jolly old england,england swings like a pendulum do......La,la la

[Steven Gaal]

• 
  £1m an hour 'lottery' of NHS diabetes care: Thousands face complications including blindness, strokes and even death because of 'shocking' variations in treatment
  Failures are leading to premature deaths according to Parliamentary group
  Almost half of sufferers not getting nine recommended annual checks
  
• 
  By Jenny Hope
  PUBLISHED: 20:31 EST, 19 March 2013 | UPDATED: 06:21 EST, 20 March 2013
  Thousands of people with diabetes are being failed by ‘shocking variations’ in NHS treatment, warn MPs.
  The overall picture is of ‘poor, fragmented, expensive and patchy care’ despite £1million an hour being spent on diabetes by the NHS.
  A new report by the All Party Parliamentary group for Diabetes (APPG) says failures are leading to devastating complications such as blindness, amputation and stroke, and premature deaths.
  Failures: A new report by the All Party Parliamentary group for Diabetes (APPG) says NHS failures are leading to devastating complications such as blindness, amputation and stroke, and premature deaths
  It found almost half of people with diabetes in England are not getting the nine annual checks recommended by the NHS, with some areas providing barely one in 20 patients with the whole range of checks.
  The figures are worse for children, said the report, as 96 per cent don’t receive all the annual routine checks they should.
  APPG chairman and Torbay MP Adrian Sanders said ‘Diabetes is one of the greatest challenges we face, yet diabetes healthcare is poor, patchy and expensive and too many people with the condition are not getting the care or support they desperately need.
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  ‘It is completely unacceptable that barely half of people with diabetes are getting the nine checks and services recommended.
  'This postcode lottery of care is leading to devastating health conditions and premature death for many people with the condition.
  ‘I was moved by the powerful testimony of a person with diabetes who had lost part of his foot as a complication of diabetes’ he added.
  The number of Britons diagnosed with diabetes has hit three million for the first time this year, according to figures released earlier this month.
  Challenge: APPG chairman and Torbay MP Adrian Sanders says that diabetes is 'one of the greatest challenges we face'
  Challenge: APPG chairman and Torbay MP Adrian Sanders says that diabetes is 'one of the greatest challenges we face'
  Nine out of ten people with diabetes have type 2 which occurs when the body gradually loses the ability to process blood sugar, leading to high levels which can damage body organs and years of ill-health. The remainder have type 1 which needs insulin treatment.
  Type 2 is strongly linked to lifestyle factors such as being overweight or obese, leading a sedentary lifestyle and eating an unhealthy diet.
  Every year in England and Wales, 24,000 people with diabetes die earlier than expected.
  The latest report, which took testimony from patients, NHS staff and experts, says diabetes costs the NHS over £10billion a year - around £1million an hour.
  But eighty per cent goes on managing complications, many of which could be prevented, it says.
  Mr Sanders, who has type 1 diabetes, said the group heard repeatedly from people who were not receiving nine basic annual checks including blood pressure and blood glucose.
  ‘Others did not know what checks they had or had not had, or had no record of the results of those checks’ he said.
  The number of people receiving all nine checks ranged from six per cent to around 69 per cent depending on the area they lived.
  The report found ‘shocking’ variations in levels of amputations - with the majority preventable through good care.
  One on four people in nursing homes has diabetes, but many are undiagnosed, said the report.
  It follows the Public Accounts Committee diabetes report that highlighted the “depressingly poor” state of diabetes healthcare.
  Barbara Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said ‘Time and time again we hear about the depressingly poor state of diabetes healthcare, yet we are still waiting to hear how the Government intends to deal with what is fast becoming a crisis.
  ‘The Government must designate diabetes as a priority and commit to ensuring everyone with diabetes gets good quality care so that they can live long healthy lives.
  'This is why we welcome the All Party Parliament Group for Diabetes’ call for a national implementation plan for improved diabetes care.’
  Karen Addington, chief executive of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, said ‘The Diabetes APPG’s specific demand for increased government funding into type 1 diabetes medical research, echoes our own call.
  'Type 1 diabetes is a serious and challenging condition that affects 400,000 UK children and adults - and cost the country £1.9 billion in 2011.
  ‘This research and its outcomes would not only improve the lives of those living with type 1 diabetes, but would also help protect the NHS from spiralling costs.’
  
