All Conservative policy articles – Page 25
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LeaderNHS spending debate focuses on the wrong type of consultant
Why is health secretary Andrew Lansley still acting like an opposition politician? That is the question raised by the government’s haranguing of primary care trusts for their use of management consultants.
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Comment'We all know NHS change will keep coming - the trick is to adapt'
In the immediate wake of the white paper it would be churlish to ignore what are potentially the most significant changes in the history of the health service.
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LeaderAlarm bells sound as financial scrutiny falls victim to the cuts
Amid the sound and fury surrounding the abolition of the Audit Commission there was little comment on how it would affect the NHS.
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Comment'As silly season stories go, Milburn's appointment was at least a genuine fact'
So, our reformist ex-health secretary Alan Milburn is to advise the coalition government on social mobility. The predictable cry of “traitor” goes up from within the Labour ranks.
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NewsThink tank questions feasibility of planned NHS cuts
The feasibility of government plans to slash 45 per cent of NHS management costs in four years has been called into question by a think tank close to the Conservative Party.
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Comment'La la Lansley has abolished the people who monitor us'
‘There is £80bn out there to be carved up between ourselves and the GPs. Well, surely that makes everyone a winner now?’
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NewsWorld class commissioning: PCTs raise the bar in final assurance test
Primary care trusts have set out their stall as support agencies for GP consortia by significantly improving their performance against the standards and competencies assessed in the second - and last ever - world class commissioning assurance test.
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Comment'How is the state going to conscript GPs?'
In seeking to diminish the role of the state, the government has established a policy that attacks NHS bosses as the cause of most problems and abolishes state run primary care trusts and strategic health authorities. Instead, it proposes GP led consortia to do commissioning.
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CommentSteve Field on public health and milky u-turns
His members have been given the key to NHS commissioning, and now Royal College of GPs chair Steve Field has weighed in on the country’s public health.
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CommentMilton’s would-be milk snatch
As the overblown furore over school milk came and, almost as quickly, went after David Cameron stepped in, I was left feeling a bit sorry for Anne Milton, the coalition’s Conservative public health minister.
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HSJ KnowledgeThe government’s plan for the NHS: the health white paper analysed
Watch HSJ’s free online webcast to get to grips with the government’s plans for the NHS. Available on demand
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LeaderUnder the radar guidance ends hospital closure moratorium
The revised guidance on hospital reconfiguration was slipped out last week at the height of the summer holiday period.
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CommentIs this the end of the road for PCTs?
The winding down of PCTs must be handled with kid gloves if disruption to services - and loss of talent - is to be avoided
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CommentA nervous kind of NHS reorganisation
It’s only a reorganisation, right? Anyone who’s worked in the NHS for a few years has been through reorganisations before.
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NewsFoundation trust proposals raise tough borrowing question
The government has left wide open the question of whether foundation trusts will be able to finance major investments with commercial loans - and risk seeing their taxpayer funded property sold off if they default.
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NewsUncertainty still dogs PCTs during transfer of power
Major uncertainties about the rapid transfer of commissioning from primary care trusts to fledgling GP consortia could lead to chaos, managers have warned.
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CommentMichael White: Lansley's five priorities for the NHS
It was cheering to spot Andrew Lansley’s five priorities for the NHS, public health and social care on the department’s website the other day. We need reassurance that he does have a coherent overview.
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NewsNHS democracy proposals unveiled
The Department of Health has unveiled its vision for the role councils will play in making local health services democratically accountable by influencing the commissioning of local NHS services.
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CommentAnswering the NHS's £14bn productivity question
Government efforts have reduced the NHS productivity challenge by £6bn, but also increased its instability
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CommentMichael White: the cancer target
A thoughtful politician friend of mine said with uncharacteristic impatience the other day: “No, I don’t think the coalition knows what it’s doing at all. I think it’s all over the place.”