Reverse e-auctions an invitation to cut standards

One company boss who took part in the London Procurement Programme’s reverse e-auctions in May called them depressing.

The chief executive, who wished to remain anonymous, said he thought that the company had completed the procurement process after submitting a 206 point questionnaire, with 9 attachments, followed by a 122 question tendering document with 18 attachments in February.

“We heard nothing for a month, which was odd given the contracts were to start on April 1. Suddenly we were told, ‘Congratulations. You have been selected to take part in a reverse e-auction’.”

On May 19 the chief executive sat down with his finance director, logged into the LPP website and waited for the bidding to start.

The company had submitted tenders to provide palliative care and care for physical frailty and dementia. It had made bids of more than £1,000 a week for places in its homes. To take part in the e-auction it had to drop its price by at least £8 at a time. When bidding began the company was told its price was in the bottom five in the shortlist of 20.

“We wanted to test the system so we gingerly put in a bid of £10 below what we had tendered. Our position didn’t change,” he said.

“After a few more bids our position had not changed at all. By then we had reached the point where we could not cut the price further without undermining the quality of care so we stopped.”

In all, the company took part in three e-auctions. “In the end we really pushed it and cut our price by over £100 really just to see what would happen. I think we moved up a few places to 15th. It was a very depressing experience.

“You are filled with dread about what you are going to have to cut back on to get within the winning price. It is devoid of any human consideration. It’s fine if you are supplying stationery, but we are talking about human beings. This is an open invitation to companies to cut standards.”

From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6401125.ece

Health Direct points out that reverse auctions are the result of the desire to get something for nothing.

They very rarely work as the winning company often has to come back for more money when they find they cannot provide the service to the standard required for the winning bid. It is a fallacy that it saves money!!

Health minister to repay £41,000 expenses

Phil Hope, the Labour health minister, has agreed to pay back more than £41,000 he claimed in expenses to refurbish his second home.

The care services minister this morning announced he would write a cheque for £41,709 to cover the cost of the furniture and fittings he claimed for the property – a small two bedroom flat in south London.

The sum being returned by Mr Hope is the largest amount an MP has pledged to refund since the expenses scandal broke, but dozens of other members are expected to follow suit under pressure from their party leaders.

The Corby and East Northants MP said that his announcement was unrelated to fears over his slender 1,517 majority – and said he should be able to find the money "within a week or so".

"It is going to be difficult, it is going to be challenging but this is a personal decision that we [he and his wife Allison] have made together," he told Sky News.

In a statement, Mr Hope insisted his claims were within the rules, but said he wanted to correct the "dreadful perception" and he enriched himself with taxpayers' money.

"The anger of my constituents and the damage done to perceptions of my integrity concerning the money I have received to make my London accommodation habitable has been a massive blow to me that I cannot allow to continue," he said.

Mr Hope is following in the footsteps of Hazel Blears, the communities secretary, and backbench Labour MP Margaret Moran in agreeing to refund questionable payments following a week of disclosures about expense system abuses in The Daily Telegraph.

Miss Blears has agreed to pay back £13,000 in capital gains tax from profits on a house paid for by the taxpayer, while Miss Moran will return the £22,500 she claimed for treating dry rot at a house 100 miles from her constituency.

Alan Duncan, the shadow leader of the Commons, will repay more than £5,000 in gardening costs; Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, will repay £2,600 claimed for home improvements; and Oliver Letwin, the chairman of the Conservatives’ policy team, will refund £2,000 for getting pipes repaired under his tennis court.

Mr Lansley apologised to his South Cambridgeshire constituents for claiming "overgenerous" expenses in a letter to his local paper. "The public has every right to be angry about MPs' allowances. I was part of that system and I'm sorry for my part in it," he wrote.

The announcements come amid a growing acceptance at Westminster that politicians from the three major parties must act decisively to restore public trust in parliamentary democracy or risk a backlash from the electorate in the June 4 European and local council polls.

