All Audit Commission articles – Page 2
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NewsTrusts facing 'difficult choice' over service provision
NHS trusts face “difficult choices about the services they provide” as they fight to sustain savings programmes of 5 per cent a year, according to a report by Monitor and the Audit Commission.
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News
Rise in PCTs reporting above-average costs
The past financial year saw a sharp rise in the proportion of primary care trusts reporting above-average costs for providing NHS services, new Department of Health figures show.
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NewsPrimary care spend fell fastest last year - Information Centre
Spending on primary care last year fell more quickly than expenditure on the rest of the NHS, figures from the NHS Information Centre reveal.
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HSJ Local
Four London trusts' activity reporting 'inadequate'
FINANCE: The Audit Commission’s annual report on NHS London said four trusts in the SHA’s catchment area were “performing inadequately” on activity reporting, while six were “performing well” and 19 “adequately”.
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Comment'We cannot tolerate incompetence in the search for sustainability'
The turnaround of one factory into an efficient, clean, collaborative and effective faciility should shame healthcare organisations into doing more to make sure sustainability in the NHS becomes less an ideal and more a way of working, writes Sir John Oldham.
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HSJ Local
Costs data submitted by Blackpool Teaching Hospitals ‘incorrect’
FINANCE: The foundation was among the 12 per cent of NHS trusts whose 2009-10 reference cost submissions were materially inaccurate, the Audit Commission reported today.
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NewsPoor NHS cost data will delay national pricing, Audit Commission warns
Costing data in the NHS is too poor to establish fixed national prices for new acute and community services, an Audit Commission review has found.
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HSJ KnowledgeA hire price to pay: how leasing equipment saves money and improves service quality
In times of plenty, the financing rules made outright purchase the most obvious source of new investment. But dwindling capital means leasing equipment may improve care quality and finances, say Louise Hamilton and Bob Dredge.
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NewsQuarter of NHS trusts 'have weaknesses in securing financial resilience'
Almost a quarter of NHS trusts have notable weaknesses in their arrangements for securing financial resilience or challenging how they secure value for money, their auditors have warned.
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NewsCommissioners 'excessively constraining' patient choice
Commissioners are restricting patient choice and choking competition in routine elective care, the Cooperation and Competition Panel has found.
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HSJ Local
Trust pins hopes on merger to avoid referral over deficit
FINANCE: Auditors are considering reporting Whipps Cross University Hospital to the health secretary for failing to break even last year.
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NewsData shows mixed results in reducing 'low value' treatments
The NHS has reduced activity related to some “ineffective” treatments, but has not managed to stop the rise in other “low clinical value” procedures, according to data analysed for HSJ.
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HSJ Local
Trust sells half its beds to rent them back
FINANCE: A hospital trust has sold half of its beds to a Dutch company for half a million pounds and is leasing them back, HSJ has discovered.
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NewsAuditors to query use of foundations’ resources
A number of foundation trusts are likely to face “qualifications”, querying the accuracy of their 2010-11 accounts, because of questions over their use of resources, auditors have warned.
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NewsDH to 'rely' on local pricing to extend community services competition
The Department of Health will be “heavily reliant” on locally set prices to encourage competition from “any qualified provider” in community services, it said this week.
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HSJ Local
Royal Bournemouth improves coding accuracy
COMMERCIAL: Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals Foundation Trust has more than halved its error rate in coding treatments but is disputing proposed changes to coding processes.
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NewsAudit Commission finds social care services improving
Local councils are improving their adult social care but need to pick up the pace, a watchdog has said.
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News
No evidence for money saving potential of community care pathways
A lack of reliable data on the cost of outpatient and community services is hampering commissioners’ attempts to make efficiency savings by moving care out of the acute sector.
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NewsAcute trusts' FT plans slip back a year
More than a quarter of the acute trusts still bidding for foundation status have seen their application date slip by over a year.
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NewsTrusts set 'unlikely' savings targets for 2011-12
England’s acute trusts have increased the scale of their cost improvement programmes by nearly a third in 2011-12, an HSJ analysis reveals.