External contributors – Page 243
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Michael White on NHS spending and the McKinsey report
As if last week wasn’t more than usually nightmare-ish enough for the NHS’s managerial officer class, with a convicted murderer’s birthmarks and the leaked McKinsey report providing only two of many horrid headlines, this week started with a fresh jolt.
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Mike Farrar on QIPP - quality, innovation, productivity and prevention
QIPP needs to become woven into the NHS’s DNA, and efficiencies come from the avoidable use of NHS resources, effective partnerships and best practice
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Paul Corrigan on NHS values and reality
NHS values concerning equal access for all, free at the point of need, are the core of its culture.
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Media Watch: nurses, hospital food and cricket
Last week nurses came under fire. All 300,000 of them were momentarily tarred with the same brush that had painted the 16 examples of poor care highlighted by the Patients Association last week.
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Michael White: the US healthcare debate
Senator Edward Kennedy’s death struck people my age with an obvious historical analogy. Just as Jack Kennedy’s murder in 1963 allowed allies to clinch stalled civil rights legislation for black Americans, so Barack Obama’s allies can now regain momentum for healthcare reform - Ted Kennedy’s enduring liberal cause.
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John Redwood on NHS efficiency
Having experienced success and failure in a wide variety of organisations, the former Welsh secretary spells out his recipe for an effective and efficient NHS
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Sophia Christie: in the NHS, information is power
“When I started in 2006… my health was of low standard, I was overweight and had low self esteem due to several strokes.
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Jenny Rogers on NHS teams without leaders
With redundancies on the horizon and the exhortation to “strip out layers of bureaucracy”, what do you bet that we will see the resurgence of “self managing teams” and “flat hierarchy” as the solution to all NHS management ills?
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Moosa Patel on strong NHS boards
Woeful shortcomings in the boardroom was one of the reasons for the global recession - but there is no excuse for NHS boards to make the same mistakes
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Media Watch: sick leave row
The news that some of the health service’s most poorly paid staff get an “overly generous” deal while on sick leave during the recession was the focus of the media spotlight in some quarters this week.
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Your Humble Servant on the future of NHS technology
‘Just imagine, you’ll log in to check out the rash in your groin, and “Amazon recommends” will also tell you how other people rated their experience with rashes’
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Michael White on NHS consultancy costs
Spare a thought for our ex-junior health minister, Ivan Lewis.
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Stephen Eames on dementia strategy
I was startled when our nursing director pointed out that at any one time there could be up to 400 patients with dementia occupying beds in our hospitals.
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Ken Jarrold on sharing the economic pain
Max du Pre, the American industrialist influenced by Robert Greenleaf’s idea of the “servant leader”, said that servant leadership is, among other things, about bearing not inflicting pain.
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Exploring doctors' role in society
It seems to me that for as long as I have been qualified as a doctor (some 21 years) the profession has been struggling with the various facets of its role in the NHS, and its place in society.
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Sheila Williams on cognitive dissonance
Why do many people continue to smoke, even though research shows they are shortening their own lives? Smokers might say “well, I’ve tried to quit so many times and it’s just too hard”, or “it keeps me calm and stress free and besides, I really enjoy it”. Welcome to the ...
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Don Redding on patient experience
We demand other industries deliver standards that all customers recognise, and so we should also insist on patient experience benchmarking across the NHS
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Cally Bann on winter pressures
Good news: we’ve just managed to close the winter pressure beds. Even better: the summer theatre closure programme has kicked in.
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Michael White on US healthcare and NHS politics
Oh dear. Turn your back on the politicians for a few days’ holiday and when you get back they’re engaged in all-too-familiar pre-election skirmishing about the NHS being safe in our hands - but not in the other lot’s.
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Darzi's old fashioned defence of the NHS
This week turned into a free for all when it came to writing about the NHS - pretty much anyone who’s ever come into contact with it (i.e. everyone)and can string a sentence together can join in.