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| Had you heard of Serco before? |
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6% |
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| Yes - I work for Serco! |
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| Total Votes : 90 |
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Degrizzzz Great Old One Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Total posts: 169 Gender: Unknown |
 Posted: 27-09-2006 20:27 Post subject: |
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Welcome to the privatised NHS...You aint seen nothing yet  |
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| lupinwick Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Total posts: 1883 |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 28-09-2006 07:03 Post subject: |
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| Degrizzzz wrote: | | Welcome to the privatised NHS...You aint seen nothing yet |
Sadly true - the NHS in Cornwall seems to be in financial melt-down (despite what they might have 'saved' by using Serco):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/5383882.stm |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-11-2006 22:57 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | LIVES AT RISK AS GPS MISS TARGET
EXCLUSIVE ANDY GREENWOOD CHIEF REPORTER
11:00 - 30 November 2006
Cornish MPs last night warned that patients' lives were being "put at risk" after official figures revealed that the county's out-of-hours doctors service was missing almost all of its targets.
The data - released to the Western Morning News under the Freedom of Information Act - shows that Kernow Urgent Care Services (KUCS) has only met the required standard five times out of 49 in the last seven months.
In August just over 50 per cent of emergency calls resulted in doctors reaching their home within an hour. The rate is now around 70 per cent, still well short of the 100 per cent target.
KUCS, run by international company Serco, which receives some 12,000 calls a month, has never met the target to attend urgent cases within two hours. It has also regularly failed to hit the 100 per cent target for non-urgent cases, which should be attended within six hours.
MPs said the performance figures were "very worrying" and urged the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust (PCT), which funds the service, to "get tough".
South East Cornwall MP Colin Breed said he was deeply concerned by the figures. "There are real risks that this poor performance is putting peoples' lives at risk, in fact that may have already happened," said the Lib-Dem MP, an associate member of the General Medical Council.
Falmouth and Camborne Lib-Dem MP Julia Goldsworthy said: "These figures are very worrying for people who call out a doctor. It is unacceptable, and something I shall be taking up with them."
St Ives Lib-Dem MP Andrew George said the PCT "needs to get tough" with Serco to improve the quality of this service. He added: "Serco is applying a private sector approach to something which is primarily about an emergency public service and I don't think that they go hand in hand."
The figures are another blow for Serco, an international company that employs 40,000 people and has an annual turnover of £2 billion.
It won the £5 million contract ahead of Truro-based KernowDoc, which had been run by a group of Cornish GPs since the 1990s, and took over in April.
But last month it emerged that it was having to fly doctors in from Eastern Europe to cover out-of-hours shifts because of a shortage of willing local GPs.
Within days, one doctor in West Cornwall resigned from the service saying that the people of Cornwall "deserve a better service".
In a statement, a spokesman for the primary care trust said the out-of-hours service had improved since the summer after KUCS addressed a number of key issues. He said: "KUCS performance figures have really started to improve over the past few months. In August, the service was not performing as well as could be expected and the PCT took this matter very seriously.
"A number of measures were taken by KUCS and there has been a significant improvement in the performance of the service since. The most recent figures we have available show all people contacting the service with less urgent needs have been seen at home within the target time of 6 hours. The number of people who have been called back within one hour has increased by 25 per cent and the number of people being seen as an emergency at home within one hour of ringing the service has gone up by 20 per cent."
He explained: "KUCS experienced a higher number of calls than expected during the summer months. The staffing rotas the service had in place at that time were based on call levels received the previous year.
A spokesman for Serco admitted their performance during the summer months was below par but added that "all the signs are that we are through this and improving the service provided to the people of Cornwall".
He added: "We fully accept it is our responsibility to provide Cornwall with a safe, reliable and high quality out of hours service, which also delivers value for money to the NHS. What this information shows is that performance is improving right across the board and stands compares well with other out of hours services across the country."
He said there had been improvements in the rate of urgent calls completed within two hours, the number of less urgent calls completed within six hours and the time it took from a patient call to them being seen in emergency clinics.
He added: "We are committed to improving performance and are being helped by the increase in support from local GPs covering shifts and stronger local management, through the recent appointment of a local service manager and lead nurse. We hope to also have a local medical director in place soon.
"We will work with the PCT to continue to improve our performance and to provide the public with information about the service and how to access it appropriately.
"We do need to look at whether the service is being used appropriately, in conjunction with other out of hours services, to enable us to focus on patients needing urgent care who can't wait until the surgery opens."
