Comment archive – Page 418

  • Comment

    Weird world health

    2007-11-13T00:00:00Z

    When doctors and nurses make the decision to set out and their long and arduous training, we imagine many must have as their idols those pioneers of healthcare who transformed medicine. But it seems the fictional Dr Watson, sidekick of Sherlock Holmes, TV's Dr Kildaire, Frasier's Dr Frasier Crane, Casualty’s ...

  • Comment

    All Our Yesterdays

    2007-11-13T00:00:00Z

    November 21, 1941, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital ReviewMore on the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers. 'The first essential in the treatment of haematemesis is to keep the patient absolutely quiet. He is put to bed where he lies supline and still, the necessary nursing procedures being ...

  • Comment

    Neil Goodwin on building a strong NHS board

    2007-11-12T09:00:00Z

    Developing an effective NHS board requires good leadership from the chairman, who must set the tone, style and the conduct of business

  • Comment

    Your Humble Servant on the annual health check ratings

    2007-11-08T09:00:00Z

    We are all terribly proud of the huge improvement we have achieved in the annual health check under your leadership. The fair and fair rating shows just how far we have come in five years. Surely the next stop is foundation trust status?

  • Comment

    Michael White on immigration and the NHS

    2007-11-08T09:00:00Z

    As old favourites like immigration and NHS pay resurfaced in public debate, a conversation I overheard in a Berkshire pub years ago popped up again this week.

  • Comment

    Media Watch: transplant deaths at Papworth

    2007-11-08T09:00:00Z

    This week Papworth Hospital in Cambridge found itself at the centre of a media storm. More used to making headlines about pioneering treatment, the hospital was in the spotlight as its heart transplants were halted due to an unexplained rise in death rates.

  • Comment

    Payment by results: top-up scheme clears the way for back-door reconfiguration

    2007-11-08T09:00:00Z

    The changes to the tariff for specialist services revealed in this week's HSJ risk inflaming public opinion just as Lord Darzi's review is supposed to be restoring confidence in how reconfigurations are managed.

  • Comment

    Chief executive pay-offs raise doubts about local control

    2007-11-08T09:00:00Z

    Don't be taken in by ministerial hot air on their belief in local decision-making. The latest move after the Clostridium difficile deaths at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust demonstrates that soundbites, press releases and the irresistible urge to be seen to be doing something still take precedence over sensible government.

  • Comment

    Noel Plumridge on finding the right GP

    2007-11-08T09:00:00Z

    Is it worthwhile to register with a GP when there are other alternatives available?

  • Comment

    Telecare - improving the lives of patients with COPD

    2007-11-07T09:00:00Z

    Fatima Holt explains how telecare is helping to manage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a primary care setting, for more timely and effective care

  • Comment

    Great progress has been made in GP access

    2007-11-07T00:00:00Z

    Your recent editorial 'GP access dispute reveals holes in Darzi's rushed report' did not reflect the significant improvements that have been made in access to GPs, writes health minister Ben Bradshaw

  • Comment

    Weird world health

    2007-11-06T00:00:00Z

    This Facebook lark continues to take hold in the NHS. We were sent a press release from South West Yorkshire Mental Health trust, which is embracing the social networking site to help it encourage local people to get involved with the trust.It wants its group, With all of us in ...

  • Comment

    This week's looky likey

    2007-11-06T00:00:00Z

    A double whammy look alike this week - another thespian resemblance and another member of the government's health team as National Association of Primary Care office manager Sally Kitt writes to point out that the dapper Ben Bradshaw is not unlike Hugh Grant.

  • Comment

    All Our Yesterdays

    2007-11-06T00:00:00Z

    November 14, 1941, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital Review'Treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcer: As soon as a diagnosis of peptic ulcer has been made the patient should be put to bed for a week or more and thereafter for several weeks should spend most of his time ...

  • Comment

    Lisa Rodrigues on staying connected

    2007-11-05T09:00:00Z

    Keeping in contact with one another is important, whether it is through social networking sites or old-fashioned conversations

  • Comment

    Emma Dent on getting recognition

    2007-11-01T09:00:00Z

    Everyone, even health policy journalists, needs little rewards to brighten up the working day. I am always really quite chuffed when a reader rings, e-mails or stops me in the street to tell me they enjoyed one of my features - or even one of these columns.

  • Comment

    Overseas workers are getting a raw deal

    2007-11-01T09:00:00Z

    The Local Government Association's report on the impact of migration presents a powerful case for more funding of public services in areas experiencing the sharpest increases in demand.

  • Comment

    Michael White on nursing standards

    2007-11-01T09:00:00Z

    I didn't know whether to laugh or make plans to flee the country when I read weekend front-page headlines such as 'Nurses to have the power to end a life'

  • Comment

    Media Watch: out-of-hours and overseas

    2007-11-01T09:00:00Z

    Hospitals 'swamped by out-of-hours care failure' read a Daily Telegraph headline this week. It was telling readers that accident and emergency departments are being 'inundated' by patients with minor ailments because GP out-of-hours services are 'so poor'.

  • Comment

    Simon Stevens on choice and midwifery

    2007-11-01T09:00:00Z

    We could be getting a lot more out of our midwifery services if they were organised differently