Mid Essex Hospital Services National Health Trust has been hit with a £2.3m lawsuit by Compass. The contract catering giant issued the writ, saying the Trust had "grossly exaggerated" penalties that it imposed for a series of infringements which occurred at Broomfield Hospital in Broomfield and St John's Hosptial in Chelmsford.
Compass Group UK & Ireland has announced that it has acquired the UK-based Vision Security Group (VSG). With 6,000 employees working across 1,200 client sites, mainly national blue-chip organisations, VSG is the largest independent security provider in the UK.
It has been revealed that written complaints about NHS services in Greater Manchester have reached their highest level since records began in 1997. Almost 6,000 were recorded for the period 2008/09 to 2009/10, an increase of nearly 15%.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has launched a new three-digit number - 111 – which is aimed at patients who require non-emergency NHS healthcare. The new service was launched in part of the North East of England yesterday, and the move marks the first step towards a national roll out.
Secretary of state for health Andrew Lansley announced today that there will be a UK-wide review into bonus payments given to NHS consultants. The Clinical Excellence and Distinction Awards were introduced in 1948 to recognise and reward the contribution of NHS consultants over and above that normally expected and have remained largely unchanged ever since.
This review aims to bring the awards up to date and in line with other public sector pay schemes. Commissioned by the four UK Health Departments, it will be led by the independent Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB).
A new study has been released today claiming that the number of smokers aged 16 and 17 has dropped since it became illegal to sell cigarettes to under-18s. The research, which was conducted by University College London (UCL), interviewed more than 1,100 16- and 17-year-olds before and after the age rise was introduced in October 2007.
NHS North East has announced plans to make over 500 managers and administrators redundant in an attempt to save some £27m per annum. If adopted, the redundancies will begin to be made from April next year.
A report into an NHS’s crisis helpline in Hartlepool by the national charity MIND has criticised the services on offer. The watchdog, which conducted the research alongside Hartlepool LINk, described some of the actions of the Crisis Resolution Action Team as “unacceptable”.
The criticisms were made following the discovery that one potentially suicidal caller who contacted them on a weekend was asked to call back later. The report quotes the unnamed caller as saying: “Only recently I had to phone the out-of-hours duty team. I was feeling very low, thinking about the children, in the flat on my own and I thought about ending it all.
The BBC claims to have uncovered new figures which show that the NHS in England's total bill for new hospitals and mental health units built under the private finance initiative (PFI) currently stands at £65.1bn.
The report claims that the projects were only worth £11.3bn when they were built, though the inflated repayment figure is influenced by added extra costs including catering, maintenance and cleaning.
The Department of Health has announced that it will be approaching the private sector in order to seek investment in NHS Professionals Ltd, which it currently wholly owns. NHS Professionals is the largest provider of managed flexible services to the NHS, with a national bank of approximately 50,000 workers.
The Department of Health has announced that it will be reviewing the future of Dr Foster Intelligence, one of the UK’s main providers of information, analysis and targeted communications to health and social care organisations. Launched back in 2006, it is run by the Department alongside Dr Foster Holdings LLP.
The NHS Counter Fraud Service has begun cracking down on people who make fraudulent claims for free services, such as medicines, dental treatment, sight tests and glasses, in Somerset.
The Service is beginning to conduct tougher and more frequent checks across the county, and has warned that anyone caught may face prosecution or receive a hefty penalty charge.
It has been announced that Carole Taylor-Brown, who is chief executive of NHS Suffolk, will be leaving the post at the end of September following 14 years working in the NHS.
Public Technology, the public sector news site, claims to have obtained a leaked copy of the NHS Digital Communications Review, which says that of the 4,121 websites run by the NHS approximately a third suffer from at least one “notable defect”, while 1,000 are no longer accessible. The site goes into claim that “the health service spends £86m a year on thousands of unhelpful websites”.
The new Procure 21+ framework will save the NHS over £200m in procurement costs and will help upgrade hospitals more quickly, Health Minister Simon Burns announced today.
News
Mid Essex Hospital Services National Health Trust has been hit with a £2.3m lawsuit by Compass. The contract catering giant issued the writ, saying the Trust had "grossly exaggerated" penalties that it imposed for a series of infringements which occurred at Broomfield Hospital in Broomfield and St John's Hosptial in Chelmsford.
It has been revealed that written complaints about NHS services in Greater Manchester have reached their highest level since records began in 1997. Almost 6,000 were recorded for the period 2008/09 to 2009/10, an increase of nearly 15%.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has launched a new three-digit number - 111 – which is aimed at patients who require non-emergency NHS healthcare. The new service was launched in part of the North East of England yesterday, and the move marks the first step towards a national roll out.
Secretary of state for health Andrew Lansley announced today that there will be a UK-wide review into bonus payments given to NHS consultants. The Clinical Excellence and Distinction Awards were introduced in 1948 to recognise and reward the contribution of NHS consultants over and above that normally expected and have remained largely unchanged ever since.
A new study has been released today claiming that the number of smokers aged 16 and 17 has dropped since it became illegal to sell cigarettes to under-18s. The research, which was conducted by University College London (UCL), interviewed more than 1,100 16- and 17-year-olds before and after the age rise was introduced in October 2007.
A report into an NHS’s crisis helpline in Hartlepool by the national charity MIND has criticised the services on offer. The watchdog, which conducted the research alongside Hartlepool LINk, described some of the actions of the Crisis Resolution Action Team as “unacceptable”.
The BBC claims to have uncovered new figures which show that the NHS in England's total bill for new hospitals and mental health units built under the private finance initiative (PFI) currently stands at £65.1bn.
The NHS Counter Fraud Service has begun cracking down on people who make fraudulent claims for free services, such as medicines, dental treatment, sight tests and glasses, in Somerset.
It has been announced that Carole Taylor-Brown, who is chief executive of NHS Suffolk, will be leaving the post at the end of September following 14 years working in the NHS.
Public Technology, the public sector news site, claims to have obtained a leaked copy of the NHS Digital Communications Review, which says that of the 4,121 websites run by the NHS approximately a third suffer from at least one “notable defect”, while 1,000 are no longer accessible. The site goes into claim that “the health service spends £86m a year on thousands of unhelpful websites”.