• 
  Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2296119/NHS-diabetes-care-lottery-Thousands-face-blindness-strokes-death-variations-treatment.html#ixzz2O5mQbZxLFollow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
  

[Steve Knight]

LCP to be axed after independent panel reviews it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23283820

[Steven Gaal]

(AUSTERITY.....its a bitch,Gaal,Rolling Stones) +++++++++++ THE TELEGRAPH

13,000 died needlessly at 14 worst NHS trusts The needless deaths of thousands of NHS patients will be exposed in a report this week.

Basildon and Thurrock Hospitals NHS Trust saw 1,600 more deaths than might have been expected in seven years Photo: PAUL GROVER

Laura Donnelly and Patrick Sawer

9:21PM BST 13 Jul 2013

950 Comments

The NHS’s medical director will spell out the failings of 14 trusts in England, which between them have been responsible for up to 13,000 “excess deaths” since 2005.

Prof Sir Bruce Keogh will describe how each hospital let its patients down badly through poor care, medical errors and failures of management, and will show that the scandal of Stafford Hospital, where up to 1,200 patients died needlessly, was not a one-off.

The report will also pile pressure on Labour over its handling of the NHS, with the Conservatives likely to seize on it to attack Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary who was in charge of the NHS in England from June 2009 until May 2010.

The report, due to be published on Tuesday, will:

• Name 14 hospitals as having excess rates of death, with hundreds of patients dying needlessly at each of them since 2005;

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• Severely criticise the worst hospital, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which had 1,600 more deaths than would have been expected in seven years – a higher death toll than that at Stafford;

• Show that the warning signs were there for managers and ministers to see, including alarming levels of infections, patients suffering from neglect and appalling blunders such as surgery performed on the wrong parts of bodies.

The report was commissioned in February by the Prime Minister after the inquiry by Robert Francis QC into the Stafford scandal exposed appalling lapses in both care of patients and the regulation of hospitals.

Sir Bruce investigated the 14 hospital trusts with the worst mortality rates over the past two years.

They were: Basildon and Thurrock in Essex; United Lincolnshire; Blackpool; The Dudley Group, West Midlands; George Eliot, Warwickshire; Northern Lincolnshire and Goole; Tameside, Greater Manchester; Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire; Colchester, Essex; Medway, Kent; Burton, Staffordshire; North Cumbria; East Lancashire; and Buckinghamshire Healthcare.

Research carried out by one of Sir Bruce’s advisers, Prof Sir Brian Jarman of Imperial College London, found that in some cases appalling death rates stretched back to 2005.

In total Sir Brian calculated that up to 13,000 more patients died in that period than would have been statistically expected. His analysis shows that in the last five years of the last Labour government, from 2005 to 2010, eight of the trusts had death rates well above the average in at least four of those years.

Mortality rates at Basildon and Thurrock, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals and East Lancashire Hospitals were statistically “high” – persistently above average – in all of the five years to 2010, while Colchester, Dudley, George Eliot, Tameside and United Lincolnshire were “high” in four out of five years before the general election. At the worst hospital, Basildon and Thurrock, the “mortality ratio” from 2005 until last year was 20 per cent above the NHS average, with up to 1,600 more deaths than there would have been if it had the average level of deaths among its patients.

However, from 2005 until 2009 the hospital was given a “good” rating by NHS regulators, first the Healthcare Commission, then its successor, the Care Quality Commission.

^{Tameside Hospital has paid out £30  million in settlements for negligence in the past three years (CAVENDISH)}

Among the worst hospitals exposed in the review is Tameside Hospital Foundation Trust in Ashton-under-Lyne.

At Tameside, which is about half the size of the Basildon and United Lincolnshire trusts, there were more than 830 excess deaths. Christine Green, its chief executive, and Tariq Mahmood, its medical director, resigned just over a week ago, before publication of the report. Several board members have also resigned.

Sir Bruce examined not just mortality rates but also infection levels, the number of patients suffering from preventable and potentially fatal neglect and numbers of so-called “never events”, such as operations on the wrong part of the body or surgical instruments left inside a patient.

He found that at United Lincolnshire hospitals, there were 12 such events in three years, with seven at Basildon and Thurrock and five at Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust.

Separate research showed that the hospitals were paying out large amounts in compensation for failures and errors. The negligence bills were three times those of the average NHS trust.

