Month: January 2016

Research carried out by the BMA on almost 2,000 GP practices in England has revealed that CQC’s inspections divert considerable amounts of time away from caring for patients. This diversion occurs both on the lead up to and during the inspection and can amount to hundreds of staff hours diverted to preparation and can also …

GPs find that CQC inspections take time away from patient care Read More »

Justice Coulson has thrown out the case against Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust for corporate manslaughter and the corresponding gross negligence manslaughter case against the doctor involved. The Trust was acquitted following instructions from the judge to the jury to return with a not guilty verdict late yesterday afternoon. The case involved the death …

NHS Trust acquitted for corporate manslaughter in landmark ruling Read More »

The country’s mental health nurse workforce has shrunk by 10% in the last five years despite what appears to be increasing demand for the services they offer. This reduction in staff down from 41,320 in 2010 to 36,870 today shows a mental health sector with seemingly less staff than is required to meet demand. Interestingly …

Number of specialist mental health nurses drops by 10% Read More »

A number of NHS Trusts spent over £1m on agency staff over three years but the variation in agency spending fluctuated between one trust that spent £358 between 2012 and 2014 and another trust that spent £4.5m in the same period. The cost of employing an agency midwife was as much as 3 times the …

NHS Trusts overly reliant on expensive agency midwives Read More »

Comprehensive Future (CF), the group which campaigns against selective education, has dropped it’s judicial review application into the legality of the proposal for the annex to the Weald of Kent school. The Group have stated the reason for dropping the challenge was that the Government were failing to give them the information they needed to …

Grammar school legal challenge dropped Read More »

In an attempt to appease the concerns which appear to have been raised by a significant number of current Experts by Experience CQC issued a statement yesterday. The statement discusses the anticipated fall in pay for Experts by Experience in all regions. This move could signal a revision in the amounts paid to Experts by …

CQC issues statement on Experts by Experience contract negotiations Read More »

minimum nurse to patient ratios to ensure safe staffing on wards. NICE had previously refused to release the guidance that had been developed on safe staffing as NHS Improvement took over the work in the middle of last year. The decision to pull the plug on NICE’s research was seen as wasteful of public monies …

Leaked NICE guidance on safe staffing levels recommended nurse to patient ratios Read More »

CQC has recently reviewed its contracts for the providers of Experts by Experience and from 1 February 2016 Remploy Limited will begin to provide Experts by Experience in the South, North and London regions. As a result of the change in contract and following a review by Remploy, Expert by Experiences’ pay is set to …

Experts by Experience see wages halved in South, North and London regions Read More »

Simon Stevens, head of the NHS, has spoken of the current failure of the Government to adequately address the social care funding crisis. He urges the Government to reconsider plans to better fund social care in light of the cuts to local authority budgets. He suggests that some policies pledged by the Government should be …

Social care funding debate ‘intergenerationally unfair’ Read More »

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust have been charged with corporate manslaughter in relation to the death of pregnant woman during an emergency caesarean section in October 2012. It is stated that the birth was safely performed but following the procedure there were complications in relation to general anaesthetic for a post op procedure to …

First NHS Trust charged with corporate manslaughter Read More »