10th October 2011
Doctors insist Health Bill will damage NHS
Source: www.wellards.co.uk/v4/
Government health reforms will commercialise and fragment the NHS while causing ‘irreparable harm’ to individuals and society, according to hundreds of public health doctors and specialists.
In an open letter to the House of Lords published in the Daily Telegraph newspaper the doctors asked that the Bill be rejected and said proposals set out in the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 could erode medical ethics and trust, widen health inequalities, waste money and undermine the health service’s capabilities. Peers are due to begin debating the Bill on 11 October.
More trusts predicting deficits
Six acute NHS trusts and three primary care trusts (PCTs) are forecasting that they will end the financial year in the red, according to the NHS’s latest quarterly report.
The losses forecast by the six NHS trusts – which are all in London and the Southeast – total £170m. The combined PCT debt accounts for £56m (all three trusts are from the capital). Last year, only two acute trusts were predicting year-end deficits.
Overall, strategic health authorities and PCTs are forecasting a combined surplus of £1.165bn and NHS trusts (excluding foundation trusts) are predicting a surplus of £61m for 2011/12.
Practice uses patient data to offer private treatments
A GP practice in York has been criticised for writing to patients offering them a range of minor treatments privately. The practices claim the treatments are no longer available on the NHS.
Haxby Group Practice targeted patients who had previously requested treatment for minor operations including ingrowing toenails, mole removal and chopping out warts and cysts. It said: ‘We are holding your details on a list of patients who require a minor surgical procedure that is no longer paid for by the NHS.’
It provides details for four private organisations in the area that could offer the treatment, including a private company owned by the practice itself, and a price list for treatments.