NHS WATCH

How could they have messed up so badly?

2011-09-27T11:03:00.000+01:00

From the pages of the Guardian another example of where all the money has gone in the NHS IT program and how little we have to show for it. Full Story Here.

Patient records IT faces more cutbacks

2011-06-27T09:51:00.001+01:00

The project to provide electronic records to NHS patients in England could be scaled back by more than £750m, more info here…

Technorati Tags: NHS IT,CSC,Department of Health. Patient Records

NHS bracing for big cuts

2011-02-23T08:52:00.000Z

This story from the Telegraph spells out the scale of the job cuts facing the NHS over the next few years. It does not make good reading.

Is this what UK health care has come to?

2011-01-14T16:44:00.001Z

An interesting story about Johann Hari’s (of The Independent) Grandmother. A sad case of care home failure.

Do you have similar experiences? Comment on this post and let us all know.

Technorati Tags: Care Homes,Quality Care Commision,Ageing

Away too long

2011-01-10T16:26:00.002Z

I have been away from this Blog for too long and need to get back into this. Other business projects dragged me away(and still do).

Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on how the NHS will be (if not already) affected by the trimming of the Budgets under the Collation Government and the plan to move the financial control from PCT's to GP surgeries.

Please let me know by comments to this post or direct to info[@]nhswatch[dot]info.

Many thanks and hope to be back here soon with some of your feedback.

p.s. Seems that the blog suffered a bit of hacking which I have now cleaned up and corrected some of the links to other blogs. Quite a few seemed to have disappeared! I will have to search for some new ones to insert. Do blog about the NHS? Let me know and I'll link to your blog

Did it do too good a job?

2009-03-17T14:01:00.001Z

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!!!

2009-03-17T13:29:00.001Z

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!

2009-02-08T16:45:00.001Z

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!

2009-01-06T07:59:00.001Z

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:

More post to follow in the coming weeks.

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

NHS NPfIT programme begins to fall apart!

2008-09-16T12:47:00.001+01:00

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

2008-09-08T18:06:00.001+01:00

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?

2008-08-26T15:45:00.001+01:00

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?

2008-08-20T07:18:00.001+01:00

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

More jobs to go

2008-07-06T17:24:00.001+01:00

100 jobs are to be lost at the Durham City offices of the Prescription Pricing Division (PPD) of the NHS Business Services Authority - they pay the chemists for Prescription costs.

These job losses are part of a nationwide reduction of jobs at the PPD due to a computer system being installed to speed up payments and reduce manpower costs.

Technorati Tags: Job Losses, PPD

And still data goes missing!

2008-07-06T17:08:00.001+01:00

What will it take for NHS managers to get grip on Patient Records?

Another case of mislaid confidential patient information came to light in Scotland this week when a health care worker downloaded a number of patient health records on to a USB memory stick! A clear and intentional violation of general and NHS data protection rules.

Comments have been made that the health worker could loose their job! I think that the health worker should loose their job along with their direct manager, who clearly has not been implementing a rigorous enough data protection policy.

One wonders what other data losses have happened at the NHS Lothian Trust that they have managed to hide from the public.

When will this government start treating seriously all the data losses that have happened in recent months. When will the Information Commissioner start prosecuting individuals?

Technorati Tags: Data protection, Patient Records

NHS at 60

2008-07-06T16:04:00.001+01:00

I've been reading through some of the stories celebrating the 60 years of the NHS, two that caught my eyes were Professor Harold Ellis recollections about his time in the NHS and the BBC documentary NHS at 60 broadcast yesterday and still available for download from the BBCi player site.

Both show different sides of the story, but the documentary without a doubt really showed what the UK might have become had the NHS not started up when it did.

Perhaps people that always want to knock it should sit back and take stock at what we have, yes it does cost a lot of money and yes it does need to be better run and yes if does need more medically trained staff.

But we should all be grateful that for the NHS, I'm sure in its early days, it saved many people and set an increased standard of health that we have all come to enjoy.

Technorati Tags: 6o Years

Happy Birthday?

2008-06-30T07:52:00.001+01:00

Yes the NHS is 60 years old this week and despite much government interference over those years it has survived and on the whole is still delivering free healthcare on demand to the majority of the UK citizens.

Despite this, acquiring a hospital infection during a stay is still a major worry for many people as a reason for them not wanting to go into hospital.

Deep cleaning may by one option to tackle hospital acquired infections, but there is a long way to go to solve the worries that still exists in many peoples minds about a pending hospital visit.

Technorati Tags: Infections, Birthday

Specialist nurses threatened with redundancy!

2008-05-07T09:52:00.001+01:00

According to this report, one in four specialist nurses are being threatened with redundancy!

A survey carried out by the RCN found that many almost half of all specialist nurses interview felt unsure of their jobs future.

It seems strange when the government keep harping on about how much it is spending on the NHS and special patient care, that the actual people tasked with delivering this seem so unsure of their future.

Maybe it's just another way of fiddling the NHS surplus that we keep being told about!

Technorati Tags: RCN, Specialist Care, Job Cuts

After another gap in postings - More outsourcing follows!

2008-05-05T14:18:00.001+01:00

The NHS GP out-of-hours service in Worcestershire is being privatised. It is to be taken over by a private company called Take Care Now (TCN).

The GP service, currently run by Worcestershire Primary Care Trust, provides out of hours care for patients outside normal GP working hours.

Paul Bates, chief executive of Worcestershire Primary Care Trust, said: "The PCT has tendered for a new out-of-hours service because the public have quite rightly demanded that we improve the service that is offered. He has not said what problem the pubic had with the existing service!

A full statement will be issued by the PCT after the trust board meeting on Wednesday, May 14th. So another slice of the NHS goes private!

Technorati Tags: Out of Hours, GP's, Privatisation

Running out of space - not for managers!

2008-04-14T09:30:00.001+01:00

It seems that some UK overstretched hospital doctors are not being given enough office space or the tools to carry out their work effectively.

With some hospitals having to ask doctors to share one PC when updating confidential patent records without sufficient privacy; it appears that some hospital managers have not taken advantage of the recent NHS IT upgrades or are paying attention to Patient record confidentially.

Here's more on the subject. [1] [2]

Technorati Tags: NHS Connecting for Health, Office Space

The UK really is a weird place!

2008-04-07T22:05:00.001+01:00

So let me see, you're in charge of a NHS trust that has the biggest outbreak of C-Diff which killed 90 patients. You have to quit your job after being severely criticised for your handling of the situation - not really an endorsement of one's abilities!

So what to do next, I know, let's sue the my employer for my balance of pay, after all it wasn't really my fault.

Yes that is exactly what Rose Gibb is doing; she wants £75,000 damages for lost pay, compensation of £175,000, plus interest bla, bla, bla! It seems to me that she is taking the pi%& a little bit. See here for the full story.

Will she get all that she wants? In this crazy mixed up place we call the UK, where not enough money is paid to hardworking nurses, enough money will probably will be found to compensate an incompetent manager who was in charge when over 90 patient died in her care!

Technorati Tags: C-DIFF, Compensation, Managemnt

The State of the NHS - It's a Boat Race?

2008-03-29T14:49:00.001Z

It's the Boat Race today.

In light of that, this article from the 2008 Nurses' League Newsletter of the Worcester Royal Infirmary was an interesting find and cause to me to have a chuckle as I read it.

Is it a fair comparison? I leave it to you to decide, but I guarantee you'll find some of it it very familiar! Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: NHS,Management,Consultants,Boat Race

By the way, thank you for my salary adjustment!

2008-03-25T08:35:00.001Z

Sue Davidson is highly-skilled senior surgical nurse at at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary where she has worked for more than 30 years.

As a reward for her work and dedication the trust have adjusted here job banding, downwards! Yes that right, her new job banding has been changed from seven to six and will cost her around £3,500 in lost wages. How nice of them!!!

It's a very strange way to encourage your staff!! More on this story here.

Technorati Tags: Staff Promotion, NHS Cuts

NHS Watch - Submission Form error fixed!

2008-03-05T00:03:00.001Z

It appears that there has been an error on our Submission Form page of the NHS Watch web site for a while. This has been due to some setup changes at the Web Hosting Site.

We have now fixed this problem. So please feel free to leave us your comments about the NHS and about the NHS Watch web site which is currently undergoing a revamp.

You can access the Submission Form here.

Technorati Tags: Form, NHS

Hospital cuts appear again.

2008-02-22T10:44:00.001Z

It seems that Trafford General Hospital is going to axe more than 200 jobs in its bid to avoid a £7m budget shortfall.

Managers at Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust say the cuts will result in improved clinical processes and provide a more value-for-money services!

It seems that up to 210 jobs will be cut along with the closure of two wards and two operating theatres in what the trust calls their 'turnaround plan'.

