Comment archive – Page 427
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Comment
Hilary Thomas on trust and safety
'Imagine hearing: 'This is your junior pilot speaking. I have no particular interest in your safety.''
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Protecting public and patient involvement
The blind drive to force the introduction of local involvement networks and abolish patient and public involvement forums is dangerous and misguided.
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Your Humble Servant: London SHA
‘They’ve come up with a whizzo plan to keep Londoners happy. They are going to build lots more hospitals. At the moment they are calling them polyclinics, but that’ll change’
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Comment
It's a question of trust: will the new ministers devolve power?
'Central control is a far more natural response from Brown than trusting local freedom and competition'
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Comment
Ringfencing is only a short-term cash fix
'Local flexibility is a principle that needs defending. Ringfencing is only convenient so long as the political wind is blowing in your direction'
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Richard Morgan and Allison Thorpe on social marketing
'Social marketing recognises that, all things being equal, people will choose behaviours that keep them in good health. But all things are rarely equal; most people have to make choices and compromises'
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David Peat on letting go
'As soon as the SS Rest and Relaxation draws near another port, you can see groups of slightly anxious-looking passengers veering to the landward side of the vessel and proclaiming: 'Houston, we have a signal!''
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Comment
Join a study on cancer and insurance
Have you recovered from cancer but still have trouble getting travel insurance? Were you quoted an excessive premium or treated insensitively? If so, we would like to invite you to take part in our research.
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Comment
Lisa Rodrigues on managing change
'Some people think the quiet revolution in mental health, with the closure of the asylums and the introduction of community care alternatives, is a model for the rest of the NHS. But I am the first to admit that we did not.always get it right'
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Paul Cooper on emergency ward nine and a half
'Our local doctor is as good as anyone else's, I suppose, although I don't really know that as I have little choice'
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Your Humble Servant: rave with Dave
‘It must be what the Baghdad Green Zone is like, hermetically sealed and full of the commentariat issuing orders devoid of any sense of reality’
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Johnson leads Brown's charm team as ministers start to listen
'Sir Ara keeping one foot in the operating theatre should encourage clinicians to have confidence that their views are listened to'
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Comment
Volunteering and mental health
Separate independent research adds to the mounting evidence that volunteering has important health benefits. Preliminary studies indicate that volunteering can have positive outcomes for 85 per cent.of mental health service users who participate. (see 'The health benefits of volunteering').
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Andrew Jones on getting the NHS recipe right
'We have a centrally run, demand-driven, hospital-orientated system for an ageing, consumer society with untreated long-term conditions. This recipe will be unsustainable.if the 2007-08 spending round produces a big squeeze'
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Comment
David Lock on making sense of insurance claims
'When the pressure comes on from the 'care co-ordinator' employed by the insurers to provide the patient with a grade seven nurse, 24-hour care for incontinence and horse riding lessons as part of the overall package, PCTs can dig their heels in and refuse'
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Frank message in Whitehall report card: must try harder
'That three people signed off the DoH's response to a report highlighting poor leadership has caused much merriment in Whitehall'
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Pandering to protests won't find answers
'The system Mr Cameron is proposing would produce a health service reflecting local wants, not needs'