I do worry about the lack of accountability with third party contracts. They are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act for commercial reasons. If something goes wrong with a procedure there would be a lack of transparency; and patients may find it harder to gain redress.I don't think services being outsourced will bring about the demise of the NHS my views are opposite. I worked for the NHS as a clinical nurse specialist up to the end of last year. We tried and tried through the improvement framework to transform the service we provide so that patients with stable disease (tier 2) were seen in nurse led clinics rather than by consultants with the obvious premise that should their condition warrant a consultant review they would move to a tier 3 level. We fought and we fought but no one would listen to sense. So the CCG, following an excellent pilot and evaluation of our service put this out to tender. In short I now work for a private health company, we are in the process of introducing our service county wide, supported by a company with excellent business credentials who are tightly and efficiently managed. Other trusts and NHS England are watching our progress with interest and our model is likely to be adopted countrywide. The best bit about all of is is that patients are very happy, GPs are happy because we work closely with them helping to achieve targets and just in our small patch of England we have SAVED the NHS millions of pounds. Changing ways of working do not equal bad news, in the case of the NHS there is so much practice and ways of working that needs to be 're analysed by people who know what they are doing. To keep all the services under NHS services is tantamount to criminal waste of public money. Yes private companies make profit but they are businesses and also need to develop and the NHS saves millions. Free care at the point of delivery for patients will never ever change. But to keep going the NHS has to change. No one should be scared of the involvement of private companies if it ensures the future of the NHS for everyone. And private companies do not and never will charge NHS patients.
Taxpayer subsidy. The last link sadly also reminded me of Emma Nicholson's husband.a) private companies do not have to fulfill all the requirements the NHS has to and get tax breaks and other money saving opportunities not available to the NHS
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...-tax-relief-to-undercut-the-nhs-10251549.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...le-status-discounts-jeremy-hunt-a7903926.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...al-with-emergencies-study-finds-10078928.html
b) why would a company do this if they didnt make a profit? they are getting the profit from somewhere....................
That's not a lot of use then. You're right to be concerned. I'm happy with the local optician who does mine and I've taken note of the posters they have in the hospital Diabetes Centre explaining retinopathy.I had specsavers do my nhs eye check this year...
Last two years I have had one blob of background retinopathy from another superior privately screened retinopathy check that I paid for. He showed me ohotos of eyes, explained everything and was superb. However, this year at private company acting for NHS with little payments from them my report for both eyes was perfect.
Back to private paid superb opthalamagist.... and oh, blow me down that blob is still there.
In my area the elderly t2 neigbour gets seen directly by NHS, and I get sent to second rate specsavers and end up paying for my own screening to be done.
Well, I have a nasty suspicious mind and at one point I did ask myself why Newcastle? Why not an afluent part of Britain? Why not get a group of 'professionals' together like.... oooh I don't know... doctors, nurses, solicitors and MPs all diagnosed with T2 and try to educate those folks? You see why I am cynical about almost everything? Because you can sometimes see the cogs going around.
Seriously? It's named after Newcastle University. Good grief. The cohort could have come from anywhere in the UK.
I had specsavers do my nhs eye check this year...
Last two years I have had one blob of background retinopathy from another superior privately screened retinopathy check that I paid for. He showed me ohotos of eyes, explained everything and was superb. However, this year at private company acting for NHS with little payments from them my report for both eyes was perfect.
Back to private paid superb opthalamagist.... and oh, blow me down that blob is still there.
In my area the elderly t2 neigbour gets seen directly by NHS, and I get sent to second rate specsavers and end up paying for my own screening to be done.
It is almost impossible to give advice to anyone especially your child and especially is she's preggers. Hopefully and deep down she will be absorbing your wisdom and experience but this may not be evident for many years. If she does have gestational diabetes then this in itself increases the chances that her child will be fat and/or diabetic so its worth banging on about it if you're brave enough!My eldest & I had a row about this fat fight, she's 25 and pregnant and is piling on weight from a fast food diet, I brought her up from the age of 5 and has seen enough disabling hypos over the years to make her want to avoid t2, the row started as she was moaning she has to have a fasting blood test looking for gestational diabetes, obviously I mentioned her diet and pointed out its difference to the lean food she was raised on.
