Lower borrowing, more savings in Budget
Chancellor Alistair Darling has confirmed that government borrowing will be lower than predicted in last year’s Pre-Budget Report, while committing the public sector to making "challenging" savings. Speaking in the House of Commons at lunchtime, Darling said that borrowing would be £167 billion in the coming financial year, rather than the £178 billion predicted in […]
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EHI’s top stories: 2009
Nobody will ever be able to say that the NHS went un-warned about the tough financial times ahead. One of the big themes of 2009 was the likely impact of the credit crunch on the public finances and what that might mean for health service spending after 2011. As 2009 went on, the warnings about […]
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NHS ‘faces pivotal year’ – Nicholson
NHS chief executive David Nicholson has said that the coming year will be pivotal for the NHS as it faces its last year of significant growth. The Operating Framework for the NHS in England 2010-11, launched by the Department of Health yesterday, said that after a decade of investment the NHS is about to face […]
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Darling targets efficiency, pay and tax
The Chancellor has slightly shifted the focus of this year’s Pre-Budget Report from the urgent need to make public sector efficiency savings to implementing pay freezes and increasing taxes.
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Burnham defends NPfIT but cuts £600m
Health secretary Andy Burnham has launched a spirited defence of the National Programme for IT in the NHS, but £600m will be trimmed from the way it is run and the scope of some systems.
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Brown streamlines government with IT
Gordon Brown has outlined plans to encourage much greater use of information, online services and text messaging in the NHS as part of a public sector information revolution that he claims will save £3 billion a year. The Prime Minister told the Smarter Government conference today that the UK was entering the “third generation of […]
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Turmoil grips NHS IT programme
The future of the National Programme for IT in the NHS has been plunged into doubt after the Chancellor of the Exchequer singled it out as a suitable candidate for cuts. Speaking ahead of the Pre-Budget Report, Alistair Darling made it clear that he believed there were savings to be made, and bluntly stated that he […]
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NHS IT programme faces cuts
Parts of the multibillion-pound national NHS IT progamme could be cancelled in this week’s Pre-Budget Report, the Chancellor has warned.
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Arctic blast
A think-tank recently ranked its funding forecasts for the NHS from ‘tepid’ to ‘arctic.’ Sarah Bruce asks what that will mean for healthcare IT.
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Confed: future ‘unprecedentedly difficult’
The NHS Confederation has warned that the health service is facing a £15 billion shortfall from 2010-11 and changed ways of working will be needed to cope.
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