The Guardian reports that Rishi Sunak is facing questions over a possible conflict of interest after it emerged that a private healthcare firm handed a government contract to reduce regional … Read more
Diagnostics
A barrage of publicity surrounded the publication last week of the long-awaited report of Rishi Sunak’s 17-strong “taskforce” on elective recovery, which was set up last December. There was no … Read more
The BBC reports that ministers want to unlock spare capacity to get more people the treatment and operations they need. This includes opening eight privately-run diagnostic centres and using new … Read more
The Guardian has revealed that a second company, LFI Diagnostics, that the Tory peer Michelle Mone lobbied ministers over in an attempt to secure government Covid contracts was a secret entity of … Read more
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has claimed that staff mistakes at Immensa Laboratories in Wolverhampton may have caused 23 extra deaths from Covid-19. The report said as many as … Read more
HSJ reports that NHS England is assessing the viability of establishing an NHS-owned consortium to bring some of the diagnostic work currently being done for profit in the private sector … Read more
Somerset Foundation Trust has partnered with Alliance Medical for its Taunton Diagnostic Centre. The previous private partner, Rutherford Health, went into liquidation in June 2022. The centre only opened in … Read more
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has said that ministers and government officials played “fast and loose” when awarding £777m in Covid contracts to a healthcare firm that … Read more
The private cancer diagnostic and treatment company Rutherford Health has been placed into liquidation. Only eight months ago the opening of a new community diagnostics hub (CDH) within a partnership between … Read more
The former health secretary Matt Hancock was given an overnight stay at a country estate owned by the head of Randox, the healthcare firm that had hired the MP Owen Paterson as a … 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
Immensa, a private laboratory in Wolverhampton that is under investigation for potentially issuing more than 40,000 false negative Covid tests, was not fully accredited to perform the work, contrary to … Read more
Dr Ashraf Chohan, founder and chair of Conservative Friends of the NHS, which aims to forge ties between politicians and healthcare workers in the private and public sectors, and his son … 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
Serco has been awarded a new contract worth up to £322 million to continue running Covid-19 testing sites for another year. The company now runs 20% of centres in England and … Read more
Two contracts for contact tracers with Serco and Sitel have been extended by six months by the Department of Health and Social Care for an additional cost of £168m. Serco … Read more
A total, constipated silence from the NHS and ministers shrouds the long-delayed new “mega lab” that was supposed to have opened in Leamington Spa last January as part of the … Read more
A report by a local council in the North East of England has found that failures in England’s Test and Trace system are partly responsible for a surge in the … Read more
