Launching a bank in the present financial climate would probably be viewed as akin to insanity. But the idea of an “NHS bank” has been mooted by an NHS economist, reports Health Service Journal (July 10). It wouldn't be on the high street, nor would it offer mortgages. But would it rip off its customers? Pass.

Keith Palmer, NHS economist and chair of Barts and The London NHS Trust, told the Commons Health Select Committee that foundation trusts should be able to store their £2.3 billion surpluses in such a bank to be used by the rest of the health service.

Instead of foundation trusts keeping surpluses in private banks they could deposit them with the Department of Health (DH) in return for a commercial interest rate.

Palmer believes that it would enable a more efficient use of total NHS funds. At the moment, the DH holds funds back to cover the deficits of overspent NHS organisations. Palmer's model could mean that those deficits are covered by foundation trust surpluses, so more NHS resources would be available all round. He says: “My proposal is [not to] take these surpluses away from foundations, but why not find a mechanism for recycling it within the NHS so you don't get such a loss of activity during that period?” But a wet blanket, er, spokesman from the DH says the department “can see no immediate benefit” of such a bank.

Healthcare you can bank on

The Department of Health are showing a keen interest in the foundation trusts' £2.3 billion of surpluses

BACKGROUND

• Public Opinion: Virginia Beardshaw

• Chucked in at the deep end

• Steps afoot to keep data safe

• What works for us

Related Internet Links

• Public sector jobs

• Snakes & Ladders

Another antidote for the financial woes of the NHS comes from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which says that primary care trusts (PCTs) that drag their heels on procurement are hiking up costs, reports HSJ. The CBI says that PCTs often seem unaware that when they halt tender processes at prequalification questionnaire stage, bidders factor the cost of the wasted work into their second bid, inflating the final offer.

Water's medicinal properties

If you have a penchant for wine, eggs, soft cheese and sushi (perhaps not all at the same time) then pregnancy could be a culinary desert. But the list gets ever longer. Drinking water could be harmful to foetuses, according to the British Medical Journal (July 12).

Why? Because medicines go in one end and out of the, er, other, and end up in sewage systems, then rivers. Other drugs avoid the scenic route and are flushed straight down the toilet. Antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilisers and sex hormones have all been found in drinking water in the US. Studies in Berlin and Italy have also found medicinal products. While humans, including the unborn, are exposed to levels vastly lower than a therapeutic dose, the cocktail effect of mixing different drugs could have detrimental effects on foetuses.

The natural river flow available to dilute what comes out of sewage works in the UK, particularly in England, is one of the lowest in Europe. Andrew Johnson, an environmental microbiologist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wallingford, says no other freshwater environment is more exposed to pharmaceuticals. Gin, anyone?

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive