…

Related: David Cameron’s pledge to protect NHS clouded by emerging reality of cuts | Society | The Guardian

 

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The ConDem scum government quietly announces huge increases in the number of private patients to be treated at NHS hospitals. Clearly this is privatisation of the NHS on a huge scale. If you’ve got the money, you’ll cheat the waiting list and get treated. Otherwise, you suffer or die thanks to the Conservatives and Liberal-Democrat Conservatives.

NHS trusts face mounting financial difficulties in 2012.

Increased waiting times in York and North Yorkshire.

Conservative election poster 2010

A few recent news articles about the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat (Conservative) coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

NHS private income cap to be lifted | News

Health service reforms will pave the way for NHS hospitals to earn up to half of their income from private work, it has been reported.

The current cap on income generated from private patients is typically limited to just a few percent but is set to rise to 49% in a move slipped out by the Government last week, according to The Times.

It is expected to cause more friction within the coalition with a senior Liberal Democrat warning that it was part of an ideological drive that many in the party would oppose, the newspaper said.

Labour claimed the plans showed Prime Minister David Cameron was determined to mirror health care provision operated in the US.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham told the newspaper: “This surprise move, sneaked out just before Christmas, is the clearest sign yet of David Cameron’s determination to turn our precious NHS into a US-style commercial system, where hospitals are more interested in profits than people.

“With NHS hospitals able to devote half their beds to private patients, people will begin to see how our hospitals will never be the same again if Cameron’s health Bill gets through Parliament.”
…

Health chiefs warn of financial crisis and growing waiting times as Government cuts bite – mirror.co.uk

THE number of NHS trusts facing financial problems has nearly doubled as the Government’s funding squeeze bites.

Care chiefs in 21 areas fear they will be strapped for cash at some point this year, up from just 13 in 2010.

The findings by trust regulator Monitor come as ministers insist on “efficiency savings” of £20billion.

Of 137 trusts surveyed, 16 expect to miss waiting times targets, 14 fear losing the ability to treat A&E patients within four hours and 16 warn they will miss targets on controlling cases of the killer C.diff superbug.

Laurence Buckman, from the British Medical Association, said: “We could see more rationing stories than we are seeing now, particularly with secondary care procedures being cut.

“GPs (within clinical commissioning groups) will have to show great ingenuity in doing their best to introduce cuts in a humane way and I suspect that they will find that difficult.”
… [mistakenly refers to John Healey as Shadow Health Secretary]

NHS waiting times ‘up’ in York and North Yorkshire (From York Press)

THE number of people waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment in York and North Yorkshire has risen by 26 per cent since the last General Election, according to new figures.

A report by the Socialist Health Association also claimed Government plans to restructure the health service will cost the local primary care trust £46.63 million.

The data was compiled from the NHS’ annual Operating Framework document published at the end of November. It also showed 18-week waits for treatment in East Yorkshire had fallen by 23 per cent since May 2010. Just over £18.8 million has been set aside for NHS reorganisation within the area.
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