Comment archive – Page 444

  • Comment

    Michael White on the pay round

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'The tough pay round is a blatant 'clawback' and I don't think doctors can expect much sympathy'

  • Comment

    Media Watch: nurses protest

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Avenging angels hit the headlines and the streets this weekend as they came out in force to protest at, among other things, a below-inflation pay rise.

  • Comment

    Michael White on the budget

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Brown did not say what health will get in 2008-11, though he is said to be focusing on health in his Treasury lair'

  • Comment

    Media Watch: junior doctors

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'How could they be so stupid?' asked the Daily Mail as it berated the government for failing to ensure junior doctors will be guaranteed jobs this summer in the Department of Health's new recruitment process.

  • Comment

    Michael White: maternity woes

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'For some, fertility issues are heart-breaking - not marginal NHS issues but utterly central to their lives'

  • Comment

    Media watch: C difficile in Norfolk

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    The news on superbugs gets worse following reports that a mutant strain of Clostridium difficile has been linked to the death of 17 patients at a Norfolk hospital.

  • Comment

    Media watch: hospital phone charges

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Those unlucky enough to spend Easter in hospital also had the misfortune of paying a whopping 26p per minute if they wished to call their loved ones. Not unexpectedly the tabloids and broadsheets were up in arms last week as they bemoaned the 160 per cent increase in hospital call ...

  • Comment

    Michael White: parliamentary deadlock

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Parliament is deadlocked on serious issues that may end up in a 'ping pong' test of wills'

  • Comment

    Media Watch: drug company's promise

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    This week comes news that a drug firm has offered to refund the cost of one of its products to the NHS if it fails to work on patients.

  • Comment

    Media Watch: NHS meddling

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'We're still waiting for Mr Brown to give any indication of what he might do to the NHS. Surely he won't be able to resist some meddling'

  • Comment

    Media Watch: Granger leaves

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Anger as best paid civil servant goes', The Sunday Telegraph told its readers as it emerged earlier this week that the chief executive of Connecting for Health Richard Granger would leave his £292,000-a-year post in October.

  • Comment

    Noel Plumridge on the cost of a day's work

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Calculate your daily rate. Say it out loud. 'I'm a £500 a day sort of guy''

  • Comment

    Data briefing: the truth behind the A&E target

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    A recent analysis from Les Mayhew and David Smith at City University's Cass Business School has suggested some theoretical reasons - backed by data - why achievement of the accident and emergency maximum four-hour wait by 98 per cent of hospitals was probably not all it seemed.

  • Comment

    Barometer: mental health, February 2007

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    With the end of the financial year looming, chief executives of mental health providers are very confident this month that they will end the year in financial balance. A score of 9.26 is the highest ever recorded for this measure and the highest score of this barometer.

  • Comment

    Time to tear ourselves away from paper

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Trusts' reluctance to store patient records electronically is a national scandal which is draining resources, harming patient care and limiting the potential of historical archives, argues Capita's Robert McIndoe

  • Comment

    Dr Marc Farr on understanding preventable injury

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    In February, the National Audit Office called the number of accidental injuries across the country a 'disgrace', with 2 million children a year visiting accident and emergency due to an accident.

  • Comment

    Michael White on politics

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    I spoke to Lord Hunt at the weekend, probably for the first time since he returned to government via the Department for Work and Pensions after resigning with quiet dignity over the Iraq war in 2003.

  • Comment

    Mediawatch

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

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  • Comment

    Sophia Christie on health and employment

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    The publication of the Commissioning framework for health and well being is a welcome reminder that 13 months ago the government published white paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say. For many of us it is a long-awaited statement about the future direction for the 90 per cent of NHS ...

  • Comment

    Who can make the health service listen?

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    With the rejection of local restructuring proposals raising eyebrows, will the independent reconfiguration panel and overview and scrutiny committees fill the democratic deficit?