Last Updated Wednesday 14^th July 2010  

 

Charles Street news

 

Parents – you may have noticed that our playroom is now closed. We did have to remove toys from here due to the risk of cross-infection between children, especially in relation to Swine Flu. As we are short of clinical rooms this has now been converted for clinical use. We have now recruited an additional Partner with an anticipated start date of September 2010.

 

Health elsewhere in the National Press

 

NHS BOSS: CUTS WILL BE CHAOS
Mirror.co.uk – Wed, 14 Jul 2010
EXCLUSIVE: Devastating impact of ConDem plan Nhs bosses warned yesterday of potential chaos from the ConDems' deep-cutting health reforms. Massive upheaval during the changeover period will have a damaging impact on health services, a report on the shake-up said.

Martin Hickman: Mr Lansley, junk food and idiocy
The Independent – Wed, 14 Jul 2010
In the 1998 film Bulworth, Warren Beatty's wayward Senator loses his mind and reveals how US politics is bankrolled by big corporations. While not matching the Hollywood actor's looks, the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, seems similarly to have taken leave of his senses in a series of announcements that have astonished ators by their rapidity and foolishness.

Exclusive: GPs and practice managers split on health White Paper
Healthcare Republic – Tue, 13 Jul 2010
GPs and practice managers are split on whether general practice should take on commissioning, early responses to a GP newspaper poll show. A majority of practice managers appear to support plans set out on Monday in the White Paper 'Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS' to transfer commissioning powers to GPs.

Text, don't call, health chief advises children
Wales Online – Wed 14 Jul 2010
CHILDREN should send texts rather than use their mobile phones for chatting, according to new advice from Wales’ top doctor.

Handing power to GPs will divert money from patients with the weakest voices
Telegraph.co.uk – Wed, 14 Jul 2010
Telegraph readers share their views on on the NHS, school places, ovarian cancer and Hugh Trevor-Roper

NHS boss Sir David Nicholson: ConDem cuts will be chaos - Exclusive
The Mirror – Wed 14 Jul 2010
NHS bosses warned yesterday of potential chaos from the ConDems' deep-cutting health reforms.

NHS quango heads get new roles – and keep £200,000 pay
The Guardian – Wed 14 Jul 2010
Revelations will embarrass Andrew Lansley, who has called for tier of management to be stripped out of NHS.

NHS REFORMS ARE A GOOD MOVE
Daily Express – Wed, 14 Jul 2010
ANDREW Lansley is right to restore fundholding to GPs.

Hospitals 'eyeing private market'
BBC Online – Tue 13 Jul 2010
NHS hospitals will be looking to exploit a host of "exciting" opportunities to move into private health markets, bosses say.

Rigorous scrutiny of GP fundholding plan
Guardian.co.uk – Wed, 14 Jul 2010
The Con-Lib coalition document says: "We will stop the top-down reorganisations that have got in the way of patient care." Yet less than two months later, 's white paper is being described as the most radical programme since the inception of the NHS.

GPs fear they won't cope with new budget responsibilities... and could draft in MORE BUREAUCRATS to help
Mail Online – Tue, 13 Jul 2010
GPs are worried they will become overburdened by the new responsibilities that put them in charge of NHS budgets, a survey shows. They fear they will not have the time or skills to oversee patient care and treatment under sweeping Government reforms - and will have to draft in bureaucrats to do the paperwork. Charles Street Comment: GPs themselves will not have to do this – the work will be done by their admin teams working in consortia of practices, led by their existing Practice Managers who are generally widely experienced in finance and admin.  We will get money back into the “front line” where it is needed.

David Cameron's deadly threat to our NHS
Mirror.co.uk – Wed, 14 Jul 2010
Turning the ­cherished NHS into the biggest quango in British history is to value quack doctor economics and politics over the nation’s well-being. Strip away the ­management speak and David Cameron’s naked policy is to privatise health, to wreck universal free care, to recreate the postcode lottery, to celebrate markets over medical need, to champion profit ahead of patients.

