All articles by Crispin Dowler – Page 23
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News
Poor 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 Local
Mid Staffs seeks bailout to avert cash crisis
FINANCE: Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust has sunk so much money into resolving its care quality failures it will run out of cash by December unless it secures a bailout.
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News
'Raid' FT finances to protect DH budget, ministers were advised
Top civil servants advised government ministers that they could “raid” foundation trusts’ surpluses to prevent them from blowing the Department of Health’s budget, the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust inquiry has learned.
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News
CCP to investigate attempts to close walk-in centre
The Cooperation and Competition Panel is to investigate a complaint that NHS Peterborough breached competition rules in attempting to close a primary care access centre.
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News
Foundation trusts consider moving away from national pay deal
Foundation trusts are showing an unprecedented willingness to publicly consider moving away from nationally negotiated staff terms and conditions.
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News
Exclusive: Circle in running to take on management of a second NHS hospital
The private company expected to become the first to manage an NHS hospital is preparing a bid to take over a second NHS site, in partnership with a foundation trust.
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News
Commercial-only finance plans for FTs scaled back
The government has pulled back from plans to stimulate a market for private sector lending to foundation trusts, under which they would have been cut off from all finance other than commercial loans.
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News
MPs call for PFI deals to be subject to FOI requests
The Commons’ public accounts committee has called for private finance initiative companies to be made subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
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HSJ Local
Warrington and Halton Hospitals fights to retain vascular services
STRUCTURE: Warrington and Halton Hospitals Foundation Trust has vowed to fight a recommendation to reject its bid to become a high volume centre for arterial surgery, as part of a regional reorganisation of vascular services.
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News
Struggling providers to get above-tariff payments
Struggling providers will be able to ask Monitor for permission to raise their prices above nationally set “tariff” rates, under proposed government changes to the Health Bill unveiled today.
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Comment
NHS estate wrangles in the North West
What do you do with a private finance initiative hospital when it becomes the subject of service reconfiguration?
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News
OFT issues warning on private providers' sweetener payments to consultants
The incentives used by private healthcare providers to attract consultants to their hospitals may be driving up prices without increasing quality, the Office for Fair Trading has warned.
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HSJ Local
Trust wins backing to vacate £3.6m PFI unit
Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust has won backing for its controversial plan to vacate the £3.6m-a-year PFI building it occupies in the grounds of Manchester Royal Infirmary.
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News
'Crude' spending estimates risk CCGs' funding
Future commissioners could face “catastrophic consequences” if a rushed attempt to map current spending on GP practice populations leads to inaccurate funding allocations, experts have warned.
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HSJ Local
PFI deals should be used 'sparingly', Treasury warns
FINANCE: The government is in danger of wasting £175m on the private finance initiative rebuild at Royal Liverpool University Hospital, the Treasury select committee has warned.
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News
Commissioners ordered to redo public health accounts amid 'gaming' concerns
Sir David Nicholson has ordered NHS commissioners to submit complete spending returns for 2010-11 in just six weeks amid controversy as “unexpected values and omissions” relating to public health were uncovered.
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News
Exclusive: the Christie plans national 'chain' of cancer centres
Specialist cancer hospital The Christie Foundation Trust is considering plans which could see it open branded treatment and diagnostic centres across England, in partnership with a private sector provider.
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News
Quarter 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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News
Emergency readmissions payment ban being ignored
The way NHS commissioners are acting on the ban on payment for emergency readmissions varies widely, with some declining to impose the controversial new rule, an HSJ investigation has revealed.
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News
Private providers demand end to DH 'bureaucracy'
Private healthcare providers are calling for a review of the recent transfer of their Department of Health contracts to primary care trusts, saying the negotiations were an “enormous waste” of time and money.