Hinchingbrooke Hospital: Circle to withdraw from contract.

[Mr Angry]

"A company which became the first private firm to manage an NHS hospital says it wants to "withdraw from its contract".

Circle Holdings, which operates Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire, said its franchise is "no longer viable under current terms".

The move comes amid funding cuts and pressure on the casualty department, Circle said.

The Department of Health said it was "disappointed" in the decision.

Circle took on Hinchingbrooke in early 2012, as it faced closure."

CB BB

[dilli-theclaw]

It will be interesting to see if / how the service their changes. Over the last couple of years I've noticed it seems not to be as good as when I stareted going.

Mind I only go there for one thing as everything else I get done at Addenbrooks.

[heero_yuy]

If it was rescued from closure by Circle holdings, returning it to HMG might well result in the closure going ahead.

[richard s]

Privitisation working at its finest - no profit, no gain, lets pull out!

[nomadking]

Before it made a £40m loss. That would have been ok for the taxpayer, but not a business.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by richard s

Privitisation working at its finest - no profit, no gain, lets pull out!

Privitisation has been a disaster for this country.

Yes, because Telecomms were so good in the 70s and 80s.....

I think an unpleasant truth must be accepted ,if we want the NHS to continue in it's current form then funding will have to increase and that means imo taxes will have to go up .We are demanding more and more from the NHS but wanting to pay less and less for the service

[rhyds]

While it is a right pain when private ventures fail, the whole point of opening up services to competition/privatisation is that if one firm can't make a go of it then someone else can then come in with new ideas.

As mentioned the public sector couldn't make a go of it either.

---------- Post added at 17:57 ---------- Previous post was at 17:53 ----------

Originally Posted by denphone

Privitisation has been a disaster for this country.

It depends where you look. As mentioned telecoms would still be reliant on the GPO if we'd stuck with the "Sir Humphrey knows best" attitudes of the 1960s, same with the car and aircraft industries.

There are a few things the government can do better than the private sector, and vice versa. IMO, healthcare should be a mix of both.

Tim Worstall makes the point much better than I: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01...st_not_the_us/

The mixed market works very well in Germany....

The challenge we have is that the NHS is being abused - over 30% of attendees at A&E are neither Accidents or Emergencies, and 12% of all A&E attendees are due to alcohol abuse.

[rhyds]

I don't think there's one "magic bullet" solution to fix the problem, as its hard to decide what is the root cause.

Attendance at A&E has indeed increased, but why is that? I'm thinking a lot of it is down to not being able to get GP appointments, or the 111/NHS Direct/Whatever they're called this week relying on script readers who's default action in any unknown case is to go "Get to A&E".

Also, its apparently very hard to attract staff to work in A&E departments. Considering the utter chaos the average saturday night at a busy A&E is I can see why, but shortages like that can't be fixed overnight.

And as for complaints about privatisation etc. Welsh, Scottish and NI hospitals, who aren't following the same commissioning framework as England are facing exactly the same issues.

[Jimmy-J]

Originally Posted by Hugh

The mixed market works very well in Germany....

The challenge we have is that the NHS is being abused - over 30% of attendees at A&E are neither Accidents or Emergencies, and 12% of all A&E attendees are due to alcohol abuse.

Population growth must be taking its toll on the system too.

Originally Posted by Jimmy-J

Population growth must be taking its toll on the system too.

Absolutely it is and when you take into account that larger numbers of workers are paying less tax and even larger numbers are not paying tax at all funding the NHS is just going to get harder

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by martyh

Absolutely it is and when you take into account that larger numbers of workers are paying less tax and even larger numbers are not paying tax at all funding the NHS is just going to get harder

Funding is not dependent on tax revenues. That is why there is public borrowing.

Originally Posted by nomadking

Funding is not dependent on tax revenues. That is why there is public borrowing.

and how exactly do you propose that we service the public borrowing debt without a decent tax revenue