All Comment articles – Page 246
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CommentNoel Plumridge on caveats for consolidating mental health spending
A question for commissioners: what is the “right” proportion of your annual funding to spend on mental health?
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CommentDerek Campbell: There can be no progress without prevention
The impending financial squeeze makes it more important than ever to invest in preventing ill health in communities, rather than simply spending more on treatment
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CommentMichael White on Andy Burnham's rise through the ranks
Well, well. What a turbulent week for health politics and it is not over yet. By the time you read this, a day or so after I have typed it, Alan Johnson may still be the new home secretary.
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CommentA guide to clinical champions and commissioning
Building effective clinical leadership and engagement is the key to improving services, writes Jackie Kay
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CommentMidwifery and the Clinical Leaders Network
Raj Kumar In this month’s column for HSJ, Debby Gould from NHS London talks about how the Clinical Leaders Network is helping her to work collaboratively with other midwifery departments, helping to improve maternity services. NHS London has decided to use the CLN initially to focus on ...
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CommentMediawatch: why FOI is an F-word for the NPSA
Every journalist loves writing stories about secret reports, figures revealed under the Freedom of Information Act and leaks by angry whistleblowers - such phrases add an air of intrigue to even the dullest statistics.
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CommentYour Humble Servant on some final foundation trust hurdles
The quest for FT status is all looking so promising, apart from all the things that could go wrong…
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CommentSimon Stevens on toothless dental policies
Dentistry. The very word is enough to sink hearts on the fourth floor of Richmond House. The dental status quo is always said to be terrible. And every change allegedly makes it worse. That is what happened after the 1990 dental contract, and again after the 2006 contract.
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CommentNigel Crisp on what a new Griffiths would bring
I am a Griffiths manager. The Griffiths report brought me into health from a career in business and charities. As a result of Griffiths I was launched on a fascinating journey from running a mental handicap unit, as it then was, to working with health services in some of the ...
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Michael White on the big split over ISTCs
Andrew Lansley has been out and about attacking Alan Johnson’s record as a failed health secretary (“the postman who hasn’t delivered”) on the grounds he has not closed the health gap between rich and poor - and also let the NHS’s Blairite choice agenda atrophy.
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CommentPete Mason on managing Generation Y
Generation Y. Millennials. Echo Boomers. There are a lot of names for the people born in the 1980s and onwards, those now entering the workplace for their first or second jobs.
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CommentPeter Reader: 'Mid Staffs holds the same lessons as Bristol tragedy'
In the aftermath of the next stage review, which put quality at its heart, it is sad that the NHS story that people will remember this year will be that of Mid Staffordshire foundation trust.
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CommentHelen Bevan on the pitfalls of NHS cost reduction
I have just returned from an international improvement forum, involving healthcare leaders from 67 countries. Everyone was talking about the economic challenges ahead.
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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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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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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.