All Comment articles – Page 308

  • Comment

    Michael White: maternity woes

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'For some, fertility issues are heart-breaking - not marginal NHS issues but utterly central to their lives'

  • Comment

    Malcolm Lowe-Lauri on succession planning

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    My nine-year-old son was recruited this season to the local football league club's centre of excellence. His coaches exude knowledge, enthusiasm and a remarkable commitment to a part-time, barely rewarded, role. They spend much of their spare time watching local junior league matches. They also handle representations from ambitious parents, ...

  • Comment

    Malcolm Lowe-Lauri on the right targets

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Once upon a time the word target used to have many in healthcare reaching for their crucifixes, or whatever else was needed to ward off evil spirits.

  • Comment

    Mike White on the Lords

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'You cannot expect a nurse to handle 50 staff and a £1.5m budget without training'

  • Comment

    'Turnaround teams' - a sticking plaster for a severed limb?

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    The ability to commission effective and efficient services is completely divorced from strategies to implement and provide cost-effective services, argue Angela Bate and Cam Donaldson

  • Comment

    Michael White on policy leaks

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    You can imagine my distress on returning from foreign parts to discover that things have been going on in the political health arena behind my back, much of it driven by a succession of top-level leaks to this very magazine.

  • Comment

    NHS managers have a key role in local politics

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'The NHS too often guards its plans for too long and too fiercely'

  • Comment

    Michael white on patient involvement

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Some weeks ago a Labour MP, Patrick Hall, kindly invited me to a reception on the terrace of the House of Commons. Arriving late, I stood among the dissidents at the back as health minister Rosie Winterton explained her views on patient and public involvement in the NHS.

  • Comment

    Your Humble Servant: Tory policy

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    To: Don Wise, chief executive

  • Comment

    Your Humble Servant: the new SHA

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    To: Don Wise, chief executiveFrom: Paul Servant, assistant chief executiveRe: Strategic hip authority

  • Comment

    Malcolm Lowe-Lauri on teaching hospitals

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'It is likely that the teaching hospital group will segment into different roles'

  • Comment

    Michael White on hospital infections

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    HSJ's January scoop about the enduring problems with MRSA and Clostridium difficile yielded parliamentary fruit the other day in the shape of a Tory-initiated Commons debate in which this magazine received generous publicity. Excellent.

  • Comment

    Noel Plumridge on PFI passions running high

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Call a handyman to fit a notice board? Oh no, you'll need a quote from the PFI company'

  • Comment

    Media Watch: Patricia Hewitt

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Hewitt should back off', moaned The Daily Express. Most newspapers reacted with some contempt to the health secretary's statement that it is 'best practice' for doctors to order individuals to lose weight or give up cigarettes before they are treated.

  • Comment

    Simon Stevens on winning hearts and minds

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'NHS targets have not yet been tough enough (yes you read that right) to alter public perception'

  • Comment

    Healthcheck ratings: tougher test means story must be retold

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    The Healthcare Commission said it would be a tougher test - and so it has proved. In the first national healthcheck ratings only two dozen organisations were rated excellent for service quality, and even fewer for their use of resources. Only half of NHS organisations met all the core standards, ...

  • Comment

    Media Watch: public health pay-off

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Outrage at hospital trust's pay-off after spat' said The Sun, as it revealed 'debt-ridden' Eastbourne Downs primary care trust had paid off its former public health director to the tune of £250,000 after a 'spat' with a colleague.

  • Comment

    Who can make the health service listen?

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    With the rejection of local restructuring proposals raising eyebrows, will the independent reconfiguration panel and overview and scrutiny committees fill the democratic deficit?

  • Comment

    Simon Stevens on happiness and health

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Six factors apparently explain 80 per cent of the variation in happiness... Not all of these can be tackled by a typical primary care trust.'

  • Comment

    Media Watch: Granger leaves

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    'Anger as best paid civil servant goes', The Sunday Telegraph told its readers as it emerged earlier this week that the chief executive of Connecting for Health Richard Granger would leave his £292,000-a-year post in October.