GPs required to form consortia by 2012
Healthcare Republic – Mon, 12 Jul 2010
By 2012 all GP practices will be expected to be part of a consortium and held to account on their contribution to the group's commissioning performance.

Tories to break up national pay deals
Daily Mail – Wed 14 July 2010
Ministers are preparing for a major showdown with public sector unions over moves to dismantle national pay bargaining.

Nurses, overwhelmed with paperwork, 'spending less than half their time with patients'
Mail Online – Wed, 14 Jul 2010
Nurses are spending less than half their time looking after patients because they are overwhelmed by paperwork and form-filling, it emerged last night.

Father dies day after receiving breakthrough cancer drug he had battled for five months to get
Mail Online – Tue, 13 Jul 2010
A father-of-two died of cancer the day after a 'breakthrough' drug he had battled for nearly five months to get finally arrived in the post. The family of Stuart Cunningham, 51, were left heartbroken after he succumbed to the disease without getting the chance to try the drug, known as Afinitor.

Worst-performing NHS trust sees off would-be reformer
Guardian.co.uk – Wed, 14 Jul 2010
Why did one of Britain's best troubleshooters resign as chair Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS trust

 

Patients given greater powers to choose consultants in Health White Paper
Telegraph.co.uk – Mon, 12 Jul 2010
Patients are to be given greater powers to help choose their own hospital consultants for treatment under a radical shake-up of the National Health Service.

NHS plan puts government on collision course with unions and doctors
The Guardian - Fri, 09 Jul 2010
Andrew Lansley's radical reforms will see GPs commission care for their patients, with no opt-out and no extra pay.

NHS revolution could set back health service by a year: think tank
Telegraph.co.uk – Sat, 10 Jul 2010
The major shake-up of the NHS planned under the coalition government will set the health service back by at least a year and may cost £20bn, a think tank has warned.

Andrew Lansley to cut thousands of jobs in purge of NHS 'bureaucracy'
Guardian.co.uk – Sun, 11 Jul 2010
Minister's effort to cut back quangos may not bring promised £1bn a year savings, critics warn.

GPs will not be paid extra for new duties
The Guardian – Fri 9 Jul 2010
Ministers fear pay increases for commissioning medical services would be politically unpalatable.

Patients get right to routine GP appointments at weekends and evenings
Telegraph.co.uk – Sat, 10 Jul 2010
Patients could be given the right to see a local doctor any day of the week – including Sundays – for routine appointments.

Food Standards Agency to be abolished by health secretary
The Guardian – Mon 12 July 2010
Victory for food manufacturers as health groups accuse Andrew Lansley of caving in to big business.

Foreign nurses to be allowed to work in Britain 'without safety checks'
Telegraph.co.uk – Mon, 12 Jul 2010
Competence exams for foreign nurses working in Britain are to be axed due to EU rules, it has emerged.

GMC agrees way forward on exams for trainees
Healthcare Republic – Mon, 12 Jul 2010
Doctors who are already in specialty training or who enter by October 2011 will be able to have any valid passes in previously approved national professional exams counted towards a certificate of completion of training (CCT), even if they were obtained outside approved training.

GPs 'to get control of NHS funds' in England
BBC Online – Mon 12 July 2010
GPs will be given responsibility for much of England's NHS budget, under proposals being put forward on Monday.

New framework for NHS to be set out
Guardian.co.uk – Mon, 12 Jul 2010
Ministers will set out a new results-driven framework for the NHS, which they claim could save thousands of lives a year. Andrew Lansley will say that Labour's top-down targets prevented health professionals in the UK reaching the levels of success of their European counterparts.