The new Chief Executive Steve Sperry said: "The Trust has had cash problems over the last few years that if left would build up into major financial problems this year. "We will continue to deliver the highest standards of healthcare but in the most efficient ways possible in order to meet our obligations to taxpayers."

Lets see what happens before the next cuts happen.

Technorati Tags: Job Cuts

Another prescription for GP gloom!

2008-02-19T21:04:00.001Z

No much to say about this except to link direct to the main story from Dr Martyn Lobley in the commentary section of today's Times Online.

Technorati Tags: Department of Work and Pensions

Cash strapped NHS Trust has to borrow to pay salaries!

2008-02-19T20:48:00.001Z

Trafford General, the hospital associated with the start of the NHS has had to borrow £3m from the Department of Health to pay this month's staff salaries!

To cover an ongoing financial crisis Trafford General managers have also been forced to close two of its seven operating theatres.

It is also anticipated that some 210 jobs are to be axed, managers claim that they will be through a mixture of voluntary redundancies and job vacancies not being filled. However, it will be unlikely that compulsory redundancies will not occur.

Looks like the government is having to dig deeper into their pockets to support another NHS trust. Full story here.

Technorati Tags: Budget Cuts, NHS, Job Losses

Smile more, speaking quietly at night!

2008-02-18T20:55:00.001Z

Just two of a number of items to be covered at a new training course being set up at the Stockport NHS Foundation Trust in Stockport, Greater Manchester for their nursing.

It appears that some nurses seem to want to talk more about their love lives than spend time on the ward checking that their patients are okay.

It seems that the need for the course has come from feedback from patients and visiting relatives. I understood that Nursing was still a common sense profession, but after reading some of these comments, it seems that nurses now have to be trained when to smile and when talk about their personal lives!

I'm sure that not all nurses will agree?

Technorati Tags: RCN, NHS, Nursing

What a GP thinks!

2008-02-18T20:42:00.001Z

Here's an interesting take from and GP's point of view on the way Out of Care is to be delivered under new government guidelines.

It will be interesting see what this GP says in six-months time.

Technorati Tags: GP's, NHS, Out of Care

Single-sex wards - The truth at last!!!

2008-01-29T00:34:00.001Z

At last a statement from the Government that we can believe!

After nearly 11 years of promises, the person tasked by Gordon Brown with heading up the latest NHS review, has openly admitted that NHS Single-sex wards "are an aspiration that cannot be met." It seems that no one else in the government had the guts to stand up and say it!

I do agree that it would be impossible to give every NHS patient their own room, after all it the NHS is not an hotel! But perhaps there is a half-way house, what about single-sex bays with no real cost overheads?

I have had to visit patients in a number of hospitals over the past three years and in most cases the wards in fact now consist of a number of bays of four to six beds in each bay and in 99% of the cases that I have seen, are single-sex occupied.

Clearly as more hospitals are refurbished (or new ones built), this is the design that seems to have come out on top for a number of reasons and I am sure that all it will take is better management of the beds/bays (though I would not like the job of Bed Manager in a large hospital) to ensure that in most cases, most of the time people do end up in single-sex wards.

However, I am sure that not everyone will agree with me.

Technorati Tags: Single-Sex Wards, Single-Sex Bays, Bed Management

Can you take my pulse Doctor?

2008-01-17T19:18:00.001Z

Well, not anymore according to recent Government guidelines to be introduced for Sleeveless working throughout the NHS. This will include the banning of wearing wrist watches by Doctors!

Some believe that not enough evidence has been submitted to prove that wrist watches can carry infections such as MRSA and CDIFF.

This BBC article seems to sum up the various opinions at the moment.

Technorati Tags: MRSA, CDIFF, Sleevless, Wristwatch

Out into the community!

2007-12-31T19:23:00.001Z

I've heard a lot about this government wanting to 'get out into the community', 'deliver services to where there needed' and many more statements like that from various government mouths!

How about this as an idea? There are 25+ GP practices in York, now some bright spark has decided that it would be a good idea to close all of these and setup two 'super surgeries' instead!

Here's some background about the idea that's just surfaced.

I'm sure that 'breakthrough' this will deliver all the best services the NHS can deliver, right to your York front door! That is of course if you live right next to one of them!

What's next? Lets just have two hospitals per county, that'll save some more money!

I thought I read yesterday that Gordon Brown wanted to start afresh in 2008 with some new ideas! If this is one of them, then he needs to think again!

Technorati Tags: GPS, Surgeries, Budget

End of year catch-up!

2007-12-28T14:15:00.001Z

After another gap in our 2007 coverage we end the year with a catch up post...

What happened to Karen Reissmann?

Still out of a her job after being dismissed by her NHS trust for alleged misconduct! Her adjudged misconduct? Pointing out a number of changes her NHS Trust - Manchester Mental Health and Social Care were about to carry out.

Seems very strange that a supposedly open Labour Government run HNS that wants our opinions on how it is doing, suddenly finds it cannot accept the opinion of one of its own workers!

After loosing an appeal to return to her work, Karen is hoping that a forthcoming industrial tribunal in 2008 will see her reinstated. We'll keep an eye on this in a further post.

Hospitals Lack Cleaners

After all that has been written in 2007 about MRSA, C-Diff and other hospital related infections, you would think that HNS Senior Management would understand that hygiene and cleaning are two vital elements in making sure that everyone that goes into hospital comes out alive and in better health than when they went in!

Well, it now seems that the penny has finally dropped in at least one senior NHS mangers mind. 'Doctor' Peter Homa, head of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has at last admitted that they perhaps had cut back far too much on cleaning in the hospitals that this Trust manages!

In October, ten cases of MRSA were reported in Nottingham's hospitals, though cases dropped to three in November.
The trust only met its target of 58 cases of C-Diff per month among over-65s once in the first eight months of 2007.

Makes you wonder how many more pennies need to drop!

From Hollyoaks to nothing!!

Lesley Crawford wanted to make a difference and left a successful acting career in 2003 to become a Midwife. In another bizarre example of how badly managed the NHS has become, she remains without a job despite qualifying three months ago - only 3 out of her class of 24 have managed to find jobs - even though according to the Royal College of Midwives there is a massive shortage of Midwifes in the NHS.

Costing the UK taxpayer (that's you and me) between £40,000 to £45,000 per trainee (Lesley Crawford's class consisted of 24 people - that's a minimum of £960,000 for training) it begins to become apparent where some of the massive amounts of money that the NHS receives is being wasted!

According to some reports over 1,300 (that's £52,000,000 worth of wasted training!) newly qualified midwives still cannot get their first jobs and the NHS is continuing to train even more.

If this situation continues could we see more car park birthing incidents due to the ongoing cut-back that the NHS continues to suffer? This surely needs to be sorted out very quickly!

Technorati Tags: Job Losses, Midwives, Budget Constraints

C. Diff raises its head in a big way.

2007-10-16T09:18:00.001+01:00

With the chairman of the crisis-hit Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, James Lee, resigning hot on the heals of the trusts Rose Gibb it is emerging that the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust was not the only Trust with C. Diff problems!

"We must all shoulder our share of the blame. But I hope the House will recognise the awful failures in Maidstone and Tunbridge are entirely unrepresentative of the standards of care that patients and the public rightly expect and is delivered across the country, day after day."

Alan Johnson, UK Health Secretary

In an article carried in last Sundays News of the world it listed another twenty five NHS, the article (based on information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act) also contained a full list of all report cases of C. Diff across the whole of the UK.

We intend to pull together this information along with other data that we have obtained and create another table entry on the NHS Watch web site the info.

In the meantime here is the Top Twenty Five list...
(Infections per 1,000 bed days for patients 65 and over - source News of the World)

1. Kettering General Hospital (6.78)
2. Hereford Hospitals (5.22)
3. University Hospitals North Staffordshire (5.18)
4. University Hospital Leicester (5.06)
5. Frimley Park Hospital (4.91)
6. Barnsley Hospital (4.81)
7. Royal Surrey County Hospital (4.48)
8. George Eliot Hospital (4.47)
9. Milton Keynes General Hospital (4.41)
10. Weston Area Health (4.15)
11=. Luton and Dunstable Hospital (4.02)
11=. Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals (4.02)
13. Bedford Hospital (4.01)
14. West Dorset General Hospitals (3.99)
15. Gloucestershire Hospitals (3.91)
16. Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals (3.85)
17. West Hertfordshire Hospital (3.83)
18. South Devon Healthcare (3.76)
19. Chesterfield Royal Hospital (3.74)
20. Royal West Sussex (3.70)
21. Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospital (3.69)
22. Burton Hospitals (3.62)
23. North Bristol (3.58)
24. University Hospital Birmingham (3.56)
25. Northampton General Hospital (3.54)

Technorati Tags: NHS, C. Diff, MRSA

The cause of death was.... Dirt!!!!

2007-10-11T21:36:00.001+01:00

I think we're all appalled at the contents of the report about the C. Diff debacle at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

See here direct access (at bottom of page) to the Healthcare Commission report.

