Comment archive – Page 390
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CommentCally Bann: bah humbug
Now I’m no Scrooge, and the words bah and humbug have never once crossed my lips, if you ignore that time in 1986 when I got caught under the A&E mistletoe by a lothario of the Superbrew. But - looking back in the cold light of January - never again ...
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CommentPublic sector pay scrutiny
It may be a new decade, but it is a familiar story facing NHS managers returning to their desks after the Christmas holidays.
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CommentKen Jarrold: what is the future of NHS regulation?
The row about regulation did not come at a good time for the NHS and it raises some profound questions. Just how likely is it that self assessment will be objective? How many of us have the capacity to see ourselves, our performance and the world around us as it ...
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CommentNHS Top Leaders: cream of the crop rises to the top
The Top Leaders programme is nearly ready to finish identifying the leaders it believes have the greatest potential to make an impact on care in the NHS
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CommentJon Restell: could the NHS ever be like this?
People tell me I am good at predictions, so here is my month by month forecast for 2010.
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CommentMedia Watch: Good to Great, generic drugs and swine flu
Not of a lot of festive cheer in evidence just yet: the health secretary’s latest strategy for the NHS, intended to take it from “good to great”, was met with a determined lack of enthusiasm from The Daily Telegraph, Independent and Financial Times. They all took the view that it ...
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CommentMichael White on public spending
There was a cynical chuckle in the Commons during the pre-Budget Report when Alistair Darling told MPs “we take these decisions from a position of strength”. What decisions? Why, cuts in the public spending deficit, of course.
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CommentPaul Corrigan: health and social care marriage
When health secretary Andy Burnham announced his new policy last week, HSJ suggested he was interested in a “marriage” between social care and health commissioning. In Parliament, Mr Burnham added: “We should also be less precious about spending health resources on equipment and telecare to help people live in their ...
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LeaderIrrational optimism is the best prescription for NHS managers
Monitor’s outgoing executive chair Bill Moyes delivered a typically pugnacious valedictory address.
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LeaderUnions and NHS employers team up to negotiate for a better future
A tough year has ended with news that is no less painful for being inevitable - there are likely to be thousands of job losses in 2010. But despite the implosion of public finances the omens are not all bad.
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CommentPete Mason on multiple leadership styles
What makes a good leader? There are several schools of thought. Should a leader be reserved like Gordon Brown, or gregarious like Tony Blair; quietly dignified like Bobby Moore, or in your face like John Terry; boisterous like Alan Sugar, or overfamiliar like David Brent?
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LeaderPopulist blame culture stifles openness
The introduction of mandatory safety breach reporting has superficial voter appeal, but problems lurk beneath.
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LeaderNHS regulatory turmoil distracts from the real business of care
Regulation has become politically dangerous territory for health secretary Andy Burnham. Just at the moment when the recent furore over death rates and patient safety has shaken public confidence in the NHS, the two regulators at the centre of the storm are about to be left leaderless.
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CommentYour Humble Servant: regulation...
‘What’s important is that if you’re crap you own up and if you’re fabulous you live to fail another day’
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Comment'You don't have to be insensitive to work here, but it helps'
New Horizons, launched on Monday, got a pleasing amount of coverage for a mental health story.
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CommentMichael White on NHS regulation
Is there enough real news to fill all those newspapers and dedicated TV news channels? In most years there are only two or three serious news items, ones that will be remembered, I sometimes joke.
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CommentStephen Eames on quality vs cost
One thing I have learnt over the years is the propensity of strategic development, planning and associated processes to dominate and consume inordinate amounts of time, often with limited output.
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CommentAngela Greatley: mental health services are moving on
The asylums have long since closed - we need to maintain the pressure for better care so people with mental health problems can lead productive, positive lives
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CommentHow to develop professional networks
Many who feel their career or performance is faltering are sometimes wary of networking. For the more introverted, networking is daunting. For others it conjures up images of currying favour along corridors of power for personal gain and so is unacceptable.
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CommentTarget inequalities, beat cancer
The government must act now to stamp out staggering inequalities in cancer care. Its first steps should be a one year survival target and changing how NICE works, writes John Baron