All Independent providers articles – Page 64

  • News

    PCTs ignoring demands to inspect private providers

    2008-04-17T09:00:00Z

    Hardly any commissioners are carrying out full inspections of private mental health providers despite fears over poor standards, an HSJ poll has revealed.

  • News

    Treatment centres get Treasury nod

    2008-04-17T09:00:00Z

    Three more independent sector treatment centre schemes worth a total of £50m have been given the go-ahead by the Department of Health and the Treasury.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Care quality data on mental health is too hard to pin down

    2008-04-10T09:00:00Z

    Data about the care of people with mental illness in the independent sector is inadequate. The government must fix this before service users get lost in the system, say Anthony Deery and Veena Raleigh

  • News

    Alliance - let firms help PBC

    2008-04-10T09:00:00Z

    Consortia of practice based commissioning GPs should be able to bypass primary care trusts and buy commissioning support from the private sector, the NHS Alliance is demanding.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    How primary care grew up

    2008-04-07T09:00:00Z

    In our latest feature marking 60 years of the NHS, Ingrid Torjesen charts the general practitioner's rise from poor relation to commissioner

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Pharmacies' role in community care

    2008-04-07T09:00:00Z

    From screening to health advice to treating minor ailments, pharmacies are embracing their new role as partners in the drive to improve public health

  • News

    CBI claims contract debacle will hit future bids

    2008-04-03T09:00:00Z

    Private companies will be reluctant to bid for future NHS contracts, the Confederation of British Industry has warned.

  • News

    Managers blamed for infection control failings

    2008-03-31T12:48:00Z

    Eighty per cent of respondents to a survey carried out for healthcare group BUPA said they blame managers for superbug infections, while only 1 per cent blamed doctors.Respondents also said they were not prepared to travel more than 20 miles to go to a hospital they considered to be clean. ...

  • News

    ISTC payment framework announced

    2008-03-28T11:49:00Z

    The Department of Health has set out the costs it is prepared to cover as a result of last year's rescoping of the phase two independent sector treatment centre programme.

  • News

    Corporate manslaughter: you could be in the dock

    2008-03-27T09:00:00Z

    From 6 April NHS organisations could be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter if someone dies in their care, but different interpretations of the law mean trusts may be unclear about their responsibilities. Ingrid Torjesen attempts to unravel the new actFor more in-depth information about the act, register for HSJ’s free corporate ...

  • News

    Jon Restell on valuing all frontline staff

    2008-03-27T09:00:00Z

    I have had the people who work in general practice on my mind recently. At this time of especially heightened clinical engagement, it is easier than ever to forget that good healthcare is delivered by teams.

  • News

    Managers see private sector as threat, survey reveals

    2008-03-25T11:58:00Z

    Sixty-eight per cent of practice managers think private sector providers pose a major threat to the quality of general practice and patient care, according to a new survey.

  • Comment

    Media Watch: Olympic health worries

    2008-03-20T09:00:00Z

    'I would rather be in music than in politics,' said health secretary Alan Johnson in an interview with The Observer's Music Monthly magazine.

  • News

    NHS service providers can advertise under new code

    2008-03-20T09:00:00Z

    NHS trusts and independent providers of NHS services have the freedom from today to advertise direct to patients - but must abide by a new code of conduct.

  • News

    Foundation trusts query accounting changes

    2008-03-20T09:00:00Z

    Foundation trusts have raised concerns that forthcoming changes to accounting rules could undermine efforts to get hospitals to focus on where they make and lose money.

  • Comment

    Guarantees are vital to ISTC success

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    Your piece on independent sector treatment centres, 'ISTC contract guarantees will saddle NHS with £187m bill', misses some fundamental points, writes David Worskett

  • News

    FESC is thrown open without Treasury probe

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    PCTs pressured to lose provider arm

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    Strategic health authorities are forcing primary care trusts to divest themselves of their provider functions, PCT chiefs have claimed.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Change of view: improving primary care

    2008-03-10T09:00:00Z

    GPs in Essex were stimulated by the arrival of an alternative provider contract in their patch, say Hilary Ayerst and Paul Corrigan

  • Comment

    Noel Plumridge on topping up NHS care

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    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 ...