A trust struggling to meet the Government’s efficiency savings targets is being forced to do without full time cleaners as hospital bosses continue to cut costs, a new report claims.

Nurses at Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust are being forced to clean and tidy dirty working environments as it struggles to meet the £20bn Nicholson Challenge and the QIPP agenda.

The report by a former inspector at the Department of Health said the nurses being forced to clean impacts patient care and is something that requires “urgent attention”.

The investigation by Brian Duerden, a former inspector of microbiology and infection control at the DH, found that nurses were mopping and cleaning beds despite not being trained to do so.

The Trust was forced to reduce the hours of professional cleaners earlier this year to just two days per week in measures to control finances. The cash-strapped trust is seeking to save £24m in the next financial year to meet Government targets.

A spokesperson for Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust insisted the practice of nurses cleaning up wards was not reserved to the hospitals it controls. She said that the need for nurses to clean certain wards was not due to cost-cutting practices but to meet levels of high demand.

NHS Chief Executive Sir David Nicholson recently said the health service had enjoyed a “remarkable year” after it made £5.8bn in savings through the QIPP agenda.

However, those comments were in contrast to Jim Easton from the NHS Commissioning Board who insisted that cuts should not represent QIPP savings.

Between 1,000 and 1,500 jobs are expected to be lost at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries as part of the company’s cost-cutting measures.

Reports from Israel claim the majority of the layoffs will be made in the US and Europe and mainly focused in Teva’s recently acquired Cephalon’s generic business.

The reports say that Teva is hoping to raise $500 million in synergies from its takeover with job losses expected to raise the majority of its target.

Teva has already said it is planning to cut sales, marketing and administrative expenses by $300 million, R&D by between $120 million and $150 million, and production costs by $50 million to $80 million. R&D savings would be achieved by cutting duplicate operations, the company said.

Teva has a history of job losses following takeovers of generic companies. In 2008 it bought US generic specialist Barr and reduced its workforce by 10%, reports say.

A reduction of 1,000 jobs at Cephalon would represent a loss of 27% roles before the takeover. But one company where job losses will be made, the reports say, is at Mepha, the Swiss generics manufacturer Cephalon bought last year. The company had 620 jobs prior to the acquisition.

The NHS Commissioning Board has been launched initially in a shadow form.

Known as the NHS Commissioning Board Authority it will operate as an independent body from October 2013 before taking complete control in April 2013.

Sir David Nicholson, Chief Executive of the Board, says that building the new system over the next two years is a “major challenge”.

The Authority will now oversee the establishment of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) – themselves in shadow form – which, along with the Board, will take on the responsibility for the majority of the NHS budget.

One of the Board’s first tasks will be to assist CCGs in making £20 billion of efficiency savings by 2015, whilst negotiating the new management system in the process.

“I firmly believe that what we are trying to achieve - a stronger, more innovative and more coherent commissioning system - will be critical to sustaining the NHS in years to come,” said Sir David.

The Government’s choice of using GSK’s Cervarix to vaccinate against cervical cancer is less cost-effective than Merck’s Gardasil, a new study has found.

Authors of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) study stated that, if equally priced, Merck’s Gardasil was more cost-effective, despite the fact that Cervarix may provide better protection against cervical cancer, but said that “considerable uncertainty” remains about the differential benefits of the two vaccines.

In 2008, the UK Government chose Cervarix for its Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme, believed to be the cheapest option.

But since then, new evidence has emerged to differentiate the two vaccines.

The HPA has now found that Cervarix would need to be between £19 to £35 cheaper to match Gardasil’s price.

Also, Cervarix has proved to give better protection against cervical cancer caused by HPV types other than 16 and 18. Gardasil has also shown protection against vulvar, vaginal and anal cancer.

A spokesman for the HPA said: “The Department of Health will use the results of this study as part of its decision-making process when reviewing its current vaccine choice.”

The selection of the vaccine will be re-evaluated when the current tender for the vaccination programme expires before the end of 2011.

“Deciding which vaccine to use for national immunisation programmes is a complex task. Many factors, including the cost of the vaccine, must be taken in to account,” added the HPA spokesman.

Both vaccines protect against HPV types 16 and 18, which are responsible for over 70% of cervical cancer cases, as well as other types of cancer. Gardasil also vaccinates against types 6 and 11, which cause the majority of genital warts as well as a rare disease called respiratory papillomatosis.

