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Health Care 1998
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The information below comes from the UK Activity Report.
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Tayside Health Board and the Angus NHS Trust have won outline government approval for a £13m Community Resource Centre in Forfar, which will be a 64-bed development providing care and social services for 25,000 patients. 30-Dec-1998 North East Lincolnshire NHS Trust is to invest more than £13m in its buildings over the next three years, including the relocation of maternity, neonatal and paediatrics, and a new day surgery unit. 29-Dec-1998 Johnson Fry has sold its Healthsave medical insurance business to Cornhill Insurance for £0.5m. 29-Dec-1998 PPP is to set up a network of private family doctors next year, and patients will pay a monthly fee in return for a more flexible service than currently available with the NHS. 26-Dec-1998 Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust is expecting government approval soon to build a new £148m hospital in Swindon. 21-Dec-1998 Smith & Nephew has announced that its Hull site will become a global headquarters for its wound management products, securing the future of the 1,200-strong workforce. 16-Dec-1998 The government is planning to close the country's last remaining military hospital, the Royal Hospital Haslar in Portsmouth, as part of a £140m reorganisation of the Armed Forces' medical service. 15-Dec-1998 Essex county council is considering plans to sell off all but three of its elderly people's homes. 11-Dec-1998 North Essex Health Authority is to continue with plans to privatise Ongar Hospital, despite its decision to review other health services in Maldon, Harwich, Braintree and Clacton. 11-Dec-1998 Chichester Priority Care Services NHS Trust claims to have become the first community and mental health trust to outsource its whole information technology operation, and the £3.6m contract has gone to HBOC. 11-Dec-1998 Derbyshire Ambulance Service has won government approval to merge with ambulance services from Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire to create a "supertrust" from next April. 10-Dec-1998 Smith & Nephew, the healthcare group, is to restructure its worldwide operations by focusing on product rather than geographic lines, and a further 500 jobs will be lost. 10-Dec-1998 A Specialist Services Commissioning Group is to be set up in Wales to co-ordinate more than £100m worth of spending on specialist health services. 07-Dec-1998 Gyrus Medical is to invest £2.5m at its Cardiff medical equipment site, with the creation of 150 jobs. 02-Dec-1998 The government is planning to spend an additional £3bn on social services over the next three years, including £750m to set up an independent inspection system for care services. 01-Dec-1998 The NHS is gaining new powers to recover the costs of treating road traffic accidents, which is expected to result in an increase in motor insurance premiums by up to 3%. 28-Nov-1998 The Royal Hull Hospitals NHS Trust is planning a £15m project to provide new healthcare facilities at the Hull Royal Infirmary. 27-Nov-1998 The University of Plymouth is bidding for an estimated £50m of government money to set up a medical school to train 150 doctors a year. 27-Nov-1998 Nottingham Healthcare NHS Trust has announced a £10m plan to rebuild Highbury Hospital in Bulwell. 24-Nov-1998 Taylor Woodrow is to build a £155m 500-bed hospital near Bromley under the private finance initiative, in partnership with Innisfree and Barclays UK Infrastructure Fund. 21-Nov-1998 Tamaris, the nursing homes company, is planning to dispose of its commercial property portfolio. 21-Nov-1998 Southern Derbyshire Health Authority is planning to close Aston Hall Hospital in Aston-on-Trent and transfer the 80 residents to smaller units in the community. 19-Nov-1998 Coventry Healthcare NHS Trust has selected Walsgrave as the preferred site for Coventry's new super-hospital, but the city council will continue to study the possibility of it being built in the city centre. 18-Nov-1998 Ryan Group has won permission from Tendring Council to build a £40m retirement complex in Thorpe, including a 52-bed nursing home, golf course, and 31 close-care units. 18-Nov-1998 Nottingham City Council is considering plans for the £25m expansion of the Queen's Medical Centre, which will include a new emergency block, a patients' hotel and a private wing. 17-Nov-1998 Guardian Royal Exchange has announced plans to expand its long-term healthcare operations and relaunch its UK life assurance business. 13-Nov-1998 Huddersfield NHS Trust is planning to build sheltered housing, a nursing home and ward extensions at Holmfirth's Holme Valley Memorial Hospital. 13-Nov-1998 Bournewood NHS Trust has awarded a £3.2m contract to Fitzpatrick to build a hospital in Weybridge, Surrey. 12-Nov-1998 South Humber Health Authority is planning to close Brumby Hospital in North Lincolnshire. 