Tag Archives: NHS Direct

NHS 101 :Bye Bye NHS Direct, Hello rip off merchants

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The announcement today that NHS Direct is to pull out of the NHS 111 services should be no surprise to anybody.
As readers of this blog will know the chief executive already had deep misgivings as https://davidhencke.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/exclusive-byebye-nhs-direct-leaked-chiefs-e-mail/ revealed.
It was already clear that private profit making providers were taking over many services – putting in cheapskate staff in call centres who are probably Googling your symptoms on the net as you speak. And a lot of them don’t have qualified medical staff on board on a 24 hour basis. This is certain if you want to cut costs from £20 to £9 a call and make a profit on each call for their directors.
No wonder NHS Direct couldn’t compete and accident and emergency services are flooded with calls.

The statement says: NHS Direct is seeking to withdraw from the NHS 111 contracts it entered into as these have proved to be financially unsustainable. The Trust will continue to provide a range of web, mobile and telephone services for patients which complement NHS 111 and support the NHS. These services are unaffected by the discussions currently taking place.

Nick Chapman, NHS Direct Chief Executive said:
“We will continue to provide a safe and reliable NHS 111 service to our patients until alternative arrangements can be made by commissioners. Whatever the outcome of the discussions on the future, patients will remain the central focus of our efforts, together with protecting our staff who work on NHS 111 to ensure that the service will continue to benefit from their skills and experience.”

I would suggest anyone using NHS 111 for advice should ask the call operator for his or her medical qualifications and quiz her or him about the source of the information. If unsatisfied demand to speak to someone who has medical qualifications, because for every call made to NHS 111 the private owners are making money out of you as a taxpayer. Otherwise be wary of using the service at all.

Child abuse investigation propels site to over 200,000 hits in 3 years

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Just a service note to say the number of hits on this website has exceeded 200,000 since it was launched just over three years ago.

The recent momentum has been propelled by the investigation into child abuse at the Elm Guest House in Richmond,London where a team of reporters based at Exaro News (http://www.exaronews.com) have been starting to unravel this enormous historic scandal. Most of the stories into the child abuse have attracted between 1500 and 3000 hits. The only higher ones include some of the investigations into the privatisation of the London fire brigade, Brian Coleman, the demise of NHS Direct, and the very disturbing report into strip searching of women and bad treatment of gays at Gatwick Airport.

Thanks to all the people reading this non-profit making site and for supporting genuine investigative journalism.

Revealed: Chief Exec’s leaked memo on breaking up NHS Direct

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Nick Chapman; chief Exec NHS Direct – now just 34 per cent of NHS 111 Pic courtesy: ehi.co.uk

Next April the NHS Direct service relied on by millions to get instant professional medical advice in emergency will cease to exist. Instead a cheaper localised services known as NHS 111 will take its place with varying quality and money will be made by companies handling their calls.

Now Nick Chapman, the NHS Direct, has admitted in a private memo that it has lost bids for 66 per cent of the population and will  decline dramatically as a result. On December 3 a consultation will begin on the future of over 1,200 of the 2500 staff who will either lose their jobs or be transferred to other organisations. Read the story and the memo in full at http:///www.exaronews.com .

Chapman says: “The new organisation will look and feel very different to the current NHS Direct. The type and number of jobs at each of the new 111 sites – both for front line and supporting staff, and the processes for appointing staff into these, has not yet been finalised but we do know that the overall number of jobs in NHS Direct will be substantially lower than it is currently – most probably less than half the current number.”

He also admits that where people are being transferred to either out of hours doctors’ services or to profit-making company, Care UK Ltd which has won 12 contracts, there are no guarantees for staff pay and conditions.

As he put it: ” movement of staff to non-NHS providers (such as GP out-of-hours providers) have encountered legal problems relating to the protection of employment rights. We have sought a resolution of these problems with the Department of Health but have not been able to find one. This is no reflection on the non-NHS providers and is not of their making; indeed many of these providers are very keen to have NHS Direct staff transfer to them to help with their own mobilisation of the 111 service. The position which I can now confirm is that the movement of staff in the areas won by non-NHS providers will proceed now on a volunteers-only basis.  Only staff who volunteer to move to non-NHS providers (in the full knowledge of what employment protection rights they do have) will do so.”

In other words Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Lansley, health secretaries, have deliberately wanted worse conditions for  transferred staff.

