The trust which runs Stafford hospital is to be put into administration, health regulator Monitor has ruled.
The BBC reports that two specially appointed administrators will take over the running of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust on Tuesday, as it becomes the first foundation trust in the UK to go into administration.
Last year, the trust reported a drop in annual income of about £4m and received a £20m bailout from the government.
A report for Monitor recommended the closure of its maternity unit, intensive care unit and A&E department- proposals which were not supported by local CCG leaders.
Dr Hugo Mascie-Taylor and Alan Bloom of Ernst and Young will have 145 days to work with commissioners to re-organise the trust and produce a plan for patients to make it ‘sustainable for the long term’, which will be subject to a public consultation.
Dr Mascie-Taylor said recommendations to downgrade some services were not “set in stone” and would be looked at again.
Over at the Telegraph, NHS England chairman Professor Malcolm Grant has said that the NHS will have to begin charging for more of its services unless the health economy recovers strongly.
He said that demand for NHS services is likely to rise in the years ahead, and it would rise faster than the health budget. This could force the NHS to start charging for some of its services
He said: ‘It’s not my responsibility to introduce new charging systems but it’s something which a future government will wish to reflect [on], unless the economy has picked up sufficiently, because we can anticipate demand for NHS services rising by about 4 to 5 per cent per annum.’
The Daily Mail brings us ‘blood spinning’, a technique used by footballers which sees injuries recover five times faster.
This technique, available on the NHS, involves taking a small amount- roughly one or two tablespoons - from a patient’s arm then spinning it at high speed in a centrifuge machine for ten minutes.
Earlier this year, NICE issued new guidelines acknowledging PRP as a treatment for tendon injuries, common in the elbow, knee and ankle, and plantar fasciitis- inflammation of the band of tissue that stretches from the heel to the middle of the foot.
It is fast becoming popular with footballers such as Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale.
The high speed spin causes the blood to separate into its various components. This means platelets, the part of the blood that promote clotting and assist the healing process and plasma, where the red and white blood cells are suspended, are separated from other components.
The Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP), which contains large amounts of substances the body uses to heal tissue, is then injected back into the injured area of the body with the aim of jump-starting recovery, reducing pain and making the injury heal faster.