David Cameron has said that Tory MPs shown to have broken the rules could be sacked, and on Tuesday Gordon Brown has admitted that "extreme" action is needed to restore public trust in politicians.

The Prime Minister said an independent review of every claim made over the past four years would allow MPs to show they are "worthy of public trust".

"I think the issue here with Hazel Blears is about the sale of a house where CGT could or could not have been paid," Mr Brown said. "She has looked at what has happened, I have talked to her, she has repaid the money."

Mr Brown said other ministers who had come in for criticism over their accommodation arrangements, including Chancellor Alistair Darling and Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon, were in a "different position" but could still face disciplinary action if the independent review found there were problems.

Mr Hope, who has also been criticised for employing his son Nick and daughter Anna for parliamentary work, said that he was repaying his expenses because the Telegraph's disclosures had "fundamentally changed the view people have of me and that is something I cannot bear."

The MP billed taxpayers for so much furniture for his second home in Southwark, south London – including a chest of drawers, a mattress, a television, a sofa, an armchair, a washing machine, three chairs, two bookcases, one coffee table, a wardrobe and a dining room table – that questions were raised about how it could have all fitted into the small flat.

His statement read: "I have worked very hard over the last 12 years to represent and fight for my constituents, and their opinion of me as a person matters hugely to both myself and my wife Allison.

"We feel very badly hurt by what has happened and although I kept to the rules laid down by Parliament I cannot allow this dreadful perception about what I claimed in allowances to continue.

"I have decided to try to restore the trust and relationships I have with my constituents. I am returning all of the money that I have claimed for fittings, furniture and household items that I received over a five year period – the sum of £41,709.

"This will be paid to the House authorities as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made."

Speaking to Sky News, he added: "This is not about votes; this is about who I am. This is about me and this is a personal decision I am making.

"Whenever the election comes, whatever goes on there, I just want those people I represent to know, whether they vote for me or not, that I have personal integrity."

From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5317104/Phil-Hope-agrees-to-return-41000-as-MPs-retreat-on-expenses-claims.html

Personal Intergrity- Health Direct asks why it took him so long to pay back his fiddled expenses aftre they became public knowledge? And how come he has so much spare cash sloshing around- the equivelent of two thrids of his annual salary- before tax?

Health minister Ben Bradshaw also received attention from The Daily Telegraph, although the paper’s prime interest was in the fact that the second home for which he has claimed around £1,600 a month in mortgage interest payments is jointly owned with his civil partner. His total claims over the four year period were £56,568.

Health secretary Alan Johnson was absent from The Daily Telegraph’s detailed coverage, with no details reported.

Lord for hire Moonie, the Labour peer, is caught up in NHS fraud inquiry

Police have been asked to investigate the involvement of Lord Moonie, the Labour peer, in a company at the centre of a National Health Service fraud inquiry.

The former minister – one of four peers named in the “lords for hire” scandal – is a paid consultant to Americium Developments, a company being investigated by Scotland Yard.

It is alleged that Americium boasted about Moonie’s government links and friendship with Gordon Brown to secure business with CombineMed, a health firm that is cooperating with police inquiries. Moonie is paid up to £40,000 to act as a consultant to Americium, an Edinburgh-based information technology company.

Last week Campbell Martin, a former Scottish National party member of the Scottish parliament, wrote to the Metropolitan police asking detectives to investigate what, if anything, Moonie knew about the business activities of Americium. “Given the current police investigation into the actions of the company that pays him . . . Lord Moonie must disclose exactly what he does for them that justifies £40,000 per year,” he said.

The Sunday Times revealed last month that Moonie was one of four peers who indicated they were prepared to help amend a law in return for consultancy fees.

Scotland Yard’s investigation is looking into allegations that Americium unfairly or fraudulently helped CombineMed win a tender to supply information technology services to Imperial College NHS Trust in London.

Americium may have breached British and European Union competition regulations, including a requirement for tenders to be awarded in a fair and transparent manner.

