HSJ Live: First working day of the post-PCT world

16.53pm: So NHS England have clarified that statement about sharing data re. Leeds and the mortality rates - its not going to be public.

This statement just came through:”We agree with the trust’s decision to launch this review. It is really important that this review is carried out in a sensible, effective and decisive way. For that to happen it needs to follow a proper and complete process. It cannot be conducted in the media.

“If people have information to contribute that is important and it should all be given due consideration. The data and other information that triggered this precautionary pause have raised questions but they have not provided answers. That is the job of the review.

“It is important that the review is allowed to do its work properly and reach a decisive conclusion on behalf of patients. We would encourage everyone involved to support this process and allow it to take its course.”

Leeds takes the total number of acute trusts under investigation over the death rates up to 15.

The other 14 are: North Cumbria University Hospitals, United Lincolnshire Hospitals, George Eliot Hospital, Buckinghamshire Healthcare, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals, The Dudley Group, Sherwood Forest Hospitals, Medway, Burton Hospitals, Colchester Hospital, Tameside Hospital, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals and East Lancashire Hospitals Trust

Together they comprise approximately 10 per cent of England’s hospital sector.

16.20pm: Interesting crop of health stories in yesterday’s Daily Mail.

Across a two-page spread headlined “horror at heart hospital” there are four negative patient stories about Leeds. But the paper concedes that an analysis by Sir Brian Jarman put the Yorkshire unit fifth out of 10 in a ranking of death rates. Alder Hey comes out highest. The spread includes a story on the problems with NHS 111 in Bournemouth.

On the next page there is what appears to be a leak of the findings of Sir Bruce Keogh’s review of the cosmetic surgery industry.

The report said people offering “dermal filler” treatment will have to undergo specialist training before being licensed to carry out the procedures. The paper reported this could take the form of a new law.

On page 14 one of the paper’s star columnists Melanie Philips wonders if “somewhere deep in the bowels of the Department of Health there lurks someone with a secet agenda to destroy the NHS by stealth through one cynical, self-serving ‘reform’ after another.

The piece is headlined “GPs given licence to make a fast buck out of taxpayers. This isn’t reform it’s corruption”.

15.22pm: Nigel Edwards of the King’s Fund writes for us here on whether the government’s response to Francis will improve care.

Along the way he nnotes that the changes to the CQC’s role mark “the fourth reform of regulation in the last 14 years” and that quality surveillance groups “add another layer of complexity into an already somewhat byzantine system”.

14.49pm: In case you missed it this morning here is a link to NHS England chair Malcolm Grant and GP Jonathon Tomlinson debating the government’s reforms on the Today programme

14.42pm: Monitor has confirmed that it is notifying the 19 trusts that were in breach of the terms of their authorisation under the old system that they will instead be officially placed in breach of the terms of their provider licence.

The change will take effect because the relevant section of the Health and Social care Act 2012 came into force yesterday at the start of the 2013-14 financial year.

14.25pm: This was put up before the weekend but is interesting, The Nuffield Trust’s Nick Timmins on what NHS leaders thought of the reform process.

Managers were frustrated at the time “feeding the beast” during the reforms, a distraction from improving patient care.

13.59pm: Monitor has published its proposed approach to the choice and competition conditions of the provider licence; the Competition Act in the health service and how it will provide advice to the Office of Fair Trading regarding FT mergers.

The regulator’s consultation on the procedures was opened today and closes on June 25.

12.52pm: The Guardian is carrying this interview with the new chair of Nice.

12.29pm: Although the situation is fast developing HSJ’s man in the corridors of Westminster is still worth a read on the Leeds situation.

12.24pm: Here is a fuller story on the BCCA and Leeds news. Just spoke to another trust concerned about the damage to Leeds’ reputation, apparently before the full evidence is in.

12.01pm: The British Congenital Cardiac Association has criticised the leaking of “raw” and “unverified” data which is believed to have prompted the closure of children’s cardiac surgical services at Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust.

In a statement released today the BCCA said it was “premature” to conclude Leeds was an outlier on mortality on child heart surgery. See the attached letter.

11.15am: The NHS Trust Development Authority is due to release details of its new “Accountability Framework” later this morning. This will set out further detail on how the body will operate with the 99 non-foundation trusts it is responsible for. The “FT Pipeline” is due to expand by just over one per cent when a new trust is created later this year. Gloucester Community Services will be formed after a legal battle.

10.51am: The Times is reporting a ComRes Poll of 2,000 people which reveals only one in 10 patients was told about their right to choose under the NHS Constitution when they last saw a GP or went to hospital.

The poll also found only one in five knew they had the right to choose with more than two thirds unaware of the NHS Constitution. IT Company Cerner commissioned the poll and said GPs needed to be far more proactive.

Just one in five people with diabetes reaches the target for keeping the disease under control according to the National Diabetes Audit, reported in The Times today.

It found 19.9 per cent of people with all types of the condition meet the targets for blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol.

For type 1 diabetes the audit found only 11.4 per cent of people meet the treatment target.

Failing to keep diabetes under control is one of the reasons for high-rates of complications

Also in The Times today is a report on a new mobile phone developed by Fujitsu which can take a person’s pulse by looking at their face.

The device tracks changes in colour as blood flows through the body to calculate the pulse.

It is based on the ability of haemoglobin cells to absorb green light.

Fujitsu claim as well as health benefits the technology could also be used as a security measure at public events and airports.

10.36am: The BBC reports this morning on the local authority referring the closure of the brain injury clinic at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases Foundation Trust to Jeremy Hunt.

10.32am: The Independent cites a damning assessment of the current state of the service (“chaos”) from Brian James, the departed former chief executive of Rotherham Hospital FT in a piece by columnist Owen Jones.

10.28am: Following their front page yesterday on changes to the benefits system and NHS, The Guardian has several new pieces today on health policy.

Columnist Polly Toynbee writes “this latest cure for the NHS really could kill the patient”,

“The NHS scores high internationally on efficient spending, yet every health minister itches to reform it because there are never perfect answers,” she writes.

“Why do surgeons have such different productivity rates? Why isn’t everywhere above average, like Lake Wobegon?”

Elsewhere on the Guardian, GPs call for a rethink on delayed 111 health hotline, the people of the north of England are wary of the NHS reforms, which place the NHSat “huge risk”, according to the new chair of NICE.

10.18am: The Daily Telegraph carries an interview with Labour’s shadow health secretary Andy Burnham in which he reveals some of the personal drivers behind his policy to integrate health and social care and his continued commitment to the so called “death tax” on estates to fund social care.

“Despite the Tory campaign against a ‘death tax’ before the last election, Burnham remains an evangelist for a 10 per cent tax on all estates to fund social care. ‘There’s a simplicity, and it does need clarity. But there are other options – such as payments at 65 or an annual payment over [people’s] retirement years.’”

10.10am: The Priory group has a new chief executive in Tom Riall. Mr Riall joins the care home and mental health facility business from the outsourcing firm Serco.

9.54am: A survey of hospital chief executives has found only a quarter believe the new chief inspector of hospitals role will be effective.

The most senior people in the acute sector disagree with the government on quite a lot of what was in Jeremy Hunt’s response to the Francis Report.

Four-fifths say healthcare assistants should be regulated, which Hunt rejected. Chief execs were divided down the middle on the issue of “duty of candour” and making it a criminal offence “for any director [to] provide information to a patient or nearest relative intending to mislead them about a [serious] incident”.

9.51am: First up, an interesting story from Greater Manchester, Stockport FT has had to go to court to retrieve some of its finance data from a sub-contractor that had gone into administration.