11-Nov-1998 PPP, the health insurer, is planning to launch a family doctor service. 09-Nov-1998 NHS Direct, the new instant health-advice service, is to set up a call centre in Wakefield with the creation of 150 jobs. 09-Nov-1998 Lincoln and Louth NHS Trust is to fit a ready-made ward on to Lincoln County Hospital as part of a £4.2m plan to upgrade hospital buildings and equipment. 05-Nov-1998 Wakefield Health Authority has shortlisted eight potential sites for the proposed £120m 600-bed acute-care super-hospital. 05-Nov-1998 Birmingham Health Authority is considering plans for a reorganisation of its medical services, including fast care centres around the city and sending all life-threatening accident cases to the University Hospital Trust. 04-Nov-1998 Hull & East Yorkshire NHS Direct is to launch a new 24-hour free helpline offering health advice, creating more than 20 jobs. 02-Nov-1998 The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service is to lose 60 jobs with the closure of transfusion centres in Inverness and Aberdeen, while two super-laboratories will be set up in Glasgow and Edinburgh. 29-Oct-1998 Glasgow Royal Infirmary has awarded a £37m contract to Laing for the construction of a maternity unit and an emergency centre. 29-Oct-1998 West Berkshire Priority Care Services NHS Trust is planning to invite submissions for a £26m concession to build a 200-bed mental health unit in Reading. 22-Oct-1998 WML Group and Owners Provident are forming a joint venture to acquire RC Holdings, the manager of retirement care homes. 22-Oct-1998 The government has announced a further 30 private finance initiative projects worth a total of £4.25bn, including £730m for hospitals, £480m for schools, and new technology at the Crown Prosecution Service and the British Library. 22-Oct-1998 Cambridgeshire County Council has put all 14 of its old people's residential homes up for sale, in order to save £1m over the next four years. 21-Oct-1998 Halifax is said to be considering plans to launch a £2bn bid for Bupa, the private healthcare group. 19-Oct-1998 PPP Healthcare is in discussions with a number of major drugs companies about increasing the use of patient helplines to provide advice on the treatment of various diseases. 19-Oct-1998 Wakefield Council is planning to recruit a further 85 staff to improve social services to 3,000 elderly, housebound and disabled people. 13-Oct-1998 Reit Asset Management is looking to spend up to £200m on the acquisition of nursing home properties by the end of the year. 09-Oct-1998 Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is to cut up to 75 management and administrative jobs in order to save £1.8m following the recent merger of the United Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and St James's and Seacroft Hospitals NHS Trust. 07-Oct-1998 Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust is planning to close down its laundry service, which is currently run by Tarmac Servicemaster, due to financial difficulties, and up to 60 jobs could be lost. 06-Oct-1998 Shield Diagnostics has opened its new headquarters in Dundee, where it will employ 115 staff. 01-Oct-1998 The St Edward's Hospital in Cheddleton, North Staffordshire, is to close in 2000 which will free up funds so that 100 new jobs can be created for community-based care. 28-Sep-1998 Fylde NHS Community Trust is to build a new 40-bed hospital and attached day centre, to replace Rossall Hospital. 25-Sep-1998 Hexham is to get a new 100-bed hospital to replace Hexham General, and construction work will start in a year's time. 25-Sep-1998 The Central Sheffield University Hospitals NHS Trust has awarded a £16m contract to Henry Boot for the construction of an obstetrics unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. 24-Sep-1998 The government is launching a £1bn scheme to computerise the NHS, which will involve the introduction of electronic patient records, telemedicine, and online booking systems for hospital appointments. 24-Sep-1998 Almost 500 NHS jobs are to be created across Scotland, as part of the government's £44m investment to reduce hospital waiting lists. 24-Sep-1998 Bupa, the private health company, is looking to open a second customer service centre in Manchester. 18-Sep-1998 Sterile Technology is planning to build a multi-million pound clinical waste treatment facility at Antrim Hospital which could handle all of Northern Ireland's healthcare refuse and create up to 50 jobs. 07-Sep-1998 Belfast City Hospital Trust is planning to build a £30m state-of-the-art cancer centre, which will include teaching and oncology units as well as extensive radiotherapy facilities. 07-Sep-1998 Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Health Care Trust has been given the go-ahead to build a £6.8m mental health unit in Blackburn, which will include an adult day care centre for 40 patients and a special care unit with 12 beds. 03-Sep-1998 Crown House Engineering has won a £40m building services contract for the £200m hospital being built in Norwich by the Norfolk & Norwich Healthcare NHS Trust. 