External contributors – Page 243
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CommentPaul Corrigan on clinical leadership
Over the last couple of years we have all become used to the importance of clinical leadership for the development of the NHS. In fact in the management of a health service it’s really quite difficult to conceive of an argument against it.
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CommentMedia Watch: drugs debate
The sacking of senior government adviser David Nutt has resulted in the biggest media debate on illegal drugs for many months.
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CommentMichael White on health debates
Handy Andy Burnham, our youthful health secretary and Clark Kent lookalike, slipped out of Britain on Tuesday, heading west towards Washington - safely out of the row over home secretary Alan Johnson’s rash dismissal of David Nutt.
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CommentNicky Spencer on the pitfalls of email
Every magnificent technological advance in communications presents us with a double edged sword. The battle for the effective use of email is just beginning.
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CommentMichael White on unaccountable PCTs
Rare indeed is a Sunday night call by this column which yields a mention of primary care trusts and ancient Greek philosopher cum intellectual hard man Plato, virtually in the same breath.
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CommentAndy Burnham: embrace the new era of redesign to take NHS from good to great
Health secretary Andy Burnham explains the thinking behind his recent assertion that the NHS should be ‘our preferred provider’, setting it against a wider future of ‘re-engineered’ services - and a renewed sense of purpose among staff
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CommentPaul Corrigan: why Andy Burnham is wrong to rip up the NHS competition rulebook
Health secretary Andy Burnham’s rewriting of NHS competition rules undermines local decision making, conflicts with Labour’s manifesto and could breach competition law, argues Paul Corrigan. He claims commissioners should ignore it
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CommentYour Humble Servant: Andy Burnsley
‘Andrew Lansley on the other hand has a real problem. It’s the same one that Chris Smith and Frank Dobson had back in 1997. Like them, Andrew doesn’t have a health policy, because he is using his opponent’s one.’
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CommentMedia Watch: bingo wing treatment gets DH backing
The Nintendo Wii Fit Plus has become the first computer game to be endorsed by the Department of Health, the papers trumpeted this week.
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CommentSteve Preston on personality profiling
A personality profile delivers a remarkable insight into you, your characteristics and your communication style. A personality profile gives the opportunity to know who you are, what you can offer and, most importantly, how your managers and your team perceive you.
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CommentAndy McKeon on NHS efficiency and pre-election sparring
The pre-election sparring has begun and the NHS will not escape some cuts. How tough things get will be a true test of how well money has been spent recently
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CommentCally Bann: NHS car parking
Ten years at the helm and not a single complaint about car parking. Until the Boy Burnham sticks his nose in, that is.
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CommentMedia Watch: News of the World becomes preferred provider
It doesn’t happen often, but this week the intricacies of health policy have made it into the tabloids.
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CommentMichael White on public vs private
The line dividing the public sector from the private has been fragmenting for decades.
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CommentSimon Stevens on the best healthcare system in the world
Torture the statistics until they confess. That seems to be the approach of many academics, journalists and policy wonks to the ideologically loaded question: which country’s healthcare system is best?
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CommentPete Mason on lessons for the NHS from hazardous industries
The NHS and hazardous industries, such as aviation, often use the Swiss cheese model of accident causation, or the “cumulative act effect”.
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CommentMedia Watch: working time menace
The apparent failure of the second swine flu surge to turn into a plague of biblical proportions - touch wood - has left the media searching for a new killer.
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CommentMichael White on Tory worries
I was slightly surprised this week to find myself trudging into expenses-gripped Westminster for the last parliamentary session before the election more troubled by the prospect of a new Conservative government than I was a week ago.
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CommentPaul Corrigan: world class commissioning
The Department of Health launched the second year of the world class commissioning process in mid September.
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CommentJon Restell on NHS choice and personalisation
Every film has its fans. Although no one I know has had the audacity to big it up, even Marley and Me must have a tiny cult following somewhere. (Tip: if necessary, kill to avoid seeing Marley and Me.)