Author: Andy Cowper

The dispute over proposals for new polyclinics has escalated to a new peak of acrimony between the Government and the Conservative Party and the British Medical Association (BMA). Originally mooted in Health Minister Lord Darzi’s 2007 Healthcare For London review of services, polyclinics are generally understood to be large new buildings serving urban populations of around 50,000, that will co-locate several GPs with a variety of nurses, therapists and a range of on-site diagnostic tests and possibly minor day surgery facilities.

A report into the government’s proposals for new ‘polyclinics’ in primary care has concluded that they face a range of managerial and logistical challenges to succeed. The Kings Fund think-tank’s document, Under one roof: will polyclinics deliver integrated care?, written by Candace Imison, Chris Naylor and Jo Maybin, has looked at research evidence and international examples of this kind of healthcare provision.

The average waiting time for NHS patients is falling significantly – but high-cost ‘spot’ purchasing may be part of the reason. The latest National Statistics figures to then end of April 2008 showed that over the past three years, the average waiting time for an operation has been reduced to four weeks. In April 2005, the figure was over eight weeks.

Channing Wheeler, the controversial US head of the Department of Health’s commercial directorate has resigned less than a year into his contract for what he called “personal, family reasons”.

Renegotiations of the NHS IT contracts have ended with Fujitsu, supplier for the whole of south and west of England, being fired. Its 10-year contract to provide electronic patient records, worth £896 million, will end early in a termination notice from NHS Connecting For Health, the special health authority responsible for the NHS IT programme.