The ‘Future Forum’ chaired by Steve Field reported on the ‘listening exercise’ on NHS reform yesterday. As expected, many changes were recommended to the Destroy the NHS bill. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is expected to respond to the NHS Future Forum in a statement to Parliament at 3.30 this afternoon.

Unions Unison and Unite continue to oppose the bill and call for it to be abandoned in its entirety.

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

NHS reform plan needs ‘substantial change’ – Channel 4 News

The NHS Future Forum, set up to make recommendations on changes the health service reforms, said today there had been serious concerns voiced by staff, patients and the public.

For two months, the forum has spoken to thousands of interested parties and tens of thousands have emailed or posted their views in a “listening exercise” set up by the Government in the face of widespread criticism of its plans for NHS reform.

Their key recommendations include:

• Slowing the pace of change so reforms come in only when and where the NHS is ready.

• Keeping the Health Secretary ultimately accountable for the NHS. The plan had been to devolve power and responsibility to an independent NHS Board.

• Nurses, specialists and other clinicians should be involved in deciding which health care to buy, not just GPs as was originally proposed.

• Competition should be used to improve quality of care not to just drive down prices.

• The role of the regulator Monitor should not be to “promote” competition but to “support choice, collaboration and integration” – that is making sure all parts of the NHS work together to improve care for the patient.

• All parts of the NHS should be subject to more accountability and public openness.
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NHS bill: concession or sleight of hand? | Society | The Guardian

Are Steve Field’s recommendations for the government enough to assuage the doubters that have blocked Andrew Lansley’s flagship bill? If the government were to accept everything then probably yes.

The point of the good doctor’s eight-week listening exercise was about “pimping a policy” – that is taking a clapped out vehicle and slapping on enough paint and chrome to make it not just acceptable to the general public but desirable.

This may not be a good thing. In repackaging the reforms Field may have conceded too much ground to opponents – and blunted the bill so much that it is a pointless mess.

Just look at the attempts to sell GP commissioning. Field says GPs should be joined by hospital doctors and nurses to commission care, and they shouldn’t be forced to band together by 2013 into consortiums.

But this means a mucky bureaucracy springing up around at least five different bodies able to buy care for patients. Lansley had hoped to only have GP commissioners in two years’ time, because otherwise you’d have a two-tier health service emerging just when budgets were being slashed. So to buy off doctors and nurses today, the government lays the ground for tomorrow’s political crisis.
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Craig Murray » Blog Archive » Cheap Medicine and Nasty

There is a coalition lovefest going on over the new reformed NHS reforms, which have suddenly gone from being the worst think since the plague to the greatest thing since sliced bread, all with a few tweaks.

The problem is, it is the entire principle on which the reforms are based, not the mechanisms operating on that principle, which is fundamentally wrong. The underlying principle is that the NHS will work better if it operates on competition between healthcare providers, both existing NHS hospitals and clinics, and private and charitable hospitals and clinics which will have new access to NHS patients and cash.

Both Sky and the BBC have been telling us all day that competition drives up efficiency and quality.

But this is not true. If financial profit is the motive, then competition does indeed increase efficiency, in terms of maximising profit by minimising costs. But the natural tendency is for this to be at the expense of quality, except in certain specific areas of luxury good provision. Competition and profit drives the producer to give just as much quality as required to provide something the consumer will still take, while undercutting rival sellers. Where there are a limited number of providers, (and in most parts of the country there are obvious limits to the number of possible clinics and hospitals), this increasingly becomes a race to the bottom in quality, with the added temptaitons of cartelisation on price.

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Review still leaves NHS open to dangers of competition | The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy

The NHS Future Forum has acknowledged that the real fears of patients and health professionals about the proposed NHS reforms were in many instances totally justified, says the CSP.

Reacting to the publication today by the forum of its consultation, chief executive Phil Gray said: ‘While we welcome some of the recommendations in Professor Field’s report, the CSP remains deeply concerned at the continued emphasis on increasing competition and a diversity of providers in the NHS, which physiotherapists believe will fragment patient care and lead to rationing. Increasing evidence is emerging of rationing on the basis of cost as opposed to clinical need.

