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The £6.6bn NHS funding pocketed by private firms, GP fit-for-work scheme to end ‘sick-note culture’ and the woman and dog sharing pacemakers

Private firms are banking £18 million a day in NHS funding, the Daily Mail reports, after a ‘50%’ spike in the number of contracts handed to private firms under the Coalition. Last year £6.6 billion of the NHS budget was spent with private companies.

Health minister Dr Daniel Poulter said: ‘Our position on who should provide services is taken to ensure patients receive the best possible services and outcomes.’

The Government’s new ‘fit for work’ scheme has been touteds a way to ‘stamp out’ the ‘sick note culture’, writes the Telegraph. The scheme will see GPs refer patients signed off for more than six weeks to a company that will ‘draw up a plan’ for them to return to work.

Also in the Telegraph, a woman and her pet dog were both fitted with pacemakers after being diagnosed with heart block, a condition in which their organs skip a beat. According to the paper, the two now have a ‘special bond’ and see the same doctor for check-ups.