External contributors – Page 249
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CommentMedia Watch: GP access and swine flu panic
Proof that the Department of Health’s drive to improve GP access was working arrived from an unlikely source this week.
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CommentMichael White on swine flu and summer holidays
August has arrived so I delved into my health archive looking for a holiday subject. Straight away I stumbled on the House of Lords science and technology committee, chaired by the redoubtable Stewart Sutherland.
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CommentPete Mason on open and closed doors
Managers with an “open door policy” should walk directly up to their doors and bang their heads against them.
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CommentMark Goldman on doctor speak vs management talk
Clear communication is essential for managers and clinicians alike, and both have a lot to learn about getting their message across
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CommentMichael White: The Tories don't have it in the bag yet
Are we any the wiser about a future Conservative government’s intentions towards the NHS? I think we are and, being determined to ignore those two great 2009 panics, piggy flu and Labour leadership flu, I plan to focus on those here.
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CommentCally Bann on sporting achievement
OK, so the meeting to square off the ward upgrade plan, the summer theatre closure plan, the length of stay plan, the day case rate improvement plan, the 18-week plan, the demand management plan, the winter planning plan, the income plan and the 7.5 per cent cost improvement plan was ...
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CommentBen Bridgewater on why funding clinical audit is essential
Observing clinical outcomes and ensuring they enrich the NHS’s wealth of data is essential so audit must be fully backed by national funding, leadership and IT
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CommentSophia Christie on making an impact on male mortality
I can’t live without my burgers, my chips or the doner meat. I know they are bad, I can see the fat dripping out of it…
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CommentNorman Lamb and his love of rap
As populist scare stories go, The Sun has got to be applauded this week for combining two of the nation’s (largely unfounded) fears: drug users and swine flu - not just once but twice.
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CommentSteve Preston: Top tips to keep your career going
Do you see the announcements about radical NHS funding cuts and the changing agenda as a threat or an opportunity? Now might be a good time to start re-evaluating and managing your future to meet the challenges.
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CommentHow to ensure choice in maternity services
If the government’s pledge, laid down in Maternity Matters, that all women in England should have the choice of a home birth by the end of 2009 is to be met, every maternity service should be discussing home birth with every woman.
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CommentJoan Saddler on patient centred services
Actively seeking out and acting on patient feedback to shape services is still far from the norm but is fundamental to putting quality at the heart of the NHS.
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CommentMedia Watch: the shrill cries of the doomsayers
Depending on which paper you read this week, you could be forgiven for thinking you were living in two different countries.
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CommentStephen Eames on the need to make changes
Sunday morning and it looks as if it is going to be a hot day - a precursor to a long hot summer dominated by organising surge plans to combat pandemic flu, while digesting the impact of another central initiative on quality, innovation, improvement and productivity, otherwise known as “QIPP”.
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CommentPaul Corrigan on commissioning strategy plans
Nearly all primary care trust commissioning strategy plans describe a rationale for their intentions over the next five years. Tailored to the health and healthcare needs of their population, they describe future actions which intend to move activity out of secondary care, and cut emergency admissions and attendance at A&E.
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CommentMichael White on the future of healthcare funding
For a politician in his situation, care services minister Phil Hope was in a remarkably cheerful mood when I caught up with him to find out how well - or badly - his department’s latest green paper had been received.
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CommentJenny Rogers on tendering
The person on the telephone sounds very young. I am stifling incredulity at her request. “You mean you want me to tender for this?” I ask.
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CommentSurvey: How do you think the NHS is coping with swine flu?
Health Service Journal and Nursing Times would like to hear about the experience of swine flu by NHS staff so we can share with you, via our magazines and websites, how nurses and managers are feeling and what support they are getting.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: the optimism bias uplift
The crowd from the finance department were relaxing in the Rat and Weasel musing on life’s three inevitables: death, taxes… and the private finance initiative.
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CommentMedia Watch: is Burnham the new Pants Man?
As swine flu takes increasing hold it will be interesting to see how the national papers’ coverage of the pandemic begins to diverge.