The CSP was ‘very disappointed’ that – apart from the recommended changes to Monitor’s role – the forum’s proposals increase the potential for Any Qualified Provider policy.

Mr Gray said: ‘We believe this can only have a negative impact on patient care. We are receiving worrying reports from physiotherapists working under an AQP model who are concerned about severe rationing of their services leading to poorer patient outcomes.’

The CSP urges the government to halt the roll out of the AQP until the further work recommended by the NHS Future Forum on choice and competition and the risks of “cherry-picking” is complete.

Newswire Article: BMA response to the NHS Future Forum recommendations on NHS health reforms 13/06/2011

Responding to the NHS Future Forum’s recommendations to the government on NHS reform in England, Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of BMA Council, said:

“The way the government and the Future Forum have engaged with the profession during this listening exercise has been a refreshing experience. It is vital that this constructive approach is maintained in the following months as the detail is worked on.

“The Future Forum’s recommendations address many of the BMA’s key concerns, to a greater or lesser extent. We are hopeful that our ‘missing’ concerns, such as the excessive power of the NHS Commissioning Board over consortia and the so called ‘quality premium’ will be addressed as more detail emerges. While we welcome the acknowledgement that the education and training reforms need much more thinking through, there needs to be immediate action to prevent the imminent implosion of deaneries.

“Obviously, the critical factor is now how the government responds, as well as ensuring that the detail of the changes matches up to expectations. But if the government does accept the recommendations we have heard today we will be seeing, at the least, a dramatically different Health and Social Care Bill and one that would get us onto a much better track. There will then still be plenty more to do to ensure that the amended reforms do support the NHS and its staff in continuing to improve care for patients and tackle the major financial challenges ahead.”

NHS privatisation ‘still on track’ – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

Health experts welcomed today’s report but unions said the “NHS privatisation programme is still on track”.

Chris Ham, chief executive of the King’s Fund, said the recommendations would “significantly improve” the Health and Social Care Bill.

“The emphasis on integration is particularly significant and addresses a key weakness in the Government’s original proposals.

“The ‘pause’ has served the NHS, its staff and patients well by allowing time to reflect on how to deliver the reforms the health system needs. But it is now time to move on.

“The Government must now move quickly to endorse today’s report, put an end to the disagreements that have dominated recent months and provide the direction and stability the NHS desperately needs to navigate the challenging times ahead.

“Despite the headlines generated by the reforms, the key priority facing the NHS remains the need to find up to £20 billion in productivity improvements to maintain quality and avoid significant cuts in services.

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Unite national officer for health, Rachael Maskell said the Bill should be scrapped.

She added: “The problem with Monitor is that it will now promote choice, competition and collaboration – all of which are contradictory aims.

“The hybrid mess that Monitor will become will do to the NHS what other botched regulatory bodies have done to other public services – from rail to social care.

“Unless patient care comes first, then Monitor will fail patients – and our politicians will have failed them too.”

She added: “”The way that David Cameron and Health Secretary Andrew Lansley will interpret the Future Forum’s recommendations is that the pace of the privatisation of the NHS will be slowed down, but not abandoned – that’s the crux.”

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: “Really big questions over critical issues such as privatisation remain unanswered: just how will the Government prevent “cherry-picking”?

“And why are there no limits on the amount and range of services that can be privatised?

“The Forum is recommending sweeping changes to the Bill because it is riddled with flaws.

“It exposes the real agenda behind the Government’s Bill – the wholesale marketisation of the NHS.

“It wants to turn our health service into nothing more than a logo on the side of a van run by a multinational company.”
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‘NHS privatisation train has not been derailed by Future Forum report’, says Unite

The NHS privatisation programme is still on track despite protests by health professionals to the Future Forum ‘listening’ exercise, Unite, the largest union in the country, said today (Monday 13 June).

Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, said that the NHS had been through an unprecedented year of uncertainty – but the report of the Future Forum, unveiled today, will do nothing to quell the concern of health professionals and patients.

It has been a wasted year that has caused havoc with the NHS which had just received its best patient satisfaction survey for a generation.

Unite said that the Future Forum had done some good work in exposing the flaws in the controversial Health and Social Care bill, but the pace of privatisation had only been slowed, not discarded – which will not meet the concerns expressed by the Liberal Democrats at their spring conference.
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27/11/13 Having received a takedown notice from the Independent newspaper for a different posting, I have reviewed this article which links to an article at the Independent’s website in order to attempt to ensure conformance with copyright laws.

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
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b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

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

dizzy

David Cameron is to make a speech on the NHS today. The speech has been widely reported before the event and we know that he raise the fake-accountability of the ballot box and make five pledges attempting to persuade that the NHS is safe.

The fake-accountability of the ballot box echoes Nick Clegg’s recent speech of 26 May. We know that the accountability of the ballot box is fake from our recent history. Although we finally got rid of Tony Blair, we are unable to undo many of his actions like the untold suffering and death in the Middle-East. He lied and lied and lied to pursue a perverted agenda against the wishes of the majority of the British people. So far he has not been held to account for his lies and deceptions. Cameron’s recent speech in Brussels [edit: Munich] illustrate that the Con-Dem coalition government is fully signed-up to that very same Neo-Con bullshit.

Cameron’s pledges look fairly worthless since many have already been proved to be untrue.

• The NHS will remain a universal service

This probably means available to all. The NHS may still be available to all but with a greatly reduced range of services.

• Changes will improve “efficient and integrated care” not hinder it

This appears to be a matter of opinion and not open to assessment.

• Hospital waiting times will be “kept low”

This is total nonsense. Andrew Lansley abandoned the waiting time limit and waiting times are already longer.

• NHS spending will be increased, not reduced

This is a repeated claim by the Con-Dem coalition. Cuts are already being made. Services are already being restricted. Waiting lists are already increasing.

• The NHS will not be sold off and competition will benefit patients

This is the same ‘Straw man’ argument that Nick Clegg proposed recently. It’s not about the NHS being sold off. It’s about providing a restricted health service where you will have to pay – or go without – services that are not provided. It’s also the first stage in the process of privatisation and transition to a private insurance-based health service on the US model.

The second part of this statement “competition will benefit patients” is simply a matter of ideology. Cameron continues to adhere to the discredited Capitalist “the market will provide” ideology. How will competition – actually hugely increased involvement of private interests – benefit patients?

NHS waiting-time targets scrapped by Andrew Lansley | Politics | The Guardian

A&E waiting times increase sharply | Society | guardian.co.uk

New Statesman – The coalition’s NHS headache gets bigger

Longer NHS waits ‘are down to snow’ claims Andrew Lansley | Metro.co.uk

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

Back me or sack me over NHS reforms, Cameron tells voters – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

David Cameron will today invite the public to vote against him at the next general election if he fails to keep his promises to protect the National Health Service.

The Prime Minister will put his reputation on the line as he tries to allay fears that the Government’s reforms could lead to the back-door privatisation of the NHS.

In a “trust me” speech in London, he will argue that no change is not an option and would threaten “the precious principle of free healthcare for all who need it, when they need it”. He will say: “We have to change the NHS to avoid a crisis tomorrow too. This is what will happen if we don’t. More overstretch, more over-crowding, the NHS buckling under the pressure of an ageing population and the rising cost of treatments.”

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BBC News – Don’t mention the reforms

Few voters ever understood the government’s planned NHS reforms.

Few understand how it’s run now.

So, very few will understand the reform to the reforms which the ministers plan to unveil soon.

(If you think I’m wrong, turn to the person next to you and ask them to explain the difference between PCTs and GP-led commissioning. Better still ask them what a PCT is.)

Thus today David Cameron’s speech on the NHS looks set to say almost nothing about any of that. Instead, it will focus on what voters do know and care about.

You don’t need market research to tell you – although Team Cameron has done a great deal of it – that people want the NHS to remain a national, integrated service with it’s funding increasing, waiting lists kept low and no privatisation.

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Miliband: Cameron is protecting the NHS against himself – politics.co.uk

Ed Miliband will say the NHS has descended into chaos today as he tries to make political capital out of the government’s healthcare reforms.

