All Comment articles – Page 300
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Cardiac telemedicine takes off
Cardiac telemedicine has moved decisively from pilot to practice. Joshua Rowe explains how it is revolutionising care and saving the NHS money
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Your Humble Servant on nurses and news from planet Monitor
The Department of Health’s main drive is to get the nurses not to be so grotty, while on planet Monitor they are celebrating a multi-million-pound foundation trust surplus.
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Data on mental health patient safety must be presented accurately
Chris Heginbotham’s commitment to the well-being and safety of mental health inpatients is sincere and I share some of his concerns, but I must set the record straight about the more alarming aspects of the impression created by his recent interview, writes Louis Appleby
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Looky likey
Another high ranking medical looky likey this week. Chief medical officer and all round nice chap Professor Sir Liam Donaldson bears a striking resemblance, points out a HSJ colleague, to former Liberal Democrats leader and MP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West Charles Kenendy. What do readers think?
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Medical secretaries play a key role in the NHS
Media reports on problems in the NHS are mainly centred on the plight of medical and nursing staff and the way patient care is affected.However, there is a knock-on effect on other key staff in the NHS, who also work under immense pressure. I refer to medical secretaries and personal ...
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All Our Yesterdays
October 1, 1954, Hospital and Social Service JournalA report by the Leeds City Medical Officer report on the city’s mental health services praised mental health social workers this week. ‘Nothing is too much trouble. Whether it is witnessing milk forms, taking youths and girls for interviews, helping and reassuring the ...
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Pilots make all the difference
The article 'Pilots making little difference' states that, according to research, pilot projects that have focused on the government’s policy of shifting services from hospitals into the community have made little difference.In reality, far from achieving little, the pilots have helped identify key learnings that will enable NHS organisations to ...
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Dismissing improvement programmes misses the point
Alan Maynard's criticism of the quality improvement efforts under way for more than a decade in the NHS, and specifically of the role of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in that work, abounds with misunderstandings, write Stephen Thornton and Don Berwick
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Lisa Rodrigues on the traits of executives
Being a chief executive is a wonderful job for those with a well-developed sense of responsibility. I read somewhere that more leaders are firstborn children than any other family position and I can understand why. As the first child, you are automatically expected to take responsibility for your siblings. If, ...
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Media Watch
The papers are again keen to expose the 'scandal' of hospital food - this time the focus is on hospital kitchens. The Observer told readers of a 'searing indictment' of their cleanliness after government inspection reports revealed 'that breaches of food hygiene laws include infestations of mice and cockroaches, kitchen ...
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Michael White on panic politics
'I imagined patients queuing outside their local hospital, just like Northern Rock'
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Emma Dent at the dentist
'Half an hour later I would emerge bleary-eyed, in pain and incapable of eating for days'
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Sophia Christie on facing up to diversity
'Her one-year-old's diet was two packets of crisps a day and a glass of milk'
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Old-style GPs may go the same way as Britain's motor industry
‘Dr Buckman is in danger of doing for primary care what Derek ‘Red Robbo’ Robinson did for the British motor industry in the 1970s’
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Media Watch: breaking the habit
This week columnists seized on the case of a smoker apparently denied an NHS operation to fix his broken ankle unless he gives up a 20-a-day habit.
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Michael White on politics
The old saying that 'it never rains but it pours' seems unusually apt this soggy summer. But this week the saying also applied to Britain's elderly people when the High Court ruling on Aricept, the Alzheimer's drug, was accompanied by a torrent of reports highlighting deficient aspects of their treatment.One ...
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Looky likey
A reader writes: 'Here atHarrogateand District foundation trust we have been pondering the similarities between TV ad icon the MilkyBar Kid and our chief executive John Lawlor of Payment by Results tariff Lawlor Report fame. As my appraisal is due shortly and our annual increment has yet to be resolved, ...
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Your Humble Servant: do as I say
To: Don Wise, chief executiveFrom: Paul Servant, assistant chief executiveRe: Do as I say not as I doDear DonI gather your fact-finding summer visit to South Africa with Mrs Wise and the children went well. Your thoughts on ambulance response times on safari have given our colleagues down there much ...
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Is it the end for district general hospitals?
Will more care at home and new 'polyclinics' spell the end of district general hospitals? Patient benefit must drive services, says Ian Gilmore, while Anthony Harrison suggests local hospitals still have a place
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High Court drugs ruling marks latest skirmish in war of words
The High Court ruling upholding the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's decision over medication for Alzheimer's is just the latest skirmish in what promises to be protracted manoeuvring over drug use and pricing.