Human papillomavirus is a common sexually transmitted infection seen most often in young women. There are more than 100 types of HPVs; some cause genital warts, but others cause cancers including cervical cancer.

HPV testing is currently being integrated into England's cervical cancer screening programme, and will be fully incorporated within the year.

Cervarix was found to protect against five of the most common cancer-causing viruses in July 2009.

Plans have been published in the US to make $320bn of healthcare savings over the next decade, including $135bn worth of discounts from pharmaceutical companies.

Living Within Our Means and Investing in the Future: The President's Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction outlines measures to reduce the cost of drugs under the US’ Medicare benefit system.

The proposals call for payment policies for low-income beneficiaries to be aligned with those for Medicaid, the state/federal health programme for around 50 million people on low incomes.

Currently, pharmaceutical companies are required to pay specific rebates for those within the Medicaid scheme. However, sponsors for the Medicare negotiate with pharma to obtain specific rebates.

The report notes that “substantial differences” have been found between the rebates and the net prices paid for brand-name medication under the two programmes – Medicare beneficiaries receive significantly lower discounts and pay higher prices than those using Medicaid.

Under the President’s proposal it “would allow Medicare to benefit from the same rebates that Medicaid receives for brand-name and generic drugs provided to beneficiaries who receive the Medicare Low-Income Subsidy beginning 2013,” the report says.

The plans also propose to ban the ‘pay for delay’ deals between brand-name and generic manufacturers which prevent the release of cheaper alternatives on to the market and to reduce the exclusivity of biologic drugs from 12 years down to seven. It’s also hoped the measures will improve the Independent Payment Advisory Board’s (IPAB) aim to reduce long-term drivers of Medicare cost growth.

The proposals have been sent by the White House for consideration to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and are part of measures aiming to reduce the US’ national deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade.

A test originally designed to predict cancer prognosis could save the NHS millions of pounds in treating patients with chronic wounds, scientists have said.

The test, developed by two Welsh life scientists, is set to be commercialised by Fusion IP and promises to improve wound care by analysing the genetic signature of a wound.

Chronic wounds, such as those caused by leg ulcers and pressure sores associated with diabetes, currently cost the NHS £180m a year in Wales alone.

Keith Harding, Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine and Wound Healing at Cardiff University, said: “At a time when we can cure many cancers and transplant organs at will, we still can’t get a patient in front of the right person at the right time when they have a wound. A majority of patients will be seen in routine clinical practice for many months or even years before the clinician will say someone else needs to see the patient.”

It can currently take up to 12 weeks to determine whether a leg ulcer wound is responding to treatment, but Professor Harding said in one case he came across, a patient had had his dressings changed weekly for 57 years with no improvement in his wound.

Approximately 60% of chronic wound cases are unresponsive to the current traditional treatment. The new test, however, has been shown to be 98% accurate in initial research.

The test is the result of a four-year collaboration between Professor Harding and Wen Jiang, also a professor at Cardiff University, and examines the genetic signature of the wound.

Professor Jiang, Professor in Surgery and Tumour Biology at Cardiff University, said: “The very close correlation between the genetic signature and the future outcome of the wound healing process gives us confidence this test will deliver real benefits to patients.”

The collaboration has been granted £150,000 from the Welsh Government’s Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) programme to validate the new wound test.

Both professors hope to set up a company to commercialise the product, with support from Fusion IP, Cardiff University’s commercial partner.

“The idea is to give the average clinician the opportunity, at almost the first appointment, to tell whether a patient is going to be easy-to-heal or hard-to-heal,” commented Professor Harding.

Sanofi aims to save a further $2bn by 2015 as part of the company’s long-term objectives and cost-cutting plans.

The company expects new initiatives, as well as the expected $700m savings from the acquisition of Genzyme, will generate incremental cost savings over the next four years.

Christopher A. Viehbacher, CEO, says Sanofi is set to “embark upon a period of consistent and sustainable growth” in the coming years.

A previous cost savings programme has already realised its target of $2bn by 2011 – two years ahead of schedule.

Despite the loss of patent protection for several products, Sanofi says it expects 80% of sales in 2015 to come from growth platforms and its Genzyme business.

The plans also feature an increase in sales growth of at least 5% on average from 2012 to 2015 following the progress of a 2009 R&D transformation. Sanofi now says that a potential 19 products are set to be launched between 2012-2015, with six of these scheduled to be filed by March 2012.