Comment archive – Page 411
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Leader
Patients have a right to know about mortality rates
The argument in the West Midlands over interpreting mortality rates is just a taste of the rows that will ensue once the Department of Health starts publishing outcomes data.
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Comment
Media Watch: overweight children
The issue of overweight children, always a popular topic, was widely reported this week.
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Comment
Michael White on pandemic flu
Did you clock the government's new national risk register, published by the Cabinet Office? It was widely reported as putting pandemic flu as potentially the most lethal threat mankind is facing.
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Comment
Jon Restell on keeping managers in the NHS
Sixty per cent of the people who will make up the NHS workforce in 10 years are already employed in the service. This is the latest fancy dan statistic to drop into any workforce discussion.
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Comment
Mark Johnson on outsourcing in the health sector
A recent report into the impact, scale and potential of the 'public services industry' - private companies and other organisations that provide services to the government - is very timely.
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Comment
Steve Feast on breaking through to leadership roles
Considering how many talented clinicians there are in the NHS leadership ranks, relatively few actually make the transition from local clinical leadership roles to senior system-wide or executive positions.
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Comment
NICE chairman hits back at critics
Some recent criticisms of NICE's work ignore the realities of modern healthcare and misrepresent the facts. Institute chairman Sir Michael Rawlins sets the record straight
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Comment
Stephen Ramsden on minding your language
In a column last year I described the power of storytelling. Compelling stories touch hearts and minds in a way that logic and reason do not.
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Comment
Steve Onyett on loosening central control
The sociologist Lipsky coined the term 'street level bureaucracy' to highlight the fact that you can't force people to work effectively on something they disagree with.
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Comment
David Peat on hitting targets
You know how it feels when you hit the target but miss the point?Well, a recent journey to address a health conference in Europe was, to my mind, the perfect example of this.
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Comment
Keith Pearson on the NHS constitution
The constitution is an opportunity to put to bed the tired old arguments dogging the NHS and will underpin the values and principles at its core. Non-executive directors are the ideal champions for this cause
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Leader
Carbon emmissions need central steering
When it comes to reducing carbon emissions, it is difficult to conceive of an industry that faces a more complex challenge than the health service.
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Leader
Young promises new regime will deliver speed and independence
The language used by the chair of the Care Quality Commission in her interview with HSJ was typically clear, robust and ambitious.
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Comment
Michael White on relatonships with the media
A grizzled ex-minister, just back from an evidently refreshing holiday, was muttering the other day about what he calls the 'BBC mindset', by which he means all of us in the inky-fingered media trades.
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Comment
Your Humble Servant on Chinese whispers
To: Don Wise, chief executiveFrom: Paul ServantRe: Chinese whispers
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Comment
Media Watch: rats in hospitals
It was no great surprise that the papers went wild for the Tories' freedom of information 'revelation' that our hospitals are overrun with 'vermin'.
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Comment
Tim Benson and Justin Whatling on measuring outcomes
The only way to find out if your healthcare strategies are working is through reliable measurement.
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Comment
David Amos on staff engagement
The people of Hounslow, west London, have been impressed by a street cleaner who dances like Michael Jackson. This is either the council chief executive on a back to the floor initiative thinking about how much his contract is worth, or an extremely engaged employee.
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Comment
Hilary Thomas on healthy competition
The right sort of competition in healthcare is a prescription for huge gains in quality and efficiency. But while this can be encouraged partly through attractive incentives, have we been too lenient in pursuing more punitive measures?
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Comment
Linda Havard on unlocking clinical leadership
Lord Darzi's next stage review focuses on the importance of healthcare delivery, but at the expense of the details. Are local authorities up to the challenge of meeting the review's grand vision?