HSJ Live 07.10.2013 Legal threat to Hunt over cover-up claims

16.26pm: Jeremy Hunt has responded to Andy Burnham’s threat of libel action over a tweet in which the health secretary said his shadow had attempted to “cover up failing hospitals” when he was in office.

In his response Mr Hunt said a “heated exchange of views” was “par for the course in a healthy democracy” and that the right place for debate was in Parliament “or the media, rather than the courts”.

The letter is attached, right.

16.20pm: Number 10 tweets “Jane Ellison has been appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary at Department of Health.”

16.17pm: Lots of media following up the statistics about the non-recovery of A&E over the summer, first reported here and here.

16.08pm: Stories from two local papers, one on a patient having the wrong eye “lasered” in an incident that was declared a never-evhsj london a&E

ent, and another on the petition started by local politicans against the reconfiguration of stroke services.

15.52pm: Meanwhile, one political journalist tweets there are “strong indications” the Department of Health’s Anna Soubry is moving to the Ministry of Defence.

15.51pm: The BBC are reporting that shadow health secretary Andy Burnham is to remain in post.

13.22pm: Deputy editor of TotalPolitics magazine, Anoosh Chakelian, tweets some rumours about the shadow front bench: “Some Labour #reshuffle gossip: I hear Liam Byrne’s already telling ppl he’s been sacked, & Liz Kendall may be headed to shad cab position”.

12.06pm: The Nottingham Post reports on an interim chief executive in the east Midlands receiving £190,000 for five month’s work.

11.46am: The boss of a mental health and learning disabilities trust is retiring from the NHS to run a hair salon with his daughter, the Lancashire Telegraph reports.

11.42am: Further to the pay freeze controversy HSJ broke on Friday, the Scottish devolved government has conhfirmed it will proceed with a pay rise for its staff.

Scottish health secretary Alex Neil said any freeze would be a “betrayal” of staff.

11.34am: The HSJ’s David Williams reports on two clinical commissioning groups who are planning to set up the first integrated pathway for emergency care.

11.16am: The HSJ’s Alison Moore has this story on the latest twist in the saga surrounding a new hospital in the Hartlepool area.

10.52am: The Daily Telegraph reported over the weekend that:”Foreigners will have to prove that they are entitled to be in the country before they are given access to GPs and hospitals, while foreign students will have to make a “contribution” to the health service.”

10.39am: The Daily Mail reports Labour has threatened to sue health secretary Jeremy Hunt over claims predecessor Andy Burnham covered-up NHS failures.

Mr Hunt alleged Burnham was involved in suppression of critical report – an allegation refuted by Mr Burnham. Mr Hunt has refused to retract the claim.

The paper also reports walking could save nearly 40,000 lives a year. A piece by medical correspondent Jenny Hope, cites research by The Ramblers and Mamillan Cancer Support which says walking for 20 minutes a day could save 37,000 lives. It also says that one in three people don’t manage to walk even 30 minutes a week

10.36am:The Guardian reports on the story that shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has threatened to sue Jeremy Hunt for libel over comments the health secretary made on twitter. The paper reports that Mr Burnham instructed lawyers to demand an apology over accusations he tried to interfere in the publication of a report into poor care by the Care Quality Commission. However, the story says the Tories said yesterday there was “no way they were retracting any statement”. The paper also reports speculation on a shadow cabinet reshuffle, suggesting Mr Burnham could be swapped with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper.

The paper also reports that the Metropolitan Police has ordered its officers not to respond to calls from mental health units and emergency departments for help to control patients unless there is a “significant threat to life or limb”. The story says the decision is being seen within mental health units as a “significant change in policy” and senior managers have instructed frontline staff to record all instances where they called for police assistance but none came.

In the opinion pages regular columnist Jackie Ashley writes about last week’s NHS England conference on long term conditions, The Future of Health  which included a “people’s panel” of patients and carers. The panel were able to challenge the professionals in discussions about the need for self-management and co-production. She writes: “All credit must go to NHS England for its bravery in staging such an event. It is the first time I have heard the most senior health professionals in the country being blasted by patients, rather than lecturing to attentive audiences. But there is still a long way to go.”

National Voices, an umbrella group representing a number of patient group, have storified some of the tweets from the event. Read them here.

10.24am: The Sun’s front page is today headlined “1,200 killed by mental patients”. The sub-heading runs “Shock 10-year toll exposes care crisis”.

The Mental Health Foundation tweets that the “headline diverts attention away from the real problem of our underresourced #NHS #stigma”.

10.16am: News broke over the weekend that Labour was considering issuing libel proceedings against Jeremy Hunt over comments the health secretary made about his shadow Andy Burnham, while the later was health secretary.

10.10am: But more significant than any ministerial reshuffle is this development on the NHS paybill.

The story, broken by the HSJ’s Shaun Lintern on Friday, was widely followed up by national broadcasters over the weekend and has seen some interesting comment beneath the story.

9.58am: Lots of speculation about junior minister reshuffles. We will let you know if this affects the Department of Health.

8:20am: Innovative leadership development programmes are usually regarded as an investment in the future of an organisation, but an innovative east London scheme has framed its leadership development rather differently − as a practical way of solving a real and immediate problem.

Today on HSJ’s leadership channel, Martin Marshall and colleagues say “failing” organisations are often forced to seek outside help, damaging staff morale in the process, but Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust achieved lasting change from a leadership programme that sought solutions from within.