NHS Finance

Private mental health group The Priory fined £300,000 over death of 14-year-old girl

17.04.19: Private mental health group The Priory healthcare group has been fined £300,000 for breaching health and safety laws following the death of 14-year-old Amy El-Keria. El-Keria was treated at Priory Group’s Ticehurst House psychia...

‘Dishonest’ solicitor struck off for overcharging NHS with ‘unreasonable’ clinical negligence bills

15.04.19: A “dishonest” solicitor who overcharged the NHS whilst pursuing clinical negligence cases has been struck off after the High Court judged he had showed a “serious lack of integrity.” Andrew Good, who founded the Hull...

Woman jailed after trying to defraud the NHS for more than £2m

09.04.19: A woman who tried to sue the NHS for £2.3m in compensation for a botched surgery which she claimed left her in constant pain has been jailed. Lesley Maria Elder from Dorset said the severe pain following a vaginal mesh operation had r...

English hospital to stop accepting Welsh patients in ‘unacceptable’ funding row

09.04.19: An English hospital has said it will no longer take in patients from Wales except for emergencies or maternity cases, leading to the first minister to say that Welsh funding will therefore have to stop. The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS...

King’s College trust set to make record-breaking budget overspend of nearly £200m

05.04.19: King’s College Hospital NHS FT could be set to record the biggest overspend in NHS history as the special measures trust expects an annual deficit of between £180m and £191m. The hospital trust believes it has exceeded its...

Extent of NHS’s declining financial health and staffing crisis being masked, MPs warn

04.04.19: Staffing shortages represent “the biggest threat” to financial stability in the NHS and to delivering the Long-Term Plan, as MPs warn that the health service is on course to “rapidly reach crisis point.” The Public A...

Multi-million-pound cuts approved as Derbyshire CCGs enter merger

03.04.19: Derbyshire CCGs have agreed unprecedented £70m cutbacks as they sealed a landmark merger of the region’s health bodies. The four CCGs in Derbyshire – Erewash, Hardwick, North Derbyshire and Southern Derbyshire – have...

National Audit Office: Is the NHS financially sustainable?

03.04.19: Is the NHS financially sustainable? Robert White, director of health value for money studies at the National Audit Office, finds out more. On 25 February, this question was posed by the Public Accounts Committee to a witness panel of senior...

NHS Highland to ask Scottish Government to plug £17m budget overspend

29.03.19: NHS Highland is expecting an overspend of £17m in 2018-19 and has agreed to ask the Scottish Government to plug its funding deficit. A need for temporary staff and consultants to fill vacancies are among the factors impacting the late...

£60m worth of out-of-date breakthrough cystic fibrosis drug destroyed in NHS price row

28.03.19: Nearly 8,000 packs of Orkambi, a breakthrough medicine for cystic fibrosis, have been destroyed after exceeding their expiry date during a stand-off between the NHS and supplier over high prices. US company Vertex revealed in a letter to th...

‘Monstrous’ £500m scheme to close London A&Es scrapped after Hancock U-turn

27.03.19: A £500m plan to axe nearly half of the A&E departments in west London has been scrapped by the health secretary after a seven-year campaign against the “monstrous” shake-up. Matt Hancock made the announcement to MPs in...

Getting it right first time and reducing variation in the NHS

27.03.19: Mike Hutton, author of the recently-published Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) national report on spinal services and consultant spine surgeon at The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, looks at how reducing unwarranted variation in...

The NHS estate is more than just 'bricks and mortar'

27.03.19: Claudia Martinez, research manager at Reform, talks about maximising the value of the NHS estate. In his review of NHS property and estates, Sir Robert Naylor argued that an adequate healthcare infrastructure was crucial to achieving the go...

‘Impossible’ for healthcare trust to remain open with 280 jobs set to go

22.03.19: A 150-year-old private health trust has announced it will have to close, with all services and 280 staff expected to be lost. All Hallows Healthcare Trust said it had been forced to accept that it is now “impossible” to balance...

Private hospital in Dundee announces closure with 50 jobs to go

20.03.19: A private hospital in Dundee has announced that it will close in the summer because of falling numbers of local people paying for private insurance. Fernbrae Hospital will shut down in May and a consultation is underway to work out what wil...