'WHERE WAS CONSULTATION OVER AXING?'
February 9th 2007
Councillors have criticised a decision by NHS managers to suspend emergency surgery at a hospital.
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ANOTHER NAIL IN YOUR HOSPITAL'S COFFIN
February 9th 2007
Emergency general surgery will be withdrawn from Grantham Hospital by the end of March – and hospital insiders fear it is the beginning of the end for A&E
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HOSPITAL CRISIS - 'JUGGLING WITH PEOPLE'S LIVES'
February 9th 2007
Cutting emergency general surgery at Grantham Hospital will create a domino effect which will see the closure of A&E within one year, according to hospital insiders
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Hospital moves to suspend surgery
February 8th 2007
Emergency general surgery is to be suspended from the end of March at a Lincolnshire hospital because it says it cannot provide safe patient care.
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Mum + doctor = sensible birth practice
February 7th 2007
Childbirth has leapt from the outer reaches of the NHS, where I and many other mothers have laboured in what I can only describe as the Dark Ages, on to centre stage.
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A threat to new mothers
February 7th 2007
A report recommending the radical "reconfiguring" of maternity care by the Government's chief adviser on childcare and maternity services, Dr Sheila Shribman, is tendentiously titled Making It Better for Mother and Baby. Expectant mothers may wonder how the closure of many hospital maternity facilities could possibly benefit them or their families.
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Maternity crisis : ministers who won't toe the line
February 7th 2007
At least a dozen members of the Government are fighting NHS closures of maternity units, A&E departments, wards and cottage hospitals in or near their constituencies .
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Plans to strip hospitals of maternity units
February 7th 2007
Women in labour could face lengthy journeys by ambulance to distant specialist units under plans which would strip dozens of local hospitals of consultant-led maternity services. Department of Health proposals unveiled yesterday seek a smaller number of consultant units to deal with the most complicated births and the sickest babies.
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Watchdog condemns deal behind health choice scheme
February 6th 2007
A groundbreaking deal with the private sector to provide millions of patients with information on the best hospitals and GPs in Britain is condemned today by a parliamentary watchdog as poor value for money and breaking almost every rule designed to protect the taxpayer.
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Childbirth shakeup means NHS unit closures
February 6th 2007
Plans for a drastic reduction in the number of NHS hospitals in England providing full childbirth facilities for mothers and specialist medical care for children will be announced by the Department of Health today.
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A&E Waiting figures being fiddled
February 6th 2007
The four-hour A&E target is being "fiddled" by "dubious management tactics", academics say.
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Big shake-up for maternity care
February 6th 2007
Some English hospitals should be stripped of doctor-led maternity care and specialist children's services, a government adviser says
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Natural selection will save the NHS
January 24th 2007
Received wisdom has it that introduction of general management in the NHS in the 1980s was a good thing. But Aidan Halligan, the former NHS director of clinical governance who quit the Department of Health last year, has come to the view that putting doctors and nurses in charge is the only way to save the service.
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Doctors angry at plan to assess patients at private clinics
January 24th 2007
GPs will lose the right to refer NHS patients for assessment at a hospital outpatient clinic under plans that were condemned by the British Medical Association yesterday as a step too far in the creeping privatisation of the health service
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Tories pledge to scrap NHS targets
January 24th 2007
David Cameron vowed to put GPs "in the driving seat" today as he unveiled plans to scrap most national health service targets and put doctors in charge of their own budgets
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Hewitt sparks pay row with GPs
January 20th 2007
Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, risked a head-on clash with the British Medical Association yesterday by suggesting that GPs in England are making too much profit on work for the NHS.
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GP pay could be capped
January 19th 2007
NHS managers are to consider capping GPs' pay as they negotiate changes to their contracts, it was confirmed today.
The news came hours after the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, said that, with hindsight, she wished GPs' earnings had been capped.
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Maternity care row over hospital closures in Blair's back yard
January 19th 2007
Two big NHS hospitals serving Tony Blair's constituents in south Durham are to be closed after a fierce row over which of them should provide maternity services, it emerged last night.
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Brown can’t cure this paralysed NHS, so he plans to privatise it
January 14th 2007
The former Granada boss Sir Gerry Robinson recently spent six months trying to reform Rotherham general hospital. The result was shown in three hours of fly-on-the-wall television on BBC2 last week. It was rightly put after the watershed: as politics it was certificate 18. At the end of each day Robinson could be seen slumped in the back of his car, his face buried in his hands. A tycoon sobbing in a limousine is the perfect icon of Labour’s health service. .
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Value for money in the NHS
January 23rd 2007
The former Granada boss Sir Gerry Robinson recently spent six months trying to reform Rotherham general hospital. The result was shown in three hours of fly-on-the-wall television on BBC2 last week. It was rightly put after the watershed: as politics it was certificate 18. At the end of each day Robinson could be seen slumped in the back of his car, his face buried in his hands. A tycoon sobbing in a limousine is the perfect icon of Labour’s health service. .