03-Sep-1998 The government has approved the £100m redevelopment of the Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals in London, in which Guy's will get a specialist cancer and renal unit as well as the largest teaching hospital in the country. 02-Sep-1998 CrestaCare, the nursing home operator, has announced that talks are underway that could lead to an offer being made for the company. 02-Sep-1998 Acorns Children's Hospice is planning to build a children's hospice in Worcester, and land is currently being sought for the project. 01-Sep-1998 Endpoint Research of Canada is setting up its first overseas operation in Bellshill, in order to provide clinical trial management services to its European customers in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. 01-Sep-1998 Alfred McAlpine is set to announce a £300m contract under the Private Finance Initiative to refurbish hospital facilities in Hereford. 28-Aug-1998 Western Isles Health Board has submitted plans for a £4.5m hospital development in South Uist. 27-Aug-1998 Inverness is to get an international centre for research into psychiatric disorders, using research from the Highland Psychiatric Research Group at the Craig Dunain Hospital. 27-Aug-1998 Northumberland Health Authority is planning to build a hospital in Alnwick which will be linked to phase 2 of the works at the Wansbeck Hospital. 26-Aug-1998 Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust has awarded a £7m contract to Henry Boot to build a new hospital wing at Colchester DC Hospital. 26-Aug-1998 Thameslink Healthcare has awarded a £5m contract to Hunting Gate to build a mental health care unit in Dartford. 26-Aug-1998 Royal Bournemouth & Christchurch Hospital NHS Trust is planning to build a £3m ophthalmology healthcare facility in Bournemouth. 26-Aug-1998 East & Lothian NHS is planning to build a £9m community hospital in Midlothian. 25-Aug-1998 Taylor Woodrow is close to winning a contract to build and operate a £120m private hospital in Farnborough, Kent, and is in the final stages of negotiation with the Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust. 24-Aug-1998 Consort Healthcare, a consortium of Morrison Construction, BICC, and Royal Bank of Scotland, is to build and manage a £180m private finance initiative hospital in Edinburgh called the Royal Infirmary. 22-Aug-1998 HBO & Company, the healthcare IT specialists, is planning to set up a new head office in Warwick, creating an additional 100 jobs. 20-Aug-1998 Barbican Healthcare has bought Bishopsgate Dental Centre in London for £0.4m. 15-Aug-1998 South Manchester Healthcare, a consortium that includes Alfred McAlpine, WS Atkins, Gardner Merchant and Innisfree, has won a £66m private finance initiative contract to design, build and operate a new unit at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester. 14-Aug-1998 The government is planning a nationwide survey of the NHS this autumn, in order to find out what patients think about the quality of service they are receiving. 13-Aug-1998 The government is to set up 15 new Health Action Zones as part of a £15m plan to improve the health of 7m people in the country's most deprived areas. 12-Aug-1998 Smith & Nephew, the medical equipment concern, is moving 10% of its manufacturing capacity to France, Indonesia and South Africa, due to the strength of sterling. 12-Aug-1998 Primary Health Properties is to acquire a new doctor's surgery and pharmacy in Birmingham for £1.5m. 12-Aug-1998 The government is launching a new body to review the performance of NHS consultants, in order to reduce the annual £104m merit awards received by senior doctors prior to a squeeze on nurses' pay. 10-Aug-1998 Nursing Home Properties has raised £91m in a share placing in order to reduce debt and allow it to spend £20m a month on new properties. 23-Jul-1998 The National Audit Office has found that some 28 health authorities and 74 NHS trusts were in "serious financial difficulty" as at the end of 1997. 21-Jul-1998 Bupa has won a £108m contract to run 15 nursing homes for Bedfordshire County Council, and has pledged to upgrade the homes and build a new one in Dunstable. 20-Jul-1998 The government has announced a review of public expenditure that will result in a 5.1% annual growth in spending on schools and a 4.7% growth in spending on the National Health Service. 15-Jul-1998 Tamaris Care has bought a 63-bed nursing home near Bolton for £1.68m, in a sale and leaseback arrangement. 10-Jul-1998 Tamaris, the nursing homes operator, is trying to piece together its new share register following the sale of 200m of its shares by Asian banks, although it appears that a hostile stake has not been built up. 07-Jul-1998 Kvaerner Construction has won a £125m private finance initiative contract to design, build and operate the 571-bed Greenwich Hospital in London, which should become fully operational in 2001. 