Between them, the 14 hospitals have paid £234 million in negligence settlements in the past three years. Many of the cases will date back far longer, as the legal battles often take several years. Tameside and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust have paid out £30 million each to victims of poor care since 2009.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust paid out £28 million and Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals £19 million.

Sir Bruce will say that none of the hospitals was failing on the “scale” of Stafford, sources said, but NHS campaigners will point to the report as evidence of a series of “mini-Staffords”.

The review will decide whether the existing steps being taken by the 14 trusts to improve quality go far enough and whether regulatory action is needed to protect patients.

The recommendations could lead to the removal of the hospitals’ chief executives, or the replacement of entire boards or even the closure of services.

At Basildon and Thurrock just 51 per cent of staff said they would be happy for friends or family to be treated at the hospital, while at United Lincolnshire 55 per cent said so.

At North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust just 35 per cent of staff said last year that they would be happy with the standard of care a relation or friend might receive there should they need treatment, compared with the national average of 60 per cent.

Sir Bruce’s findings were seized on by the Conservatives last night to attack Labour over its handling of the NHS, and particularly, Mr Burnham’s record.

David Morris, a Conservative MP on the Commons health select committee, said: “Andy Burnham and his predecessors missed far too many warnings about high hospital death rates. He should take a long hard look at his record and ask himself whether he is really fit for the role of shadow health secretary.”

The Conservative attack will be stepped up on Tuesday but Labour said last night that it stood by its record.

A spokesman said: “The claim that Labour ignored problems at these hospitals is disgraceful and not supported by a shred of evidence. In fact, the truth is the precise opposite.”

He said Mr Burnham had ordered his own review of five of the hospitals covered by Sir Bruce’s report — Basildon and Thurrock, Medway, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole, Sherwood Forest and Tameside – and claimed its warnings had been “clearly ignored” by the current government “as evidence shows all five hospitals have deteriorated sharply on the Coalition’s watch”.

Two hospitals named by Sir Bruce last night said they had improved their performances.

Colchester trust said its death rate had fallen and was now “within the expected range” and Dudley said current figures showed mortality rates are not above average. Northern Lincolnshire, East Lancashire and United Lincolnshire said they would not comment until the Keogh review is published in full this week. The others did not respond.

Clarification

We have been asked to make clear that, contrary to an earlier version of this report, Sir Brian Jarman's findings reflected the number by which mortality figures exceeded what would have been statistically expected. He made no finding as to the causes of any deaths or whether they were "needless".

Edited December 26, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

Man With Cancer Told To Give Up Treatment and Join Work Programme To Keep Benefits

============

http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/man-cancer-told-give-treatment-join-work-programme-keep-benefits/

Edited May 2, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

_{NHS hit by new tech failure as it scraps patient booking system}

• _{Toby Helm and Denis Campbell}
• _{The Observer,Saturday 10 May 2014 16.53 EDT}

_{MPs were told by NHS staff that while some GPs liked Choose and Book, many did not, and that not all appointment slots were available on it. Photograph: MBI /Alamy}

_{The NHS is quietly ditching an electronic booking system for outpatient appointments, Choose and Book, which has cost £356m since 2004, in a further sign of the difficulties of introducing efficient IT systems into the health service.}

_{The decision to replace it with a potentially even more expensive e-referral scheme by 2016 follows a drop in its use by doctors and patients.}

_{During a recent investigation into NHS waiting times by the House of Commons' public accounts committee, MPs were told by NHS staff that while some GPs liked Choose and Book, many did not, and that not all outpatient appointment slots were available on it, limiting its usefulness.}

_{NHS England said last night the new e-referral system would use different technology, but it was unable to say how much the scheme would cost.}

_{Meg Hillier, a Labour member of the committee, said: "It's another NHS cock up. A system designed for use by GPs but only used by half of them … has been quietly dropped, so quietly that even most of the NHS seems unaware.}

_{"In the middle of all of this are patients. Choose and Book was supposed to speed things up but the evidence we heard in committee showed this was not so in most cases."}

_{Choose and Book was introduced by the Labour government to enable patients needing an outpatient appointment to select, with their GP, a hospital appointment at a convenient date and time. The aim was to speed up the process and cut out the need for costly paperwork.}

