Did it do too good a job?

As the Healthcare Commission enters its final month as the NHS monitor, one wonders if it did too good a job in finding some of the faults with this governments NHS?

The Care Quality Commission takes over from the Healthcare Commission on April 1st with concerns that it might not be as vigilant as its predecessor as it will be tasked with not only doing the Healthcare Commission's old job.

It will also be tasked with looking after the previous Commission for Social Care Inspection workload as well as the work of the Mental Health Act Commission.

Although supposed to be fully independent, it will still need quite a bit of government money to be staffed and run to a professional level that continues to investigate bad practices and poor delivery of services in the various areas of its responsibilities. Looking after three commissions is not the same a looking after one!

Let's hope that the Care Quality Commission will have the same capability (and funding) to find and publicly comment on any other Staffordshire General Hospital incidents that may be out there.

Technorati Tags: Watchdogs, Monitors, Managers, Finding

A standard too low!!!

It seems that nursing care at the Staffordshire General Hospital was at a premium as it is turning out from the many reports that are beginning to appear. [1], [2], [3]

Ben Bradshaw MP is on TV apologising for the failing, but who was doing the monitoring of the Hospital in the first place. Why was it allowed to get into this state in the first place.

It's funny when incident like this happen how the people in charge stress that all is now sorted out and much has changed, it's as if they want to hide their failings for letting it get this bad.

It may be that the trust chairman Toni Brisby and chief executive Martin Yeates have already quit (I wonder where else in the NHS they will be re-employed) ahead of the report, but who were the people that were checking on the performance of these people? Surely they should also be sacked for letting these people continue their bad management of Staffordshire General Hospital.

What is strange? The report by the Healthcare Commission is nowhere to be seen as yet.

Technorati Tags: Targets, Care, Managemnt

The NHS (Big Brother) will have your patient records!

According to this article, NHS Lincolnshire PCT is going to get some of their local GP's patients who have opted out of having their records uploaded to the local NHS patient records database in for a chat!

I not sure what the local PCT might be trying to do here, but threatening your local patients with what seems to be a line out of a mafia film will not endear them to local patients.

I think also the local PCT may well find that what they are doing is against the law. Maybe they have been told by the Bigger central government Brother, that there can be no dissenter and everyone must comply!

Technorati Tags: Patient Records, Opt Out, Big Brother

Into 2009!

A happy New Year to all of our visitors.

As you will see from my last post it’s a while since we updated the blog, we’ve been busy with a number of business projects. However, we hope to get back on track this year with more regular updates to the blog and to the website, which sadly has also fallen behind.

With the current financial climate, 2009 promises to be an interesting year for the NHS, with budgets being further stretched to cover existing and new requirements, the NPfIT project still struggling to fully deliver on its promises and of course the current cold spell sending more people to A & E with broken bones through falls and Flu.

Some events that caught our eyes over the past few months have included:

• It’s the Flu again!
• Where does all the money go?
• Do we really need this many translators?
• More noise in your ear!
• NHS parking charges to be abolished in Scotland

More post to follow in the coming weeks.

Technorati Tags: Car Parking,Mobile Phones,Flu,Agency Nurses

NHS NPfIT programme begins to fall apart!

Newcastle NHS Trust has openly announced that it is to obtain a Patient Records Database system direct from a USA hospital sidelining the UK NHS NPfIT.

It is understood that that a number of other NHS Trust are also looking to go the same route as the delays for the roll out of the NHS own NPfIT scheme continue to suffer various delays.

So much for this Labour Governments promise of a single patient records system promised in 2002 to be rolled out by the begriming of 2005!

Here's is more background to the above story and some other background info.

Technorati Tags: NPfIT

Patient Record Database systems face delays

Another example of further delays with the roll-out of their Patient Records Database system at Bart's last week as they face an increase in implementation costs.

More staff to catch up, means more costs from ever dwindling budgets. Who's next to feel the pinch I wonder?

Technorati Tags: NPfIT, Budgets, Overspend, Underfunded.

Whose got the data?

As more and more NHS hospitals continue to capture our patient data into the NHS database, it has now come to light that over 4 million items of personal data have been lost over the past year from various government departments - this does not include the infamous case of the 25 million child benefits claimants last November lost on two unencrypted discs.

I don't have anything to hide in my personal data file, but I do wonder who is going to be able to casually browse through mine and anyone else's and how many memory sticks I'll be left laying around on as a discarded record, seemingly just another UK lost data record.

The government has got to make sure that we feel very confident that our data is safe and cannot be misused in any way.

Technorati Tags: Data Protection, Information Commissioner, Big Brother

More Job Losses on the Horizon?

It seems that a review of the NHS in Wales is on the horizon with a potential loss of Jobs as the review bites into the structure of the NHS right across Wales.

From this comment in Wales Online it seems that any review is being kept under tight wraps by the government.

Technorati Tags: Job Losses, Wales