Comment archive – Page 327
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CommentMedia Watch: riots ensure a quiet week for the NHS
The aftermath of the riots continued to dominate the national media at the expense of everything else, including health, but then August is traditionally a quiet month for the NHS.
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Comment'The focus now for those who manage healthcare should be value'
Now that the dust has settled somewhat on the furore surrounding the Health Bill, I find myself thinking about the domestic and truly international health agenda.
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CommentMichael White: the riots could change the outlook for health priorities
As we all picked our way through the debris of what I’m tempted to call the “Foot Locker Riots” in search of deeper explanations than the urgent need for new trainers, I found myself thinking several times of Sir Michael Marmot, the man HSJ likes to call “the guru of ...
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CommentA new opportunity to protect and improve patient advocacy
The reforms present an opportunity to do more for patient advocacy, while learning how to handle complaints better, says advocacy agency POhWER chief executive Valerie Harrison.
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CommentReview of services in Yorkshire warns of system failure
A high profile review of services in North Yorkshire and York, led by eminent doctor and NHS Confederation medical director Hugo Mascie-Taylor, has come to an end, and is well worth a read*.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: changes to charitable funding risks donators' benevolence
If, when the time comes, you leave a share of your worldly wealth to your local NHS, that’s entirely up to you. After all, it’s your money.
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CommentSouth Coast trusts forecast 2011-12 performance, predict £77m overspend
Trying to predict the future for the NHS is always difficult, as there always seems to be a reorganisation or a winter crisis just round the corner. However, primary care trusts in Sussex have given it a go.
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LeaderDistrust and pragmatism inform softly-softly authorisation plan
There is one sentence in the government’s draft authorisation process for clinical commissioning groups which highlights the atmosphere of distrust in which the new arrangements are being negotiated.
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CommentMichael Dixon: it's time for general practice to get real
I faced a difficult career decision 28 years ago. I wanted to go into general practice, but should I opt for a rural practice, where biomedicine had a clearer role, or for inner city practice, where needs were greater but medicine seemed less important?
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CommentSue Slipman: public board meetings are not a quick fix for accountability
With transparency and accountability increasingly on the agenda for trusts, Foundation Trust Network chief executive Sue Slipman argues that holding board meetings in public as a means to that end is not simply an open and shut case.
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CommentMedia Watch: deliberate delays report provokes fury in the press
The furore over the Cooperation and Competition Panel’s report suggesting primary care trusts were making patients wait longer in the hope they would die or go private was going strong when the weekend papers went to press.
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CommentWhat the new healthcare environment holds for clinical negligence indemnity
Changes ushered in by the Health Bill will mean indemnity contracts between providers and commissioners will need to be considered carefully and satisfy both sides before being set in place. Medical Defence Union chief executive Dr Christine Tomkins explains.
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CommentSally Gainsbury: the £2bn secret subsidy
Will the £500m ministers plan to spend each year on not sorting out failing hospitals suffice?
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CommentMichael White: the strange landscape of US healthcare
Where else but the US should this column spend a few days as punishment for not understanding how inappropriate a mechanism competition is for driving efficiency and innovation in healthcare?
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CommentSouth West trust chiefs in merry-go-round shake up
The impending departure of Weston Area Health Trust’s chief executive to Kettering General Hospital Foundation Trust next month has sparked a round of musical chairs in the South West.
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CommentRestructuring risks worry West Midlands as SHA chair drops out of cluster running
Restructuring the health service can be a risky business and NHS West Midlands isn’t taking any chances.
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LeaderThe government risks severing links with valuable volunteers
It was inevitable that a government regarding the empowerment of individuals and communities as its raison d’être would seek to instil a greater public voice into the health service.
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CommentThe crucial role health charities have to play
Never has there been a more important time to strengthen the relationships we have with hospital charities. And with more than 280 NHS charities across the UK, are we maximising these relationships that bring unquestionable benefits to our patients and staff, asks Peter Homa.
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CommentCynthia Bower interview: replacing the 'light touch' with a firm grip
Amid heavy political pressure, the Care Quality Commission is preparing to replace its “light touch” style with annual inspections of every provider. So is its chief executive ready to do battle? Cynthia Bower talks to HSJ’s Charlotte Santry.
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CommentMedia Watch: AQP rears its head to revive the privatisation debate
“The day they signalled the death warrant for the health service” chimed the headline on a piece by Max Pemberton, a member of the burgeoning doctors-who-are-also-journalists club, in the the Daily Telegraph this week.