Comment archive – Page 436
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Media Watch: working for free
One test of a story's likely impact on the public is the range of newspapers that run it. On that basis, the story at the weekend that nurses, doctors and other staff at a Kent acute trust have been asked to do a day's work for no pay pretty much ...
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Michael White on the 'demise' of nursing
Sometimes the political weather seems to follow the climatic version. So it was no surprise during the snow to read a mild-mannered press release about training patterns under the lurid headline that we face 'the demise of nursing' in Britain.
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Media Watch: Patricia Hewitt
'Hewitt should back off', moaned The Daily Express. Most newspapers reacted with some contempt to the health secretary's statement that it is 'best practice' for doctors to order individuals to lose weight or give up cigarettes before they are treated.
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Simon Stevens on five ideas to innovate
Fly-on-the-wall documentaries typically only benefit the fly. This is a truth probably now held to be self evident at Rotherham foundation trust. But, if one of the things to take away from the BBC programme Can Gerry Robinson Fix the NHS? was that ideally there would be more local initiative ...
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Patients' big chance to call the shots
Patients still feel they don't have a say in care decisions. But, says Vivienne Nathanson, a new bill gives them real influence - while Jessica Crowe emphasises how scrutiny committees will listen to their views
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Maternity services are everyone's baby
Labour's most recent election manifesto promised that by 2009 all women would have choice on where and how they have their baby.
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Simon Stevens on the case for independence
It now seems likely that, regardless of political party, our next prime minister will toy with some version of 'independence' for the NHS. Independence for the Bank of England is seen as one of the government's more important reforms, so an NHS parallel could resonate. And shadow health secretary Andrew ...
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Much-needed campaign brought cheer in the midst of gloom
'Andy Burnham makes some thoughtful points about how managers can improve their own publicity'
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Petitions can a play role in local engagement
EM Forster famously gave democracy two cheers; the NHS seems rather less enthused.
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Hilary Thomas on living with cancer
'Acupuncture and ginger beer have been as effective as any the anti-emetics I've been doling out for years'
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Michael White on politics
'The charges problem boils down to a classic dilemma of democratic politics in a market-orientated society'
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Media watch
The irony is that 'taking politics out of the NHS' is sure to be mired in political speculation
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Data briefing: deficit forecasts, financial reality
The recent quarterly financial report from the Department of Health provides some encouraging signs as the NHS gets to grips with previous years' overspends. But the detail looks patchy.
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Simon Stevens on a summer of discontent
'So as we head into TUC and party conference season, by comparison things actually look pretty tame here. Part of the problem is the way international health comparisons are used - and abused.'
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Michael White on politics
'There's no point replacing meddling by national politicians with meddling by local ones.'
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Media watch
Even if they do not come up with any new policy, they've got an awful lot of ammunition with which to bombard the government
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Healthcheck ratings: tougher test means story must be retold
The Healthcare Commission said it would be a tougher test - and so it has proved. In the first national healthcheck ratings only two dozen organisations were rated excellent for service quality, and even fewer for their use of resources. Only half of NHS organisations met all the core standards, ...
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Why the bedside has a place in the boardroom
Imagine sitting through a board meeting at Tesco. The meeting lasts three hours and at no time do chair Sir Terry Leahy and his directors talk about their customers or how satisfied those customers might be with the products and stores. It's a ridiculous notion, isn't it?