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http://tinyurl.com/tf6vn
No wonder they sent me to A&E last Sunday! Couldn't manage anything themselves, it seems. |
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| lupinwick Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Total posts: 1883 |
| Posted: 30-11-2006 23:05 Post subject: |
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Hmmm, pretty dire. Perhaps they're concentrating on this:
| Quote: | Serco
working with governments to reduce crime and reoffending, control immigration and prevent terrorism
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Source
Especially telling that the info on road-safety cameras is missing. |
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| BlackRiverFalls I wear a fez now.
Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Total posts: 8716 Location: The Attic of Blinky Lights Age: 44 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 01-12-2006 14:33 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | In August just over 50 per cent of emergency calls resulted in doctors reaching their home within an hour. The rate is now around 70 per cent, still well short of the 100 per cent target. |
the last time i needed an out of hours gp (with a suspected slipped disc), they sent a taxi to take me to the other side of leeds where there was a surgery i.e. he didn't come out to me... to top it off, the return taxi driver said he could take me home, or to a chemist that was open (it was a Saturday) to collect my script for painkillers... but not both... ended up having to get the taxi to the train station, ran the script through there, then got my own taxi home |
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| Degrizzzz Great Old One Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Total posts: 169 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 01-12-2006 15:11 Post subject: |
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Indeed, Devon is in much the same state. |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 02-01-2007 21:52 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Doctors' service Christmas worry
A Cornish MP says he is concerned about claims that some people were unable to get medical help from a doctors' service over the Christmas period.
Serco took on an out-of-hours contract last year from KernowDoc.
St Ives MP Andrew George said several constituents had complained they could not get through on the phone and had to go to hospital for assistance.
Serco said some doctors and nurses were available, although problems were caused by phone staff sickness.
Multi-national company Serco took over Cornwall's out-of-hours service in April 2006, replacing the GP co-operative KernowDoc.
Andrew George said he hoped that in the vast majority of cases that Serco was providing a good service.
But he added: "It is a worry that over a period when GPs' surgeries are closed for four days that's the very time when the service provided by Serco needs to be more than adequate."
The MP was told when patients tried to phone, their calls were not answered at all.
"If you can't get past stage one it is a worry," he said.
Serco said between 23 December and 27 December, the service took 3,500 calls - about 300 calls more than the county's out-of-service took over Christmas 2005.
Last-minute sickness
Communications director Dave Rowson insisted problems were not caused by of a shortage of medical staff.
"We certainly had no shortage of doctors or nurses available," he said.
"But we do accept that between 23 December and Christmas Eve we did have difficulty with handling calls because of last-minute staff sickness.
"We quickly tried to resolve that and apologise for delays that people had."
Mr Rowson added that Serco wanted to deliver a successful service.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6224939.stm
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I had related problems, having been in hospital recently.
There were no physiotherapists available to deal with my problem, but they still wanted to keep me in on new year's eve, even though i'd have been 'bed-blocking' more urgent patients with - er- new year's eve problems...  |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 03-02-2007 22:20 Post subject: |
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WMN LETTERS PAGE:
| Quote: | PRIVATE SECTOR HAS NO PLACE IN NHS
11:00 - 03 February 2007
In your article of January 25, Ann James, chief executive officer of Cornwall Primary Care Trust, claims the NHS is not being privatised since health services are "to remain free at the point of delivery". This is also the mantra we hear repeatedly from the Government to brush off concern about increasing involvement of the private sector in the NHS. It is hollow reassurance and fails to engage any of the real issues.1. Private companies are being given lucrative contracts subsidised by the withdrawal of funds from local services and hospitals. It may be free to have treatment from the Capio clinic in Bodmin but, with no transport provided, the rural population of North Cornwall is already paying for healthcare just to get there.
2. There is no level playing field in the tender process for the contracts. How can a Cornwall-based non-profit-making organisation compete fairly with a multinational US-led corporation with a whole department dedicated to public relations and winning contracts?
3. A competitive health market diverts public funds into greater levels of wasteful non-health-related bureaucracy including advertising, promotions and customer targeting.
4. The overriding and legally binding responsibility of a PLC is not to treat patients or reward its doctors, nurses and staff; it is to create profits for its shareholders.
5. Private clinics like Capio are allowed to cherry-pick easy operations, leaving traditional NHS hospitals to mop up the more complex and expensive ones - and, in the brave new world where the Government forces them to compete and advertise for services, they are already having to make cuts. These hospitals are core NHS institutions. Once undermined, it is unlikely they will recover.
6. When private companies start competing on a level playing field they will find funding from government contracts insufficient to provide adequate patient care and shareholder profits. Additional charges will be the only solution.