Much has been said in the past about maintaining an clean environment in out NHS Hospitals, I wonder how many more innocent patients will have to die before the simple solution of cleaner hospitals is implemented.

We had a number of emails today drawing our attention to the Alan Johnson interview on the BBC Today program with John Humphrys, may email senders do not agree with Johnstons' statement that Labour Government target setting had not contributed in any way to the hygiene crisis in many hospitals.

Surely if an NHS Trust is hell bent on meeting financial targets, reducing A & E waiting times - by moving more patients to wards quickly etc. focus is distracted and costs have to be cut and one area that always get hit first is cleaning and maintenance - and of course common sense!!

According to two other emails received (unverified at this time), another Trust will be exposed in the coming months for its lack hygiene standards.

Technorati Tags: C. Diff, Hygeine

How safe is your medical record? - 2

2007-09-26T10:00:00.001+01:00

Not very if it's being held at one of the The Dudley Group of Hospitals.

According to this article, a PC hard drive purchased on eBay as part of a data research project by the University of Glamorgan.

I hope that whoever allowed this massive error to occur is severely dealt with, as again this incident shows, that despite the millions being spent on protecting (supposedly) our medical records, there are still massive holes in the management of data integrity within the NHS.

Technorati Tags: Data Protection

Lorenzo's problems continue...

2007-09-26T09:07:00.001+01:00

Lorenzo the iSoft Patient Administration System (PAS) one of the two main PAS applications at the center of the NHS CfH programme is suffering more delivery delays. CSC one of the prime NHS CfH contractors are discussing with the NHS for new delivery dates for the role out of the software.

These articles from Health Insider & Computing give some background to the further delays which seem to be adding more weight to the recent calls by MP's sitting on the Commons Health committee for a review of the whole CfH program.

I wonder how many more delays and resultant costs will occur before the final NHS systems are fully integrated and we (the tax payers) begin to see some return on our tax spending.

Technorati Tags: NHS IT Programme, Lorenzo, PAS

How safe is your medical record?

2007-09-24T17:54:00.001+01:00

It seems that we are getting an idea of just how safe your medical data is while the NHS roles out it's national Patient Record Database system.

According to this ComputerWeekly.com story, at least 50 employees at the North Tees Primary Care Trust logged on and accessed the medical records of a Celebrity (we don't know or care who it was) that was a patient of the trust. A second story about the incident can be found here at Guardian Online.

Clearly 50 staff accessing a patients' record is far above what would normally be required for any non-celebrity patient - at least I think it is!

I hope that the senior management of the North Tees Primary Care Trust, when they have carried out their review of this incident will sanction the staff members who accessed the records without any professional need to.

They will be able to find who accessed the data very easily as the Care Record system that is implemented at the North Tees Primary Care Trust tracks who logged on, which records were accessed and for how long and what if anything was printed out. Or does it?

In a very similar incident in Ireland after Dolores McNamara won her Euro Lottery prize...

"72 Department of Social and Family Affairs civil servants had illicitly accessed McNamara's electronic welfare records in the days following her lottery win. The civil servants received formal reprimands, and the case occasioned public debate about the confidentiality of personal information stored in government computer systems."

I wonder what action UK government will take about the North Tees Primary Care Trust incident to reassure all of us that our private medical record data will not be abused by illicit accesses and potentially passed onto other third parties.

This incident of course not only shows a failing with the way that access is being granted to medical records within the NHS - some 330,000 could have access to your medical records. But also throws into question how access is being controlled for other government databases such as ContactPoint (formally The Children's Database), the Police National DNA Database and the Criminal Records Bureau to name just three.

More to follow on this story, I think.

Technorati Tags: NHS IT Programme, Medical Care Records

Job Loss figures creep close to 25,000!

2007-09-12T14:52:00.001+01:00

NHS Job and Bed Losses - Job Loss figures creep close to 25,000!

Still monitoring and tracking NHS Job Losses since April 2006 and with the announcement that Swansea NHS Trust has announced 750 job losses over three years, the total number of job losses we've recorded since April 2006 creep closer to the 25,000 mark with the new total reaching 24,610!

Some good news this week with possible reassessment by the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust that 600 jobs previously stated a going now appearing to be safe - see story here. We'll keep the figures in for the time being and if this is the status at the end of September then we'll make an adjustment to our figures.

The current NHS Job Loss total now stands at 24,610. The Bed Loss total remains steady at 2,710.

Technorati Tags: NHS, Job Losses

NHS Job Losses on the rise again

2007-08-23T12:18:00.001+01:00

NHS Job and Bed Losses have seen another increase to 23,860!

The current NHS Job Loss total now stands at 23,860. The Bed Loss total remains steady at 2,710.

Technorati Tags: NHS Job Losses

The Conservatives A & E Closure list.

2007-08-22T14:10:00.001+01:00

Here is the list of district general hospitals that are under threat of losing their A&E or maternity services.

We have added a column to show if we were already including them on our list along with the number of Job Losses that we have already counted for those hospitals on the NHS Watch web site.

Where there is a No, this must surely mean that is and when figures are released, our current total of 23,060 is sure to increase.

Hospital Name	Already Listed on the NHS Watch Job Loss Web Site
Altrincham General (Cheshire)	No
Chase Farm (London)	Yes (320)
City Hospital (Birmingham)	No
Eastbourne, Conquest (East Sussex)	No
Epsom General (Surrey)	Yes (480)
Frenchay (Bristol)	No
George Elliot (Nuneaton)	No
Grantham (Lincolnshire)	No
Hemel Hempstead (Hertfordshire)	No
Horton (Oxford)	No
Hospital of St Cross (Rugby)	No
Huddersfield Royal Infirmary	No
King George (Essex)	No
Lister Hospital (Hertfordshire)	Yes (TBC)
Princess Royal (Haywards Heath)	No
Princess Royal (Telford)	No
Queen Elizabeth (Hertfordshire)	No
Queen Elizabeth (King's Lynn)	Yes (215)
Queen Elizabeth (Woolwich, London)	Yes (100)
Queen Mary's (Sidcup)	Yes (190)
Royal Surrey County (Surrey)	No
Scarborough General (North Yorkshire)	No
St Richard's (West Sussex)	No
Trafford General (Greater Manchester)	No
University Hospital (Hartlepool)	No
University Hospital (Lewisham, London)	Yes (36)
Warwick Hospital (Warwickshire)	No
West Cumberland (Cumbria)	No
Worthing and Southlands (Haywards Heath)	No

Technorati Tags: A & E Hospital closures, NHS Watch, Job Losses

More hospitals to close?

2007-08-20T07:41:00.001+01:00

More hospitals to close?

Might this be the moment that we find our number count of job losses go through the roof!

We have said on the NHS Watch web site many times in the past that we have not been able to get any confirmation on a number of the entries where the relevant trusts have not responded to our enquiries - the TBC entries in the tables.

It will be interesting to see over the coming weeks how many trusts now announce hospital closures and job losses. Maybe it's time for another round of emails/letters to these trusts to see if we can get a response.

Technorati tags: Job Losses, Hospital Closures

It's still a problem!!

2007-08-02T08:01:00.001+01:00

First, where did that last month go? It seems that time fly's by even faster these days and with my daytime job taking much more of my time I have fallen behind in updating this blog and the associated webs site.

It seems that I'm not the only one who runs out of time, that excellent Blog NHS Blog Doctor is taking a taking a break; with everything going on in his life we think he deserves one, we look forward to the return later in the the year.

To the subject of this post. There still seems to be many problems with the roll out of new IT systems into the NHS, although appearing a few weeks ago, this story is just one example of some of the issues that I hear from various contacts to the NHS Watch web site - which also needs an update.

Having worked in IT (not NHS related) for many years, I still find it amazing that many software developers still don't take into account real end user needs when developing systems.

It seems that the Milton Keynes NHS Trust and the Taunton and Somerset Hospital NHS Trust have experienced many problems with some of its newly IT systems. This comment...

Another integrated CfH NPfIT system

21 May 07 16:05
This article left me rubbing my eyes. Am I correct? A national programme computer application that isn't compatible with the national programme choose and book system? There are many hospitals running so called 'legacy' systems which are choose and book compliant for full electronic booking. So hospitals running none NPfIT patient administration systems are more compliant than those who do run NPfIT systems. And they want us to migrate to the none compliant system as soon as possible!!!!!!! At a cost of 12 billion quid!!!!! Its better than a scene from 'Yes Minister'.

to the main story seems to sum up many of the feelings about major issues with the NHS IT programme.

It's disappointing that Richard Granger has left the helm, yes he may have had his own particular way of working, but his departure may indicate that politics wants a positive story, what ever the cost to real end-user requirements, however the software system performs.

Technorati Tags: NPfIT, Value for Money, NHS IT Programme

Once in a generation!

2007-07-04T22:56:00.001+01:00

Not again, please not again!!!