_{The Department of Health wants patients to become more involved in managing their appointments. The National Audit Office has estimated that 1.6m patients failed to turn up for first outpatient appointments in 2012-13, costing the taxpayer up to £225m.}

_{But many patients and doctors found Choose and Book complicated and time-consuming. Tory MP and former GP Sarah Wollaston said the system suited patients who were good with technology but not those who were less so. She said doctors often did not have time to log on to it during appointments with their patients.}

_{Wollaston, a member of the Commons select committee on health, added that technology could have drawbacks.}

_{"You do have to be careful that when setting up this kind of system using the latest techology, that you do not inadvertently end up widening health inequalities in the process."}

_{Una O'Brien, the permanent secretary at the Department of Health, said the replacement scheme would have additional features, and would be be available on mobile apps.}

_{She told the Commons committee: "We are aiming to have 100% electronic referrals within the next five years – sooner than that if we can make it. That will cut out a lot of these errors." The idea of making it compulsory for GPs to use the replacement system when it comes on stream, with an inbuilt incentive and penalty scheme for doctors and hospitals, is being considered.}

_{The decision to drop Choose and Book, and admissions that it was not being used by many doctors and patients, marks the latest of many IT failures in the NHS, where attempts to embrace technology in the quest for more joined-up care have encountered numerous delays and cost overruns.}

_{A £12bn project launched in England in 2002 aimed to allow 50 million patients' records to be held electronically so that they could be accessed by staff in different parts of the service: primary care, hospitals, out of hours services and ambulance crews. But it was scrapped by the coalition after a series of setbacks.}

Edited May 11, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

British National Health Service SOLD ... To the highest bidder!

theflowofperceptions.blogspot.com/.../british-national-health-service-sold-to.html

‎

• Cached

The British National Health Service is being dismantled and sold off right before

our eyes. But the media is not telling the public. These are interviews after the ...

[Steven Gaal]

One baby has died and 14 others are fighting for their lives after being poisoned in NHS neonatal care units. (CLICK LINK)

A public health alert was issued by health chiefs last night after it emerged that all the newborns' infections were caused by a contaminated batch of nutrition drip. The children were affected at neonatal intensive care units at six different hospitals, but the infected nutrition is believed to have been used in 22 hospitals across the country.

Edited June 5, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

Film claims government corruption behind sell-off of NHS

Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Health and also in Central Government, Communities Friday 31st October 2014 - 3:01pm

Share this story

Mother arrested over death of 10-day-old baby

A number of doctors and medical specialists have claimed that the British government is engaged in a systematic sell-off of the NHS, and have alleged that the process amounts to nothing short of corruption.

Featured in a new film, the practitioners express alarm about what they claim is the "abolition of the NHS" by the Tory-led coalition.

According to those interviewed, the NHS is undergoing a process of 'Americanization', in which it is being sold off to private businesses with patient care destined to suffer while commercial interests benefit.

In a five-minute trailer for the upcoming film, one doctor says that he feels "duty-bound to speak up on behalf of my patients and what can affect their livelihoods and potential health in the future is a system that is set up to crumble and fail them," adding that "one of the government's major tools is public ignorance and professional apathy to drive through these ridiculous reforms which will actually benefit no one but commercial interests".

Another medic tells interviewers that the "full extent of the repercussions of the 2012 Health and Social Act are only just starting to be felt".

And the trailer repeatedly claims that many of the transactions behind the scenes of the sell-off of the NHS are "corrupt", revealing that "more than 200 MPs have known potential interests in NHS privatisation".

One doctor refers to the process as "corruption with a capital 'C'".

The film also alleges that the mainstream media has failed to draw attention to the current situation within the NHS. One doctor says that "in many ways I feel quite sickened by the way the mainstream media behave".

The film's producer, Peter Bach, said: "I will shine a torch on what some doctors see as a glaring omission in the national psyche. I have identified a powerful group of figures within the NHS who are alarmed by the public's lack of awareness about the abolition of their NHS.

"This film will follow their arguments right the way up to the Health Secretary’s relinquishing of responsibility for the nation's health, and will argue that it must be reversed. This film also takes you on a personal journey to a national theme that has massive implications for us all. It will reveal a hidden agenda that’s already having disastrous effects."

[Steven Gaal]

Is George Osborne Really Cutting Britain Back To The 1930s? | UK ...