07-Jul-1998 International Telemedicine Services is to open a telemedicine centre in Cardiff that will offer a monitoring service for heart patients, enabling them to use a small cardiograph monitor to send their heart rate down telephone lines to technicians. 30-Jun-1998 Nursing Home Properties is planning a £35m expansion into Spain, and it will also look at opportunities in Germany and France. 18-Jun-1998 The government has confirmed plans to provide an extra 2,000 hospital beds this year in order to cut waiting lists, while an additional 1,100 will be saved from closure. 17-Jun-1998 Nursing Home Properties has bought 24 more nursing homes in a £44m sale and leaseback deal with Ultima Holdings, taking its total to 170 care homes run by 21 operators. 16-Jun-1998 Tamaris is planning to increase its number of nursing home beds from about 5,000 to 10,000 over the next two years. 16-Jun-1998 The government has announced plans to require NHS trusts to publish an itemised breakdown of their costs, so that poor performers can be identified and efficiency targets can be set. 12-Jun-1998 Nursing Home Properties has bought a further 19 care homes for £39m, adding 1,186 beds to its portfolio, and is now planning to seek a full listing within a month. 09-Jun-1998 Tilbury Douglas's facilities management division has won a £30m contract to supply support services such as catering and security to the five hospitals of the St Helier NHS Trust. 08-Jun-1998 The government is to announce that the new Commission for Health Improvement will be required to inspect NHS trust hospitals for the quality of their clinical care every three to four years. 03-Jun-1998 Bupa is looking to form partnerships to move into Chile's health insurance market, and it is also considering setting up in Argentina. 01-Jun-1998 Trinity Care has announced plans to continue to expand its business, with new nursing homes in Oxford, Hove and Aylesbury and an increase in its number of beds by at least 196 to 1,340 this year. 28-May-1998 Abbott Laboratories of the US is to set up a £30m biosensors factory near Witney in Oxfordshire, creating 700 jobs. 20-May-1998 Care UK, the healthcare outsourcing provider, is looking to develop new services in adult mental health, specialised homecare and behavioural disabilities, and would consider small acquisitions. 20-May-1998 Norwich Union Healthcare is linking up with Medicentres to offer an innovative insurance product called GP First, which will cover services provided by family doctors. 18-May-1998 Westminster Healthcare, the nursing homes company, has issued a profits warning due to delays in integrating acquisitions. 15-May-1998 NHS trusts had total deficits of £171m in 1997-98, down from £459m a year earlier, according to government figures. 14-May-1998 The Royal London Hospital is to re-open bids to secure a new private partner to build a 900-bed hospital in Whitechapel, east London, which is said to be the UK's biggest private finance initiative hospital scheme. 07-May-1998 The government is blocking an attempt by Fresenius of Germany to acquire the UK operations of the Caremark patient homecare business, on the grounds that the company would have over 80% of the market for homecare in parenteral nutrition. 01-May-1998 Nursing Home Properties has bought a further 25 care homes for £38m over recent weeks, adding two new business areas - continuing care and learning disabilities. 28-Apr-1998 The Standing Medical Advisory Committee is expected to issue tough guidelines in July to restrict the use of antibiotics to conditions for which they are absolutely necessary, in order to prevent serious diseases from becoming increasingly resistant to them. 24-Apr-1998 Bupa is facing an unofficial investigation by the Office of Fair Trading over a bonus scheme it is offering to consultants who refer patients to a network of Bupa-recommended hospitals, and the British Medical Association is warning that the scheme could result in doctors being struck off. 24-Apr-1998 Sinclair Montrose Healthcare has been challenged by analysts about some of its accounting policies, following criticism that the company does not have sufficient finances to carry through its expansion plans. 16-Apr-1998 The government is planning changes to the way hospitals are built under the private finance initiative, by obliging NHS trusts to publish relevant documents, by allowing health unions to assess the employment records of potential bidders, and by including equal opportunities and trade union recognition as factors. 14-Apr-1998 Healix, the provider of the Heath Intelligence Exchange for hospitals and GPs, is planning to raise £1.5m in a share offer to fund sales and marketing. 14-Apr-1998 The government has given the go-ahead for 10 more NHS hospitals to be built under the private finance initiative, including projects in London, Newcastle, Reading, Dudley and Coventry. 