What on earth is there to be yet another NHS review?

Surely it is about time that some concentrated effort was put in to sort out a lot of the current mess that had been generated from the last review.

When will politicians start to realise that no one likes to be in involved in constant limbo interspersed by constant change!

Mr Johnson told the House of Commons he accepted the government had not managed to keep the medical profession "on board" during its reform programme.
BBC News Story - 4th July 2007

I guess that Mr Johnson did not understand what had happened in the NHS over the past few years!

Looking at what Health Minister Sir Ara Darzi, is to cover in his review...

Putting clinical decisions at the heart of NHS service delivery - What on earth decisions does the NHS have at its heart now? How much wind power energy should be generated for the UK? Should we invest more in Nuclear Power? Valid questions, but not what the NHS should be thinking about I think!
Improving patient care, particularly for those with long-term and life-threatening conditions - surely this is a fundamental issue that the NHS should be addressing as one of its core functions!
Making care more accessible and convenient - Let me see, I have a GP, I have a hospital. I go to the GP, he sends me to the hospital (maybe after a short wait); I get the required treatment, I am hopefully cured. What next? I have a Tesco/TNT/RAC/AA van appearing outside my house with its own on-board GP and hospital all rolled into one. Hopefully, before I even know that I am ill!
Establishing a vision for the next decade based "less on central direction and more on patient control" - Please, visions! They have an too familiar habit of disappearing. What is needed is the steady hand of 'real' management to implement the changes that have happened over the past few years, a 'real' rebuilding of staff morale and confidence in the recent changes and yes some control by patients. However, last time I looked the average patient was not a medical practitioner. I know that there is an engine in my car, I may say that I know how it works, but lets leave the fixing to the mechanic, at the end of the day, that what we pay them for! (For the record, this is not a direct comparison between motor mechanics and medical practitioners befroe anyone comments)

It is interesting that Alan Johnson has instigated this under the new ("I've only been in the Job for five days!") Prime Minsiter. Does that mean that when Alan Johnson suggested it when the last bloke - what's his name - was his boss he was told no! I expect that it was Tony said "we should look at how words are taught in school, perhaps we should look at phonetics on the that one Alan"!

Technorati tags: Reviews, Management, NHS

Suddenly, Matrons are out!

2007-05-24T22:36:00.001+01:00

Looks like the bright idea of Matrons for NHS hospitals are costing too much already and they are beginning got be made redundant.

See here for the full story, more to follow I am sure.

Technorati tags: Matrons, NHS, Job Cuts

What is the real total?

2007-05-10T10:15:00.001+01:00

As we have said a number of time in Blog posts here and on the web site, we have been tracking job losses in the NHS since 6th April 2006 and the current total of job losses that we know about stands at some 22,000.

According to a report from the Information Center for Health and Social Care says that the number of people working in the NHS fell by around 17,000 people from September 2005 to September 2006. That takes job losses to 7 months before we started tracking, how many of those 17,000 we can add to our totals, we're not sure! but we'll look into it and see if we can figure out what a new total might be if incorporated them into our figures.

What is the real total? Who knows!

Technorati tags: NHS, Job Losses, Real Figures

SuperBugs on the rise in the North!

2007-05-10T10:05:00.001+01:00

The number of cases at Newcastle-run hospitals rose by 132 from 365 cases in 2005 to 497 last year, 36%. At Northumbria-run hospitals the total increased by 129 from 378 cases in 2005 to 507 last year, 34%.

See the full story here.

Technorati tags: Superbugs, C-Diff, NHS

Happy Birthday! - We did it!

2007-04-12T09:13:00.001+01:00

We passed our first birthday last week, it's been a busy year for us, keeping this blog and web site going. Sadly for the NHS, it's been a bad year! Since we started the web site and blog, over 22,000 jobs have been lost and over 2,710 beds have gone.

From what we see there are many more that will go this year.

We hope to have a bit more time soon to make a major update to the web site and add some more items that we think are worth watching, including some more tracking of Car Parking charges in the NHS.

Keep coming back and by the way keep sending us suggestions and comments, either here or to the normal email addresses.

Technorati tags: Birthday, NHS, Watching

Can this really be right?

2007-04-08T15:06:00.001+01:00

Road deaths 2004 = 2,915
C-Diff deaths 2004 = 2,200

According to an article by Dr. John Starr in the British Medical Journal deaths from C-Diff could soon overtake deaths from road accidents. If the government puts so much effort into reducing road deaths, how come they can't do the same about C-Diff. Read more about the article here.

Technorati tags: C-Diff, Super Bugs, NHS Funding

Outgoing phone call charges up by 160%!

2007-04-04T11:26:00.001+01:00

This is amazing, how can such a price increase get past Ofcom? Whilst it is understandable that Patientline being a private company has to make a profit, something is very wrong here. The last people that should be worrying about telephone bills are the people laying in a hospital bed.

It is clear from recent comments that the Department of Health will do nothing as it's passed off to the local NHS Trusts. It is very clear that they have no extra money to offset the costs. At some stage people will stop using the service and then where will Patientline stand? Even the incoming call are expensive, 49p per minute peak time costs!

This is not the last that we will hear of this I am sure. I wonder how other countries get on with this sort of service in hospitals?

Technorati tags: NHS, Patientline

Where has all the money gone?

2007-03-26T22:41:00.001+01:00

Many of the papers were full last week with the news of Public Accounts Committee report on the Financial Management in
the NHS. Despite all the hype, the report does paint a sorry state of affairs despite all the money that has been spent on the NHS.

Although the report is 54 pages long, it is easy reading. You can download a copy here. I wonder if the government will bother to read it?

Some link around the main story...

Kings Fund Article on the deficit.
Article by Niall Dickson Chief Executive of the Kings Fund
Published in the Telegraph
Another Kings Fund Article

Technorati tags: NHS, Budget Deficits

Another report!

2007-03-26T19:29:00.001+01:00

A BBC report reveals that 11,000 left the NHS during the last quarter of 2006 (September-December) unfortunately it does not reveal what type of jobs positions were lost

Perhaps our figures will turn out to be correct in the end.

Technorati tags: NHS, Job-Losses

Whoops, they got it wrong?

2007-03-26T19:16:00.001+01:00

With another report delivered to for Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, showing that 37,000 jobs could be lost in the NHS!

It turns out that of the £13billion spent on the NHS over the last five years, only 15% went on patients! Full Story.

Technorati tags: NHS, Jobsworth, Value-for-Money

Unrest in Yorkshire

2007-03-26T19:04:00.001+01:00

A recent poll carried out by The Press following the announcement by the debt-ridden North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) shows that local people are not at all happy about the impending loss of 200 jobs and 95 beds from May this year.

Reader Poll
Do you fear for patient care after another raft of job cuts at York Hospital?

Yes
92.7%

No
7.3%

See the full story for more impending changes here.

Technorati tags: NHS, Job-Losses, York

What is a good Doctor?

2007-03-21T10:48:00.001Z

Much has been written elsewhere about MTAS over the past few weeks, but I came across some interesting comments at the Aphra Behn Blog yesterday that I thought was worth while mentioning here.

Surely we need Doctors who are

Good diagnosticians
Competent and selecting and administering treatment
Able to communicate clearly and appropriately what is going on
Good at administration and able to steer you and your notes through the labarynth effectively"

The questions to put to the public therefore are:

Do you want to be treated by Consultants who have approximately 60% less experience than previously (shorter hours, fewer years)?
Do you think that the service you get from the NHS will be improved or made worse by making 25% of junior doctors and specialist trainees redundant? (If only they were being given redundancy packages….)
Do you think a Consultant will be better or worse if their experience of medicine outside their own speciality has been reduced from half a dozen years to two?"

Perhaps the points in these lists have been lost on patients as they are constantly bombarded by the governments heavy-handed and over-enthusiastic 'drive' to supposedly make the NHS more efficient!

In the current world of 'must have' the best 'now', most people forget that it takes a long time to train professional people such as Doctors, Nurses, Teachers and while substantial training has to be at the core of their skill sets, experience is something that can only come from time in the relevant job.

Yes, better efficiency can help with putting the right people in the right places to learn, but rushing or shortening these experiences does not necessary make for better practitioners of their art!

You can read the whole of the original post here. By the way, the whole Blog is also worth browsing.

Technorati tags: MTAS, NHS

NHS Car Parking Charges - Downing Street Petition

2007-03-20T13:28:00.001Z

Want to have a say about the high cost of parking when visiting your local hospital, sign the new Downing Street petition here.

We can't promised that this will affect the charges, but it is worthwhile knowing that you can at least make your voice heard.

Technorati tags: NHS, Car Parking Charges, Downing Street

NHS Car Parking revenues increase, again!

2007-03-19T18:48:00.001Z

Anyone visiting relatives or attending NHS hospitals for treatment will not be surprised at seeing today's BBC report about the increase in revenues from NHS car parking charges.

