All Finance articles – Page 481
-
News
Noel Plumridge on Darling's discipline
Yesterday's Budget announcement held few surprises for the NHS. As expected. Nowadays, the important public finance figures are published in the autumn, and it would have been disappointing indeed if chancellor Alistair Darling had revisited the NHS assumptions in last October's spending review.
-
News
FESC is thrown open without Treasury probe
The Department of Health has extended its commissioning support programme without carrying out an expected value-for-money assessment of the scheme, HSJ has learned.Health secretary Alan Johnson announced last week that the framework for procuring external support for commissioners, FESC, is now open to all primary care trusts to buy in ...
-
Comment
GP hours - what a mess
Well, well, well. What a shock the National Audit Office has stated that GPs earn lots more money for working fewer hours. This is something that has been widely known for some time, writes Les Collister
-
Comment
Guarantees are vital to ISTC success
Your piece on independent sector treatment centres, 'ISTC contract guarantees will saddle NHS with £187m bill', misses some fundamental points, writes David Worskett
-
News
Warning over cuts to healthcare education budgets
Cuts in healthcare education budgets in the NHS will have a 'devastating effect' on the UK's ability to train the next generation of health professionals, health educators have warned.
-
News
£525m funding boost for NHS Scotland
A funding boost of £525m for new and improved NHS facilities, equipment upgrades, and IT systems across Scotland has been announced.
-
News
Prescription costs to rise
Prescription charges will increase by 25p from 1 April, public health minister Dawn Primarolo has announced.The increase, which the department stressed is below the rate of inflation, will take the cost of a single prescription item to £7.10.
-
News
Free parking in Wales will cost trusts £5.4m
Hospital trusts in Wales will lose up to £5.4m per year because the Welsh Assembly government has told them they must stop raising income from car parking.
-
News
ISTC contract guarantees will saddle NHS with a £187m bill
Deals with private contractors have left the NHS facing a hidden 187m bill to buy back some of the controversial independent sector treatment centres, HSJ has learned.
-
Comment
Premises buy-back is yet more ammo for anti-private brigade
Our revelation this week that the government made deals with the providers of the independent sector treatment centres to buy back their premises is another blow to a controversial policy. According to a document unearthed in the House of Commons library, the bill could reach £187m.
-
Comment
Michael White on health budgets
Opposition spokesmen as energetic as Andrew Lansley tend to respond to breaking news rather than to make it. It's the curse of opposition. When they're in the headlines it's usually bad news. The Tory health spokesman has been making headlines.
-
Comment
Noel Plumridge on topping up NHS care
It is a long time since NHS care was unequivocally free. Over half a century ago, in the final days of a post-war Labour government that was proud to nationalise not just healthcare but the 'commanding heights' of the British economy - coal, steel, the railways - a certain outspoken ...
-
News
PCTs cut continuing care packages
More than a quarter of primary care trusts have cut the number of adults they give NHS 'continuing care', despite guidance intended to boost provision.Figures published by the Department of Health show 44 PCTs reduced the number of people to whom they give the care package between April and December ...
-
News
Surplus forecast by HSJ still on course
The NHS is still on track to make a £1.8bn surplus at the end of this financial year, as first revealed by HSJ.
-
News
Credit crunch puts Kent PFI under threat
Plans by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust for a new private finance initiative hospital were dealt a blow this week when the bonds intended to finance the deal were downgraded.
-
News
Diabetes nurses could save £100m, study claims
Specialist diabetes nurses could save the NHS £100m by reducing the number of people admitted to hospital, a new study claims.
-
News
Surplus forecast for NHS
Department of Health figures based on the first nine months of the financial year forecast an NHS surplus of £1.8bn.The gross deficit is expected to be reduced to £143m. Seventeen trusts remain in deficit, with the majority in balance.
-
News
Wales to axe NHS parking charges
Most parking charges in NHS hospitals in Wales are to be eliminated for patients, staff and visitors, it is expected to be announced later today.
-
News
Confed responds to NAO report
Commenting on yesterday's NAO report on the GP contract, NHS Confederation primary care trust network director David Stout said: 'The work of PCTs in world class commissioning recognises the need to make better use of contractual levers to improve the commissioning of general practice and develop a range of skills ...
-
News
Trust reveals price of advice on chief's payout
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust has revealed it spent nearly £23,000 on legal advice over the severance payment to its former chief executive Rose Gibb.