WIREDGOV

Doctors have freed up £ms to fund frontline care by banding together to create a pioneering ‘price match’ scheme that drives down the cost of simple items such as anti-embolism stockings & surgical gloves.

The clinician-led scheme in Sheffield saw staff & patients work closely across 7 hospitals to agree on the best product & commit to bulk buy jointly to save money.  The hospitals had been using a variety of brands and paying different prices for the same products which all did the same job.

Evaluation of the products takes place to ensure there is no difference in the standard of care for patients as a result of a switch to the most cost effective product and robust opportunities for staff to make any concerns heard are in place.

By committing to buy a larger quantity of product thanks to the collaboration, 11 products were changed leading to savings of £2m, including a saving of £400,000 alone by switching to one type of examination glove.

Back in 2011, the NAO wrote in a report; Some trusts are not getting value for money because they are buying many different types of the same product.  For example, trusts bought 21 different types of A4 paper, 652 types of medical gloves and 1,751 different cannulas. There is also a large variation between trusts: one bought 13 different types of glove, whilst another bought 177 different types…….

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said then:  "At least 10 per cent of hospitals’ spending on consumables, amounting to some £500 million a year, could be saved if trusts got together to buy products in a more collaborative way.

“In the new NHS of constrained budgets, trust chief executives should consider procurement as a strategic priority.  Given the scale of the potential savings which the NHS is currently failing to capture, we believe it is important to find effective ways to hold trusts directly to account to Parliament for their procurement practices."

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) has launched a new Construction Consultancy Services Framework, which is expected to save the public sector in the region of £16m over the next 4 years.

Enabling organisations in both the NHS and wider public sector to access services such as quantity surveying, civil engineering and architecture, the Framework provides a fully compliant route for public sector purchasing teams to access a comprehensive range of construction consultancy services.

UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £1m to work with partners in China on innovative approaches to dealing with antimicrobial resistance.

Failure to tackle growing drug-resistant infections could lead to an extra 10m deaths a year worldwide and cost the global economy $100 trillion by 2050.

China has brought together 14 ministries, including health, food & drugs, and agriculture in a national effort to tackle antimicrobial resistance.  The Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology will invest up to 60m RMB to fund the Chinese partners in this competition.

Almost 9m households in England’s private rented & leasehold sectors will receive stronger protection from unfair rogue letting and managing agents thanks to new government proposals.

With thousands of & and leaseholders suffering at the hands of rogue agents every day from unexpected costs, deliberately vague & or poor quality repairs, a new mandatory code of practice is proposed to stop managing & letting agents from flouting the law.

To further professionalise both sectors, letting & managing agents will be required to obtain a nationally recognised qualification to practice, with at least 1 person in every organisation required to have a higher qualification.

The Government’s flagship Right to Rent policy has been attacked as having failed “to demonstrate its worth” in encouraging immigration compliance.

Under Right to Rent landlords are responsible for checking the immigration status of their tenants with the prospect of prosecution if they know or have “reasonable cause to believe” that the property they are letting is occupied by someone who does not have the right to rent in the UK.

In a foreword to his report on the scheme, published recently, David Bolt, Independent Chief Inspector of Borders & Immigration concludes the policy has; “yet to demonstrate its worth as a tool to encourage immigration compliance” and that the Home Office is “failing to coordinate, maximise or even measure effectively its use, while at the same time doing little to address the concerns of stakeholders.”

Government review of the law & powers to deal with unauthorised caravan sites & developments has been announced by the Housing Minister.

Unauthorised sites can cause significant distress for both the settled & nomadic communities – an issue increasingly raised in Parliament over recent months.  Many local residents often raise concerns about anti-social behaviour including fly-tipping & noise, and evidence also shows that living on unauthorised sites can have a negative impact on people’s health & education.

A child in England has a tooth removed in hospital every 10 minutes due to preventable tooth decay, according to data published by Public Health England (PHE).

Hundreds of thousands of graduates will save up to £360 a year from the raising of the student loan repayment threshold which came on 6 April.

In this third report of its overarching inquiry into the Article 50 negotiations, the Exiting the European Union Committee sets out key tests by which any deal agreed by October 2018 must be judged.

The Chair of the Committee, Hilary Benn MP, said:  "Having listened to the evidence, we today offer a series of tests against which any deal reached must be judged.  I hope these will assist Parliament when it comes to its meaningful vote at the end of the Article 50 negotiations”.

While the (very valid) purpose of these Parliamentary Committees is to scrutinise the government’s plans & actions, there is a danger that they will lose their ‘validity’ if they stop reflecting the views of ALL their members in their reports.  This is especially true when the Chair appears to have an agenda of reversing the outcome of a national referendum rather than just a government’s policy.

While there may be something ‘buried away’ in the ‘full’ report, the press release certainly does not appear to highlight the fact that a significant minority (6 – 10) of the members did not ‘support’ (all) the final findings / recommendations of this report.

So Hilary Benn’s use of the term ‘we today offer a series’ is certainly misleading as the language implies total agreement by all members of the Committee.  No one expects total agreement in these committees, but obfuscating the balance of support for the report in such unique circumstances does not enhance one’s belief in Parliamentary democracy!

Most people realise that ‘Brexit’ committee membership reflects the fact that most MPs voted ‘Remain’, while the majority of the general public voted in the referendum for ‘Brexit’.  This has led to a situation where their reports seem to be proposing a ‘99%’ membership of the EU without the UK having a vote, but still paying in vast sums, accepting free movement of people and EU legislation.

This is not what the majority of people voted for and politicians (both elected & unelected) would do well to remember that fact.  Parliament has a vital & legitimate scrutiny role, BUT it is not entitled to frustrate the democratic will of the people as expressed by the 2016 referendum.  After all Parliament voted to give people the right to choose Brexit or Remain!  (EU referendum: MPs support plan for say on Europe - BBC News ~ BfB:  Parliament’s Role in Brexit: Vital but Bounded )

STOP PRESS:  Will there even be a need for a ‘full-on’ RoI – NI border if a new shipping routes ‘solution’ is combined with the Common Travel Area agreement?   (Irish shipping to bypass British ports after Brexit)