We have as yet not managed to get hold of the lost of all of the charges on a hospital by hospital basis as we did last year, (this years list seems to be well hidden at the moment).

However, what we can say is that the SOUTHAMPTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS TRUST has moved up the ladder to come in at top place by collecting £2.41 million in parking charges compared to just £1.40 Million in 2004-2005 period! A 100% increase in just 12 months!

We're looking at some of the other movers in the table and will post again, also when we get hold of the complete list we'll publish that on our web site, NHS Watch, as well as updating the individual hospitals that we have been tracking.

Technorati tags: NHS, Car Parking Charges

More Job Losses for Norfolk Primary Care Trust (PCT)

2007-03-07T23:20:00.000Z

Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Trust will loose another 100 jobs!

See here for more details...

More Strikes taking place...

2007-03-07T23:11:00.000Z

We've noticed more strikes taking place about the current state of the NHS, follow the links for more info on just a few of them...

1,000 NHS staff at protest rally.

Rally raises awareness about state of the NHS.

Hundreds of NHS staff march against job cuts.

Hundreds at NHS cuts protest.

Protests by health workers.

Equality, I think not

2007-03-07T23:01:00.000Z

MPs are call for a 66% pay rise, taking salaries to £100,000 a year.

Labour Government award Nurses a 1.9 per cent pay award.

37,000 more health jobs face the axe!

2007-03-07T22:46:00.000Z

We found a number of references to this story, but found the most information in the Daily Mail.

If true then adding this figure of 37,000 to our current total of 22,690 would make an unbelievable figure of nearly 60,000!!!!!!

Even allowing for only 10% of the 37,000 being accurate, adding that to the current NHSWatch website figures of 22,690 adds up to over 26,000 job losses!

As we approach the first anniversary of our website and blog, we find no cause to celebrate at being the 'organ' tracking the constantly increasing NHS Job Looses.

If the 37,000 is true, then this will be a devastating legacy that will be left by this government despite all the money that has been supposedly poured into the NHS.

The left hand and the right hand!!!

2007-03-07T22:35:00.000Z

You've heard this before when the left hand does'nt know what the right is doing! Seems that we have a similar thing going on with the Prime Minister; bragging about the ability of the NHS to operate around the clock, when... why don't to have look here for the full story.

To think that this is the guy who is entrusted with our country, time to go I think!

Jobs to go at Burnley General Hospital

2007-03-07T22:29:00.000Z

It seems that while we were away, NHS Jobs are still being earmarked for the chop! See here for more details...

More jobs go at Hinchingbrooke Hospital!

2007-03-07T22:27:00.000Z

Job losses at Hinchingbrooke Hospital are set to rise to 400! See full story here.

Where has all the money gone?

2007-03-07T22:18:00.000Z

Probably into a few companies pockets as drug firms are accused of 'ripping off' the NHS...

Full story here.

Having a baby is hurting in more ways!

2007-03-07T22:15:00.000Z

The growing crisis in midwifery is hurting pregnant women... see the full story here.

Away again for a while, but back again!

2007-03-07T22:09:00.000Z

After another period away from the blog we are back, we hope to update more often over the next few weeks. Here's some items that caught our eyes over the last few weeks...

Hospital petition for Number 10 - Seems that petitions are catching on at No 10 thought they probable don't like this one.

The Plymouth hospitals trust has to make savings of about £25m, losing 50 beds and around 400 posts, more about the story here.

We're back and we found...

2007-02-06T14:14:00.000Z

We've been away from the blog for a while with other commitments, here's a few headlines that caught out eyes when we looked at the backlog of links... More to follow soon.

Communications director - £90,000 per annum!
Some other NHS staff are encouraged to work for a day for free!

£230,000 versus £2.50
On the one hand, money is pouring out of the NHS in various ex-gratia payments and on the other, NHS staff are being asked to work for no salary!

How important is the NHS to the UK Population?
According to a recent survey, Health Care is main issue for British voters in the run up to the next election - when ever that may be. The poll results make interesting reading with Health car coming top with 86%. Who will be the 'Nations-Carer' after the next election, Labour!, Conservatives! or Liberal! Someone had better take note before its too late and the NHS completely disappears.

And why not?
Where has all the money gone? How come NHS workers have to be asked for 'charity-giving' in terms of working for a day for no pay! Every day more and more evidence surfaces, showing just how bad this current government has run the NHS into the ground.

Trust tells its nurses to save £2.50 a day!
What more can one say about this article, it seems to sum up how far the NHS has slipped over the past few years. I agree with the notion of switching off excessive lighting - that's something that everyone should do in light of the impending energy/global warming issue. We wonder what the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust Chief Executive David Law is doing to help with the current cash crisis?

It's not our fault!
We saw this cynical announcement by Pfizer about it having to cut approx. 250 UK jobs, blaming the current NHS job crisis for its woes! I think this is a bit of 'lets jump on that bandwagon' so that we can apportion blame elsewhere. Yes. it does take a lot of money to develop a drug and take it to market. But perhaps Pfizer needs to look at its own internal costs before shouting at other 'people'. Perhaps they really don't need all those very large corporate 'glasshouses' around the world, they need to make some internal cost cutting, before criticising others... What are we saying! Might this affect the shareholders return!!!! Enough said, me thinks!

Training for...
All that training and no where to go! It seems that despite yet more jobs being lost in the NHS and a predicted shortfall in nursing staff looming on the horizon, newly qualified health professionals are finding it hard to find positions. However, the NHS still finds time (and money) to recruit overseas contractors to fill open NHS posts. Another sign of bad management and more money wasted! Sound a bit like the current Prison crisis - lock up more offenders, but don't build any new prisons to house them in! Hello!!

Abandon ship!
Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust looses another member of staff! Sympathy, or a realisation that they know something that we don't?

Where have all the nurses gone?
So now there to be a shortage of Nursing staff in the NHS by 2012 seems that someone can't get their figures in order. Must be time for another manager to take over.

Round again with the news!
Funny how old news becomes new news, see this from the UK Express Newspaper earlier in January this year. Where did they get this figure from? Makes for interesting reading; does that mean that when you add the 37,000 to the figures on our web site of 22,000, that a massive 62,000 jobs! What is going on?

How long to book an appointment with a GP?

2007-01-08T14:35:00.000Z

Here's a web site 48hourGP.com that wants to know if it took you longer than 48 Hrs to book an appointment with your local GP.

Good to see that at least someone is checking up. Well keep a tracker on this one.

Tags: GP's, NHS Appointments Powered by Qumana

What's up in Yorkshire?

2006-12-29T14:47:00.000Z

Seems to be a bit of panic going on in the NHS Yorkshire region today, over yet more NHS cuts to be announced in a bid to stave an ever increasing budget deficit. It seems that a previously calculated £24m deficit for 2006-07 has suddenly jumped to a staggering £45m! Unless drastic action is taken even this figure could go up! Amongst actions being considered are the imposition of minimum waits of 12 to 16 weeks for patients requiring routine surgery and eight weeks for outpatients!

What a set back for Labour's progressive health reforms! Do I detect another 'Heat-Map' here?

Seems to me that there needs to be a cutback in the inefficient and error prone NHS accounting departments. If they have managed to get a near 100% error into their figures in one NHS area, then I am sure that there will be a massive problem nationwide. I'm not sure how the Health Secretaries recent statement about a £250m overall surplus now looks! Watch this space!

Tags: NHS, Budget Deficits, Accounting, Heat Maps

Powered by Qumana

NHS set £250m surplus target!!!

2006-12-28T17:11:00.000Z

Going back over some old NHS news clips during the Xmas break I found this one that I hope to turns out to be true. But alas, based on more recent news I think she will rue the day that she said this.

That is of course unless there is another round of 'lets balance the books another different way'!

Tags: NHS, Public Services Spending, Balancing the Books

Powered by Qumana

7 in 10 maternity units threatened with closure

2006-12-28T16:47:00.000Z

It seems that 7 in 10 NHS maternity units are threatened with closure. According to a This is London article many of the closures will be areas where the seats are held by Conservative and Liberal MP's, this brings up another subject which recently emerged on the subject of focused Public services funding, that of Heat Maps.

Perhaps this one way the current Government controls who gets what, when public funding is shared out, but is this anything different from the way that the past Governments (Tory and Labour) have also focuses spending in the past?

Tags: NHS, Heat Maps, Public Spending

Powered by Qumana

Just three little letters - at what cost?

2006-12-28T16:02:00.000Z

I'm all for protecting copyright and intellectual property rights, but at over £100,000 per letter, the cost for protecting the NHS blue logo cost over £300,000 this year. According to this Daily Mail article, it seems that this money might have been better spent on operations and other more important NHS services! I think I agree.

Tags: NHS, NHS Logo

Powered by Qumana

Figures are disputed

2006-12-28T15:06:00.000Z

Following on from the previous post, here's an interesting quote in this Guardian Unlimited article.

