Comment archive – Page 364
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CommentNoel Plumridge: calling any qualified commissioners
Last week’s public accounts committee report on the NHS landscape states: “Most important, the department has not yet got a framework to deal with failure in the system, be it on the provider side or the commissioning side”.
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CommentSeeking sustainability on the South Coast
News that Portsmouth Hospitals Trust is one of 22 predicted to struggle to gain foundation trust status because of a hefty private finance deal would have come as little surprise to the local health economy.
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CommentNorth East on course to meet targets, but some regions are still feeling the heat
With the financial year ended, overall performance during 2010-11 is becoming a bit clearer. Both NHS North East and Yorkshire and the Humber appear to have met headline targets, but Yorkshire is showing signs of strain.
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LeaderCameron phones friends to help answer tricky reform questions
It is a year since the general election that brought the coalition to power and Andrew Lansley to Richmond House.
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CommentScaling up collaboration: the public health manifesto
I recently had the privilege of attending a lecture by Sir Michael Marmot, the guru of health inequalities and public health.
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CommentMaking room for meddling in the East
While strategic health authorities wind down to their abolition – now slightly delayed – clustering has begun to meddle with the map.
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Comment
The barriers to achieving cost effective interventions
A lack of clarity around the effectiveness of out of hospital interventions is preventing their potential cost efficiencies from being realised. But, says Nuffield Trust director Jennifer Dixon, there are reasons to be cheerful.
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CommentCross border mental health contracts emerge in the South East
The mental health providers of the South East coast region are currently keen to engage in some cross border commercial activity.
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CommentFit for purpose: keeping vital employment support for patients with long-term conditions
Work is of enormous benefit to many people with long-term conditions. But, writes Daloni Carlisle, it may soon be a lot harder for people to receive NHS support to stay in employment.
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Comment'Without evidence, the rhetorical reforms are irrelevant at best'
As real funding is eroded amid grand health policy rhetoric, there is a desperate need for hard evidence and data to inform the fundamental policy challenges facing this government. Without it, the reforms are all but irrelevant, argues York University professor of health economics Alan Maynard.
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CommentSally Gainsbury: balancing the books with creative 'fiddling'
It is year-end accounts closing time and finance departments are a hive of fevered book balancing. This column wants to salute the best of that and so is launching the NHS Finance Departments Delivering Liberty and Excellence – FiDDLE – award.
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LeaderPCTs are dead. Long live the PCT cluster?
Here’s a quiz for you. What do the following numbers - 581, 331, 162, 62 - represent?
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CommentMichael White: the Tory rhetoric is now bogged down in detail
Over a junk food lunch with NHS heavies recently I found the conversation turning – yet again – to Andrew Lansley. Is he on the level? Does he have a hidden agenda to privatise the system? That kind of thing.
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CommentKeeping safer service delivery at the forefront of the NHS
The NHS has made great strides in delivering safer services: the recent work on surgical check lists is another excellent example that hospitals cannot afford to ignore. However there is still much to do, says Paul Zollinger-Read.
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CommentWhy the reforms need to avoid penalising NHS and local government relationships
Areas where improved health outcomes are already being delivered through strong NHS and local government partnerships will be hoping the negative impact the reforms could have on this success will be seriously reviewed, writes Blackburn with Darwen chief executive Graham Burgess.
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CommentThe debate on consortia governance requires sound principles, and hard evidence
To commission effectively, consortia will need governance arrangements that create confidence and trust, and build legitimacy and partnerships, writes The Health Foundation chief executive Stephen Thornton.
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CommentIs the NHS constitution still relevant in the new NHS landscape?
Since the government came to power and the health secretary announced sweeping reforms to the NHS, there seems to have been little focus on the NHS constitution. Gerard Hanratty, partner at healthcare law firm Capsticks, weighs up what may happen to it under the coalition government.
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CommentMedia Watch: worries over 'rationed' availability of treatments
After last week’s universal coverage of the health secretary’s will he/won’t he appearance at the Royal College of Nursing congress, the media headed towards the Easter break with a fairly united front over the availability of NHS treatments.
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CommentCally Bann: the Big Society's 'Big Listen'
I have my doubts whether this period of political deflection, that is, reflection, will bring changes of any substance to the NHS reforms.
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CommentA chief executive merry-go-round in London
It appears to be poacher turned gamekeeper season among the capital’s chief executives.