All Comment articles – Page 255
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CommentJo Webber on NHS care scandals
At the heart of the care scandal in Mid Staffordshire foundation trust and the Baby Peter case is the need for a strong culture of questioning and scrutiny
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CommentSimon Stevens on an NHS budget showdown
Who gets what? Surely that is the essence of politics, and never more so than when times are tight. When a rising tide carries all boats, economic growth tends to obscure the question.
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CommentMedia Watch: swine flu backlash
It was inevitable really - gone are the stories of soaring mortality rates and brave speeches issued from behind the sandbags at Richmond House.
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CommentImproving patient care through the Clinical Leaders Network
In this month’s Clinical Leaders Network column, Dr Liz Hughes talks about using the CLN to improve training for doctors. NHS West Midlands has taken a strategic approach to clinical service development and has designed its CLN to support its vision for implementing the next stage review ...
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CommentMichael White on swine flu and summer holidays
August has arrived so I delved into my health archive looking for a holiday subject. Straight away I stumbled on the House of Lords science and technology committee, chaired by the redoubtable Stewart Sutherland.
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CommentYour Humble Servant attends an NHS disciplinary appeal hearing
‘Between them they will have conspired to identify an incompetent who needs to be dispatched, and then utterly fail to put together a case, identify relevant evidence, or present it in a way that can land a caress, let alone a punch, on the miscreant’s credibility’
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CommentAlan Maryon-Davis on NHS carbon cutting
Chill winds in the funding forecast are no excuse to let go of the NHS’s energy saving and waste reduction targets - they just add to the urgency to act now
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CommentJon Restell on achieving race equality in the NHS
A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary about the Motown tour of the UK in 1965.
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CommentMedia Watch: GP access and swine flu panic
Proof that the Department of Health’s drive to improve GP access was working arrived from an unlikely source this week.
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CommentPete Mason on open and closed doors
Managers with an “open door policy” should walk directly up to their doors and bang their heads against them.
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CommentMark Goldman on doctor speak vs management talk
Clear communication is essential for managers and clinicians alike, and both have a lot to learn about getting their message across
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CommentNorman Lamb and his love of rap
As populist scare stories go, The Sun has got to be applauded this week for combining two of the nation’s (largely unfounded) fears: drug users and swine flu - not just once but twice.
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CommentSophia Christie on making an impact on male mortality
I can’t live without my burgers, my chips or the doner meat. I know they are bad, I can see the fat dripping out of it…
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CommentMichael White: The Tories don't have it in the bag yet
Are we any the wiser about a future Conservative government’s intentions towards the NHS? I think we are and, being determined to ignore those two great 2009 panics, piggy flu and Labour leadership flu, I plan to focus on those here.
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CommentBen Bridgewater on why funding clinical audit is essential
Observing clinical outcomes and ensuring they enrich the NHS’s wealth of data is essential so audit must be fully backed by national funding, leadership and IT
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CommentCally Bann on sporting achievement
OK, so the meeting to square off the ward upgrade plan, the summer theatre closure plan, the length of stay plan, the day case rate improvement plan, the 18-week plan, the demand management plan, the winter planning plan, the income plan and the 7.5 per cent cost improvement plan was ...
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CommentSteve Preston: Top tips to keep your career going
Do you see the announcements about radical NHS funding cuts and the changing agenda as a threat or an opportunity? Now might be a good time to start re-evaluating and managing your future to meet the challenges.
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CommentHow to ensure choice in maternity services
If the government’s pledge, laid down in Maternity Matters, that all women in England should have the choice of a home birth by the end of 2009 is to be met, every maternity service should be discussing home birth with every woman.
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CommentMichael White on the future of healthcare funding
For a politician in his situation, care services minister Phil Hope was in a remarkably cheerful mood when I caught up with him to find out how well - or badly - his department’s latest green paper had been received.
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CommentMedia Watch: the shrill cries of the doomsayers
Depending on which paper you read this week, you could be forgiven for thinking you were living in two different countries.