Comment archive – Page 339
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LeaderCompetition should never be first choice, but it could be best
Whether you believe competition to provide care for NHS patients is per se a good or bad thing is largely a matter of political bias. The evidence on either side is almost transparent.
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CommentMedia Watch: drunks and royals give NHS staff little cause to raise a glass
One health story got the attention of all of the nationals this week - an Alcohol Concern report on the pressure placed on the NHS by drinking.
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CommentMedia Watch: papers picking up on dismissals
The tale of two advisers, both of whom have lost the ear of the government, was making the headlines at the start of this week.
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CommentMichael White: somwhere to escape the cuts
Wherever you turn at present it’s hard to escape the government’s cuts programme. I confirmed that (again) when I rang my sister at the nursery-infant-and-parenting unit she has worked in for many years. Their budget has been slashed, redundancies loom. Should she volunteer to go, taking decades of experience with ...
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Comment'It makes a welcome change to hear praise for NHS managers'
Sir David Nicholson’s letter to colleagues after the spending review recognised that great public service leadership “more than anything else” will be central to improving quality and productivity.
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CommentPost-reform NHS is life, still, but not as we know it
As the dust begins to settle a little on the furore that surrounded the introduction of the Health Bill last month, the wiser among us have started to think through what the new landscape might resemble.
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CommentYour Humble Servant: health mogul
‘Family doctor to health mogul? It’s what my patients want for me’
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CommentNoel Plumridge: saying the unsayable
A section of the Health Bill that hopefully won’t often be invoked applies commercial insolvency law to foundation trusts. Section 113 places broke NHS hospitals under broadly the same winding-up regime as bankrupt companies. With falling tariff prices and rigid hospital cost structures, it will probably be tested before long.
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LeaderLocal performance is the key to the future of the NHS
Since May the spotlight has been resolutely on changes in national health policy. The entry of the Health Bill into Parliament marks the beginning of the end of that phase. What will matter increasingly is how the NHS at a local level deals with the twin challenge of reform and ...
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LeaderIf accountability counts, its value must be recognised
Should we worry that some primary care trust chief executives who are offered more junior roles in PCT clusters, losing their accountable officer status in the process, cannot opt for redundancy instead?
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CommentBailouts, arbitration and postcode lotteries in London
The higher than expected workload of the capital’s acute trusts has now seen bailouts, at least one arbitration and an intra-London postcode lottery as primary care trusts struggle to cope.
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CommentMidlands 'yet to be won over by GP commissioning'
Some providers and commissioners in the Midlands are yet to be won over by the managerial talents of local GPs, it seems.
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CommentMichael White: opposition's political artillery fire rings hollow
A barrage of political artillery fire preceded Monday’s Commons second reading of the Health and Social Care Bill.
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CommentMedia Watch: Cameron and Lansley spring into action
The week kicked off with the health secretary and prime minister both going into action to defend the Health and Social Care Bill, ahead of its second reading in parliament on Monday.
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CommentPublic health tremors could unleash a monster
The double whammy of setting up a new national public health service (Public Health England) and returning responsibility for health improvement to local government is the most earth-shaking shift in public health since the abolition of medical officers of health in 1974.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: the DH's fistful of figures
The Department of Health’s intent to maintain “grip” on NHS performance during 2011-12 is plain in the technical guidance to the NHS operating framework, issued in late January.
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LeaderIs a narrative for complex health reform impossible?
Two snapshots from a day in the life of one A Lansley, health secretary.
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CommentSuccessful healthcare mergers, like marriages, need a lot of hard work
Mergers and acquisitions of healthcare organisations in the developed world have become much more commonplace over the last decade.
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CommentThe Health Bill - rising to the challenge
The Health Bill sets out a vision for commissioning where innovative consortia of GPs take the lead in transforming our health and social care systems from being demand-led and provider-oriented to being patient-centred and outcomes-focused.