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FIGHT HEALTH CUTS - BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
January 24th 2007
I Was slightly baffled at the response of Sleaford councillors Brian Watson and Peter Haysum (Target, December 20) and Coun Graham Smith to the cuts in local NHS services.
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HOSPITAL'S FUTURE IS STILL UNCERTAIN
January 24th 2007
THE future of the Accident and Emergency department at Grantham Hospital remains unclear after county health managers held a crunch meeting last Wednesday.
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Floods 'threat to our future'
January 24th 2007
THE future development of Boston is under threat after a potentially devastating new report into the town's long-term flood risk.
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Revealed: the 11 government ministers fighting NHS cuts
January 13th 2007
At least 13 members of Tony Blair's ministerial team have campaigned over the last few months against closure of services at NHS hospitals used by their constituents, a Guardian survey has revealed
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Maternity cash cut amid boom in birthrate, say midwives
January 9th 2007
The NHS is responding to a boom in the birthrate by cutting spending on maternity services, the Royal College of Midwives said yesterday after a survey of more than 100 heads of midwifery in hospital trusts across Britain
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Blair and Hewitt defend hospital closures
January 5th 2007
The prime minister said the best care on offer was at specialist centres, although he admitted there was always going to be debate about local reconfiguration of services
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NHS facing glut of consultants and Nurse shortages
January 5th 2007
Leaked government documents forecasting a glut of NHS hospital consultants and an acute shortage of nurses provoked fury last night among doctors' and nurses' leaders
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Operating lists shut at hospitals
January 4th 2007
Nearly 20 operating lists at hospitals across Lincolnshire are being closed for three months to try to help balance the books.
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Bosses calm fears over superbug
January 4th 2007
Hospital bosses in Nottingham have reassured staff, patients and visitors that measures are being taken to stop the spread of a superbug
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Fight To Stop Hospital Cuts Hotting Up
January 2nd 2007
A SLEAFORD councillor is backing the campaign to save services at Grantham and District Hospital.
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Minister defends hospital protest
December 28th 2006
Cabinet minister Hazel Blears has defended her decision to take part in a protest over plans to close part of a hospital in her constituency.
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Superbug is huge problem
December 28th 2006
NOTTINGHAM The number of patients contracting the Clostridium difficile superbug may cause huge problems for the NHS, a coroner said.
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Cabinet Minister joins protest over hospital
December 28th 2006
The cabinet minister Hazel Blears is petitioning the health secretary to stop the closure of maternity services in her constituency under an NHS reorganisation. Her intervention is deeply embarrassing for the government, coming at a time when it is attempting to prove to the public that reconfiguration of the health service is vital to improving care.
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NHS cash crisis puts 43 maternity units under threat
December 12th 2006
Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, was accused of failing tens of thousands of expectant mothers last night as it emerged that 43 maternity units across the country have been shut down or face the threat of closure.

Miss Hewitt faced criticism after a report revealed that around one in six of England's 282 maternity units could be shut by NHS trusts which are battling huge deficits.
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MAP of maternity units under threat


24hr surgeries to the rescue
December 12th 2006
Super-surgeries, open 24 hours, could be part of a future NHS, one of Britain's senior surgeons said yesterday.
Prof Ara Darzie, a leading cancer specialist and surgical adviser to the Department of Health, believes that more illness should be treated outside hospital.
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It is broke, so fix it
December 12th 2006
It was hoped that tough accounting rules might do for the health service what being tied to the mast did for Odysseus. Just as he was protected against the lure of the sirens, so the health service would be protected against the temptation to which it has traditionally fallen prey: to solve every problem with a cash bail-out. But yesterday, along with optimistic plans to move the NHS as a whole into surplus, came the admission that the financial binds being imposed were "unsustainable" for many individual trusts - these are rules that cannot and will not be kept. Having acknowledged that the system was broken, however, there was no move by the government to fix it.
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NHS Chief admits flawed accounting behind deficits
December 12th 2006
The head of the NHS in England admitted yesterday that its accounting system was "unsustainable and inconsistent", forcing the weakest hospital trusts into a vicious cycle of spiralling deficits
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Treat more patients at home, says NHS report
December 7th 2006
Some patients with life-threatening conditions, including ectopic pregnancies and blood clots on the lung, should normally be cared for at home by GPs and visiting nurses instead of being admitted to hospital, according to a draft NHS report
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On the ropes over Hospital reform
December 7th 2006
The great persuader, Tony Blair, entered the debate about the planned shake-up of hospitals.
He told sceptics it was about improving care not cutting services. But why does the public not believe him?
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Blair says shake-up of health service crucial to its survivial
December 6th 2006
The future of a tax-funded NHS is at risk if doctors and politicians lack the courage to act quickly to close hospital departments that no longer provide the best patient care, Tony Blair warned yesterday.
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The case for reorganisation
December 6th 2006
The medical case for reorganising hospitals was made yesterday in two reports from government "tsars" responsible for setting national standards for treating heart disease and organising emergency care.
