Tag: NHS Peterborough

Peterborough PFI dispute delays radiotherapy unit

17:10 Friday 6th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: A legal wrangle is being blamed for a year-long delay in completing work on a vital new £5 million unit to help fight cancer. The radiotherapy unit at Peterborough City Hospital is now 12 months behind schedule, because of a dispute over the original PFI financial deal. Agency staff are being hired to cope with the workload at an extra cost to the already cash-strapped Trust. However, Trust officials say they cannot calculate the extra cost. Well to get a view on this I was joined earlier on by Peterborough’s MP Stewart Jackson.
(TAPE)
STEWART JACKSON: I’m very disappointed Chris, not least because like everyone else in Peterborough and particularly the healthcare professionals, I was delighted when the Government awarded extra funding for what is an extremely important cause, which is this particular unit. And the fact is that this is having impact on clinical work, and it’s making patients wait longer. And that can’t be right. So I’m asking the Trust and the contractors to get together and see if they can resolve this very pressing issue.
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Unison protest against erosion of NHS salaries

08:27 Monday 24th November 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: A second week of strike action by NHS workers is starting this morning. There are picket lines at hospital buildings across Cambridgeshire. Staff including midwives, nurses and paramedics are involved. They’re not happy about a Government decision to give them either a 1% pay rise or an annual increment, but not both. Sue Marchant’s been at Addenbrookes Hospital this morning. She caught up with Martin Booth who is the Cambridge Health Unison Branch Manager, and asked him about the turnout at the picket line.
MARTIN BOOTH: Well we’re certainly pleased with the response that we’re getting. We’ve got a number of members as you might have seen here, picketing the various entrances. And the people going into work, a lot of them not on strike for various reasons, but they are very supportive of the case that we’ve been making this morning.
SUE MARCHANT: So for those who are not aware, why are you striking?
MARTIN BOOTH: Because 1% which is what all public sector workers have been offered is way below the rise in the cost of living. In the case of health workers it’s even worse, because we’re recommended to get a 1% pay rise, but Jeremy Hunt said we’re not even going to get that. The only people getting that are the people at the top of their pay bands, but there’s about two thirds of health workers who are not at the top of the pay band. They’re getting no pay rise to make up for the rise in the cost of living this year, and next year we’ve not been promised anything at all. We can’t go on like this.
SUE MARCHANT: This isn’t the first strike though, is it? So where does this fit in with the strategy of what you’re trying to achieve?
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New challenges for Cambridgeshire hospitals as patient numbers rise and winter approaches

08:07 Thursday 13th November 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: A new initiative to help reducing waiting times at A&E has been launched today by Cambridgeshire’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Group. It comes as figures from our three major hospitals show they’ve seen big increases in the number of people coming to the emergency department. Our reporter Sue Marchant explains.
SUE MARCHANT: The hospital’s Chief Executive Keith McNeill has blamed the severe pressure from admissions, saying the knock-ons have resulted in postponed surgery. But as far as admissions, papers reveal concern over the number of staffed beds available to patients. Bosses have also admitted eHospital is also hampering efficiency. The roll-out of the new electronic patient record system has, in their words, prompted a dip in A&E performance.
CHRIS MANN: Sue Marchant there with the situation at Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge. Well joining me now live from Peterborough City Hospital’s A&E department is our reporter Johnny D. Morning Johnny.
JOHN DEVINE: Good morning there Chris.
CHRIS MANN: And last night they went on to ‘black alert’. Is that still the case this morning?
JOHN DEVINE: No it’s not Chris I’m glad to say. We’re going to find out a bit more about that in a moment. But I’ll just describe to you the scene here. It’s a large circular reception desk in front of me. There’s a member of staff busily tapping away on the computer keyboard Chris. It’s a relatively new building this, it’s light bright and spacious. And there’s about thirty seats in front of me for admissions and their relations. I’m pleased to say they’re all empty at the moment. There is a children’s area just on the other side of the room as well. And they have nearly 2,000 people a week coming through these doors with things like bruises, sprains and fractures. But it’s all quiet on the western front at the moment Chris, and I’m going to introduce our guest for you, Celia Kendrick.
CELIA KENDRICK: Good morning.
CHRIS MANN: Good morning Celia, Head of Nursing at Peterborough City Hospital. So we’ve heard that things are pretty busy, that there are some real strains. What’s it like in your view? How bad is it at the moment?
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Partnership bid retains older people’s services within the NHS in Cambridgeshire

11:08 Wednesday 1st October 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Within the last half an hour it’s been revealed who’s won the contract to run services for the over-65s in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for the next five years. The preferred bidder is the Cambridgeshire organisation Uniting Care Partnership which was one of the three bidders who made the final shortlist for the £800 million contract. It’s a decision that will be warmly welcomed by unions, and certainly the Cambridge MP Julian Huppert who joins me now. Julian, morning.
JULIAN HUPPERT: Hi Paul. It’s great news, isn’t it?
PAUL STAINTON: Well .. I can’t possibly comment. The contract stays within the NHS. is that the right idea for you? Obviously .. .
JULIAN HUPPERT: I think it’s not only good because it’s within the NHS, Uniting Care is Addenbrookes and the Mental Health Trust, but also because this is the right outcome for patients. By bringing together these bits of the NHS that haven’t always worked very well together, what you’ll see is something that looks after older people better than we’ve had before. Anybody who’s been through the system, or had elderly relatives going through it, will know that there are also silos and difficulties between hospital care, community care, mental health care and all the rest, and this will bring it together. So we get something which is better for patients, and also stays within the NHS, so you don’t have to worry about the profit motive.
PAUL STAINTON: It doesn’t necessarily follow though, does it, that you bring failing bits of this and bits of that together, and then you make one bigger successful thing. It doesn’t always follow, does it?
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NHS Privatisation of Older People Services in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough

