All Acute care articles – Page 474
-
News
New role for former Audit Commission chair
James Strachan, until recently chairman of the Audit Commission, has been appointed a non-executive director of Care UK PLC.One of the largest health and social care providers in the UK, Care UK operates 90 community-based care homes, runs a range of primary care services including GP out of hours services ...
-
News
Public 'don't want NHS ads for services'
Voters are overwhelmingly opposed to government plans to let hospitals advertise, according to a survey conducted by YouGov for the NHS Together alliance of health unions.The Department of Health is expected to publish a code of practice allowing hospitals to market their services under the era of choice.But the poll ...
-
News
British Heart Foundation launches 999 campaign
The public is being urged to call 999 immediately of they experience chest pain, warning that 'doubt kills'. A survey commissioned by the British Heart Foundation found that 40 per cent of people would not make 999 their first call if they thought they were having a heart attack.Read more ...
-
Comment
Dianne Leyland on the lack of clarity over local involvement networks
Voluntary and community groups must be actively involved if LINks are to work. Yet the sectors' goodwill, undermined by the botched creation of patient forums, is eroding further.
-
News
Medics warned off community work by cash-strapped trust
A financially troubled hospital trust is warning consultants not to carry out NHS work in the community unless there are guarantees that payments stay with the trust.
-
News
Service-line economics goes to the heart of patient care
As we reveal this week, foundation regulator Monitor will be consulting trusts on compliance guidance to push the adoption of service-line economics (feature, page 22).
-
News
Turnaround help for a third of acutes as deficits reach £1.2bn gross
More than one-third of all acute trusts and a quarter of all primary care trusts are receiving turnaround support as it was revealed that deficits in the NHS are climbing again.
-
News
PCTs pull plug on £550m hospital for Hertfordshire
Plans for new hospitals in Hertfordshire were in tatters this week after a £550m scheme to build a hospital and cancer centre in Hatfield were axed.
-
News
Scottish Executive unveils plans to reform nursing
New measures to reform nursing in Scotland have been unveiled by the Scottish Executive.Health minister Andy Kerr launched the Delivering Care, Enabling Healthstrategy, which will give nurses, midwives and allied health professionals a bigger role in patient care.The strategy was published alongside a review ...
-
News
New emergency planning guidance published
The Department of Health is consulting on new guidance for dealing with major emergencies like terrorist attacks.The best practice guidance is meant to help health services in planning, preparing and responding to all types of emergencies including natural disasters, infectious epidemics and major power cuts.The consultation closes on 31 December.Read ...
-
News
NHS financial crisis squeezing medical education, BMA warns
Patient care could be affected by cuts to medical training and education, according to the British Medical Association. Funding for study leave and academic posts in medical schools has been cut to help tackle deficits. The BMA junior doctors committee has written to health secretary ...
-
Comment
Richard Barker on why the IT programme is never going to come right
'NPfIT will never get back on track; it was never on track in the first place. It breaks every rule of project management - from scoping to delivery - and is patently failing to take into account the actual requirements of clinicians across the NHS.'
-
HSJ Knowledge
Copying outpatient clinic correspondence: letter to patient or GP?
The NHS plan flagged up improving communication between doctors and patients by having outpatient clinic letters to GPs copied to patients. We ran a study comparing this with writing a letter to the patient copied to the GP.
-
News
Northern Ireland cancer consultation launched
Northern Ireland health minister Paul Goggins has launched a new cancer control programme which highlights the importance of lifestyle factors in preventing cancer and the need for the public to be more proactive in reporting possible cancer symptoms at an early stage.The report's 55 recommendations span every aspect of cancer ...
-
News
Back to the ward: back-to-front thinking
Even when financial pressure is being felt so heavily up and down the country, it still seems odd that some trusts are asking senior nurses (in at least one case, at director level) to go back to the wards to help out on a regular basis. Read more >>
-
News
RCN attacks back-to-wards plan
The Royal College of Nursing has expressed concerns that trusts across the country are asking senior nurses with specialist skills to go back to the wards as nursing auxiliaries to ease recruitment and financial problems.
-
News
LIFT-funded buildings pass 100 mark
The opening of three new health centres this week through the local improvement finance trust has pushed the NHS above the 100 mark in its LIFT-funded building programme.The 100th building to open was the £3m Longview Drive primary care centre in St Helens and was followed by two more in ...
-
News
Infection control risks revealed
Fewer than half of NHS trusts have a ringfenced budged for infection control, and nearly half of respondents said staff are not adequately trained in infection control, according to a survey carried out by the Patients Association.The survey, which polled directors of nursing, infection control nurses, and microbiologists, also revealed ...
-
News
Guidance on treatment of critically sick children launched
The Department of Health, medical royal colleges and the Royal College of Nursing have produced guidance on how best to treat acutely or critically sick children in district general hospitals.The guidance includes training for staff, transfer of sick children, and the needs of sick children's families.Read the full guidance ...
-
News
Waiting list breakthrough in Northern Ireland
No patients are waiting more than nine months for surgery in Northern Ireland for the first time, government figures for the end of October have revealed.This time last year 5,600 patients were waiting for inpatient or day case surgery for more than nine months.Read more ...