The Labour leader will seize on David Cameron’s five ‘guarantees’ for the NHS to mock the prime minister, suggesting he is creating a safety net against his own policy.

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BBC News – Cornwall Council tells of ‘widespread concern’ over NHS

Cornwall Council has warned the government of “widespread concern” about controversial reforms proposed for the NHS.

The authority’s leader, Alec Robertson, has written an open letter to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.

Mr Robertson said the Conservative-led council was concerned a drive towards competition could be “deeply damaging”.

It comes as the prime minister prepares to make a key speech about the plans.

In the letter, Mr Robertson said: “The view that unites councillors is that our NHS is treasured, it is seen as the envy of the world, and we want to make sure that this remains so.”

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

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

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

dizzy

The NHS listening exercise draws to a close. The BBC reports that “15,000 website responses and 720 letters” were recieved while 38Degrees report that their supporters sent 25,000 emails.

The submission by the King’s Fund claims that accountability will decrease under the proposed ‘reforms’, contrary to the aims of the coalition agreement.

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

BBC News – NHS ‘listening exercise’ draws to close

Health officials say they have received around 15,000 website responses and 720 letters during their “listening exercise” on the NHS in England.

The Future Forum panel of health workers and patient groups is overseeing the exercise, which ends on Tuesday.

It is due to report its recommendations in mid June.

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38 Degrees | Blog | NHS petition hand-in to the Department of Health

Yesterday marked the end of Andrew Lansley’s sham “listening exercise”.

Over the last few days over 25,000 38 Degrees members have emailed in their concerns to the “listening exercise”. Yesterday 38 Degrees members gave in our massive Save the NHS petition. Check out the photographers and film crews who were capturing the hand-in. The Department of Health even locked all the doors! A few members managed to hand over the petition, but it took a little while.

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Planned GP consortia could lead to chaos – and top-down diktats – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent

The modernisation of the NHS is in danger of being put into reverse by the Coalition government’s plans for reform, a leading think-tank warns today.

Weaknesses in the governance arrangements for GP consortia, which will be responsible for £60 billion of public money, risk undermining ministers’ aims of reducing top-down management by leaving the NHS Commissioning Board to intervene where there are concerns over performance, the Kings Fund, the health policy think- tank, says. Scaling back the role of the regulator, Monitor, in overseeing NHS Foundation Trusts could also lead to “reductions in the quality and efficiency of hospital services”, it adds.

The submission is among the last of a flood of responses during the Government’s two-month pause on the NHS reforms, which came to an end yesterday. Many of the opinions expressed make contradictory demands, leaving the NHS Future Forum, set up to advise the Coalition government on the way forward, facing a formidable task.

Calls to ditch the Health and Social Care Bill have grown as the prospects of consensus have receded. Critics argue that any Bill that emerged from the inevitable bartering now underway would be so bound by conflicting requirements as to be unworkable.

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Health Reforms Will Weaken NHS Accountability Warns The King’s Fund, UK

A new report from The King’s Fund warns that the coalition government’s reforms risk reducing accountability in the health system, potentially undermining the performance of key NHS organisations as a result.

The report looks at accountability for commissioners and providers of health care in the NHS currently and under the reforms set out in the Health and Social Care Bill. It concludes that the reforms are likely to meet the government’s aim of reducing centralised control but fail to deliver on its commitment to improve local accountability, a key pledge in the coalition agreement.

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

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
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Please be assured that this blog is a non-commercial blog (weblog) which does not feature advertising and has not ever produced any income.

dizzy

There is a seperate article addressing UK Uncut’s ‘Emergency Operation’.

NHS news is concerned with various cuts to services, Tory privateer has an undeclared interest and speculation whether Lansley’s on his way.

On a totally different topic: Take a look at these

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

Mr Cameron must rein back on NHS reform | Observer editorial | Comment is free | The Observer

There were two good reasons why David Cameron stood for election pledging “no more top-down reorganisations” of the NHS. First, voters felt no pressing need for a healthcare revolution and, second, they did not trust the Conservatives to enact one.

