Hammersmith & Fulham Save Our NHS (HAFSON) campaigners in North West London have told The Lowdown of a brewing row over leaked plans to force through a wholesale reorganisation of … Read more
GPs
A survey by Pulse has found that soaring use of private healthcare for tests and treatments is piling pressure on overstretched GP surgeries, with family doctors warning that standard NHS care … Read more
The digital health company Babylon Health is set to withdraw from the New York Stock Exchange and become a private company again as its leading creditor AlbaCore Capital LLP, takes … Read more
The Guardian reports that patients are paying up to £550 an hour to see private GPs amid frustration at the delays many face getting an appointment with an NHS family doctor. Growing … Read more
A Pulse investigation into the continued problems of the Primary Care Support Services contract run by Capita since 2015 reveals that many problems remain. It’s been seven years since NHS … Read more
An investigation by BBC’s Panorama, including using an undercover journalist to work as a GP receptionist, has found that Operose, the UK’s biggest chain of GP surgeries, has let less-qualified Patient … Read more
NHS England has extended Capita’s primary care support services contract for three more years for £94m. Capita took over the Primary Care Support England contract in September 2015 in a seven-year deal … Read more
The chair of the RCGP has warned that there is a ‘real threat’ that general practice will face the same fate as dentistry in the UK – where a growing … Read more
A Judge has ruled that Pharmacorp must pay £13,670 covering fines, legal costs and a victim surcharge for prescribing drugs without a CQC registration. The online GP service, also known … Read more
NHS England’s annual accounts show that NHS commissioners’ spending on private healthcare were up 27% to more than £18bn in 2020-21, with pandemic effects causing it to rise faster than … 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
In primary care, the government’s enthusiasm for private company involvement led to encouraging groups of GPs to band together to set up their own private limited companies to run large … Read more
The private provider DMC Healthcare has had further enforcement action taken against it by a regulator after consistently failing to deliver a high standard of service to patients at its … Read more
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the use of digital health solutions in the NHS. On 5 March, NHS England sent all GP practices a letter advising that patients be assessed online or via … Read more
HSJ reports that Livi, which provides remote consultations to the NHS and across Europe through an app, has recorded a 107 per cent increase in consultations from 1 February to … Read more
In mid-March 2020, NHS England issued a confidential 48-hour tender for the immediate provision of online primary care consultation to help the health service cope with patient demand in the … Read more
A patient safety inquiry has been launched after the IT company, Cerner, a private contractor, failed to send more than 28,000 pieces of confidential medical correspondence to GPs, according to the … Read more
Babylon Health and the Royal Wolverhampton Trust have announced a 10 year deal to develop what they are calling a new model of healthcare. The first services are expected to … Read more
Four GP surgeries in Swindon run by tBetter Health Partnership have been placed in special measures following CQC inspections. The practices have to make urgent improvements, according to the CQC. … Read more
Capita has admitted to further emails and letters being processed incorrectly on their cervical screening programme, but are claiming this has not caused harm to patients. Back in March, NHS … Read more
