While the NHS has to badger and campaign to secure even a £20bn down payment on the costs of reconstruction after more than a decade of decline and falling real … Read more
Commissioning
NHS England’s annual accounts show that NHS commissioners’ spending on private healthcare were up 27% to more than £18bn in 2020-21, with pandemic effects causing it to rise faster than … Read more
The evidence of a massive increase in people in need of help from mental health services in the UK is now incontrovertible. NHS England reports 1.4 million people on the … Read more
Byline Times reports that ten companies received more than £1.1 billion in Government contracts during the Coronavirus pandemic while employing Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs as advisors or non-executive directors. … Read more
Health secretary Sajid Javid’s decision last week to force through another ‘surge capacity’ deal with independent providers, to protect the health service from being overwhelmed by the Omicron variant, has … Read more
Almost identical reports in the (£) Times and Daily Mail that Sajid Javid “is planning to set up academy style hospitals,” potentially run by the private sector (coyly described as “outside sponsors”), are clearly much more … Read more
The BMA has criticised the government for striking a costly agreement by NHS England to block book private hospital beds in case they are required for NHS patients in the … Read more
The Good Law Project has won its case against the government over the use of a “VIP lane” to award PPE contracts. In a written judgment, handed down on Wednesday, … Read more
A box of personal protective equipment (PPE) which was sold to the NHS by Clandeboyes, a Northern Ireland sweets wholesaler, that cost the taxpayer more than £1,000 during the first … Read more
A list of the 47 companies referred to the government’s VIP fast-track lane for contracts to supply PPE has been revealed. These are five of the significant political figures whose … Read more
David Meller, a Conservative party donor who supported Michael Gove’s Tory leadership bid, won £164m in Covid contracts after the minister referred his firm to a “VIP lane” that awarded … Read more
Independent providers are receiving substantial public funds to help shift the backlog in diagnostics, amidst fears of long term arrangements NHS radiology staff are understaffed by 33% and equipment is … Read more
Alun Cairns, a former Welsh secretary, took a £15,000-a-year job at a diagnostics company a few weeks before it was part of a consortium that secured a £75 million government … Read more
The Times has reported that Randox, the diagnostics company that paid Owen Paterson as a lobbyist, won a £133 million Covid-19 testing contract days before government officials concluded that it … Read more
The government’s test-and-trace system, run by Serco and several other private providers, has failed to achieve “its main objective” to cut infection levels and help Britain return to normal despite … Read more
South West London Clinical Commissioning Group has brought in the London Ambulance Service Trust as a “resilience partner” for the service supplied by Vocare, according to its board papers for … Read more
Health Minister Edward Argar has agreed to table a government amendment to the Health and Care Bill that would prevent private interests from being on any Integrated Care Board. This has now … Read more
The takeover of a hospital’s urgent treatment centre by Greenbrook Healthcare has sparked opposition from staff and trade unions. King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust will transfer staff working at its urgent treatment … Read more
The Times reports that former Conservative councillor, Steve Dechan, received a £120 million government contract for face shields whose quality is so doubtful that fewer than 1 in 400 have … Read more
Firms are being invited to bid to run 150 new community diagnostic facilities as part of £10bn NHS framework contract which has been advertised by NHS England. Planning for these new facilities … Read more
