External contributors – Page 249
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CommentStephen 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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CommentKen 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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CommentExploring 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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CommentSheila 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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CommentDon 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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CommentCally 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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CommentMichael 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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CommentDarzi'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.
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CommentNoel Plumridge on NHS cash in a cold climate
£15bn - the “efficiency savings” the NHS is being asked to make over the coming three year cycle - is an unimaginably huge sum of money.
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CommentNicky Spencer on NHS workforce health and wellbeing
A while back, I was asked to deliver a day programme on health and wellbeing at work.
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CommentMedia Watch: swine flu backlash
It was inevitable really - gone are the stories of soaring mortality rates and brave speeches issued from behind the sandbags at Richmond House.
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CommentMichael White on a holiday from the NHS
Are you thinking of driving far on the summer holiday this year? I drive across France every August, a round trip of about 1,500 miles.
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CommentSimon Stevens on an NHS budget showdown
Who gets what? Surely that is the essence of politics, and never more so than when times are tight. When a rising tide carries all boats, economic growth tends to obscure the question.
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CommentJo Webber on NHS care scandals
At the heart of the care scandal in Mid Staffordshire foundation trust and the Baby Peter case is the need for a strong culture of questioning and scrutiny
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CommentImproving patient care through the Clinical Leaders Network
In this month’s Clinical Leaders Network column, Dr Liz Hughes talks about using the CLN to improve training for doctors. NHS West Midlands has taken a strategic approach to clinical service development and has designed its CLN to support its vision for implementing the next stage review ...
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CommentJon Restell on achieving race equality in the NHS
A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary about the Motown tour of the UK in 1965.
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CommentYour Humble Servant attends an NHS disciplinary appeal hearing
‘Between them they will have conspired to identify an incompetent who needs to be dispatched, and then utterly fail to put together a case, identify relevant evidence, or present it in a way that can land a caress, let alone a punch, on the miscreant’s credibility’
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CommentAlan Maryon-Davis on NHS carbon cutting
Chill winds in the funding forecast are no excuse to let go of the NHS’s energy saving and waste reduction targets - they just add to the urgency to act now
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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.