I must say I am highly suspicious of this move which is happening without the general public realising what is going on. I agree with Glenn Turp, Northern Director of the Royal College of Nursing, who said:

“The public don’t realise that this Government is abolishing NHS Direct. They may have heard of 111, but they think it is basically a rebranding exercise, and that it will still be NHS Direct on the phone. It will not.  This is a completely misguided, ill-conceived plan, that is wrecking another excellent NHS service. It’s not simply a change of phone number, the new service from 111 is significantly inferior.”

Research from Sheffield University into the first pilot  suggests this could be true and  it is not clear yet whether this will be a saving or end up costing taxpayers more. The report said : “Assuming 7.8 million NHS 111 calls per year, the estimated monthly cost impact to the NHS would be a saving of £2.5million, although his could vary between a saving of £12million and an additional cost of £7 million. These estimates are based on considerable assumptions and limited cost data and should be treated with caution. ” As clears as mud, I would say.

The  main reason for increased costs is that the service is leading to increased use of the ambulance service because people can’t get the right advice. As it says

“One year after launch, the [111] pilots had not delivered the expected benefits in terms of improving satisfaction with urgent care or improving efficiency by directing patients to urgent rather than emergency care services. There was evidence of a reduction in calls to NHS Direct but an increase in emergency ambulance incidents.”

Anecdotally I can add to that. My  one year grandson  who is recovering from scarlet fever was referred by Nottinghamshire ‘s out of hours service to accident and emergency. The doctor not knowing my daughter has a journalist as a father said they had received 154 referrals that night from the service – who incidentally had wrongly diagnosed it as eczema. I gather doctors there routinely refer people to  hospitals to avoid being sued. And these are the services  who are going to run  many NHS 111 services. I hope for millions of patients this is sorted out, or Jeremy Hunt will get a deserved bloodied nose.

Exclusive: Bye,Bye NHS Direct – chief’s leaked e-mail

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Colourful protest against the end of NHS Direct. Pic courtesy:Urban75 blog

The hugely popular NHS Direct service is facing near extinction next year. Health secretary  Andrew Lansley’s decision to replace the well-regarded national service with a piecemeal local service run by any English local provider could mean it will be running nothing by the end of next year.

So far despite providing some of the trials for new cheaper NHS 111 phone line in Luton,Nottingham and Lincolnshire, NHS Direct has failed to secure a single contract.

 This dire news is contained in a confidential e-mail from Nick Chapman, chief executive of the doomed organisation, which is on the Exaro News website ( http://www.exaronews.com).

 It shows with a third of the local areas already choosing their preferred provider for the service NHS Direct has secured the ” preferred provider ” status in just three areas, covering a mere four per cent of the population – Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Somerset and one other area. But even this guarantees nothing.

As Mr Chapman says: “No contracts have yet been signed and there is still a lot of work to be done to agree the final contracts before we start delivering the service.”

And where NHS Direct is putting through pilots, these will be up for grabs by anyone else, once the period is over.

So who is getting them? Despite publicity showing that three of the main for profit providers, Care UK, Capita and Serco have pulled out – this has left   Harmoni  grabbing the biggest share with  Hillingdon, Croydon, Wandsworth, Suffolk, parts of Kent and Sussex and Wiltshire and parts of North Somerset, all now to be run for profit. And the promise of a six month delay may merely serve to persuade more private firms to move in – rather than defend the existing state provided service.

The rest has gone to various trusts and  social enterprises ( some well run by GPs like in Devon, others not so well run) taking over. NHS Direct is being cautious -saying commercial confidentiality stops them revealing the full picture.

 Should we care? According to the BMA we should.

 As Dr Laurance Buckman, chairman of the BMA’s GP committee, said: “A potentially dangerous version of NHS 111 is set to burst forth upon an unsuspecting public from April. Patients may end up being sent to the wrong place, waiting longer, blocking A&E and using ambulances needlessly, when a little more consideration might make it all work properly.”

Of course ministers like Simon Burns say it is fine and good value for the taxpayer. But I wonder if the public will like it – particularly if it to be mainly staffed by people with just 90 days training – rather than nurses who might have a better knowledge of medical matters. One wonders whether like a recent call I made to Blackberry, the centre will be spending their time looking up articles on Google to provide the best advice . Very worrying if you are an anxious mother or have a sick child.

 If it ain’t broke, why tear it apart.