It is quite clear that introducing the shareholder companies Serco and Capio into the Cornish health system has already presented many problems. Inspired by the US model where a third of cancer victims cannot afford treatment, these privatisation reforms present a bleak future for the NHS.
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http://tinyurl.com/2a4ym9 |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 07-02-2007 08:58 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Calls for doctor service changes
Patients' watchdogs and a paramedics' union have called for Cornwall's out-of-hours doctor service to be run by the local ambulance trust.
It follows a barrage of complaints about the service provided by the multi-national company Serco.
Cornwall Primary Care Trust announced last week it would be reviewing its contract with Serco in April, despite it having two more years to run.
Serco said it was committed to improving its service.
Serco took over Cornwall's out-of-hours service in April 2006, replacing the GP co-operative KernowDoc.
However, Serco, county medical managers and MPs have received many complaints about the service, including people being unable to get medical help over the Christmas period.
In a separate case, a 97-year-old man spent eight weeks in hospital after an ambulance was called for him because an out-of-hours overseas GP refused to visit him.
He was taken to hospital and diagnosed with bladder and lung infections. Serco later apologised and said the doctor was to be retrained.
The paramedics union Unison and patients watchdogs said the South Western Ambulance Service Trust - which already runs doctor out-of-hours services in Dorset and Somerset - should have the contract in Cornwall too.
Trust interest
Hugh Newberry, of the Ambulance Service Patients' Forum, said: "They've got the experience to do it, and they've got the manpower to do it.
"To extend it into Cornwall would not take a lot to do if they were awarded the contract, which would make more sense."
The ambulance trust said it would be very interested in running the out-of-hours in Cornwall whenever the contract came up.
Serco said it was taking on new staff to improve its services and was committed to fulfilling the rest of its contract.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6336265.stm
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-02-2007 00:23 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | MPs criticising doctors' service
Cornwall's out-of-hours doctors service will come under fire during a parliamentary debate.
Serco took over Cornwall's out-of-hours service in April 2006, replacing the GP co-operative KernowDoc.
All the county's five MPs claim that about 75% of GPs who took part in a survey have reported an increase in complaints from patients.
The debate has been secured by MP Matthew Taylor. Serco said it acknowledged improvements were needed.
Since taking over the service, complaints about Serco included patients being left without urgent medication when pharmacists were unable to contact the out-of-hours doctors' service.
Patients were also unable to get medical help over the Christmas period.
Truro and St Austell MP Mr Taylor said debate was being called because he and his colleagues thought "patients need a service that works".
He said: "The reason I've brought it to Parliament is because I couldn't get adequate answers from Serco.
"When I wrote to them with my constituents' complaints, they ducked and dived and hid behind issues of patient confidentiality on issues like whether their telephone system was working.
"It means not only where they not running a good service, but they were unwilling to be straight and honest about the problems that they had."
Contract review
He said MPs had "reached the end of their tether in the lack of response".
Serco Health Communications Director Dave Rowson said the service was "determined to get it right as soon as possible".
He said: "We acknowledge that performance has not been as it should be, and we've put in place a serious of actions to improve performance.
"We have some meeting planned with some of the MPs to discuss that."
Earlier this month, the county's primary care trust said the company's contract would be reviewed in April, despite it having two more years to run.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6377843.stm
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 27-03-2007 22:25 Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
MP calls for doctor contract stop
West Cornwall's MP is renewing his call for the company which runs Cornwall's out of hours GP service, Serco, to have its contract terminated.
Liberal Democrat Andrew George said it followed "another serious incident" over a baby with breathing problems.
He says a foreign national doctor was not sure how to call an ambulance and instead called the police after sending the family home to wait.
Serco admitted the incident was a mistake and was being investigated.
Improvement plan
Mr George said he was told the baby had momentarily stopped breathing during the weekend.
The family took the child to see an on-duty Serco GP in his constituency, who then sent them home and called the police.
Mr George claimed the case was another example which "demonstrates why Serco is unfit to continue with the contract" and that its service was "significantly unsafe".
Serco Health Communications Director Dave Rowson said the family was sent home by the GP by mistake.
He said that decisions by GPs were scrutinised by Serco and the PCT and that it had been "recorded as an incident".
He said: "There are national quality standards that we have to attain.
"Those standards take account of safe clinical care
"We are absolutely committed to making a success of the Cornwall contract."
Serco has come in for much criticism since it took over the out-of-hours service in April 2006, replacing the GP co-operative KernowDoc.
However, last week Cornwall's Primary Care Trust said that it was encouraged by Serco's performance after it met most of the targets set out in a 20-day improvement plan.
