Spire Healthcare, Britain’s second-largest private hospital operator, as seen its profits rise as a result of a surge in patients choosing to pay for hip and knee operations, as the … Read more
Cygnet Health Care has been repeatedly criticised by regulators and has now had its leadership at one hospital described as “ineffective”. The company received an urgent enforcement notice from the … Read more
Premier Mental Health Transport Ltd (PMHT) has been banned from transporting patients until October, following its staff failing to spot a grandmother’s decline whilst being transported. Peggy Copeman, 81, died … Read more
Dr Ashraf Chohan, founder and chair of Conservative Friends of the NHS, which aims to forge ties between politicians and healthcare workers in the private and public sectors, and his son … Read more
Union leaders have called for staff that work in the NHS, such as cleaners, porters, catering assistants, security guards and other health staff, but employed by private companies to receive … Read more
The Times reports that former Conservative councillor, Steve Dechan, received a £120 million government contract for face shields whose quality is so doubtful that fewer than 1 in 400 have … Read more
The Guardian has seen internal emails that suggest the government gave “VIP treatment” to a firm offering Covid testing facilities which had entered the system “informally” because Matt Hancock was “a good … Read more
Firms are being invited to bid to run 150 new community diagnostic facilities as part of £10bn NHS framework contract which has been advertised by NHS England. Planning for these new facilities … Read more
The Australian private hospital chain Ramsay has increased its offer to buy the UK company Spire Healthcare. The takeover will mean Ramsay will merge Spire’s 47 hospitals with Ramsay’s 40 … Read more
An inquest jury has found that serious failures of risk assessment, communication, and the setting of observation levels contributed to the death of 19-year-old Brooke Martin. The jury returned their … Read more
Serco has been awarded a new contract worth up to £322 million to continue running Covid-19 testing sites for another year. The company now runs 20% of centres in England and … Read more
The Guardian reports that Matt Hancock’s use of private emails that bypassed disclosure rules when doing government business have come under scrutiny, as exchanges emerged showing the former health secretary … Read more
A report from the National Audit Office has found that almost 600m lateral flow tests given to the public in England may not yet have been used and that the … Read more
Byline Times reports that the Government’s COVID-19 ‘Test and Trace’ system, run by Baroness Dido Harding, has broken a commitment to MPs by bolstering its ranks with more private sector … Read more
Two contracts for contact tracers with Serco and Sitel have been extended by six months by the Department of Health and Social Care for an additional cost of £168m. Serco … Read more
A total, constipated silence from the NHS and ministers shrouds the long-delayed new “mega lab” that was supposed to have opened in Leamington Spa last January as part of the … Read more
Unlike the widely touted (and now delayed) date for lifting all remaining lockdown restrictions, the deadline for patients to opt-out of a scheme to create an unprecedented central database of … Read more
A judge has ruled that Michael Gove acted unlawfully when the government awarded a contract without a tender to a polling company owned by long-term associates of his and Dominic Cummings, … Read more
NHS dentistry is facing a “twin crisis of access and affordability”, according to the watchdog Healthwatch England, which means in reality for many people NHS dentistry no longer exists. The … Read more
The concerns of campaigners that the proposals in the NHS White Paper to give statutory powers to “Integrated Care Systems” would lead to private companies sitting on ICS Boards have been proved justified. Virgin … Read more
