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The BBC are reporting: Chief medical officer defends NHS
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England's chief medical officer has defended the state of the NHS, saying it is not in crisis.
Sir Liam Donaldson, ahead of publishing his annual report, said the NHS was "very, very strong" compared to other healthcare systems around the world.
He applauded the quality of services, and the fact that becoming ill does not lead to financial ruin for patients as it can in other countries.
The NHS finished last year over £500m in deficit.
Speaking exclusively to the BBC before Friday's publication, Sir Liam said: "I don't agree that the NHS is in crisis. I think there's a very, very strong foundation."
As the UK representative on the World Health Organization and other bodies, he said: "I see healthcare systems around the world, and we have a very, very strong system.
"And high on the list of strengths, is the fact that people do not have to worry about their financial security when they become unhealthy."
Despite its strengths, Sir Liam added that the NHS "is a subject of constant debate".
"It's a political football. It's always going to be controversial, because people care so much about it.
"But I'm very, very confident that the quality of services we deliver - and my passion to make sure that we put health at the top of the agenda, not just healthcare - will eventually get us back to the position where we are regarded as the best in the world."
He warned that struggling NHS Trusts should avoid cutting public health programmes just to balance their budgets.
"We've had reports at local level that when hospitals have been in financial crisis there has been a tendency to use whatever budgets are available in order to restore them to financial balance.
"It's very important that we don't drain local public health budgets dry for that purpose, and that we sustain the funding for public health programmes - for smoking, for obesity, for sexual health - that are so vital to future health of our population, and to reducing future demands on the heath service."
Regarding patient safety, Sir Liam said the NHS could learn a lot from the airline industry about analysing incidents and reducing risk.
He said about one in 10 people who receive hospital care in the US, Australia and Britain undergo some sort of medical error.
"It may just be that their records get confused with another patient's but in some cases tragically it results in death.
"Rather than looking at harm and deaths that occur to patients as one off events, we should look at connections and similarities, the common causes, and use them as a source for learning and action just as the airline industry has done," Sir Liam said
More from the BBC: Anger over 'legality' of NHS cuts
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A Cornish district council boss is questioning the legality of an NHS trust's plans to cut health services.
Penwith Council chief executive Jim McKenna has written to the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust over proposals for hospitals in Hayle and Penzance.
He has questioned plans to close St Michael's Hospital and cuts at the West Cornwall Hospital given that the county council has not been consulted.
The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust's chief was unavailable for comment.
The NHS in Cornwall is facing a potential £31m deficit. The Trust is cutting costs and 300 jobs to try to reduce the projected deficit.
Emergency surgery will not be carried out at the West Cornwall Hospital from the end of August.
All accident and emergency work will be concentrated at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, although non-urgent booked appointments will continue.
Managers said the emergency surgery issue would be reviewed later in the year.
Plans to shut 70-bed St Michael's Hospital in Hayle were made public after a memo leaked to the BBC.
Mr McKenna said he had heard about the plans for West Cornwall Hospital via the media.
On legal issues, he said: "A couple of years ago the government introduced a requirement on the NHS to consult with local authorities on major service changes.
"When I spoke to the county council yesterday, they said they knew nothing about some of the proposals.
"I would say, and we are investigating the legal position as we speak, that they are not legally empowered to make such cuts until such time as they have consulted on them."
He asked why services were being slashed before the true extent of the financial situation was known, and has called for an urgent meeting with the trust's acting chief executive, Paula Friend.
Ms Friend has so far been unavailable for comment.
The BBC is reporting: 'Return cash' to debt-ridden NHS
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Millions of pounds should be handed back to some of the NHS trusts with the worst debts, a finance watchdog says.
The Audit Commission said a minority of trusts had been unfairly penalised by an accounting system which meant a deficit was effectively counted twice.
It said the hand-back should form part of an overhaul of NHS accounting.
NHS managers said such a move would help trusts scale back some of the cuts being made. The government said it would consider the recommendations.
The NHS finished last year over £500m in deficit, with about one in 10 of trusts responsible for 70% of the deficit.
It has lead to trusts cutting thousands of jobs, closing wards and delaying operations.
But the Audit Commission, which was asked to carry out the review by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, said some trusts had suffered under a system known as resource accounting and budgeting (RAB), and recommended it be scrapped for trusts.
RAB means trusts which accrue a deficit not only have to get back into balance, but end up paying off that debt the following year - the so-called double deficit.
It was introduced in 2001 across Whitehall departments, but it should never have been applied at a trust level as it was too crude, the watchdog said.
In has not been applied across the board and the Audit Commission is not certain exactly which trusts have been affected, but officials believe some of the trusts with the worst deficits have probably been hit.
Nigel Edwards, head of policy at the NHS Confederation, which represents health service managers, agreed RAB should be scrapped and said handing money back to trusts would have an impact on the level of cuts.
"What it would mean is that they would not have to make such swingeing cuts."
The watchdog also made a number of other recommendations to improve the NHS accounting system.
It said the Department of Health should hold a reserve so that if a deficit was run up it could cover it to meet its obligations to the Treasury.
The debt would not be wiped off, but would be paid back over time.
