New regulations will reduce some forms of outsourcing in the NHS, but there are significant gaps which a UNISON campaign is aiming to fix. A reduction in the competitive tendering … Read more
Support services
A Pulse investigation into the continued problems of the Primary Care Support Services contract run by Capita since 2015 reveals that many problems remain. It’s been seven years since NHS … Read more
Many campaigners remember the privatisation of Hinchingbrooke Hospital. It was claimed far and wide as the answer to turning around a hospital which had posed problems for years. But after awards were … Read more
Imperial College Healthcare trust has decided to keep hotel services, which includes porters, cleaners and catering, inhouse across its sites, after the success of a one-year trial. Until early 2020 … Read more
This article gives an overview of the failures that have taken place when non-NHS organisations (private and not-for-profit) have been awarded contracts to run NHS services. Failures have taken place … Read more
West Yorkshire health workers voted to started an indefinite strike from Monday 26 August. The strike is against privatisation of the NHS. On 1 August, 300 Unison union members of … Read more
NHS workers in West Yorkshire are striking against a plan to transfer porters, cleaners and other support staff to a ‘wholly-owned subsidiary’ called Bradford Healthcare Facilities Management Ltd on 1 … Read more
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will see more than 300 hospital staff going on strike this week in a dispute over what has been described as the “backdoor privatisation” of … Read more
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust is forcing 160 maintenance and facilities workers from working in the NHS into the subsidiary, Summer Hill Services Ltd. Use of this type … Read more
NHS Imporovement appear more willing to accept the difficulties the service is currently facing regarding privatisation and lack of funding. The official reported deficit for 2018-19 was £571m – a … Read more
NHS chiefs are bringing the cervical screening service back in-house after expressing dissatisfaction at the way it has been performing. The chief executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens, told the … Read more
According to HSJ, the NHS App which was designed to be a digital “front door” for all NHS patients is actually unable to connect with any current providers of online … Read more
Medical record transfers from English GPs to Scotland are experiencing prolonged delays, HSJ has learned, with Capita’s troubled English GP admin service implicated by officials. HSJ has obtained a letter from an NHS … Read more
A number of support services in the NHS are outsourced to private companies, this includes hospital maintenance and a large amount of administration, such as letters for cancer screening programmes. … Read more
One of the most serious affects of outsourcing in the NHS that has been observed is a decline in the quality and safety of care. Quality and safety are linked … Read more
HSJ reports that the consultancy firm Accenture is very likely to face “big penalties” after a software upgrade led to the complete shutdown of the NHS email service. A well … Read more
A former hospital boss and NHS England director has been appointed the chief executive of the UK arm of international insurance firm Centene. Samantha Jones was NHS England’s director of new … Read more
Capita failed to deliver over 47,000 cervical cancer screening letters to patients – an issue it knew about two months before informing NHS England. The private company admitted to Pulse … Read more
More than 40,000 women have not received information on cervical cancer screening after the NHS contractor Capita failed to send out letters. The problem, which occurred between January and June, affected 43,200 … Read more
Healthcare Environment Services (HES) has been stripped of NHS contracts after hundreds of tonnes of waste from hospitals, including human body parts, were allowed to pile up at its facilities, … Read more
