QIPP, Efficiency & Savings

Getting it right for Personal Health Budgets

04.06.19: Claudia Martínez, research manager at Reform, recently co-authored a report on personal budgets in public services. Here, she outlines the things commissioners must consider when implementing Personal Health Budgets (PHBs). The NHS e...

NHS Counter Fraud: Who cares about ISO 17025:2005?

03.06.19: We do, writes Nikki Crook, technical lead of the NHS Counter Fraud Authority’s (NHSCFA) Forensic Computing Unit (FCU). I work for the NHSCFA, which is leading the fight against NHS fraud at the national level. Our dedicated FCU suppor...

Cannabis on trial

30.05.19: How will the NHS conduct accurate trials of cannabis-based medicinal products when everyone has already tried cannabis? Dr David Horn, medical director at the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis, reports. Until November 2018, cannabis was a Sched...

Mid Yorks Hospitals NHS Trust: Our improvement journey

28.05.19: Chief executive of the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Martin Barkley, writes for NHE to guide us through his trust’s improvement journey. It’s arguably a hackneyed phrase in the NHS, but Mid Yorkshire really has been on a si...

Pharmaceutical firms accused of illegally colluding to drive up drug prices, ‘costing the NHS millions’

24.05.19: Four pharmaceutical firms have been accused of illegally colluding to restrict the supply of an anti-nausea tablet, drastically driving up prices by 700%, the competition watchdog has alleged. Between December 2013 and December 2017, the co...

London trust and CCG to appoint first joint leader in new shared working plans

15.05.19: A London trust and CCG have published new plans to increase the level of joint working between Croydon’s NHS services by appointing a new single joint leader. Croydon Health Services Trust and Croydon CCG have announced their ambition...

NHS lost £212m from prescription fraud last year whilst 1.7m people wrongly fined, NAO finds

15.05.19: Around 1.7 million fines have been wrongly handed out to patients and then overturned in the last five years, whilst the NHS also lost £212m last year due to wrongly claimed exemptions, the National Audit Office (NAO) has found. The n...

NHS set to launch global recruitment strategy to bring in thousands of foreign nurses

07.05.19: The NHS is set to begin a global recruitment drive to recruit tens of thousands of foreign nurses over the next five years in a bid to fill a void of 40,000 skilled workers. According to the staffing strategy, seen by The Times, NHS Improve...

Delayed hospital merger at centre of Bedford mayoral election as candidates desperate to retain NHS services

30.04.19: A delayed merger between two hospital trusts that will save £10m to £14m “needs to happen,” according to a councillor and mayoral candidate ahead of an election race in Bedford. Luton and Dunstable University Hospita...

NHS told to reduce spending on breakfast meals through £420k savings initiative

29.04.19: The government has urged the NHS to reduce the amount of money it spends on food and drink, with a new initiative set to save £420,000 a year on breakfast products alone. By utilising the NHS Supply Chain and buying in bulk, health mi...

Interserve awarded place on £450m NHS framework until 2022

25.04.19: Troubled contractor Interserve has been awarded a place on the NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) framework for infrastructure and car park management. The framework is available to a range of public sector organisations and will operat...

Routine breech scans could lower mother and baby mortality rates and save NHS money, researchers say

17.04.19: Scanning mothers-to-be late in their pregnancy could prevent 15,000 unexpected breech births, 4,000 emergency C-sections, and the deaths of up to eight babies a year, new research has shown. Breech births, where a baby’s bottom or fee...

NHS Property Services awards Mitie with extension to facilities management mega-contract

16.04.19: NHS Property Services (NHS PS) has awarded an extension to a three-year contract to deliver engineering, landscaping and security services across the health service to Mitie. The contract will see Mitie deliver mechanical and electrical ser...

‘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...

Going back to school at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

10.04.19: Steve Hams, director of quality and chief nurse at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GHFT), demonstrates how cultural change has improved care for patients. Staff have gone back to school as part of a ‘social movement&rs...