All Comment articles – Page 276

  • Comment

    Darzi's national blueprint must leave room for local innovation

    2008-03-20T09:00:00Z

    The King's Fund's response to the consultation on reforming London's healthcare following Lord Darzi's landmark report is a scene-setter for the debate that will follow the publication of his national strategy in July.

  • Comment

    Bad practice online

    2008-03-20T09:00:00Z

    Having recently had reason to email all 409 trusts and strategic health authorities in the English NHS as part of a survey, I discovered two common, very surprising, examples of bad practice, writes Mike Simpson

  • Comment

    Ian Watson and Adrian Newland on the role of healthcare scientists

    2008-03-19T09:00:00Z

    Junior health minister Lord Darzi's interim report promotes a radical patient-centred view most would endorse. The concept of local treatment centres where most examinations can be carried out is an attractive one. But such services must not be offered in isolation, remote from high-quality diagnostic services.

  • Comment

    This week's All Our Yesterdays

    2008-03-18T11:38:05Z

    March 26, 1948, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital Review Mr Aneurin Bevan, minister of health had recently addressed the annual meeting of theInstituteofAlmoners.Mr Bevan said that it was now “accepted that it was not possible to treat the patient independently of his social background. ‘Social medicine’ – an ...

  • Comment

    Spot the difference in this week's lookey likey

    2008-03-18T11:34:08Z

    Whever End Game gets sent a lookey likey for a pop star -asMartin Graham,forensic services manager at Affinity Healthcare Middleton St George Hospital has this week, suggesting that junior health minister Ben Bradshaw and David Bowie look rather alike - we like to have some fun looking for the artiste's ...

  • Comment

    Stephen Ramsden on stability in leadership

    2008-03-17T09:00:00Z

    This month I celebrate 10 years as chief executive of Luton and Dunstable Hospital. For the first few years, I concentrated on building an environment of trust and respect between managers and doctors.

  • Comment

    David Woodhead and Valerie James on tackling decommissioning

    2008-03-17T09:00:00Z

    Government is stepping away from setting central targets and relinquishing direct control over delivery. Locally identified needs and priorities will take their place. Directors of public health and commissioning will be at the vanguard of service reform in the health service and local councils.

  • Comment

    Raj Persaud on getting blood out of a stone

    2008-03-17T09:00:00Z

    Management is all too often about persuasion; powerful managers are better at persuading those in the workplace to pursue helpful change, while less competent managers are not so effective at overcoming resistance.

  • Comment

    Tackling violence

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    Despite the lack of a national standardised training scheme for dealing with violent patients, there are developments taking place in managing violence, writes Rob Grant

  • Comment

    Political opening hours

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    As a medical student, I sat in on GP clinics and recall whole mornings with patients seeing their charming GP, chatting, then leaving the room reassured but without a new diagnosis or treatment, writes Jake Low-Beer

  • Comment

    Guarantees are vital to ISTC success

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    Your piece on independent sector treatment centres, 'ISTC contract guarantees will saddle NHS with £187m bill', misses some fundamental points, writes David Worskett

  • Comment

    GP hours - what a mess

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    Well, well, well. What a shock the National Audit Office has stated that GPs earn lots more money for working fewer hours. This is something that has been widely known for some time, writes Les Collister

  • Comment

    Gill Morgan's great legacy

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    When we appointed Gill Morgan as chief executive of the NHS Confederation, we knew we were recruiting a very competent person - but we had no idea how widely valued and supremely effective she would become, writes Dianne Jeffrey

  • Comment

    Malcolm Lowe-Lauri on the role of FT governors

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    Foundation trust governors can and should exercise their influence in the wider community to benefit service users

  • Comment

    Use it or lose it: freedom from Whitehall is a two-way street

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    At last week's Primary Care Trust Network conference, the discussion with NHS chief executive David Nicholson revealed how hard it is for the centre to let go - especially when local health services won't release their grip on the Department of Health's hand.

  • Comment

    Media Watch: drug maker under scrutiny

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    Being accused of 'cheating the NHS' is enough to give anyone heartburn. So bosses at Reckitt Benckiser, makers of indigestion treatment Gaviscon, may well have sought comfort with a taste of their own medicine this week.

  • Comment

    Doubts over super-regulator

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    You do not mention an important question for the new super-regulator, writes Don Redding. Will it exist to serve patients and service users, and if so, how will it engage with them?

  • Comment

    PCT rebrand will help end identity crisis

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    Public sector rebranding exercises are often seen as a costly and pointless distraction. But the proposal to rebrand primary care trusts - so Oldham PCT would become NHS Oldham, for example - makes a great deal of sense and does not need to cost money.

  • Comment

    TV chaplains skew reality

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    A recent episode of Holby City showed a chaplain - described as a 'lay reader' from the so-called Holby Christian Fellowship - visiting a patient.

  • Comment

    Your Humble Servant: carry on nurses

    2008-03-13T09:00:00Z

    To: Don Wise, chief executiveFrom: Paul Servant, assistant chief executiveRe: Ooh you are awful, but I like you