All Comment articles – Page 310
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Comment
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.
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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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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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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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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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All Our Yesterdays
September 26, 1941, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital ReviewThere was a report this week on the administration of feeding services, where the joint guidance of the National Council of Civil Service and the Women’s Voluntary Services for Civil Defence was called upon.‘These two bodies are working together to ...
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Heather Walker on clinical measures
'Death is only one outcome. As far as the NHS is concerned, very little is known about the other outcomes of those discharged from hospital. Do patients actually feel any better for the healthcare intervention they have just undergone?'
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Weird world health
A colleague has alerted us to a Myth of the Month website run by the Health and Safety Executive, which seeks to assuage rumours that the HSE is responsible for some of the rather over enthusiastic risk assessments taking place across the land. It is worth a look. Some of ...
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Andrew Jones on world-class commissioning
'World-class commissioning sounds exciting but the definitions need sharpening up. What does it mean? You might ask: does anyone know and does it really matter?
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Patient involvement can help siphon control from the centre
The government has raised the question of the health service's democratic deficit.
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Your chance to tell us who has the power
In a few weeks, HSJ, recruitment consultancy Harvey Nash and management consultants Ernst & Young will be collaborating with a panel of experts to decide the HSJ50 for 2007 - the definitive list of the 50 most influential people in healthcare.
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Michael White on former health secretary Stephen Dorrell
When I rang him he said the NHS has 'gone full circle' since Labour came in and abolished the internal market in 1997
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Your Humble Servant: Hamish Meldrum on the GP stall
To Don Wise, chief executiveFrom: Paul Servant, assistant chief executiveRe: In my back yardDear DonIt was healthcare market day in the high street yesterday so I decided to pop down and see if there were any bargains to be had.As I arrived, there was Hamish Meldrum on the GP stall.Hamish ...
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Stephen Hocking on the drugs debate
'Unfortunately, economics dictates that with finite financial resources, not every drug can be purchased and paid for by a publicly funded health service'
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Anna Donald on
The summer witnessed another episode in the ongoing ‘rationing’ saga about NHS provision of the Alzheimer drugs rivastigmine, donepezil, and galantamine. The High Court upheld the substance of NICE’s guidance, which means that these drugs continue to be recommended only for people with ‘moderate’ Alzheimer’s. In my line of business, ...
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All Our Yesterdays
September 19, 1941, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital ReviewThe potential positive impacts on children of being evacuated were discussed this week. Changes in behaviour had already been noted.‘It is not the country children who imitate those from the town but the other way about. Evacuated boys have often ...
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Weird world health
Readers, are those days of restructuring still fresh in your mind? Are the wounds still fresh or has the healing begun?Well until today (20 September) you get at least one small chance to express your opinions on the difference it has made to you and your job. Thanks again to ...
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Looky likey
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh; KBE, new NHS medical director, distinguished heart surgeon, president of the Society for Cardiothoraic Surgery and so on. But never mind all that - what End Game wants to know is, do readers not agree that Professor Sir Bruce is the spitting image of that maestro ...
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David Woodhead on community hooks
'New research seeks to assess the importance of incidental people in our lives - the local taxi driver, the neighbour who gives out hymn books at church or the shopkeeper who engages us in trivial conversation'
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Malcolm Lowe-Lauri on aspiring to good service
'Complex systems and difficult interfaces - isn't that supposed to be us?'