Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has revealed that an independent review is taking place to see if delays to treatment for thousands of patients using services run by DMC … Read more
The Times reports that Sir Simon Stevens, head of the NHS, has criticised the pharmaceutical company Essential Pharma for “using the cover of coronavirus to try to price-gouge British taxpayers”. … 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
The private company, Cygnet Healthcare, that ran an NHS learning disability hospital hit by revelations of staff abuse of vulnerable patients had been under scrutiny from the authorities over safety and safeguarding … Read more
Digital Health reports figures revealed during a Public Accounts Committee hearing that show that around £25 million is expected to be spent this financial year on the new app, while … Read more
Dido Harding, the Government’s testing czar, has suggested that the daily “moonshot” tests for Covid-19 which will allow people to resume normal life will not be available on the NHS. Instead she … Read more
Contracts in the area of community healthcare can be very complicated, involving many different organisations and different areas of care. The contracts can fail on many levels, including failure of … Read more
The coronavirus test and trace system was condemned as “barely functional” today as its tsar admitted that demand was up to four times capacity, while 90% of tests were failing to … Read more
In primary care, the Conservative government’s enthusiasm for private company involvement led to encouraging groups of GPs to band together to set up their own private limited companies to run … Read more
Serco has won an additional £45m to provide COVID test centres, openDemocracy has reported. The deal has not been made public, but provides a major additional role for the controversial … Read more
The Guardian reports that the privately-run laboratories that analyse swabs from people in the community, including care homes, were stretched to capacity even in late August, and were unable to … Read more
The FT reports that Serco has won the most Covid-related government contracts among UK-listed outsourcers. The research by the data provider Tussell shows that the large outsourcing groups, including Serco, … Read more
The latest available NHS England figures (September 3) show that of available beds open overnight, an undifferentiated 110,000 beds of all types (general and acute, mental health, maternity, Learning Difficulties) were … Read more
On average Clinical Commissioning Groups spend around 15% of their expenditure purchasing healthcare from non-NHS organisations, but an NHS Support Federation survey of 2019/20 annual accounts also shows 18 CCGs … Read more
A seemingly endless succession of large-scale “Framework Agreements” have been rolled out by NHS England and the Department of Health in recent months, creating conditions for more rapid award of … Read more
The Doctors’ Association has criticised the coronavirus testing system as “an utter shambles” after collecting a dossier of cases where the system has led to long journeys and considerable waits … Read more
The UK’s test-and-trace system for coronavirus has a backlog of nearly 200,000 swabs, resulting in samples being sent to laboratories in Italy and Germany as the Government’s privately run system struggles … Read more
A new poll has found that almost half of British voters do not believe Boris Johnson’s claim that the NHS is “off the table” in trade deals. The survey by pollsters Survation found … Read more
The private sector has been the winner in the Government’s response to COVID-19 in England – but why, given the growing and predictable litany of mistakes it has made? A … Read more
An analysis by the Open Contracting Partnership and Spend Network has found that the UK has spent more than £2.5bn on services and equipment related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The … Read more