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Labours lethal logic
December 6th 2006
Yesterday, the Prime Minister attempted to persuade people that having to travel further for medical help in emergencies would be good for them. The apparently bizarre logic of this argument rested on the premise that highly specialised "super-regional" (i.e., not local) centres of excellence are the best places to treat such life-threatening events as heart attacks and strokes. Many accident and emergency departments would be closed as full-scale emergency facilities and replaced by minor injury units.
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Closures are not about saving money, but saving lives
December 6th 2006
The closure of accident and emergency services at some hospitals is in the interests of patients, the Government said yesterday.
Presenting them as part of a plan to create “super-A&Es” to deal with heart attacks, strokes, and aortic aneurysms, Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, sought to halt a tide of opposition to the closures.
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Analysis : the A&E debate
December 5th 2006
Nigel Hawkes, The Times's Health Editor, analyses the proposals in reports by two leading clinicians published today that call for reform of emergency services and the creation of super A&E departments to treat heart attack and stroke patients.
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Hospital closures will save lives
December 5th 2006
Closing hospitals saves lives, the Government will claim today. Campaigns to keep local accident and emergency departments and small specialist units open may cost more than 1,000 unnecessary deaths a year, according to a report.
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All trained up and nowhere to go
December 5th 2006
For many graduates, the task of finding a job is often an arduous battle against managing debt and escaping the cycle of temping jobs. Rarely do you find a degree that gives its graduates a passport to regular degree-level employment. Except, that is, for the NHS, which has been training its own new recruits for years.
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Leaked paper reveals Labour fears on NHS
December 5th 2006
Patricia Hewitt and other ministers have privately conceded that the government is in real difficulty over its efforts to sell controversial health reforms, a minute of a private briefing reveals.
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'Saving' hospitals costs lives
December 5th 2006
Campaigns to save services currently provided in district general hospitals could lead to more than 1,000 unnecessary deaths each year, according to new analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), published later this month.
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*Note* The IPPR is described here as you can see it has close links to the government although they 'claim' to be independent.

Blair : NHS must change
December 5th 2006
Tony Blair today defended the government's controversial reform plans for the NHS and predicted that the "best is yet to come".
Speaking to the NHS Confederation, the prime minister appealed to NHS managers and doctors to make the case for further reforms and help convince people of the clinical arguments for A &E closures.
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Hospital Closures will save lives, says Blair
December 5th 2006
Tony Blair attempted to head off growing protests over the closure of local accident and emergency departments yesterday, saying the changes would save more lives.
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A&E reforms : main points
December 5th 2006
Reforms of A&E services with the creation of new 'super A&E' departments have been put forward by two leading clinicians in reports published today.
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Turbulent times for emergency care
December 1st 2006
The Conservatives have demanded a fresh start in the process of reforming emergency services in England .
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NHS may close A&E units as deficits bite
December 1st 2006
A total of 29 accident and emergency units are facing closure as NHS trusts struggle to cope with record deficits, new figures have revealed
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Seventh NHS Trust Non-Executive resigns
November 30th 2006
Angry hospital chief Bill Baker has written a scathing letter of resignation to the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
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Blair - Keep up A&E fight
November 30th 2006
TONY Blair has urged people in Buckinghamshire to fight any proposals to close A&E services at Wycombe Hospital every step of the way.
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Where the Government is feeling the heat
October 26th 2006
Grassroots protests against hospital cuts and NHS reorganisations across England have in recent months become the most widespread and prolonged unrest since the poll tax revolt in 1990.
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Troubleshooter is given job of quelling hospital revolts
October 26th 2006
The health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, has called in a powerful troubleshooter to quell a public rebellion against NHS hospital closures.
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NHS cuts twice as likely in Tory and Lib Dem areas
    
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The Weakest Link
October 12th 2006
A Health watchdog has delivered a devastating blow to a "weak" and debt-ridden Lincolnshire health trust.
A new report has blasted United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, which is mired in £11.8m of debt and still reeling from a waiting lists scandal that saw its chief executive suspended.
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Minister stands by Hospital cuts
October 8th 2006
NHS reforms will "almost certainly" mean fewer hospitals offering a full range of services, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has said
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NHS rallies echo polltax anger
October 8th 2006
A rising number of protests against cuts in the NHS is threatening to rival the 1990s rebellion against the Tories' poll tax, campaigners have said.
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Protest rally against NHS closures
September 30th 2006
Organisers of a protest march against NHS changes said they were "staggered" by the number of people who turned out to voice their opposition.
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One million more go to A&E
October 1st 2006
The number of people seeking treatment at accident and emergency units is at a record level.Statistics from the Department of Health (DoH) reveal that there were 18,759,104 A&E visits in 2005-06, up five per cent from 17,837,180 the -previous year.
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Swapping patients for Paliament
September 18th 2006
Hospitals in England face a major shake-up under plans being considered by NHS bosses. Emergency care such as A&E could be stripped from scores of hospitals as the NHS centralises key services at fewer sites.
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