Pulling the plug?
There appears to be interesting news coming out of the Commercial Directorate these days, with the failure of various high profile ISTC schemes.
The various Diagnostics deals appear to be in a state of hibernation & we are told that the Atos Origin contracts for the North West & South West have been postponed till August at the earliest, maybe later. Following BUPA’s earlier walkout from the South East contract it was then offered to Clinicenta who were the preferred bidder for the adjoining South London contract but now we hear that those have been scrapped too. Private Eye has more. The FT chimes in.
Lymington is still dragging on at PHG’s cost, GC9 in Hertfordshire (Hemel Hempstead) appears to be dead too as Clinicenta have found out, Ravenscourt is on death row & I am sure that there is more to come (Sidcup). Not to mention the delay in announcing the ASCC (Commissioning framework) deals due to a VAT dispute with the Treasury.
I wonder just how much extra has been spent since last August when certain recommendations were made regarding the various programmes & who takes responsibility for the millions of pounds spent since . Good management starts at the beginning.
Publication of the Healthcare Commission’s long-awaited report into the quality of care provided by independent sector treatment centres (ISTC’s) has been delayed still further.
At a Commons debate on ISTCs in May health minister Andy Burnham said the report would be published in June. Explaining the delay to MPs at that time Mr Burnham blamed the NHS’s beleaguered IT system and problems it had encountered in ‘drawing down the data required.” “The delay is due to the fact that the commission wishes to use the most up-to-date data from ISTCs,” he said. Mr Burnham said there had been no delays in the information being provided by ISTCs and that the report would ‘make an important contribution to ensure public confidence’ in ISTC’s.
During last month’s debate Commons health select committee chair Kevin Barron told MPs that until there was evidence to support the work of ISTCs they continued to be a ‘leap in the dark’. ‘The Healthcare Commission was asked [by the Department of Health] to carry out a detailed comparison of the standards of care in ISTCs and those in the NHS,’ he said. ‘However, it is now many months down the road and we are still not there yet. This is disappointing.’
Mr Barron said his committee remained ‘uncomfortable’ with the government’s pledge to spend £550m a year on the ISTC programme. ‘ISTCs may be making and may continue to make a valuable and considerable contribution to efficiency, innovation and choice in the health economy. However, the case cannot be made by default. We look to the government to make their case actively, improve the programme, collect the appropriate data and allow genuine quality to be assessed and therefore genuine choices to be made.’
According to the Healthcare Commission they are in search of a suitable date for publication, from which I assume that the report has been completed & is with stakeholders for review. I wonder if anyone will own up to delaying it.
July 20th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
[...] HSJ suggests that the delayed Commissioning Services Framework (ASCC) is finally happening with the official announcement due next week. It will be interesting to see [...]