External contributors – Page 251
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Comment
Sir Ian Kennedy on the future of the annual health check
The Act of Parliament that established the Healthcare Commission required us to assess on an annual basis the performance of every NHS organisation, taking account of the standards issued by the Department of Health. Out of this requirement grew the annual health check.
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Comment
John Coulthard on delivering Darzi
At our annual NHS summit this year, we looked at the challenges facing chief information officers and clinicians in delivering Lord Darzi's vision for the NHS.
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Comment
Norman Niven on wasted medicine
The more I read about the NHS's troubles, the more I wonder whether dramatic headlines about bed shortages, waiting lists and superbugs serve to obscure a problem that is far less attention grabbing but potentially more damaging to UK healthcare.
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Comment
Mike Hobbs on clinical leadership and mental health
Mental health strategy has historically been seen as separate from mainstream health strategy and planning.
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Comment
David Peat on lean times for the NHS
Without sounding overly biblical, but with the credit crunch in mind, is the NHS facing lean times after years of fat expenditure?
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Comment
Jenny Rogers on enoughism
It is probably a bit eccentric, but I began a recent holiday by spending three days with a modest and talented genius called Chris Wing, who comes and sorts out your messy home.
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Comment
David Lee on delayed transfers of care
If you have mentioned delayed transfers of care in an unguarded manner to a mental health foundation trust director recently, you might have been struck by a sudden and sharp temperature drop in the room.
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Comment
Taiwo Ajayi on electronic health records
Ten years after plans were first laid for electronic healthcare records in the NHS, a clinician explores how the technology has changed the service
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Comment
Naomi Chambers on NHS boards and organisational performance
As the Healthcare Commission's annual health check comes to a close, after congratulatory notes are received, press releases carefully crafted, protests lodged, or wounds licked in private, how often do boards ask themselves: what part have we played in our organisation's performance this year?
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Comment
Media Watch: food terror
We're all doomed. From the day our mothers sipped their third cup of coffee while pregnant (Daily Mail) to the time we ignored the best before date on that pate at the back of the fridge (The Observer) to the decision to ditch the bran flakes for one of those ...
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Comment
Michael White on IT in the NHS
You were probably far too busy to notice Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg urging Gordon Brown the other day to 'distinguish between good public spending and bad public spending… By not wasting £13bn on an NHS computer system that doesn't work'.
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Comment
Sophia Christie on the NHS and the credit crunch
We seem to be officially heading into recession. Even if it is shallow and short, this will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable.
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Comment
Charles Kaye and Michael Howlett on mental health in the slow lane
A number of high-profile news items about mental health have hit the headlines recently.
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Comment
Achieving 18 weeks: engaging with NHS managers and clinicians
As the NHS hits the government's 18-week referral to treatment target early, national implementation director Philippa Robinson, a trained nurse, explains the important role clinical leadership has played in the achievement
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Comment
Hilary Thomas on NHS top-ups
I approach the subject of NHS top-ups with some trepidation. The issue is complex and there are no easy answers. Considering it from the cancer perspective, I will attempt to throw light into some dark corners of the debate.
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Comment
Stephen Ramsden on patient safety's missing link
I remain vexed by the question ‘how can we engage junior doctors in patient safety?’
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Comment
Alastair Henderson on the NHS staff survey
The largest of its kind, the NHS staff survey last year captured the feelings of 156,000 employees from all 391 trusts in England.
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Comment
Steve Barnett on world class NHS leaders
It is not hard to think of bad leaders. A recent poll named figures from Stalin to Vlad the Impaler who score badly in the popularity stakes, while Steve McClaren, 'the wally with the brolly', springs to my mind.
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Comment
Mark Britnell on world class commissioning so far
Morituri te salutamus, as the gladiators said in Roman amphitheatres: We who are about to die salute you.
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Comment
Sandy Watson on how the NHS can help young people
At any one time, there are about 35,000 young people in Scotland who are not in education, employment or training. Of these, 6,000 are aged 16, 9,000 aged 17, 12,000 aged 18, and 8,000 aged 19. Men are more likely to fall into this group than women.