HSJ Live 17.03.2014: Monitor appoints interim chair at The Christie

4.46pm Ahead of the Panorama documentary tonight looking at the cost of delayed transfers of care in A&Es the BBC looks at why a significant number of UK doctors have moved over to Australian emergency departments.

The North West London academic health science network was previously chaired by Lord Ara Darzi, who stepped down in October last year to head up the London Health Commission.

Sir Peter was previously the chair at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust before resigning in protest over the way in which the trust was placed in special measures.

3.07pm Monitor has appointed an interim chair at The Christie Foundation Trust after announcing two weeks ago that the trust would be investigated over governance concerns.

Sir Hugh Taylor is currently the chair at Guy’s and St Thomas Foundation Trust. His role at The Christie will be on an interim basis.

He was permanent secretary at the Department of Health, from which he retired in July 2010. Sir Hugh will work 5 days a week and continue to fulfil his commitments at Guy’s and St Thomas’ alongside his interim role at The Christie.

Stephen Hay Managing Director of Provider Regulation at Monitor said: “The Christie is going through some serious difficulties and our investigation has found concerns with the way the board was operating. Whilst we’ve no concerns about the care it provides, it is important to patients, taxpayers and staff that the trust be well-run.

“Sir Hugh Taylor has a long and distinguished public service career and brings a wealth of experience. His insight and stewardship will be a huge asset to the trust and we look forward to working with him as he responds to the challenges ahead.”

Between April and June, the CQC will inspect the following CCG areas:

• Brighton and Hove
• North East Essex
• Cumbria
• Enfield
• Tameside and Glossop
• Lincolnshire West
• West Kent
• West Cheshire
• Merton
• West London
• South Warwickshire
• Dorset

2.20pm More patients are needed to try out new treatments if researchers are going to have any chance of beating cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, London Health Board has warned.

The board, chaired by the Mayor of London and made up of leaders in health care, health sciences and local government, has commissioned life scientists to set up a programme aimed at increasing public and patient participation in clinical trials. It fears opportunities to improve the treatment and care of life-threatening and chronic diseases are being missed because of difficulties recruiting patients for trials. 

A paper presented to the board at its meeting today highlighted a lack of data on the long-term health outcomes for sufferers of rare diseases, the term used for conditions affecting five in 10,000 of the population. The high cost and long lead-in times for trials were blamed for discouraging research into these conditions.

LHB chair and Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “Having set up the London Health Commission to work in partnership with the London Health Board, I hope one of the areas it will consider is how we can link up research and clinical practice to benefit Londoners.

“The goal is to more effectively tackle debilitating and life-threatening diseases, but integral to this will be more patients signing up to clinical trials.

Dr Howard Freeman, LHB member and chair of the London Clinical Commissioning Council, said: “GPs and other primary care practitioners have a vital role to play in providing a link between scientists who are conducting research into a condition or disease, and the patient or patients who stand to benefit most from that research.

“More research into rare diseases leads to better understanding of the health and social care burden of those diseases and more effective commissioning of services and policies for local communities.”

2.10pm The Sunday Times reported yesterday that a billion NHS records containing details of patients’ hospital admissions and operations have been sold to a marketing consultancy working for drug companies.

2.08pm Mental health commissioners from around England have called for radical change to the way services for children and adolescents are designed, commissioned and delivered at an event organised by the Mental Health Commissioners Network.

MHCN is part of NHS Clinical Commissioners, the independent collective voice of Clinical Commissioning Groups.

At the event delegates discussed the need for parity of esteem and funding for young people’s mental health services, the possible negative impact of age-based cut-off points for services, and the impact of silo working in the different agencies responsible for young people’s health and wellbeing. A lack of good quality, up to date data was highlighted, as was the increasing pressure on services.

Delegates’ recommendations for change will be submitted as evidence to the current Health Select Committee enquiry on children’s and adolescent mental health and shared with other key stakeholders.

Sir Andrew Dillon said: “I would like to see more data transparency… in order to improve our relationship with the industry.”

He said it would be “great” if companies can “achieve” the step of releasing the evaluation information “before a [drug] goes into the market”.

1.46pm What does hospital transformation look like in Derby? Derby Hospitals Foundation Trust chief executive Sue James gives readers an insight into what plans are afoot.

Which? said people trying to organise care for a loved one face a “maze” of confusing advice and information.

And people who are not eligible for state funding are finding it difficult to even obtain simple information.

The organisation made the comments after asking 30 people across the UK to keep a diary as they tried to organise care for their partners, parents or themselves.

Keith Willett, NHS England’s director for acute care, told Panorama services need to be joined up, and that cuts in local authority budgets are making things worse.

Monday night’s programme also looks at how the strain of working in accident and emergency departments are driving staff away, with one former consultant describing A&E as a “sinking ship”.

12.58pm The BBC reports that Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust has spent more than £1m sending patients to a private hospital linked to one of its senior consultants.

12.53pm How can the NHS encourage entrepreneurship? Dr Chris Loughlan chief executive at the Cambridge Institute for Research, Education and Management and Tammy Holmes research, development and innovation operations manager at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Foundation Trust look at several techniques including making the most of academic health science networks.

12.22pm The latest End Game nugget examines a “banter” rivalry between senior NHS England figures.

The NHS Trust Development Authority appointed Sarah Boulton, who will take up her position with immediate effect. She was most previously chair of NHS Midlands and the East strategic health authority cluster, which was abolished last year.

The trust’s previous interim chair, Geoffrey Harris, resigned in January. The TDA will hold the recruitment process for a permanent chair in the next few weeks.

11.28am The managing director of Care UK, Jim Easton, argues that there is no conflict between good care and commercial success.

After a recent trip to India to look at healthcare models he writes: “The need to be big to be local was key and relevant as we think about new models of primary, secondary and integrated care in England.”

10.55am In our Comment section chief executive of Nene Clinical Commissioning Group Ben Gowland and director of strategy at LIFT Council Emma Carr write that the Health and Social Care Act has resulted in confusion over NHS estates strategies.

10.25am The BBC reports that thousands of NHS staff made redundant last year have been rehired by the service.

4,000 staff were reemployed in a move that the government is blaming on “unacceptably lax” contracts.

10.18am The Daily Telegraph reports that delays in sending patients home from hospital cost the NHS about £100m each year.

These estimates, from an episode of BBC Panorama, to be broadcast tonight suggest that around £100m a year is spent looking after patients who cannot be discharged because social care for them at home has not been arranged.

The figures come amid warnings doctors’ leaders that the recruitment crisis is ‘so severe’ that Dr Clifford Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, said her feared a time will come when there will be no doctors to treat arrivals.

Elsewhere in the paper, Health Editor Laura Donnelly writes that thousands of people with dementia are being subjected to “conveyor belt care” with some seeing more than 40 different care workers in six months, a number of charities have warned.

9.50am The Times reports that record numbers of Welsh patients are going to England for scans and test to avoid a long delay in being treated.

One in three patients in Wales waits more than two months for an MRI scan, an ultrasound or other diagnostic test, the paper writes.

9.44amThe Independent reports that the rise of new strains of tuberculosis resistant to drug treatment represents “one of the gravest public health threats facing the world today”, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has warned.

7.00am Good morning and welcome to HSJ Live. To encourage cooperation between doctors and managers early in their careers, one training initiative is having great impact on participants, says Lindsay Hadley