Comment archive – Page 408

  • Comment

    Michael White on health budgets

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Opposition spokesmen as energetic as Andrew Lansley tend to respond to breaking news rather than to make it. It's the curse of opposition. When they're in the headlines it's usually bad news. The Tory health spokesman has been making headlines.

  • Comment

    Premises buy-back is yet more ammo for anti-private brigade

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Our revelation this week that the government made deals with the providers of the independent sector treatment centres to buy back their premises is another blow to a controversial policy. According to a document unearthed in the House of Commons library, the bill could reach £187m.

  • Comment

    NHS pyramid scheme remains unchanged

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    This week's report by HSJ shows that progress on driving up the lamentable levels of black and minority ethnic representation in NHS management ranks has stalled.

  • Comment

    'Robust' arthritis guidelines ignored

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    It came as little surprise that National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines for the care and treatment of osteoarthritis in adults were published to a fanfare of deafening silence from the press, writes Neil Betteridge

  • Comment

    Surgeons are safe

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    I am extremely disappointed that HSJ chose to print the accusation regarding patient safety and the certification of doctors for the specialist register, writes Paul Streets

  • Comment

    Juggling GP hours

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    In response to the article by NHS Employers' Alastair Henderson, 'GPs must see sense on hours', My colleagues and I do not have a problem particularly with working extended hours, writes Dr ARJ Boggis

  • Comment

    Occupational health doctors get people back to work

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    The British Medical Association is right to say that GPs alone cannot reduce employee absence due to ill health (news, page 8, 21 February). Occupational health doctors are specialists trained to work with employees and employers, to rehabilitate people back into work, writes Gordon Parker

  • Comment

    Stroke data

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Michael White was kind to call our report NHS reform: national mantra, not local reality 'coherent' and 'intelligent'. I suspect we will have to agree to disagree about the benefits of reform, writes Helen Rainbow

  • Comment

    West Kent patient safety

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Contrary to the comments made by shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, West Kent primary care trust came into being in October 2006, some six months after the start of the outbreak of C difficile at hospitals run by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust, writes Bob Deans

  • Comment

    This week's All Our Yesterdays

    2008-03-05T14:02:52Z

    March 12, 1948, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital Review"On the initiative of the County Borough Council, an extremely well attended public meeting was held in the Town Hall and unanimously decided to found the Dudley Voluntary Children’s Care Society. This society, believed to be unique in character, is ...

  • Comment

    A suggested coat of arms for Sir Robert Naylor

    2008-03-05T14:01:00Z

    Many thanks for your suggestions for a coat of arms for the newly knighted Sir Robert Naylor. Here is the first to be published, from a reader who pleads anonymity because he works for a firm that is currently trying to win business from Sir Robert's trust. With a motto ...

  • Comment

    Sizing up the national child measurement programme

    2008-03-05T09:00:00Z

    Forcing primary care trusts to measure all four and 11 year olds in their schools will not help tackle childhood obesity, argues Catherine Gleeson

  • Comment

    David Peat on community spirit

    2008-03-03T09:00:00Z

    It occurred to me the other day that just as TV soap devotees have Coronation Street, in East Lancashire we have Howard Street. But instead of the Rovers Return being the centre of everything that moves, we have Howard Street's community health centre.

  • Comment

    Simon Stevens on local pay and national prices

    2008-02-28T09:00:00Z

    When doctors everywhere are being urged to become more evidence based in their clinical practice, a standard retort is that health policy makers should do the same.

  • Comment

    Michael White on politics

    2008-02-28T09:00:00Z

    In more innocent days, when a protester smuggled horse manure into the Commons public gallery one of us coined the joke 'Ordure, ordure' for Mr Speaker to utter.

  • Comment

    Your Humble Servant: the Fresh Approach to Cash Alternatives Team

    2008-02-28T09:00:00Z

    To: Don Wise, chief executiveDear Don, as you can imagine, GPs are very agitated at the moment.

  • Comment

    Media Watch

    2008-02-28T09:00:00Z

    'A new centre for binge drinking has been identified in the heart of London,' reports The Sunday Times.

  • Comment

    Speak now to influence the new regulator

    2008-02-27T17:35:11Z

    This week's analysis of the bill introducing the Care Quality Commission highlights how little NHS and independent sector managers have involved themselves in shaping the new body so far. But the lack of detail in the bill of the nuts and bolts of the new regulatory framework means it is ...

  • Comment

    Lousy singer, great lobbyist - Morgan is a tough act to follow

    2008-02-27T17:30:26Z

    As the tributes pour in for Gill Morgan following the announcement that she is to leave the NHS Confederation, it is clear not only how well liked and respected she is, but also how far she has taken the organisation in six years.

  • Comment

    All Our Yesterdays

    2008-02-27T17:20:36Z

    March 5, 1948, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital Review Within preparations underway for the coming into effect of the National Hospital Service, a number of reports were printed this week on the decisions or provisional arrangements being made as to the allocation of institutions between county and county ...