===

news24now.net/.../is-george-osborne-really-cutting-britain-back-to-the-1930s

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George Osborne's "extreme" cuts after the next election could mark a return to ...
stay in poverty, or where our National Health Service becomes Americanised." ....
Britain's tax system is broken - but George Osborne's Google Tax won't work ...

=================

Englemed Health News - Health cuts link to maternal deaths

www.englemed.co.uk/14/14dec101_maternal_deaths.php

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==

Cuts in health services across Europe are linked to increase rates of deaths of ...
The study comes the day after a study into maternal dath rates in the UK was
released. ... Researchers said health systems that kept a presence of “skilled
birth ...

Edited December 13, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

NHS staff – threaten new year strikes as pay dispute escalates | The ...

thelondonpost.net/nhs-staff-threaten-new-year-strikes-as-pay-dispute-escalates/

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• Cached (CLICK LINK)

NHS leaders in England say the problems caused by the funding squeeze are
greater than ever, with hospitals struggling to cope with record levels of ...

[Steven Gaal]

see post # 25 above ,read below

The rise of the £300,000 NHS fatcats (CLICK LINK)

The number of NHS managers being paid the equivalent of more than £300,000 a year has doubled in just 12 months, it can be disclosed.

In some cases, cash-strapped health trusts are hiring temporary executives for hundreds of thousands of pounds, an investigation by The Telegraph has found.

Patients’ groups said the “exorbitant” rates could not be justified, and nursing leaders said the sums were a “kick in the teeth” for junior staff who were refused a one per cent pay rise.

Read more: whatreallyhappened.com http://whatreallyhappened.com/#ixzz3NPxuvUKE

Edited December 31, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

Doctors becoming depressed and even suicidal because of NHS ...

www.walesonline.co.uk/.../doctors-becoming-depressed-even-suicidal-8451860

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Research published in the British Medical Journal claims the complaints process
is ... including suffering from insomnia or experiencing relationship problems.”.

[Steven Gaal]

NHS may be forced to abandon free healthcare, Britain's top doctor says (LINK)

[Steven Gaal]

NHS boss pocketed £155,000 by retiring for just 24 hours: She quit, cashed in pension, then got her job back!

An NHS chief who tried to gag a whistleblower has claimed an extra £155,000 by ‘retiring’ for just 24 hours.

Sue James, 58, used a loophole to bank the tax-free bonus as her Trust declared millions of pounds in losses.

She was then rehired a day later to continue earning her salary of almost £200,000 a year.

The executive – who once offered £250,000 of public money to silence a surgeon who spoke out about poor patient care – was last night branded ‘morally reprehensible’.

She faces being investigated by watchdogs and could be fired under new laws, if found to have been involved in ‘serious misconduct or mismanagement’. Incredibly, she has refused to apologise or hand back the money, maintaining she is ‘fully entitled’ to the payout.

[Steven Gaal]

THE PEOPLE'S DAILY

Workers clobbered as austerity hits care firms

Feb
2015

Tuesday 10^th

posted by Peter Lazenby in Britain

Care workers have faced 33 per cent wage cuts as Con-Dem austerity cascades down through council budgets and into bargain-bin outsourced services.

Carers’ union GMB said yesterday that staff at Surrey provider Prospect Housing and London provider Choice Support had seen salaries reduced by up to £700 a month, working hours raised to as many as 50 and employer pension contributions axed.

Councils have a legal duty to look after elderly and disabled people, but GMB regional organiser Sheila Carlson said: “Because so many have outsourced these services, they can bully providers into further and further economies,” she said.

“In other words: Give us a low quote or you lose the contract.”

Surrey County Council employs Prospect Housing to care for vulnerable and dependent people in the community. But the council is reducing the contract price it pays to Prospect — which is passing it on to staff.

In the London Borough of Merton care provider Choice Support has had its contract price cut by £400,000 — some staff have left while others are top up wages with benefits.

pingThe scandal is being repeated across the country.

“Huge cuts have been made in central government funding to local councils,” said Ms Carlson. “With over 80 per cent of the cost of care being staff costs, it is easy to see where any cuts will fall.”

She added that, with demand increasing, the care sector is “in crisis.”

HM Revenue and Customs is facing calls for an investigation into the social care sector.