08-Apr-1998 The Department of Health is offering general practitioner fundholders the opportunity to give up fundholding by June 30, in order to prepare for commissioning through the government's proposed primary care groups. 07-Apr-1998 Kier Group, in partnership with the Innisfree investment fund, has won a contract from the Hairmyres & Stonehouse NHS Trust to build and run the first Scottish hospital under the private finance initiative. 02-Apr-1998 Matrix Healthcare, the nursing homes group, is to write off £350,000 following its failed attempt to acquire a larger company. 26-Mar-1998 Whitecross, the operator of ten high street dentist surgeries, is in talks that could lead to a takeover offer being made for the company. 20-Mar-1998 Peverel is acquiring OM, the residential property joint venture between Westminster Healthcare of the UK and Holiday Retirement Corp of the US, for £8.1m. 19-Mar-1998 Transworld Healthcare says it has missed the deadline to make a bid for Healthcall, the provider of night call services to doctors, and Healthcall is now recommending a £50m management buy-out. 11-Mar-1998 Healthcall, the provider of night call services to doctors, has received a takeover approach from Transworld Healthcare of the US, and an offer could follow shortly. 07-Mar-1998 Nursing Home Properties is planning to spend over £42m on new nursing homes over the next four months to add to the existing 110 homes that are leased back to 14 operators. 05-Mar-1998 CrestaCare has signed an agreement with the Frenchay Healthcare Trust in Bristol for a joint project in neurosciences. 27-Feb-1998 The government has set deadlines for the creation of Primary Care Groups which will take over as the commissioners for local health care from April 1999, and doctors have six months to agree their boundaries and membership. 26-Feb-1998 Enviromed, the healthcare company, has announced that recent takeover talks with a potential bidder have ended with no offer being made. 13-Feb-1998 The government is said to be planning to invest £500m over 10 years in 24-hour nursed beds and emergency response teams for the disturbed mentally ill. 13-Feb-1998 Nursing Home Properties has purchased 15 nursing homes throughout the UK from a number of health care providers for £29m, and it has now doubled the number of homes it owns in the past year. 11-Feb-1998 Westminster Healthcare is to sell and lease back 10 nursing homes to Atlantic Healthcare Finance in a £17.5m deal, and some of the proceeds will be used to buy new businesses. 10-Feb-1998 Alliance Unichem has bought 11 community pharmacies for about £4m, to add to its Moss Chemists chain. 06-Feb-1998 The government has announced the results of the London NHS review which will result in work restarting on five privately financed hospitals and an overall investment of £800m in new hospitals for London. 04-Feb-1998 The government is to withdraw plans to close St Bartholemew's Hospital in London, and will instead convert it into a specialist centre for cancer and cardiac care. 03-Feb-1998 BOC has sold its Ohmeda healthcare business for a total £640m, with the medical systems division going to Instrumentarium of Finland, medical devices going to Becton Dickinson of the US, and the pharmaceutical division going to Baxter of the US. 30-Jan-1998 BTG has reached agreement to licence its patented two-part hip cup to Howmedica, a division of Pzifer of the US. 28-Jan-1998 The Royal College of Nursing has warned that patient care is being threatened by the worst recruitment crisis in nursing for 25 years, and it is asking the government not to bring in pay rises in stages. 26-Jan-1998 The government has announced a 40% increase in charges for health authority inspections of nursing homes and private clinics from May, and the operators are expected to pass this on to consumers. 20-Jan-1998 Associated Nursing Services is acquiring the remaining stake in ANS Contract Healthcare, the nursing homes developer, from Nash, Sells & Partners for £9m. 20-Jan-1998 Smith & Nephew is to invest about £68m in its Dermagraft joint venture with Advanced Tissue Sciences of the US in order to develop products to treat ulcers and other wounds. 16-Jan-1998 Unison, the health service union, has demanded a 10% pay increase for 66,000 ancillary hospital staff, and similar claims are expected for administrative and professional staff. 15-Jan-1998 The Octagon Healthcare consortium has won a £214m contract to design, build and part-operate the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, with John Laing responsible for construction and Serco providing facilities management. 12-Jan-1998 The government is to provide a £10m cash boost to the dental care sector of the NHS in order to expand the number of practices and make it easier for people to find NHS dentists. 02-Jan-1998 The information below comes from the UK Activity Report. 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