While there is no suggestion that Moonie knew about or was involved in the alleged fraud, former employees of CombineMed, who left the business after raising concerns about Americium’s activities, allege that the Edinburgh company used Moonie’s position in the Lords as a blatant marketing tool.

He hosted a lunch at the Palace of Westminster in 2007 where representatives of both companies met. Tom Finn, a former president of CombineMed who attended the lunch, said the use of Westminster and Moonie had reinforced the company’s view that Americium had connections to government and the NHS that could help commercially.

“One of the representatives [of Americium] was constantly talking about his connections with the UK government,” Finn said. “He was selling everything from the connections with Brown to his intimate knowledge of the procurement selection process within the NHS.”

Sean Martyn, a former project manager with CombineMed, said Americium’s link to government was “the biggest reason” why CombineMed agreed to work with it. “He [the Americium representative] said that ‘if we did things right we would have access to Brown’.”

The Imperial College NHS Trust, formerly Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, had hired Americium to organise a tender for a new internet system that would cut its procurement costs. It terminated the relationship after allegations that the firm was also receiving £34,200 a month to promote CombineMed.

It is alleged that employees of Americium coached CombineMed staff on how to prepare their tender and how to answer crucial questions. An Americium employee also sat on the selection panel that awarded the contract.

Four CombineMed whistle-blowers raised concerns about the legality of the arrangements in a memo to their employer in October 2007. It stated: “We wrote the request for proposal [the invitation for bidders] which allowed us to answer our own questions, we were prepped by the two members of the selection committee who were working on our behalf, and we collaborated with Americium on how the official public notices (part of the EU process) were written.”

Last week CombineMed said it had no reason to believe Americium broke any law and the full disclosure of Americium’s work for CombineMed to the NHS trust “ensured the propriety of the arrangements”. The spokesman said an internal investigation had concluded that the whistle-blowers’ concerns “lacked merit”. The company, he said, had met Moonie twice to describe the services it offered.

He added: “We are aware of an investigation by the Metropolitan police relating to Americium in which we are a witness. We will of course cooperate fully.” Neither Moonie nor representatives of Americium were available to respond. Imperial College NHS Trust declined to comment.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5734072.ece

Cash crisis hits sexual health STD clinics

Sexual health clinics are struggling to hit labour government targets due to a lack of funding. Despite sexual health being one of the Government's top NHS priorities, plans are not always implemented on the ground, a new report claims.

And it said clinics could sometimes only meet targets by changing the way they booked appointments. The report's stark warning echoes one issued last year by the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV (IAG).

That group said a substantial proportion of the £300m set aside for sexual health was being diverted by primary care trusts (PCTs) to pay off debts.

The new survey of sexual health chiefs reinforced the view that cash allocated in the 2004 Choosing Health White Paper was being held back by PCTs or Strategic Health Authorities.

Overall, 59% of respondents said either all or part of the Choosing Health money had been diverted away from sexual health services. The report said: "The diversion of this money will affect delivery of services in key areas of sexual health.

"We ask the Government to take urgent action to ringfence future sexual health funding and enable PCTs to spend allocated money on the services for which it was intended."

Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents 90% of PCTs, said: "Sexual health services are one of many important priorities for primary care trusts."

From:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1251689,00.html

On Fri 4 Aug 2006 Health Direct posted: Sexual health (STI) funds are being used to cut trust debts when millions of pounds intended for improving sexual health services are being diverted to pay off debts, a government advisory group said yesterday. The Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV said that a substantial part of the £300 million set aside had been absorbed by primary care trusts (PCTs).

And what is the result of labour's postcode lottery- Wed 5 Jul 06- Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI)s increases again in 2005- New figures released today by the Health Protection Agency show that the number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and other conditions diagnosed in genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics in the UK increased by 3% between 2004 and 2005.

Chlamydia remains the most commonly diagnosed STI, with 109,832 new cases in 2005, a 5% increase on the previous year. The highest rates of infection and highest increases in diagnoses were seen for both sexes in the 16 to 24 age group.