Comment archive – Page 413
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Comment
PROMs get their big night at last
For 60 years, NHS policy makers, in common with counterparts in all healthcare systems, public and private, have believed that regular 'redisorganisation' of structures, combined with increases in funding to increase activity, improved patients' health, writes Alan Maynard
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Andrew Alonzi on legal requirements of the Mental Health Act
When the Mental Health Act 2007 is fully introduced, the existing Mental Health Act 1983 treatability test will be replaced by a new appropriate medical treatment test.
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David Peat on getting world class commissioning right
Call them benchmarks, standards or targets, it is no bad thing to have aspirations and the will to achieve. It is also good to be put on the spot sometimes, to help streamline the process and refine best practice.
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Comment
Fair play, please
Liver patients are far too often the victims of stereotypes about self-inflicted illness and being unworthy of NHS treatment and we can really do without Michael White adding to this, writes Imogen Shillito
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Comment
Unpeeled - the NHS's top bananas
The 'terse' mail between two health leaders exemplifies a problem that has become ubiquitous in health partnerships, writes Woody Caan
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Kremlin correction
The doctored image of Richmond House in your mighty organ includes domes from St Basil's Cathedral, not the Kremlin, says Niall Smith
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Media Watch: organ donors
Prime minister Gordon Brown's Damascene conversion to presumed organ consent was, naturally, a hot topic for the press.
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Michael White on Brown's plans for health
Gordon Brown's Big NHS Speech, to which HSJ gave front-page treatment last week, was full of virtuous declaration about what needs to be done to manage rising - and costly - demand in healthcare systems around the world.
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Comment
Ministers should heed warnings over accountability
Wrangling over the precise remit of the forthcoming Care Quality Commission continues apace.
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Comment
Clegg throws down mental health gauntlet
Mental health is not an issue that politicians generally choose to make a splash on. But newly elected Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had more to say about mental health in his inaugural speech on public policy than he did about the rest of the NHS.
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Simon Stevens on Brown's first health speech
Until last week, Gordon Brown had been surprisingly - even painfully - quiet on where he thought the NHS should be headed. But last Monday he finally showed some leg, in the form of his first major health pronunciamento since moving into Number 10.
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Frank Burns on politicians, short cuts and dead ends
Those of us interested in the genesis of high-profile national policy will have enjoyed the revelation, on Radio 4's Wiring the NHS programme, that in 2002 Sir John Pattison, then responsible Director for NHS IT, was given all of 10 minutes to make a pitch to the then prime minister ...
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Weird world health
All hail the Darwin Awards, the annual celebration of those 'who improve the species by accidentally removing themselves from it.' Winners of the 2007 awards include a Texan man who died after giving himself an enema made up of two 1.5 litre bottles of sherry and a young couple fromSouth ...
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James Kennedy on rethinking out-of-hours care
Forcing GPs to provide out-of-hours care may not be the best way to rebuild public confidence in these services. Instead, the government should look to other providers to fill the gap
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Hilary Thomas on new perspectives on caring
Looking back, 2007 was an odd year for me. Making a career change has been inspiring and invigorating. The fact that it coincided with moving back to London, putting a year of treatment behind me and the clunky dawn of my sense of mortality and ordinariness has added to my ...
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Sophia Christie on managing cultures in the health service
Naturally an optimist, I always like to start the new year reflecting on emerging opportunities. Primary care trusts had a lot to get excited about in the last few months of 2007 with the development and launch of world class commissioning. The experience has been reminiscent of the publication last ...
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Media Watch: winter bugs
The message this week was that if you are a patient with an infection, stay well clear of the NHS.
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Michael White on health in the new year
All right, so the Royal Marsden Hospital nearly burned down last week and around 100 wards in 44 hospitals were closed as norovirus swept the country. But it's the start of another year - happy new year - so let's be cheerful.
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Emma Dent on the year ahead
A happy new year to you all, readers, and I trust 2008 finds you in good health and not in the grip of the grim-sounding norovirus that ruined the festive season for several of my acquaintances.
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Comment
Preventive care rhetoric could become reality
Gordon Brown's keynote health speech was not just a crucial moment in the bid to relaunch his premiership (for more details, click here). As the NHS heads towards its 60th anniversary, his government's ability to deliver these reforms will have a profound impact on the service's long-term future.