All Commissioning articles – Page 240
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News
Cancer patients missing out on best treatment because of cost
Cancer patients are missing out on high-tech radiotherapy because the NHS is struggling to invest in staff and technology.Intensity modulated radiotherapy, which has been used in Europe and the US for a decade, is used to treat only 7 per cent of eligible NHS patients, according to research by the ...
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News
Elite 'inner cabinet' to lead acute commissioning in London
Six London primary care trust chief executives are to be propelled into an ‘inner cabinet’ to lead acute commissioning in the capital.
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News
NHS top-up rules set for rewrite as fear of litigation mounts
The government is expected to rewrite its guidance on implementing cancer czar Mike Richards' recommendations for top-up payments.Trusts have been observing the draft guidance since it was published in November.
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News
Dementia strategy: high hopes but who will pay?
The dementia strategy promises dedicated memory services in every town, but with only £150m over two years can primary care trusts afford the sophisticated teams this requires? Charlotte Santry reports
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News
PCTs 'don't listen to charities'
Commissioners are failing to involve local voluntary organisations in decisions about services, a survey suggests.
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News
Major patient choice study begins
The Department of Health is seeking hard evidence that choice improves the quality of services.
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News
Decompression sickness fraudsters go to jail
Two men have been jailed for their parts in a £250,000 scam to defraud the NHS by billing for bogus decompression sickness treatments.
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News
NHS trusts and commissioners at odds over tariff benefits
Hospital trusts and commissioners are disputing the impact of the new payment by results tariff on their income.
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News
Double weak PCT gets new chairman
Great Yarmouth and Waveney primary care trust has appointed a new chairman.
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News
NHS offers private providers shelter in rough economic seas
Until recently private providers could afford to be choosy about what NHS work they took on. Now, as the economy shrinks, the health service will become a vital source of income. Alison Moore reports
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Comment
Sophia Christie on healthcare's false economy
Just in case we thought Keynesian economics might protect us from the credit crunch, Nick Timmins of the Financial Times used his keynote presentation at an anniversary event for world class commissioning to demonstrate that we will be highly unlikely to enjoy growth reaching 3 per cent by 2011.
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News
Dementia strategy will pose workforce challenges
Managers have welcomed long awaited government plans to transform dementia services but want more details on how they will be staffed and assessed.
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News
Huge bill looms for patient choice information
The health service faces a bill of millions for reminding patients of their legal right to choose their own secondary care provider under the terms of the NHS constitution.
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News
MPs hear Richards review skirted major top-up areas
The government’s decision to allow co-payments for private treatments assumed it is best to make expensive drugs ‘as freely available as possible’, MPs have been told.
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HSJ Knowledge
Improving NHS dementia care
With the long awaited dementia strategy finally here, the race is on to overcome the stigma surrounding the condition and spread the word about available treatments. Emma Dent reports
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News
Edwina Hart steals march on NICE with kidney drug decision
Welsh health minister Edwina Hart has angered some local health boards - and stepped further into NHS decision making - by ordering managers to pay for four unapproved drugs for advanced kidney cancer.
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News
PCTs failing to involve public in drug decisions
Primary care trusts are failing to effectively involve the public in decisions over drugs not approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, according to a Picker Institute review.
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News
PCT strategy plans expose the distance to world class
Concerns have been raised over two out of three primary care trusts' strategic plans, the first scores for world class commissioning reveal.
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Leader
Stop at red: study shows PCTs have a long road ahead of them
Around 18 months after the Department of Health began outlining its vision for world class commissioning, we have the first tangible measure of how well primary care trusts have prepared.
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Comment
Lisa Rodrigues on NHS kindness
At the end of 2008, King's Fund chief executive Niall Dickson was reported as saying that NHS staff have lost their compassion and that his organisation wants to help bring it back. I could not agree less.