Comment archive – Page 418
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Leader
Takeover is a test-run for nervous bidders
The NHS has entered the world of competitive trust takeovers. In the first process of its kind, NHS East of England has invited bids to takeover Bedfordshire and Luton Mental Health and Social Care Partnership trust, after its chair and non-executive directors resigned in February. This act of governance harakiri ...
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LeaderSafe, streamlined services give the best – and cheapest – care
There are signs of rancour in the NHS over how best to address the forthcoming funding squeeze.
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Comment
Sheila Williams on changing your habits
There seems to be a lot of change happening right now - personal, professional, economic, regulatory. Enough to affect everyone at least a little. So why is it that we often intend to make changes in our lives, make some progress but then end up right back where we started?
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CommentCally Bann on fiddling expenses
A spotty-faced cub reporter at the Battersley Evening Bugle has put in a request under the Freedom of Information Act for a detailed breakdown of all board expenses claimed in the past 24 months.
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CommentAli Parsa on the meaning of value
With the squeeze on health funding getting tighter, commissioners must spend less. But bargain hunters beware - low cost services do not necessarily offer good value
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CommentMedia Watch: Alan Johnson does his own PR
The weekend before last, The Independent ran an interview with Alan Johnson in which, in answer to a question about whether politicians would ever be trusted again, the health secretary said the political system needed a complete “overhaul” and called for voters to be consulted on proportional representation.
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CommentMichael White on the patient-consumer parallel
It is always good to hear the NHS’s top brass trumpeting the service’s virtues, as NHS chief executive David Nicholson did when launching his third annual report. At least his list of modest triumphs serves to counteract some of the negativity generated by more regular reports of NHS failures in ...
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CommentNeil Goodwin on NHS boardroom relationships
In the recent flurry of NHS chief executive departures, little has been mentioned or heard about the possible impact on wider NHS board membership.
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CommentHilary Thomas on treating lymphoedema in the community
One of the most heart sinking conditions an oncologist encounters during his or her career is lymphoedema. I use the term “heart sinking” with some embarrassment but, if I am really honest, this is one of those afflictions that made me feel powerless as a clinician.
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CommentDavid Peat on embracing NHS change
Attitudes to the idea of change have always fascinated me. And I suppose I’m revisiting the concept since I’m on the verge of changing my own role in the NHS by moving on to take up a new post at strategic health authority level.
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CommentDeveloping an integrated falls prevention service
Falls-related injuries are the leading cause of death due to accident in older people. Sue Poulton explains how to develop an integrated falls prevention and bone health service to reduce the risk of falls
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CommentDavid Furness: Keep local people in on the act
The Budget has set the scene for a grim period in NHS finances, so accountability to the public must play an even greater role, not least in relation to local commissioning
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CommentMichael White: a search for good news in the NHS
With the expenses scandal delivering the most humiliating week for Westminster politics that I can remember in 30 years this column is committed to finding something more cheerful to write about MPs today.
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LeaderBen Bradshaw hunts down scandal-hit NHS chiefs
The Department of Health has scented blood over blocking pay-offs for chief executives quitting in the wake of a scandal.
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LeaderNHS should not be out of pocket when doctors trouser extra cash
HSJ’s revelation that the NHS is spending in the region of £2m a year subsidising private patients raises serious questions about how some trusts manage them.
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CommentSophia Christie on NHS crisis and opportunity
An emerging policy consensus looks to innovation to save the NHS. The context is an emerging “perfect storm” of financial crisis, global warming, obesity, longer lives with greater dependency and fewer working age people to pay taxes.
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Comment
Andrew Craggs on safe thinking
Imagine a patient who falls in a pothole on his way to a clinic on the main footpath. He sustains severe head injuries and subsequently dies.
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CommentPaul Corrigan: Darwin's theory on the NHS
The greatest truth in Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is that to survive in a rapidly changing environment, species must adapt. And for a species to be adaptable it needs to love diversity.
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CommentMedia Watch: expenses and NHS prescriptions for sunshine
With MPs’ expenses dominating the news this week, there was less room than usual for NHS manager bashing, miracle cures or the rest of the usual health-related fare.