That went down like a ton of bricks
And she slammed her non diet coke down in disgust....
Yes in one way you're absolutely right because FOI only applies to public authorities. But if a private provider, under an NHS contract, does a procedure on you that goes wrong, you would just do what you normally do - make a request under FOI to the NHS. They then have to obtain all your records, including any held by a private company, because that will form part of your NHS record. They are fully accountable for what they do, and due diligence before awarding any contract is done to ensure quality. Plus any NHS provider remains subject to CQC just as the NHS is.I do worry about the lack of accountability with third party contracts. They are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act for commercial reasons. If something goes wrong with a procedure there would be a lack of transparency; and patients may find it harder to gain redress.
That is quite common, I had it, then I didn't, now I do again. The person who did the retinopathy scan told me that the cameras and high resolution monitors have improved so much that they now can see such slight abberations that some background retinopathy is a matter of opinion. In any case at that level it is harmless.You've worried me now!!! I've just received a letter telling me that my eyesight is clear when I had background retinopathy last year. hmmm.
I did unrestricted low carb all through my first pregnancy - I put on hardly any weight, was swimming and cycling up to a few weeks before the birth, which was fast and trouble free and I recovered so quickly the nurses were amazed, went home a day before all the other mothers who delivered that day, my son was the largest on the ward, and was always in the top ten percentile, the midwife remarked on how strong and alert he was, everyone said how pretty he was with the blonde curls and brown eyes, he hit all the way marks early, was always tallest in the class, always energetic and up to something. He is about a foot taller than me, eight inches taller than his father, slender, muscular and he only has to grin at his wife mischievously for her to be pregnant again - they have four so far. They had to change the date of the wedding so the first one would be legitimate, and the second one was due the same week as her finals.My eldest & I had a row about this fat fight, she's 25 and pregnant and is piling on weight from a fast food diet, I brought her up from the age of 5 and has seen enough disabling hypos over the years to make her want to avoid t2, the row started as she was moaning she has to have a fasting blood test looking for gestational diabetes, obviously I mentioned her diet and pointed out its difference to the lean food she was raised on.
That went down like a ton of bricks
And she slammed her non diet coke down in disgust....
That was not my understanding of the role of Accountable Care Organisations, so I hope I'm wrong; and the commercial contracts will still be secret, so I don't see how we can have any guarantees.Yes in one way you're absolutely right because FOI only applies to public authorities. But if a private provider, under an NHS contract, does a procedure on you that goes wrong, you would just do what you normally do - make a request under FOI to the NHS. They then have to obtain all your records, including any held by a private company, because that will form part of your NHS record. They are fully accountable for what they do, and due diligence before awarding any contract is done to ensure quality. Plus any NHS provider remains subject to CQC just as the NHS is.
You've worried me now!!! I've just received a letter telling me that my eyesight is clear when I had background retinopathy last year. hmmm.
HahaI won't even use Specsavers for my normal eye sight tests.
Why did you have to go to Specsavers or have a private scan when there is a Northamptonshire NHS eye screening service?I had specsavers do my nhs eye check this year...
Last two years I have had one blob of background retinopathy from another superior privately screened retinopathy check that I paid for. He showed me ohotos of eyes, explained everything and was superb. However, this year at private company acting for NHS with little payments from them my report for both eyes was perfect.
Back to private paid superb opthalamagist.... and oh, blow me down that blob is still there.
In my area the elderly t2 neigbour gets seen directly by NHS, and I get sent to second rate specsavers and end up paying for my own screening to be done.
Why did you have to go to Specsavers or have a private scan when there is a Northamptonshire NHS eye screening service?
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