"A Department of Health spokesman said: "Very few people are losing their jobs. In the first six months of the current financial year, there were 903 compulsory redundancies, including 167 clinical staff, which is regrettable but way off the figures Health Emergency bandied around earlier in the year. Health Emergency should also get a sense of perspective. A reduction in workforce numbers should be seen in the context of a total workforce of some 1.3 million, which has experienced an increase of 268,000 during the previous six years."

I've seen these quotes before, but even allowing for slight errors in calculations and the fact that 95% of our NHS Watch Job Losses web site figures are based on verified NHS Trust figures, how do they only manage to get to 907?

Tags: NHS Job Losses, Guardian Unlimited

Powered by Qumana

Our figures seem to be accepted

2006-12-28T14:45:00.000Z

Interesting article on today's Times Online page showing NHS Jon and Bed loss figures quoted in the article are not far away from our (mid Nov. 2006) NHS Watch web figures that we have been tracking since April 1st 2006. Shame we didn't get a mention!

Tags: NHS Job Losses, Times Online

Powered by Qumana

Problems start to appear!

2006-12-19T08:09:00.000Z

It seems that more problems are starting to appear as part of the NHS Patient Record Database system begins to roll out for general use...

Tags: NHS, Patient Record Database

Powered by Qumana

Problems start appear

2006-12-19T08:02:00.000Z

It seems that more problems are starting to appear as part of the NHS Patient Record Database system begins to roll out for general use...

Tags: NHS, Patient Record Database

Powered by Qumana

Medicine costs versus MP's Salar

2006-12-04T22:34:00.000Z

£2.50-a-day medication for Alzheimer's patients to be available on the NHS, still not fully available!

£274.13 a day, the new salary that MP's want to pay themselves!

Enough said! Full story here.

Tags: NHS, MP's

Powered by Qumana

Car park price hikes!

2006-12-04T22:15:00.000Z

Recent announcements show that Nurses and other medical staff at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust hospitals will have to fork out more money to park at their respective places of work!

Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath are increasing staff contributions from £1 per month to £10, for staff who earn less than £25,000 a year and £20 for those earning more. - See here for the full story.

Tags: NHS, Nurses

Powered by Qumana

A&E departments to go in another budget shake up for the NHS

2006-12-04T11:22:00.000Z

Where will the axe next fall in the NHS, well it seem that a number of A & E departments are for the chop following information obtained by the Conservatives.

More info from the Guardian Newspaper here.

Not a great deal of new info to mention since the story broke last week, except we found a list from the Telegraph newspaper that lists the possible hospitals at risk of loosing their A &E department.

Ashford

St Peter's, West London

Barking, Havering and Redbridge

Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals

Buckinghamshire Hospitals

Calderdale and Huddersfield

East and North Hertfordshire

East Sussex Hospitals

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals

North Bristol

George Eliot Hospital, Warwicks

Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield

Hinchingbrooke Health Care, Cambs

North West London Hospitals

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals

Pennine Acute Hospitals

Queen Mary's Sidcup, Kent

Royal Cornwall Hospitals

Royal Free Hampstead

Royal Surrey Hospital, Guildford

Royal West Sussex

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals

South Tees Hospitals

South Warwickshire General Hospitals

United Lincolnshire Hospitals

West Hertfordshire Hospitals

Whipps Cross University Hospital, East London

Whittington Hospital, North Lonndon

Worthing and Southlands Hospitals, West Sussex

More to say on this I am sure.

Tags: NHS, A&E, Conservatives

Powered by Qumana

Channel Four Dispatches New Website

2006-11-27T20:36:00.000Z

Check out the newly launched Channel Four which seems to have managed to get quite a lot of good information out of the NHS for their new health web site. We have only seen a small part, but will look further into it.

Tags: NHS, Healthcare Lottery

Powered by Qumana

Smoking costs impact the NHS further.

2006-11-14T21:10:00.000Z

With news of a £15,000 smoking shelter to be built in the grounds of Kingston upon Thames hospital, it seems to us that the money that Trust Managers are entrusted with seems to be continually being wasted. It would surely be better to spend the money on anti-smoking campaigns!

Spending £15,000 on a smoking shelter will only be the start of spending yet more money when those users come back to the Trust in future years with smoking related diseases that need expensive treatment.

Harsh fact of life? Yes, so is the money that is being leached from NHS funds that can be much better untilised.

Tags: NHS, Smoking, Kingston upon Thames

Powered by Qumana

What's a billion between trusts?

2006-11-14T20:38:00.000Z

The Department of Health itself has predicted that the total gross NHS hospital deficit for the year will be £1.18 billion!. The number of organisations forecasting deficits has also gone up - from 120 to 175 - amid a wave of job losses and hospital cuts.

As the full story from This is London and the Guardian shows, just three months ago, the Government predicted the NHS would narrowly avoid going into the red. But the figures, released under Freedom of Information rules, show that the overall net deficit for the NHS is predicted to be over £94 million!

It's strange, how as this story continues, the very same government is considering spending upwards of £12 billion on buying a replacement for the UK Trident nuclear deterrent. It seems that somewhere amongst all the all the rhetoric, the UK government has forgotten where their priorities lay.

Tags: NHS, London, Trident

Powered by Qumana

Taxi! Taxi! - Has it really come to this?

2006-11-14T13:41:00.000Z

With so many changes being introduced in the NHS and its periphery to make it more cost effective, here's another brilliant post from the NHS Blog Doctor.

It seems that it might work out to be safer to get a Taxi if you become ill and you happen to live within the South East Coast Ambulance NHS Trust region than ringing for a good old fashioned Ambulance.

What has the UK become when this can happen without any consultation!

Tags: NHS, Taxi, Ambulance

Powered by Qumana

NHS Job losses - What is the real figure?

2006-10-30T15:34:00.000Z

Another chapter in the ongoing discussion about who's figures are accurate when counting the number of NHS Job Losses versus NHS Post Losses compared with what the government says will be lost.

As we saw during last weeks broadcast of Tony Blair's press briefing, he has predicted that the total number of net NHS Jobs Losses will be in the region of a few hundred, contradicting his own NHS staff who spoke at the same press briefing of around 20,000!

So who is correct? As we have said in a number of previous posts [1], [2] to this blog and on our web site NHS Watch, we have been tracking the number of NHS Job Losses since April 1st this year. One of the reasons for starting our web site back in April was that we could not find anyone else who were keeping an online running total of all of the NHS Job Losses that were and still are being announced.

Over that period of time we have tried where possible to have all of the figures that we have entered into the tables, verified by the individual NHS Trusts that we have listed. In all cases, where a figure is quoted that is the verified figure, where we have not been able to get verification we've inserted a TBC. Many of these TBC's still exist today as the associated NHS trust will not return requests for accurate figures - another post to cover Freedom of Information I think! Anyway, so that the government political party or vested interest could not accuse us of 'inflating' our lists (some have tried that by the way) we have only totaled the actual numbers (in the table) that we have received. Equally when asking for verification we have received information relating to Job Losses, not Post Losses!

So where does that leave sites like ours (still as far a we can see the most comprehensive list online at this time), well we think that our figures are pretty accurate and we continue to verify them with NHS trusts - we are in fact a bit behind on that due at the moment due to other workloads, however, we continue to receive information from NHS trusts about Job Losses, not Post Losses. We will be starting a massive total verification in the next few weeks and will published again, updated figures which for various reasons (obvious to most I think) will still show an increase, not, as Tony Blair seems to think 200 ish!

Interestingly, some of today's news snippets [1], [2] show that the Department of Health (DOH) reports that only 903 jobs were lost from the NHS for last year (2005), but of course now one has seriously been tracking job losses in 2005, certainly we were not. I'm not sure what the purpose of issuing last years figures are, perhaps the DOH thinks that it can detract attention from the current crisis. One other email comment came in last week from a Trust that we (NHS Watch) have misinterpreted the communications from all of the NHS Trust that have spoken to us, in that we have misunderstood Jobs for Posts or that the person telling us wasn't clear enough in their communication!

Enough said about that, I think!!

Tags: NHS, Job Losses, DOH

Powered by Qumana

Meow! Meow!, Woof! Woof!

2006-10-30T13:28:00.000Z

That's the sound that will be coming from one hospital soon if managers at the Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk have their way by allowing Cats and Dogs to be examined at weekends using the hospital state-of-the-art radiotherapy equipment! - Full story here.

Does make you wonder what lengths hospital managers will go to not to use the equipment that I bought them for its normal use. If you can staff a unit for Cats and Dogs, then surely there must be space for humans that are on waiting lists elsewhere in the country, and yes I do know where Ipswich is! Don't even get me started on the hygiene side of this discussion.

Tags: NHS, Cats, Dogs, Hygiene

Powered by Qumana

Value £8 billion - Cost to the UK taxpayer £53 billion!

