Health News Blog

'Physician associates should not triage patients'
A review recommends physician associates should -
1. be renamed "physician assistants" to reflect their supportive role,
2. not see new patients in primary or secondary care or make diagnosis,
3. have at least 2 years' hospital experience before working in a surgery or mental health trust,
4. be part of a team led by a senior doctor,
5. wear badges, lanyards and clothing to set them apart from doctors.

Buy now, pay triple later
Under Labour's 10 Year Plan PFI (private finance intiative) is set to return - what utter madness! See what parliament's Public Accounts Committee says about PFI. Yet now Streeting is proposing to use PFI to fund his Neighbourhood Health Centres. Further, where is the staffing for NHCs coming from?

But the BMA has criticisms of the review
"The review fails to fully protect patients." It should "end the postcode lottery of what PAs can and can’t do. By failing to recommend .... nationally agreed scopes of practice [it] has ignored the most urgent demand of the medical profession, and left patients at the mercy of local decisions by employers."

Palantir rejected by most trusts
For instance -
1. Manchester health authority "There are currently no products designed or produced by Palantir Technologies Inc. as part of the FDP programme that exceed the NHS Greater Manchester local capability.”
2. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust  ".. adopting some of the tools on Palantir’s platform would lead it to 'lose functionality rather than gain it'".
3. Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust simply said it had “no plans to join the FDP programme".

10 Year Plan 1: "managed decline"
Keep Our NHS Public has given its verdict on Streeting's plan. It assumes that "community care, prevention, and digital technology can solve the crisis without any significant new investment... The plan highlights a growing reliance on the private sector to deliver elective care – a model that reduces NHS capacity while leaving complex, costly cases to already overstretched NHS teams".

10 Year Plan 2
Page 22 of the Plan will "create a new workforce model which aims to harness the ingenuity of staff working at the frontline of healthcare and which gives them the freedom to innovate...this profound change in culture will mean embracing reforms to skill mix." A cynic might say this means more physician assistants!

10 Year Plan 3
More privatisation, these both on page 22 again -
1. "Instead of going it alone, the Plan sets out how the NHS will create new collaborations with commercial partners", 
2. "Officials [ICBs] must prepare a business case ahead of the autumn Budget to get permission to start agreeing private funding deals for new 'neighbourhood health centres'."

10 Year Plan 4 - Palantir & goodbye Healthwatch
Palantir will bid for the contract for the new single patient record at the centre of Wes Streeting’s 10-year health plan. Also in Streeting's plan, Healthwatch England and about 150 local patient voice branches to be abolished.

Streeting "I won't shrink away ......
...from using the private sector". Well they paid you well enough Wes!

KONP co-chair interview on LBC
John Puntis says "the private sector doesn't have spare capacity. When it wins contracts it then expands capacity on the back of NHS funds that are diverted to it". It then steals medics from the NHS.

'No private finance for hospitals'
The Treasury says "it will only explore the feasibility of using a new private funding model in very limited circumstances where they could represent value for money”. Based on the PFI experience of the 90's it shouldn't ever be used.

Public backs better pay for nurses
As NHS staff are given a 3.6% pay increase, three-quarters of voters have told a YouGov poll the profession deserves more money.

Underfunding and privatisation won't save NHS
A 10-year plan is under preparation to tell us how 'transformation' will be achieved. But gains from Labour's interventions to date are modest and far from transformational.

Radiology delays due to privatisation
Almost every radiology department in the UK now outsources some of its workload, largely to cover gaps in rotas caused by a national 30% shortfall in clinical radiologists. While this approach eases short-term pressures, the Royal College of Radiologists warns it is failing to fix the root cause and is becoming financially unsustainable.

MPs donations from private healthcare
We should be able to trust MPs to make decisions which are best for the public, not for wealthy donors and corporations. The NHS belongs to everyone, and it was created to provide healthcare based on medical need, not ability to pay. If those linked to private healthcare gain influence over our politicians through donations, it puts this fundamental principle at risk.

Physician associates to be renamed
Physician associates have been implicated in several high-profile patient deaths. To stop them being mistaken for real doctors they will be renamed - but will it? 

Where's the staffing coming from?
The government plans the creation of 40 extra same-day emergency care units and urgent treatment centres. Fine, but will this work and does the staffing deplete exisitng services? 

Just a sticking plaster?
The NHS is set to receive a £30bn funding boost in the 11th June spending review, but is it enough to significantly improve services?