It was wise of Mr Cameron to promise timidity in health reform. To have then turned the issue into a vicious political battleground, within a year of becoming prime minister, represents a serious political failure. It is a war he should never have started and one that he is losing.

Is anybody winning? Not really. The Liberal Democrats have at least belatedly discovered some gumption in asserting their blocking power as the guarantors of Mr Cameron’s parliamentary majority. They are threatening to withhold support for the plans set out by health secretary, Andrew Lansley, unless drastic changes are made. Mr Lansley envisaged a health system governed by vigorous competition between different providers, with the private sector encouraged to take over services traditionally run by the state. The Lib Dems want market forces more firmly restrained.

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Lansley’s ally on NHS reform faces conflict of interest questions | Politics | The Observer

The Tory MP leading a backbench fightback to save Andrew Lansley’s health reforms is at the centre of controversy over his business links to firms that could benefit from wider private-sector involvement in the NHS.

Nick de Bois, MP for Enfield North, reignited tensions within the coalition government when he called on fellow Conservatives to prevent the Lansley plans from being watered down by Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats.

However, De Bois was thrown on to the defensive when a senior Labour MP, Grahame Morris, wrote to the Speaker, John Bercow, protesting that his Tory colleague had repeatedly failed to declare his private interests during the passage of the Lansley bill.

In an email to colleagues, De Bois, who was on the committee that scrutinised the health and social care bill, spelled out to fellow Tories a series of “red lines” that he said must not be crossed if the essence of the Lansley plan was to be retained. These included the idea that “any qualified provider” from the private sector should be able to supply services in the NHS – a key plank of the health secretary’s blueprint.

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Transform the banks and save the NHS, say protesters | Ekklesia

NHS Direct Action and UK Uncut activists dressed in medical scrubs have staged a protest outside HSBC’s AGM over the bank’s NHS profiteering.

The demonstration took place on the morning of Friday 27 May 2011, as part of a series of nonviolent direct action initiatives to highlight the gap between rhetoric and reality in the government’s policies – and the way the wealthy are being ‘rescued’ from national debt at the expense of the poor and ordinary people.

A recent BBC investigation found that HSBC used a tax loophole to divert millions of pounds of NHS money into a Guernsey ‘tax haven’, says UK Uncut.

In 2010, a company set up by HSBC made more than £38 million from its 33 PFI hospital-building schemes and paid £100,000 in UK tax – less than half of one per cent of the profits.

Describing such practices as “scandalous”, former Oxford MP Dr Evan Harris has called for new rules to stop NHS money being sent to tax havens.

Stuart Gulliver, the new chief executive of HSBC, recently received a bonus of £9 million – which could pay for the annual salary of over 400 nurses, say campaigners.

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BBC News – Labour: ‘Confusion’ on NHS reforms

John Healey claimed it was “hard to tell” the position of the government on NHS reforms. He said “We’ve had Nick Clegg saying one thing, Andrew Lansley saying another and David Cameron saying another”.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show the shadow health secretary added that from Labour’s point of view the NHS could not “stand still”.

New Statesman – UK Uncuts hosts 40 direct actions in protest at NHS reforms

The protest group, UK Uncut, yesterday hosted 40 direct actions across the country – the most significant number the group has made since many of its members were arrested outside Fortnum and Mason on the March 26th March for the Alternative. Yesterday’s actions were subtitled the “Emergency Operation” on the group’s website and were directed against the Coalition’s wavering reforms of the NHS headed by Andrew Lansley.

One of the first actions to be held left Soho Square at 11am Saturday morning and I accompanied the group from its meeting point to the target of protest in Camden Town.

The UK Uncut members – dressed as medical workers, bankers and members of the judiciary – were trailed by several police, in riot vans and on foot, from their meeting point through the London Underground and to the intended target of a Natwest bank branch in Camden Town.

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No 10 denies Lansley is to resign over NHS reforms – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

David Cameron was forced to issue a vote of confidence in his Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, yesterday as ministers search for an NHS reform blueprint acceptable to both parts of the Coalition.