2006-10-30T13:01:00.000Z

That's the bill that you and I (the taxpayers of the country) have been landed with for recently built NHS hospitals due to the unbelievable one-sided Private Finance Initiative (PFI) arrangement that this Labour government - led by Mr. Brown have set up.

Figures forced out of the Government by Conservative Parliamentary questioning, have revealed that the taxpayer will have to carry a burden of an extra £45 billion probably for up to 30 years to pay for NHS hospitals built at a fraction of this cost.

It is estimated that the private sector firms involved in the PFI projects will benefit from a massive 540 per cent return on the initial agreement. More info on this story can be found on the Conservatives own web site, but so as we are not only showing their info, here are some other relevant links. [1], [2], [3].

With the NHS already in crisis over its current financial state, I wonder what this will do to future funding? It seems that the money hole, just seems to be getting bigger. Another example of an unbelievable plan with a completely illogical outcome.

Tags: NHS, PFI, Labour Party, Conservative Party

Powered by Qumana

The Terminator is back!

2006-10-30T10:14:00.000Z

It seems that the various campaigns all over the UK in opposition to NHS cuts are causing some serious concern at the Department of Health. So much so, that this Guardian article shows that Patricia Hewitt is calling on the services of Sir Ian Carruthers the ex-acting head of the NHS again! It seems that Curruthers will be responsible for getting better messages across to the public as to why the NHS changes are to be/being made. Seems that the new guy on the block David Nicholson, who only took over from Curruthers recently, needs some help!

With more and more demonstrations being planned by various groups up and down the country, Sir Ian is going have a heavy workload. for example 7,000 marched through Haywards Heath to defend the A&E department at Princess Royal hospital.

Lets see what 'new measures' are announced now, to combat the growing anger about NHS cuts.

Tags: NHS, Job Cuts, Guardian, Hewitt, Curruthers

Powered by Qumana

Fairer funding for our local NHS services

2006-10-30T09:34:00.000Z

Here's an interesting article featured in the Ilford Recorder that I think sums up many of the issues that the NHS is going through at the moment, I wonder why the people that run the NHS cannot seem to see the same obvious issues.

Tags: NHS, Finance, Jobs

Powered by Qumana

Catching up on Octobers events

2006-10-25T22:39:00.000+01:00

We got caught up in some of our own business events in October and did not post too many entries. So we set about making a review of the many 'news alerts' (some 125) that we were sent during the past month and thought that we would set them out here. It seems to make interesting reading! What do you think?

To put reiterate what we have always said in this Blog and on our NHS Watch web site, we have been constantly tracking the number of job losses in the NHS since the beginning of April this year. Despite some Trusts refusals to give us confirmed figures - yes we are still waiting!. We still maintain that we have tracked over 20,000 job losses in the NHS since April 2006, a little bit different from Mr. Blair's estimate of the "net 200/300" he pronounced in his Prime Ministers 'audience' this week! This figure is also still without any of the TBC's that we are still awaiting information for.

Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust announces 90 jobs to go as they struggle to save a £15.2 million deficit figure.

The NHS Confederation issues a clarification on job losses in the NHS. "Our briefing provided information that NHS Employers has collated by talking to trusts across the country. The point therefore needs to be made that we have not confirmed a figure of 20,000 redundancies. Our briefing refers to posts, not people.” The briefing stated: In such a large and diverse organisation going through a period of major change it is impossible to quantify the precise number of job losses. The figures being widely quoted of up to 20,000 may turn out to not be too far off the total reduction in workforce numbers this year. This applies, however, not to people being made redundant but to the number of posts being taken out of the system in a total workforce of some 1.3 million which experienced an increase of 268,000 during the previous six years. - I wonder why all the protesting in the past few weeks? Surely that's a bit over the top when it only Posts that are going to disappear!

CASH-strapped Ipswich Hospital is expecting to spend nearly £3.0 million on axing more than 350 jobs, it was revealed today - well, actually on the 12th October. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request forced the hospital to release figures which show that the cost of the massive job cuts and other money-saving measures is likely to be around £2.7m Jan Rowsell, spokeswoman for the hospital, said: “There are some costs in actually moving beds and wards but the biggest of these will be related to staff" - I wonder why it took a FOI request to find out this information, is there more that's being hidden?

Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT, established on the 1st of October 2006 is already in debt to the tune of £13 Million! The PCT was established, largely, to serve the geographical areas previously managed by Great Yarmouth PCT and the Waveney PCT. Leaders of the joint primary care trust, stressed that in facing up to their first big challenge they would do everything possible to protect front-line patient care. Job losses, other than those directly from the merger of the trusts, are not on the agenda at present! - I wonder how long that will last?

Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust announced 90 jobs to go, then start the hunt for a £90,000 a year director of finance and £85,000 director of strategy and redesign.as they struggle to save a £15.2 million deficit figure - who's doing the math?

Campaign hit by demo insurance demand! - Campaigners planning a march against health cuts claim they were asked to find £5m insurance cover before they could use an Oxford park as their meeting place. Supporters of the city's Keep Our NHS Public campaign said the city council could have been more helpful. The protest was related to cuts outlined by Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, including up to 600 job cuts. - Sounds like more obstacles are being put in the protestors way than are really needed.

Blair mulls over NHS military wards - An event that I took specific interest in as having served in the forces for over 15 years and having been treated at one or two of the Military hospitals around the world for broken bones many years ago. I had not realised that there were none left in the UK - [1] [2]. It seems that the story first surfaced when a paratrooper wounded in Afghanistan was threatened by a Muslim visitor to the British hospital where he was recovering at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham. It seems that defense cuts implemented in the late 90's are now coming back to bite us. - However, it seems that Tony Blair is now considering treating soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan on military wards in NHS hospitals. Speaking at his monthly press conference, the prime minister revealed that the government would soon be making an announcement about the plan. - Not heard much about this to date. 'The expert advice we have is that some of the most serious injuries are best treated in specialist services in the NHS,' he said. 'But we are looking at military-managed wards in the NHS.' The proposal follows critical reports that servicemen and women returning injured from conflict areas were being treated in civilian wards, with some said to have been faced with anti-war protestors during their treatment. - Tall about overstating the obvious!

Blair predicts only 'a few hundred' NHS job losses - we made an entry about this last week, but I am still amazed at what he said?

Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford - How apt that the next entry in the list should be the news that Broomfield has announced that they will be cutting 250 jobs! Let me see, that's one hospital announcing more cuts on one day that Mr Blair thinks will be lost overall during the NHS debacle!

Most new nurses 'can't find a job' - It seems strange to me that we are still training nurses and then not providing places for them to start work. Might it be a bit like the military hospitals situation in the 90's. Now with job losses we don't need them and then when a 'real' medical crisis strikes, which it will sometime in the future - Mass Flu, etc, then we will have no nurses in place!

Pay cut for NHS nurses and doctors - Just the job to increase moral in the NHS!

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust - Has announced 480 posts (is this what Mr. Blair means) and 170 beds (I suppose you can't call beds anything else!) are to go in their efforts to deal with a £24 million deficit. If it's only Posts that are going, why has there been some many announcements? Okay, lets think about this, I'm run a nice big NHS hospital, I think (retrospectively say 2 years ago) that I am going to employ say, 150 new people over the next three years and allocate some funds to cover that, but then other costs get out of control - bear in mind that I haven't spent any money on recruiting these new people as yet, due to keeping costs under control during the past two years which is where that money went - but now I am faced with massive overspend in other parts of running the hospital and I have to get it under control! I know, lets scrap the plans to hire that 150 new people - Posts that's going to save an enormous amount of money! Isn't it? I don't think so. Confused? However, I am sure that the high flying finance guys that the adverts (see above) look for can work it out! To me Posts! Posts! Posts! = Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Sick babies refused care - I thought that I was about to read about a third-world country having problems with it own health care issues; but no, its about St George's hospital in Tooting. Sadly this story will not be the last one we hear about!

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust - confirmed that it will loose 90 jobs to help deal with its £6m deficit.

That wraps up our catch-up for this month. We are looking at a number of 'news alerts' that we have not included in this post as we would like to get confirmations before posting, of course that may never happen unless we go for an FOI request - we have tried that in the past with little success. But stay tuned for more updates as we receive them, unless of course you have one that you would like to send us!

Tags: NHS, Job Losses, Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Posts

Powered by Qumana

A few hundred jobs lost!

2006-10-17T12:45:00.000+01:00

Just listening to Tony Blair's lunchtime briefing and amazed to hear Tony Blair say that only a few hundred jobs have been lost in NHS over the last year!

Either I am living in another version of the UK, or, all the figures that we have collected on the NHS Watch Job Loss web site this year and confirmed to us by many of the NHS Trusts themselves, are meaningless and are simply part of a conspiracy by ours and many other such web sites to simply embarrass the government!.

I don't think so!!!

Powered by Qumana

Some things that caught our Eyes!!!!