Serco is an international service company which supports governments, agencies and companies in a number of fields, including defence, education, health, local government, technology, transport and the commercial sectors.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6500059.stm
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 15-06-2007 20:49 Post subject: |
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Serco cock ups continue:
SERCO DOCTOR WAS 'FRANKLY APPALLING' SAYS ANGRY MUM
09:00 - 14 June 2007
A redruth mother launched an angry attack on the out-of-hours GP service yesterday amid claims two doctors failed to spot the signs that her 13-month-old son was suffering from pneumonia.Sophie Mepham, a research doctor at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, described the treatment William received as "frankly frightening in this medical day and age".
She accused the two Serco doctors of failing to carry out proper examinations and urged the company to take prompt action to improve its service for patients,
Dr Mepham, 32, said problems began on her first visit to Camborne-Redruth Community Hospital at 10.30pm on a Sunday last month.
William had a temperature that was climbing to a worrying level, had vomited immediately after eating and was becoming lethargic.
In her complaint to Serco, Dr Mepham described the duty doctor as "nothing short of appalling". He did not take her son's temperature and sent him home after concluding he had a "germ".
Dr Mepham said William's condition deteriorated overnight and after contacting Serco again she was advised to take him back to the community hospital in the morning.
But she told the out-of-hours GP service: "The doctor we saw this time once again gave the same cursory examination, no temperature was taken and a chest examination was again minimal, with the report that all was normal."
She said it was only after her protests that Serco alerted the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske. "Ten minutes later, we were told to take William straight to the paediatric observation unit," she added.
It was within six hours of being admitted to Polkerris ward that he was diagnosed with pneumonia and given intravenous antibiotics.
The case mirrors that of Miriam Tait, 30, of Redruth, who in May accused two Serco doctors of twice sending home her seriously-ill two-year-old son, Max.
He was later diagnosed with pneumonia and spent a week recovering on a ward at the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
Dr Mepham said: "I feel very strongly that the way in which we were dealt with by Serco doctors was appalling.
"To miss a diagnosis of pneumonia in a child so young is frankly frightening in this medical day and age.
"Something must be done and must be done urgently to prevent this kind of incident being repeated."
Serco spokesman David Rowson said yesterday that an investigation was under way.
"We have received a complaint from Sophie Mepham and are looking into the concerns she has raised," he confirmed.
"We hope to be able to respond as soon as possible once we have completed a thorough review of the care provided. "We are obviously disappointed and concerned that Sophie Mepham feels that the care we provided wasn't acceptable and want to assure her that we take her complaint seriously."
http://tinyurl.com/2z5nao |
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| coldelephant |
| Posted: 11-07-2007 10:02 Post subject: |
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They're not watching us very well, apparently. Like something out of Rob Grant's 'Incompetance'.
| Quote: | Panorama goes undercover in a major tagging company to reveal the realities of 'life on the tag'....
...Our undercover reporters working at Serco's headquarters and out in the field expose the problems within the system....
...The picture that emerges is one that includes regular equipment breakdowns, offenders breaching their curfew with little apparent consequence and of monitoring officers struggling to actually locate the people who they should be tagging.... |
Source of article
I saw the documentary last night - boy did they go the extra mile on this one, they really slagged of Serco including their behaviour and failings when they were a company with a different name, and the exec Serco used to defend them was a two faced snake; but very see through and unconvincing.
They also referred to an earlier docu where they exposed Group4 - another rubbish company apparently.
Panorama Serco documentary can be seen here |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 16-07-2007 23:23 Post subject: |
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Incompetence? Surely not!
Passengers hurt in pontoon crash
Several passengers received minor injuries when a boat carrying dignitaries to a war veterans' reception crashed into a pontoon.
The incident happened in Plymouth on Friday evening, the Royal Navy said.
A civilian boat run by Serco Denholm was taking guests to a reception on board the assault ship HMS Bulwark.
The Queen's Harbour Master has made a preliminary inquiry and the Marine Accident Investigation Branch will conduct a full investigation.
The event was being held as part of a veterans' weekend in the city.
'Bumps and bruises'
Guests on the transfer boat, including Plymouth's Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress and senior Royal Navy officers, were thrown to the deck of the vessel on impact.
A Serco spokesman said: "Some people on board the harbour passenger vessel fell and some received bruising."
A Plymouth City Council spokeswoman said the Lord Mayor, Cllr David James, and his wife, Diane, were both unhurt.
The injuries were described as minor "bumps and bruises" by a Royal Navy press officer.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6901801.stm |
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