All Comment articles – Page 297
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Comment
Johnson leads Brown's charm team as ministers start to listen
'Sir Ara keeping one foot in the operating theatre should encourage clinicians to have confidence that their views are listened to'
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Comment
Volunteering and mental health
Separate independent research adds to the mounting evidence that volunteering has important health benefits. Preliminary studies indicate that volunteering can have positive outcomes for 85 per cent.of mental health service users who participate. (see 'The health benefits of volunteering').
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Comment
David Lock on making sense of insurance claims
'When the pressure comes on from the 'care co-ordinator' employed by the insurers to provide the patient with a grade seven nurse, 24-hour care for incontinence and horse riding lessons as part of the overall package, PCTs can dig their heels in and refuse'
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Comment
Andrew Jones on getting the NHS recipe right
'We have a centrally run, demand-driven, hospital-orientated system for an ageing, consumer society with untreated long-term conditions. This recipe will be unsustainable.if the 2007-08 spending round produces a big squeeze'
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Comment
Frank message in Whitehall report card: must try harder
'That three people signed off the DoH's response to a report highlighting poor leadership has caused much merriment in Whitehall'
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Comment
Pandering to protests won't find answers
'The system Mr Cameron is proposing would produce a health service reflecting local wants, not needs'
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Comment
LINks must ensure vulnerable people are protected
Regarding your article.'LINks scrutiny system to bar patient networks from access to key services', patient networks have access to the establishments described. These are the very places where high-profile problems sometimes arise with vulnerable people. It cannot be too difficult to ensure people are checked. There must be some deep-seated ...
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Comment
David Woodhead on gathering evidence
'Science might come up with some interesting ideas, but ultimately the likelihood of adopting evidence is driven by our values. Mass sterilisation of young men might be an effective method of reducing teenage pregnancies, although for good reasons it would not be considered practical'
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Comment
Chris Ham on integrating to compete in the NHS
'Instead of separating the roles of buyers and sellers in the NHS, the government needs to encourage closer integration between hospitals and GPs'
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Comment
Your Humble Servant: the Confed conference
'The highlight will of course be Nigel and Gill doing the I'm More Important Than You foxtrot'
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Comment
Report points to NHS culture of bullying and bureaucracy
'Middle managers need more support to survive in the treacherous terrain between their bosses and clinicians'
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Comment
BMA must engage, not take cheap shots
'Shouting from the sidelines will secure more newspaper column inches than engagement, but it will achieve less'
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Comment
Minor injuries units are valuable for predicting outcomes
Geraint Lewis's comments on using clinicians' knowledge to predict.outcomes was very interesting ('Tapping into staff knowledge').
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Comment
Hilary Thomas on her honeymoon period
'I am like a pig in the proverbial. I am no longer part of a demoralised, cynical workforce, ground down by the inevitability of stasis and rigidity'
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Comment
Early consultation with scrutiny committees is key
Your article about health scrutiny (opinion, page 20, 31 May) made the point that it is helpful to involve councillors on health overview scrutiny committees when considering.service changes at an early stage. That is absolutely right.
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Comment
Private sector's role is irrelevant for efficient commissioning
You report on a possible deceleration in NHS commissioning of private sector healthcare provision ('Private slow-down expected as service prepares for Brown'). It may seem odd to hear a private sector organisation saying this, but if such a phenomenon occurs, it will not necessarily be a bad thing. This is ...
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Comment
Vulnerable patients and carers need to be recognised
According to David Lock's article ('David Lock on continuing care liability'): 'There is a serious danger that the new single national criteria for NHS continuing care will result in a substantial number of high-cost care packages being transferred from local authorities to the NHS.'
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Comment
Thumbs up to Monitor's business plan
I am referring to Monitor's business plan announced last month ('Monitor takes tougher line to prepare for wave of FT plans'). Personally, I think this approach is absolutely right. Having just been deferred at Birmingham and Solihull mental health trust for a few months, we have worked hard to have ...
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Comment
Social services are at last fighting back
David Lock stated in your.article ('David Lock on continuing care liability'): 'A line must be drawn somewhere between health and social care... the social services lobby appears to have been highly effective at persuading the team designing the new eligibility criteria that 'care needs' can usually mean 'healthcare needs', and ...