To help achieve this, the Audit Commission said NHS trusts should move towards a business model whereby they would not have to balance the books each year.
Instead, as long as they had robust plans and could pay the monthly bills, trusts would only need to break even over a three or five-year period as foundation trusts do currently.
Audit Commission acting chairman Sir Michael Lyons said: "The NHS is a unique and complex organisation and its economy is equally complex.
"Parts of the current system are unfair and need to be changed."
Shadow health minister Stephen O'Brien said: "This report is a damning indictment of financial mismanagement in the NHS that goes right to the top."
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We will now take some time to reflect in more detail on the recommendations made, and will publish a response later in the year."
The BBC are reporting: Health trust plans 500 job cuts
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A health trust is to axe about 500 jobs in the latest round of NHS job cuts.
City Hospitals Sunderland Foundation Trust said it had to cut 10% of its 5,000 workforce to clear a debt of £5m.
The trust, which runs Sunderland Royal Hospital, Ryhope General and Monkwearmouth Hospital, also wants to save £20m over the next few years.
It said it hoped the jobs could be shed through "natural wastage". Since March 2006 more than 9,000 jobs have been shed by trusts across the UK.
Chief executive of the trust, Ken Bremner, said losing jobs was a major concern, but necessary to save money over the next three years.
He said: "Our priority is to regain financial stability for the next step in the development of the trust.
"We have achieved the levels of service we have today because of the quality of our staff and we understand that any job lost is a major cause for concern.
"It must be remembered that the trust has come a long way in 10 years - patient care, facilities, staff numbers and waiting times are now very different from a decade ago."
Mr Bremner said the last few years had been difficult for the trust, with debts rising from £2.7m in 2003/4 to £4.9m in 2005/6.
He also said demand for beds was dropping, with more patients being treated in the community.
Paul Summers, regional officer for the health union Unison, said the move was a "kick in the teeth".
He said: "We are shocked to hear of the scale of potential job losses and cost cutting - particularly since only two years ago many temporary jobs were lost to help balance the books.
"Even if the staff cuts are achieved by what the trust calls "natural wastage" these are still real jobs and getting rid of them will have an unavoidable impact on services.
"Our members have been working hard to achieve government targets and this is a real kick in the teeth."
Health workers from across England rallying outside Parliament have heard the government's handling of the NHS called "a disgrace".
Hundreds of campaigners joined a rally and lobbied MPs over NHS cuts and privatisation in the strongest show yet of opposition to changes in the NHS.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis highlighted opposition to NHS cuts.
But Prime Minister Tony Blair defended the government's record on reforming the NHS and cutting waiting times.
Challenged by Tory leader David Cameron in the Commons about the protest, Mr Blair said: "Of course, there are changes taking place, rightly because there are more cases being done on a day case basis, new technology is shortening waiting times and specialist care is being developed.
"All of this is part of necessary change.
"The only way the NHS is going to improve is keep the money coming in, not cut it back, which is your policy, and make sure we make the reforms, which add value for money."
'Mystified'
Doctors, nurses, midwives, cleaners and other support staff descended on London under the umbrella of NHS Together, an alliance of 16 unions warning job cuts and continued reforms risk "fragmenting" the health service.
Health staff were joined by members of the National Pensioners Convention and national campaign Keep Our NHS Public.
They say that 20,000 posts are being cut - although the government says only 900 staff will actually be made redundant, with the other cuts made through natural wastage and voluntary redundancy.
Over recent years, the government has increasingly relied on private involvement through independent sector treatment centres, which carry out minor surgery, and PFI schemes, which use private money to build new hospitals.
Some of the NHS's major acute hospitals are also coming under threat as local health bosses carry out reviews of services to make the health service more efficient.
Mr Prentis told protestors: "People were mystified by the health secretary's claim it was the best year for the NHS.
"It is the best year for private companies taking over the NHS."
But he added: "This was hardly the view of patients whose services faced cuts."
He was joined on the stage by Beverly Malone, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing.
She said: "No one is saying no progress. Standing still is not an option.
"But when you reform, you have to reform for the right reasons and in the right way.
"You don't go in with your ears closed to the warnings."
Stephen Campion, chief executive of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association , told a meeting of NHS Together at Methodist Central Hall, near Parliament Square: "The tragedy is that the health unions and the government, whilst so close in recognising the need for change, are very close to one of the most divisive and damaging relationships since those bad days of the 1980's."
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"citing an indisposition due to special circumstances"
A Senior Academic Podiatrist and adviser to DofH gave an excellent talk to the Managers Conference a couple of years ago about how the decisions to push through changes in the NHS are made by Goverment. The thrust of his talk was that bodies like General Medical Council, Royal College of Nursing - never mind the SCP - can do as much lobbying as they like but they are just a distraction to the higher cause set by our glorious leader.
I went to a meeting with the NHS PASA on Tuesday. Do you know that all NHS Supply Contracts have now been passed to DHL Novation, who have vowed to cut £1Billion off £10 Billion spend over the next 10 years PLUS Make profit for themselves. I hope I am wrong but surely this can only be done by Lowest Cost not Value over a Patients course of Treatment.
NHS 'not in crisis'
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