News round up: NHS complaints going unheeded

NHS complaints going unheeded

The NHS in England is failing to learn from more than 130,000 complaints it receives each year from patients, parliament’s spending watchdog said today.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found patients faced too many obstacles when trying to complain. Most trusts do not help them find a way through the complicated grievance procedures and too many cases take too long to complete.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

No cuts in health or education budgets, says PM

Gordon Brown yesterday insisted that the £500bn bail-out for the banks would not lead to cuts in health or schools spending. His comments came as he began a mini-regional tour to sell the package, appearing on GMTV to claim that the bankers responsible for the crisis would be “punished”.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Pitcairn victims of child sex abuse win compensation

Victims of child sex abuse on Pitcairn island, the remote British outpost in the South Pacific, will receive compensation from the British government, the Foreign Office announced yesterday.

The move comes after victims of the abuse, which first emerged in 1999 as a widespread problem on Pitcairn going back to the late 1950s and involving the rape and sexual abuse of girls as young as seven, stepped up their campaign for compensation.
Read more on this story in The Guardian

Lost in Iceland: £1bn from councils, charities and police

Gordon Brown last night branded Iceland’s failure to guarantee British savings in its failed banks as “totally unacceptable and illegal”, amid warnings that more than 100 local councils, police authorities and fire services have up to £1bn lost in its bankrupted system.

Charities, including children’s hospices, warned they were at risk of losing £25m.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Half of state schools are breaking admission rules, inquiry finds

Half of state schools in England are in breach of new rules on admissions, according to the chief adjudicator, Sir Philip Hunter.

His dramatic revelation of “widespread” failure by school authorities to fully implement rules to make the system fairer follows a major inquiry
Read more on this story in The Guardian

T&G may quit Unite over friction with Amicus

Britain’s biggest trade union could be heading for a dramatic break-up, destroying what was hailed as a big step forward for the labour movement.

The Times has learnt that the T&G section of Unite has sought legal advice about pulling out of its troubled merger with the Amicus union, amid tensions between its joint leaders.

Unite has been hampered by friction between Tony Woodley, from the T&G, and Derek Simpson, from Amicus, who share power as joint general secretaries.
Read more on this story in The Times

New hospice for teenagers can’t pay the builders

A charity that runs a hospice for terminally ill children has emerged as the latest victim of the Icelandic banking crisis.

Naomi House in Hampshire helps 250 sick children and their families each year. After a highly successful fundraising appeal to build a second hospice for teenagers, it placed £5.7 million on deposit with Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander. Building started on the new centre two months ago, but now the hospice cannot get access to the funds to pay contractors.
Read more on this story in The Times