2006-10-12T22:35:00.000+01:00

Five packets of crisps! The price that one person with a relative suffering with Alzheimer's [1], [2] put on the cost of the NICE decision not to fund drugs that help with the stages of the disease. How can this be happening in a 'first-world' country? I am fast being convinced as I read about such stories that Mr. Blair and his Labour government have completely lost touch with the reality of what people are going through with this disease.

The Healthcare Commission has just published its latest report on the state of the NHS - we are amazed at the results, but on the other hand are we? I am not sure just how much money has been spent by this Labour government on the NHS since it came to power - they say it a vast sum! But this must be one of the most damning judgments any organisation has passed on it's (the Labour Government) mishandling of one of its primary responsibilities; our health!

Click here for the link (it's at the bottom of the page - type in your postcode) to find out just how badly your local NHS services are!

We've been away from our blog and Web Site for a while, come back and see some more comment and web updates soon.

Powered by Qumana

The Accenture story roles on...

2006-10-02T22:44:00.000+01:00

I just received my electronic copy of tomorrows Computer Weekly (CW) magazine and it continues to track the story about Accenture quitting parts of the NFfIT program.

They raise some important points in their story, for example why was an open tender not sought for the replacement partner (CSC)? Will any interim systems be able to share some of the key clinical information.

The story has not been put on the CW web site yet so not able to link, but expect CW's web site to be hit hard tomorrow when it the link is made live. Here is a PDF of CW's front page in the meantime.

But here is an interesting link.

Accenture quits £1.9bn NHS deal!

2006-09-28T23:52:00.000+01:00

Accenture has quit the £1.9bn NHS deal. Full story here. What does this mean now? CSC are taking over, but does that mean that too many 'eggs' will be in too few baskets?

What is happening to the NHS Connecting for Health programme? More to follow I am sure.

Tags: Accenture, CSC, NHS

Powered by Qumana

Keep Hospitals Open - New web site opens

2006-09-26T13:55:00.000+01:00

Further to our previous post about Maternity Hospitals closing and the sad story of Andrew and Rachel Canter. We are please to see that they now have their own web site Keep Hospitals Open up and running.

We wish them well with their campaign as they join a number of other web sites focused on exposing what is currently happening across the UK's NHS.

Tags: Keep Hospitals Open, Maternity Hospitals. NHS

Powered by Qumana

I could be happening near you!

2006-09-25T16:13:00.000+01:00

There has been various items in the mainstream media about then plan to carry out another re-configuration of the NHS. Is this parlance for yet more cuts and closures, from the ballyhoo, created it would seem that this may be the case.

The current government know that the cuts made to the NHS staffing levels in 2006 have not settled well with the public and as Labour move towards a new leader and the prospect of the next election, it's time to think about the marginal's and how high-risk Labour seats could be jeopardised by further NHS cuts/closures being made in the wrong place!

An investigation by the Guardian Newspaper shows that high-level meeting are taking place to sort-out where the axe should next fall, probably not of course, in the areas of those high-risk marginal seats! Or, am I being just a bit to cynical?

Tags: NHS, Guardian Newspaper

Powered by Qumana

Maternity Ward Crisis deepens!

2006-09-25T15:54:00.000+01:00

As the health secretary Hewitt vows that NHS reforms to set to continue, yet another NHS cuts related story has emerged today about the tragic still born birth of Andrew and Rachel Canters son.

Rachel Canter could have received help for her birth complications at Barnet maternity unit, had it not been not closed (due to staff shortages!) to new admissions on the day she gave birth. Andrew and Rachel were therefore forced to drive to an alternate hospital seeking assistance by which time it was tragically too late and their son, Jake was still born.

These types of incidents (over an year ago) seem to be happening more often as NHS job cuts take effect.

Evidence compiled by The Sunday Times shows that:

In one year, maternity hospitals in Greater Manchester had to close on 90 occasions, some for up to a day. One had to close 29 times. A shortage of staff has forced Greater Manchester and East Cheshire hospitals to plan cuts in the number of maternity units from 13 to 8.

Women are frequently turned away from London’s major hospitals. St Thomas’s hospital is understood to have closed to new admissions three times in a fortnight but has refused to disclose details. Chelsea and Westminster hospital has closed its maternity unit four times in the past year for up to 11 hours.

Last month a woman in labour was turned away from maternity hospitals in Hastings and Eastbourne before setting off on a 30-mile journey to Pembury, Kent.

The Barratt maternity unit at Northampton general hospital had to close during two weekends in March, once for up to 30 hours, forcing 10 women to be redirected.

The NHS Watch Blog also found a further incident, where Miriam Grice was left sitting in a pool of blood for more than three hours after giving birth, she was eventually forced to phone her mother for help because staff at St James's Hospital, in Leeds were so over stretched!

Miriam Grice has criticised staffing levels at the Hospital, in Leeds, where she says that two midwives were left to look after 26 mothers. This full story here.

Perhaps this is another table that we should add to the NHS Watch web site showing comparison maternity staffing/patient levels so that there is an indication of potential issue.

Do you have any feedback you would like to leave as a comment?

As as P.S. to this post...

We saw Andrew and Rachel Canter give one of their interviews on the TV today and heard about their campaign to help others, I was a bit surprised not to hear the TV company give out any further information about their campaign, telephone number, web site address etc.

As I say, I was a bit surprised, but on the other hand I think that I am beginning to see the emergence of a reticence by some mainstream media companies not to list links to third party campaigners, unless of course there is an angle in it for them. Andrew and Rachel Canters campaign is a good example. Save the Alexandra Hospital, Redditch in its early days was another good example, now of course it is fully covered.

Surely it does not cost any of the TV companies anything at all to give out a link to help people like Andrew and Rachel Canter and others, or perhaps the TV companies have an hidden agenda!

We've written to Andrew and Rachel Canter to see if we can link from here and the NHS Watch Web site. Watch for another post.

Tags: NHS, Maternity Staffing

Powered by Qumana

Health Emergency

2006-09-25T15:08:00.000+01:00

We came across this newspaper a while ago and thought that we had posted about it, but an emalier to the NHS Watch web site reminded us.

Health Emergency has been running various campaigns around various aspects of the NHS for a number of years - in fact it was formed back in 1984. Although originally focuses on London based Health issues, some of the current campaigns it brings publicity to include NHS related issues at Bart's, Guy's, Edgware General, Oldchurch, Charing Cross, Kidderminster, and Queen Mary's Roehampton.

The site is well worth a visit to view the latest campaigns as is a read of the latest issue of their newspaper.

This can be downloaded from their web site here.

You'll need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view this paper which you can get for free from here.

Tags: NHS

Powered by Qumana

A U-Turn! Perhaps!

2006-09-25T14:48:00.000+01:00

We've been away from posting on this Blog for sometime, but now were back and have some subjects to catch up on.

It seem that Patricia Hewitt is having a rethink, or maybe just admitting to what we have all known for sometime. It's Jobs that are disappearing not Posts! Hewitt admitting this at a recent Institute for Public Policy Research speech. - See link for background [1]

More concerning, is her admission that she has no idea in which direction the NHS is headed. “Where will we be in five years, ten years, fifteen years’ time?” she asked at the same conference!

Now, I may be a bit on the thick side here, so I regret asking the question. But after all the recent (some 11 years) hands-on management of the NHS on every aspect of its operation, she as the Government spokesperson has no idea as to where it's going?

I think I must be dreaming... Because I find it unbelievable that anyone would openly admit, that after Eleven years of spending huge amounts of money on various projects within one of the biggest organisations in the world, she has "no idea where the organisation is going'!

I think its time for Ms. Hewitt to pack her bags and move onto bigger and better things - isn't that what successful people do when they seem to have made such a good job of their current position!

What do you think?

Tags: NHS

Powered by Qumana

Disaster Management!

2006-08-17T12:56:00.000+01:00

We were surprised by the report published today by the team from Wycombe Hospital, Bucks that 46% percent of 144 specialist doctors at 34 hospital interviewed had not read their own hospitals emergency plan! The full story can be read here.

We are concerned that in the current climate, more hospitals seem not to be able to fully report that they are able to and prepared for a response to major incidents like the London bombings.

It also seems very strange that only 82% could state that they had exercised their emergency plan within the past 5 years! Staggeringly, only 35% were planning to carry out a further test within the next 12 months!

We are sure that there must be a mandatory requirement by all hospitals to perform a dry run of their emergency plans every 12 months, the Wycombe Hospital reports seems to think so as well. What does the Department of Health (DOH) have to say about this?

We think it is important that people have an clear understanding that they can have confidence in their local medical services and know that when disaster strikes the excellent medical teams we already have in the NHS are fully trained to deal with emergency situations as and when they arise.

We will be adding this subject to our tables during our next update to the NHS Watch web site after we source further information from the various NHS trusts.
Tags: NHS, Disaster Planning, Emergency