Posts

Yorkshire NHS jobs cut by 4% since election, East and NW also down

The Yorkshire and the Humber region has lost more than 4% of its NHS jobs since the election, more than double the national rate, according to data published last week by the NHS Information Centre. The East of England and North West regions lost more than 3% of their NHS jobs.

With a couple of exceptions, the poorer areas of England lost more NHS jobs than average while richer regions lost fewer, between May 2010 and October 2012. Two NHS regions actually gained NHS jobs over this period: South East Coast, up 0.75%, and the North East (which has the most NHS jobs per resident of any region, with more than 24 full-time equivalent (FTE) health service staff per 1,000 residents), rising 0.53%. London and South Central reduced FTE staff numbers by less than 1%. Continue reading “Yorkshire NHS jobs cut by 4% since election, East and NW also down”

Cornwall council’s privatisation compromise

The west country council came perilously close to outsourcing a wide range of services to BT. Why did it change its mind?

Based on a set of interviews with councillors, and a trip to Bodmin to take a look at the Beacon technology park courtesy of Ann Kerridge – some images in the gallery above – this is my first piece in my second run as a freelance journalist, for the Guardian’s Society pages. Cornwall council is taking a pragmatic approach to outsourcing, trying to create and protect local jobs, increase efficiency and involve its local NHS trusts.

Continue reading “Cornwall council’s privatisation compromise”

Local NHS news comes from local journalists, so let’s not go paperless

Last week, Sam Shead of ZDNet got in touch with EHI Intelligence to ask if we expect to see a paperless NHS by 2018, as Jeremy Hunt pledged in a speech (analysed sharply by my EHI colleague Lyn Whitfield – she quotes one of Hunt’s aides on whether there will be funding to go paperless as saying: “Oh God. Do you mean central money? No, not a thing”). Mr Shead quoted me as follows:

“The English NHS will not be paperless by 2018,” senior analyst at EHI Intelligence, SA Mathieson, told ZDNet. “It is made up of several hundred organisations with greatly differing IT capabilities, as well as thousands of independent GPs.” Continue reading “Local NHS news comes from local journalists, so let’s not go paperless”

GPSoC-R: the doctor might email you now

The NHS National Programme for IT was by no means a complete failure. Parts of it, such as NHSmail, did so well that they are currently being renewed with new contracts, bells and whistles. The same is true of one of the less-known contracts, GP Systems of Choice (GPSoC), which expires this year – and its new version GPSoC-R (which stands for replacement) looks likely to support big changes in the way that patients and GPs communicate. Continue reading “GPSoC-R: the doctor might email you now”