Nice one, Danny Boyle.

Didn't take long.

Nice one, Danny Boyle.

Louise Mensch‏@LouiseMensch

The best bit of the opening ceremony was the tribute to the NHS - says so much about PM that he protected & increased its budget

This utter sack of shit has completely vanished from politics since his filthy little bill got pushed through, and it's no wonder since he's incapable of holding debate or discussion on any matter. He's one of the main reasons I look forward to the next election.

“It’s all about bringing entrepreneurialism, ownership and a sense of engagement into health care,” says Parsa, pointing out that the company subsidiary delivering the health care is 49.9pc owned by hospital staff.

“We’re the largest partnership of doctors and nurses anywhere in the world outside the US, so we have many resources from across the UK to come and help.

“Today, our length of stay in hospital is 2.6 days on average for a joint replacement, compared with 5.6 days in February. That’s the best in the country, while Hinchingbrooke’s local health authority safety rating has gone from red in February to green.

“Clinically, the hospital is immensely improved. It just goes to show that if you let nurses and doctors on the front line dream the impossible and get together to take a sense of ownership and drive them within an entrepreneurial organisation, you can achieve quite a lot.”

Hinchingbrooke Healthcare Trust made a £2.3m loss in the three months to the end of June and may need a cash injection later this financial year if it does not deliver on cost improvement plans.

The trust - the first in the UK to be franchised to a private operator - is now imposing strict controls on vacancies and non-pay expenditure as it tries to get back on track to make cost improvements of £9.9m this year.

A finance report to its board has revealed that it now only expects to deliver £6.5m of the savings originally targeted and has identified an additional £3.4m of new savings schemes to fill the gap. All recruitment will be scrutinised by the senior management group.

...

The trust finished the quarter with a deficit £0.65m greater than planned and warned that its cash balance could fall to under £1m by the end of September.

Delivery of cost improvements should push this balance up again in the second part of the year but the trust warns that any further slippage could mean it “may need to consider what access it has to loans and other cash injections to bridge the period”.

Circle has been described as a "John Lewis-style mutual" owned by its employees, but this could not be further from the truth.

In reality the company is majority controlled by hedge fund firm Circle Holdings, which is registered in the tax haven of Jersey and almost 95 per cent of its shares are in the hands of just six investors.

These include Odey European, Lansdowne, Balderton and BlueCrest funds headed by some of the most ruthless spivs and speculators who made millions by foreseeing the banking crisis.

Circle is also backed by City hedge funds run by Crispin Odey and Paul Ruddock, who have donated £790,000 to the Tory Party.

Its chief executive Ali Parsa is a former Goldman Sachs banker whose sole responsibility is to maximise profits for the above shareholders - he personally owns 5 per cent of shares in Circle Holdings.

The UK’s biggest health insurer has warned that treatment costs have become so expensive that hundreds of thousands of people are abandoning private medical cover.

Bupa said on Wednesday that it had lost 142,000 customers in the UK – 5 per cent of its total – during the first half of the year compared with 2011, blaming in large part a lack of competition between hospitals for ramping up costs.

Other health insurers had endured a similar exodus, Bupa said, with the overall number of people who have individual medical insurance cover now standing at its lowest level since 1995.

Individuals from all demographics were turning their back on the private sector in favour of the NHS, Bupa maintained.

The figures come as the Competition Commission begins an investigation into the private healthcare market. The Office of Fair Trading earlier this year said it had uncovered evidence that suggested some practices in the sector “prevent, restrict or distort competition”.

The OFT has pointed to a limited number of big healthcare private providers – as well as health insurers – and highlighted “pockets of particularly high concentration” in some areas.

Hospital staff in Buckinghamshire have said they are not being paid in full amid fears of redundancy and that the hospital may close.

The private Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital in Aylesbury informed staff they would receive 20% of their July salary, workers told BBC Oxford.

Speaking anonymously, they said the private hospital admitted it was in a "serious financial situation".

The hospital said it was in consultation with staff.