There has been growing speculation over Mr Lansley’s future since his plans to overhaul the NHS were dramatically halted by Mr Cameron and Nick Clegg in the face of a rebellion from health professionals.

The Health Secretary, who has spent years drawing up proposals to restructure the service, has made it clear he would quit the Cabinet rather than move to another post.

There were also reports yesterday that the Prime Minister would be prepared to accept his resignation on the grounds that a new face would be needed to make the case for the heavily modified plans.

A Downing Street spokeswoman dismissed as “nonsense” suggestions that he could be sacrificed, adding: “Andrew Lansley is doing an excellent job as Health Secretary.”

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BBC News – 800,000 ‘not given help with social care’

Hundreds of thousands of older people in England who need social care are not getting any support from the state or private sector, campaigners say.

Age UK says 800,000 people are excluded from the system – and the figure is set to top one million within four years.

It said budgets had hardly risen in recent years even before the squeeze, despite the ageing population.

The charity renewed its call for an overhaul of the system, something ministers are looking at.
Funding rise

Social care in England is means-tested, which means those with savings of over £23,250 are excluded.

But councils have also been making it more difficult for those who do meet the income threshold to get care, by tightening the eligibility criteria.

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Campaigners fear ward closure will reduce hospital to clinic – Local stories – Yorkshire Post

CAMPaIGNERS fighting plans to axe a hospital ward for the elderly in Yorkshire have urged health chiefs to rethink their proposals.

They have handed over a letter of protest to the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust in response to news that an elderly care ward at Wharfedale Hospital, Otley, may be axed.

The letter, from the Support Wharfedale Hospital Campaign, urges the trust to ensure that the ward, which campaigners says is the only ward caring for older people, is run by the NHS and continues to serve local people, ideally offering care for elderly patients.

It is facing an uncertain future as Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust tries to save £60m this year.

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Andrew Lansley fights to save himself from the sack – mirror.co.uk

UNDER-fire Andrew Lansley slammed the Lib Dems yesterday as he fought for his political life.

The Health Secretary hit out over the Government’s hated NHS reforms as No 10 was forced to issue a statement denying that he was about to be sacked.

The desperate move by Downing Street came amid reports that David Cameron was willing to sacrifice Mr Lansley if it meant keeping the Coalition together.

Rumours that the Health Secretary’s job is on the line were fuelled after Mr Cameron was reportedly overheard saying the reforms “were nothing to do with him now”.

And Foreign Secretary William Hague is alleged to have told the PM and Chancellor George Osborne that the controversial shake-up was a “reform too far”.

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Union warning after NHS challenged to find £64.5m of savings (From This Is Local London)

Unions have warned health care could suffer as the NHS launches another “streamlining” review to find £64.5m savings in south-west London.

NHS South West London, formed by the cluster of five primary care trusts, including Kingston, will again bring doctors, nurses and other clinicians together to consider where the axe will fall.

Michael Walker, Unison nursing officer, said the cuts were significant and would represent a drastic reduction in NHS services with an impact on waiting times.

Geoff Martin, of London Health Emergency, said no area would be immune from the “financial assault”.

He said: “The screw will be turned on everything from acute hospitals to mental health with dire consequences for quality of care.”

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Fewer nurses being trained in West Midlands « Express & Star

The number of nurses being trained in the West Midlands will be slashed by almost a fifth – sparking fears over standards.

Health bosses have decided to cut 457 student nursing places at universities in the region, a drop of 17.5 per cent from September.

This is ahead of a planned reduction in professional staff, including nurses and doctors of around seven per cent by 2014.

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Hospital beds go in NHS efficiency drive, memo reveals – Telegraph

England’s biggest hospital trusts are cutting up to 10 per cent of their beds as NHS managers try to meet tough efficiency targets.

Some are reducing bed numbers by more than 100, while also cutting headcounts to reduce their pay bills.

The Royal College of Nursing has claimed the moves risk affecting the quality of care – a claim rejected by the hospitals.

The trusts hope to make “efficiency savings” of 4.7 to 7.8 per cent of their budgets, The Daily Telegraph has found.

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

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

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

dizzy