U-turn means independent providers will not be required to provide a financial guarantee to become part of NHS Pension Scheme

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4.04pm The chief executive of Whittington Health, Dr Yi Mien Koh has announced she will be leaving the trust at the end of March.

In a press statement a spokesperson said: “Dr Yi Mien Koh believes she has taken Whittington Health as far as she can and is looking at a number of opportunities.”

The previous chief executive of South Tees Hospitals Foundation Trust, Simon Pleydell, will take over as interim chief executive on 1 April.

He was chief executive at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for nine years until 2012. He has recently been working at the NHS Confederation as an associate director leading on innovation, improvement and change policy.

3.55pm Michael White’s latest politics column is now online, discussing Sir John Oldham’s report for the Labour party on whole person care.

3.41pm The Care Quality Commission will continue to make unannounced inspections of GP practices after its new inspection regime comes into force, the chief inspector of general practice has told HSJ.

Practices in 12 clinical commissioning group areas will be inspected from April to June in the first wave of the CQC’s overhauled approach to GPs. They will receive two weeks’ notice before inspections.

However, Steve Field told HSJ the body “would continue to do unannounced visits or visits at short notice for practices we’ve got concerns about, whether they are in those CCGs or not”.

3.37pm A new chief executive has been announced for one of the most troubled trusts in the country.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust has announced the appointment of Matthew Hopkins, who currently leads Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust.

Mr Hopkins will start at the beginning of April, taking over from Averil Dongworth who is retiring.

2.42pm The health select committee has started a hearing on complaints and raising concerns.

Giving evidence today are: Dr Kim Holt of Patients First; Helene Donnelly, ambassador for cultural change at Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust; and Cathy James, chief executive of Public Concern at Work.

You can watch the hearing live here.

2.10pm An expert group set up to review the future of the NHS Constitution has rejected the Francis report’s recommendation the document should be rewritten and has instead said the government should focus on making sure it was “publicised, embedded and applied”.

1.51pm A government U-turn will mean independent providers of NHS funded healthcare will not be required to provide a financial guarantee to become part of the NHS Pension Scheme.

Ministers have rowed back on plans to demand providers to obtain a three-month contributions guarantee or bond in order to get access to the scheme.

12.46pm Monitor has admitted the special administration process at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust could ultimately cost £15m.

The regulator’s estimate means the process could in total be more expensive than the public inquiry into the scandal at the trust, which cost £13m and lasted two years.

If the estimate is correct, the cost will dwarf the amount spent on the special administration process for South London Healthcare Trust, which has been estimated at £5m.

12.04pm A Rochdale doctor who stole over £62,000 from the NHS was yesterday sentenced to 9 months’ imprisonment (suspended for 18 months) and must pay £50,000 costs.

Dr Thirumurugan Sundaresan admitted to falsifying the records of 1,703 patients to hit targets and increase payments from the NHS to his practice.

11.44am The paper has heard accounts from patients who have had to endure being moved several times through the night.

On one hospital stay, Suzy Shepherd, 50, from Leeds was moved between wards three times in the middle of the night, and she describes vividly the disorientation and indignity of being shaken awake to be taken by wheelchair down long, drafty corridors without any explanation.

11.41am The Times reports that tens of thousands of patients are being passed around hospitals “like parcels” in the middle of the night in order to relieve pressure on NHS beds.

The paper obtained information from around 58 trusts showing that the number of patients being moved out-of-hours has risen by nearly 20 per cent over the last five years.

11.03am The Financial Times reports that a row has broken out over millions of pounds in redundancy payments for NHS staff later re-employed elsewhere in the health service.

Labour accused the government of “handing out cheques like confetti” after it confirmed that between May 2010 and last November, 3,950 staff received taxpayer-funded severance packages only to be re-hired to other NHS posts.

10.58am Also in the Telegraph (paper only), dying cancer patients may be forced to wait up to eight weeks for financial support that was previously available within eight days because of problems in the introduction of a new benefits system, the Commons work and pensions committee heard.

10.56am The Daily Telegraph (newspaper only), reports on the parents of a Sophie Jones, 19, who died from cervical cancer, saying she was refused a cervical smear test because she was told she was too young to get the disease.

10.55am Turning to this morning’s newspapers, The Guardian reports that doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital are calling for rules to be changed to allow parents to donate the organs of newborn babies who die in the hope of saving other sick children.

Guidelines in the UK do not permit babies to be certified as brain-stem dead under the age of two months, which is not the case in most western European counties, the US and Australia.

Doctors would like parents to be given the choice.

10.12am One year after the Health and Social Care Act became law, what has been the impact of the new competition framework?

HSJ is holding an exclusive webinar in association with Hempsons to look at this issue on 26 March at 12.30pm. You can find more information about it here.

10.07am If frontline teams are not supported to care well, it is hard for them to be compassionate towards patients, Caroline Briggs and Andrew Lee of North Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group write for HSJ.

9.49am Lots of debate on twitter yesterday around HSJ’s story on David Prior suggesting that foreign providers should be given the opportunity to operate failing NHS trusts.

Kay Sheldon, a CQC non-executive director, was involved in some of the discussions.

6.00am Good morning. As NHS Direct’s 0845 number prepares to close, Dr Mona Johnson from Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group argues it did many things well that are currently not offered by NHS 111.

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