17:07 Friday 7th March 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: The controversial move to outsource the £1 billion contract to run a large part of the NHS in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is now to go to public consultation. This is the first area in the whole country to carry out the process on this scale, which is for older people’s services. Opponents claim their campaigning has forced the six-month delay, but the people who are organising the bidding process say it was always part of their plan. With me in the studio is Martin Booth of the union Unison at the Cambridge Health branch, and also Martin, part of a campaigning group.
MARTIN BOOTH: That’s right, yes. The Stop the NHS Sell-Off in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
CHRIS MANN: We’ll be talking to you, getting your reaction in just a moment or two. Stay with us. But first, a short time ago I spoke to Dr Neil Modha, who’s head of the Clinical Commissioning Group. Yesterday it announced the short-list of final solution bidders, with four organisations now bidding. And today they’ve announced this public consultation.
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A National Health Service Out To Tender

08:27 Wednesday 15th January 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: New figures obtained by the BBC show that since April last year more than 70% of all contracts for NHS services in England have been awarded to private companies. Reforms to the health service mean that any qualified provider can compete to provide clinical NHS services. Campaigners say though, care is being transferred away from the NHS into the hands of commercially driven providers. .. Since April last year, more than £5 billion worth of contracts have been advertised. They include diagnostic services like scans and blood tests, mental health and GP services. Paul Evans is the Director of the pressure group The NHS Support Federation. He says the big question is whether all this is actually better for the patient.
(TAPE)
PAUL EVANS: We’ve already seen from those contracts where GP out-of-hours contracts have been organised by private providers, that they haven’t put enough staff in place. And that’s caused tragic consequences for some patients.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well this is particularly relevant in Cambridgeshire of course. Five organisations have thrown their hats into the ring for a billion pound contract to run health care for the elderly in the county, the largest outsourcing contract in NHS history, and we await with bated breath to see who wins that.

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NHS Winter Campaign Tougher Than Expected

17:19 Tuesday 7th January 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: Cambridgeshire’s three main NHS hospitals face bed shortages this very evening. Hinchinbrooke and Addenbrookes say the situation is nearing critical. Peterborough City Hospital has been on Black Alert since Friday, meaning it’s experiencing a severe bed shortage. Khurram Iftikhar is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Addenbrookes. He says they’ve seen a big increase in the number of elderly people coming to A&E who subsequently need a hospital bed.
(TAPE)
KHURRAM IFTIKHAR: We’ve had significant pressures over the last few months, and for similar reasons really we’ve had a 5% increase in walk-in presentations to the Emergency Department. On top of that, a 10% increase in patients arriving by ambulance, and the patients arriving by ambulance tend to be elderly, with more complex medical problems and complex comorbidities. And they’re the kind of patients that generally get admitted into the hospital. Our bed capacity varies, so being on Black Alert is a dynamic thing. You can be on Black Alert early on in the day, and that can change once patients are discharged. And then it can go on Black Alert again once you get the admissions through the door. But from an emergency medicine point of view, we all depend on flow, and if there’s no beds in the hospital to admit patients to, the Emergency Department very very quickly gets overcrowded, and that can pose challenges itself, working in the Emergency Department, for the staff and for the patients as well. The other minor contributory factor is Addenbrookes is now the major trauma centre, so we receive trauma patients from across the region. Patients are living longer now with complex comorbidities, and therefore requiring hospital admissions when they become acutely unwell. There are a few patients that probably do attend inappropriately.
(LIVE)
CHRIS MANN: That’s Khurram Iftikhar from Addenbrookes. Now in just moment or two we’ll be going live to Peterborough City Hospital and talk to the Chief Operating Officer Angus Maitland for an update from them. But a short while ago I spoke to Jane Tombleson. She’s Head of Operations for Hinchinbrooke Hospital’s Emergency Care Department. And this is the update she gave me.
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Peterborough District Hospital Site Sold For Housing

08:25 Tuesday 26th November 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: It’s been derelict for more than two years, but now the former Peterborough District Hospital site has finally been sold. Since the new PCH site opened at Bretton, Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been trying to sell the site to plug a huge shortfall in the budget. Interim Chief Executive Dr Peter Reading explained why the sale had taken so long to go through.
(TAPE)
DR PETER READING: Well two reasons really. One is the collapse of the property market caught the Trust cold several years ago. They originally were planning to develop it themselves in a joint venture, and the collapse in the property market really wiped that option out. They then went down what was a bit of a blind alley, looking at a particular deal that was put forward by a developer by an unusual route, and then eventually decided that actually the best thing to do was to go to the open market and get an open market price. The Hospital, which has been a bit of an eyesore and a bit of a risk for three years since we closed it, will now be demolished, and between 300 and 350 new homes and a school will be built on that site.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Now the new owners planning that housing development are Lands Improvement Holdings. The NHS will receive £7.75 million up front from the sale of the land, which is just a fraction of the debt owed by the new Peterborough City Hospital. Joining me now is MP for Peterborough Stewart Jackson. Stewart, morning.
STEWART JACKSON: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Now you’ve called for this to be hurried up and get the sale moved on over and over and over. It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it?
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