NHS reform plan: Views from the surgery
Guardian Unlimited - Life and Style – Fri, 09 Jul 2010
Will Andrew Lansley's policies empower GPs or create a conflict of interest within the health service? Two doctors give their views

Health reform sparks fears of cuts by stealth
The Independent – Sun, 11 Jul 2010
The coalition's NHS White Paper will give GPs control of up to 80 per cent of frontline services, which worries MPs and health professionals.

Letters - The reorganisation of the NHS should start with cuts at the Department of Health
The Telegraph – Sat 10 Jul 2010
SIR – I agree that the Strategic Health Authorities and the Primary Care Trusts need to be reduced in size, but a complete cull (report, July 9) may simply be a move from bloated bureaucracy to devolved anarchy.

Leading article: Doctoring the National Health Service
The Independent – Sat, 10 Jul 2010
Most people now agree that the Government's decision to ring-fence the National Health Service while forcing almost all other departments to accept 25 per cent cuts was a bad idea.


GP representative bodies clash over PCT commissioning role
Healthcare Republic – Fri, 09 Jul 2010
The NHS Alliance and the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC) have clashed over whether PCTs and professional executive committee (PEC) chairs should continue to oversee GP commissioning.


Food Standards Agency abolished
The Independent – Mon, 12 Jul 2010
The food Standards Agency (FSA) will be abolished today by the Government. Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, will confirm the consumer watchdog is being scrapped when he sets out plans to overhaul the NHS.

Tests on foreign nurses scrapped: EU order means Britain must open NHS jobs to thousands from Eastern Europe | Mail Online
The Mail On Sunday – Sun, 11 Jul 2010
Thousands of foreign nurses will be allowed to work in Britain without any safety checks – because EU rules demand that the tests are axed. They will not need to sit rigorous competence exams before treating NHS patients.

More should be allowed to die at home: Andrew Lansley
Telegraph.co.uk – Sat, 10 Jul 2010
More people should be able to die at home, Andrew Lansley has said, as he announces a review of funding of palliative care services.

Ian Tomlinson pathologist accused of incompetence over autopsies
Guardian.co.uk – Mon, 12 Jul 2010
Freddy Patel to appear before disciplinary panel of GMC, which has power to strike him off register.

NHS urged to offer circumcisions to avoid botched operations
Guardian.co.uk – Sun, 11 Jul 2010
Study finds many Muslim boys end up in hospital after procedures performed badly and with poor standards of hygiene.

Jab that will halt the most deadly forms of cancer
Mail Online – Mon, 12 Jul 2010
An injection to help kill off the most deadly cancers including breast, bowel and cervical tumours has been created by scientists. The drug, which is already being tested on patients, shrinks tumours and stops them from spreading.

NHS maternity units 'fail bereaved parents'
The Independent – Mon, 12 Jul 2010
Dozens of maternity units are failing to provide adequate care for bereaved parents who have suffered a stillbirth, says a report out today. A survey of NHS trusts by the charity Sands found that just 45 per cent have a room where parents can go to avoid the sights and sounds of women in labour and healthy babies.

Sacked NHS whistleblower vindicated
The Independent – Sun, 11 Jul 2010
Tribunal judge orders that radiology manager who reported senior doctors' misconduct be reinstated on her full salary

£200bn backdoor raid on pensions | Mail Online
The Mail On Sunday – Sat, 10 Jul 2010
Ten million workers across the public and private sectors have seen a staggering £200billion wiped off the value of final salary pensions they had already been promised in a sneaky Government raid.

Public sector pensions: unfunded and heading rapidly off the rails
Telegraph.co.uk – Sat, 10 Jul 2010
For many years, this column has highlighted the spiralling cost of the UK's unfunded public sector pensions. Others are now joining the fray. This vital issue is bubbling close to the top of the political agenda and there it should stay, until a solution is found.

Can a controversial new treament for multiple sclerosis offer relief?
Telegraph.co.uk – Mon, 12 Jul 2010
A new treatment is giving hope to MS sufferers such as Mark Walker