Comment archive – Page 412

  • Comment

    Your Humble Servant: democratic ravings

    2008-01-31T09:00:00Z

    To: Don Wise, chief executiveFrom: Paul Servant, assistant chief executiveRe: Moooo

  • Comment

    Media Watch: donations row

    2008-01-31T09:00:00Z

    Health secretary Alan Johnson was big news this week, as a row over a donation to his campaign to become Labour deputy leader spread across front pages faster than a hospital superbug.

  • Comment

    Michael White on Johnson's donation troubles

    2008-01-31T09:00:00Z

    I shall resist the temptation to make fatcat jokes this week. But I don't think I'm sticking my neck out in predicting that Alan Johnson's trouble over that £3,000 donation to his deputy leadership campaign will not lead to the health secretary's resignation.

  • Comment

    Patients could hold answer to gender work rate differences

    2008-01-31T09:00:00Z

    For the increasing number of female consultants, research this week that concludes they are less productive than their male counterparts is likely to make them bristle.

  • Comment

    Mental health funding rows must not hinder urgent care

    2008-01-31T09:00:00Z

    Being sectioned under the Mental Health Act is traumatic, but a section being delayed because of a row over funding is even more distressing.

  • Comment

    Personal healthcare budgets - a real possibility?

    2008-01-30T09:00:00Z

    Hilary Blackwell asks whether putting people in charge of their own healthcare budgets could really work

  • Comment

    All Our Yesterdays

    2008-01-29T16:03:44Z

    February 6, 1948, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital Review "The fact has to be faced that the education of the wartime generation pf schoolchildren necessarily suffered a severe setback…Thanks are due to the devoted efforts of teachers and all others concerned with the service that this loss was ...

  • Comment

    This week's lookey likey

    2008-01-29T16:00:54Z

    Another footballing lookey likey this week. The lure of Newcastle was not enough to tempt Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp to the north east. But oddly enough that fine region is the former base of Department of Health director general of NHS finance, performance and operations David Flory, to whom a ...

  • Comment

    David Woodhead on patient satisfaction

    2008-01-28T09:00:00Z

    France and the UK may have different approaches to healthcare delivery, but many of the challenges they face are the same

  • Comment

    Media Watch: compensation claims

    2008-01-24T09:00:00Z

    While Leslie Ash celebrated, columnists seethed, indignant at the £5m in compensation the actor received after contracting an infection in hospital.

  • Comment

    Michael White on cutting costs

    2008-01-24T09:00:00Z

    At a high-minded King's Fund breakfast a few months ago I heard battle-hardened NHS veterans agreeing that there won't be the opportunity for serious efficiency savings until the money tap is turned off. Then everyone will remember how to improvise.

  • Comment

    Jon Restell on big picture partnerships

    2008-01-24T09:00:00Z

    In the winter months I need some little fantasies to spice up my working life. Let me share with you just one of many.

  • Comment

    Emma Dent: getting on the hospital ladder?

    2008-01-24T09:00:00Z

    HSJ's announcements service recently carried the news that insurer Combined Insurance believes that a significant number of people would pay more for a home that is close to good hospitals.

  • Comment

    Strong accountability offers a chance to focus on the neediest

    2008-01-24T09:00:00Z

    How best to reduce health inequalities? Our news analysis this week shows what has long been suspected: that different areas not only have starkly different premature death rates, but that in some cases primary care trusts with the greatest need spend the least on tackling these early killers.

  • Comment

    Management costs: trusts can only benefit from comparison

    2008-01-24T09:00:00Z

    Figures published by the Department of Health reveal huge variations in NHS trusts' management costs, from 0.4 per cent of their income up to 15 per cent.

  • Comment

    Frank Burns on IT policy in the NHS

    2008-01-23T09:00:00Z

    Anyone interested in how high-profile national policy is developed will have enjoyed the revelation, on Radio 4’s Wiring the NHS programme, that in 2002 then NHS IT director Sir John Pattison was given only 10 minutes to pitch the creation of the national IT programme to prime minister Tony Blair. ...

  • Comment

    Hospital beds - dispelling myths

    2008-01-23T09:00:00Z

    Throughout the NHS's history, politicians have been under pressure to protest against proposed hospital closures. But having more beds is not always better. In fact, too many hospital beds can lead to imbalances in overall health service provision and damage the quality of services, argues Richard Banyard

  • Comment

    All Our Yesterdays

    2008-01-22T15:36:10Z

    January 30, 1948, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital Review On the midwifery service: “The year just reported on by the Central Midwives Board saw continues heavy pressure on both domiciliary and institutional midwifery services. The increase in the birth rate during these twelve months was also reflected in ...

  • Comment

    Brown's good news for public health

    2008-01-21T16:11:00Z

    Gordon Brown's New Year commitment to cardiovascular screening is a firm step in the right direction - upstream towards prevention - and although we've heard this kind of thing from government before, this time I get the feeling they really mean it.

  • Comment

    Narrowing the Gap - call for evidence

    2008-01-21T16:01:00Z

    Christine Davies invites HSJ readers to make a submission to the Narrowing the Gap project's evidence panel.