External contributors – Page 263
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Media Watch: co-payment 'madness'
The fraught issue of 'co-payment' was one of the biggest health service stories this week, following the death of Linda O'Boyle from bowel cancer.
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Ian Magee on data sharing
Data sharing in the NHS and other public bodies can present risks, but it is crucial in protecting vulnerable patients and the public.
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Steve Slack on why being gay is still bad for your health
Despite improvements in UK legislation protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, discrimination is still affecting the quality of health and social care this community receives.
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Ali Mohammed on firing staff
Thank goodness The Apprentice is back on TV. It's basically the HR type's ultimate TV programme with a huge dose of entertainment built in.
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Andrew Jones on health outcomes
One thing that seems to be uniting healthcare policy makers is the urge to tackle so-called health inflation.
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Lesley Wright on standardising work
Anyone planning a holiday that involves flying will have to have faith in the skills of a highly trained pilot and navigator to get them to their destination.
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Awards previews
Acute Healthcare Organisation of the Year sponsored by CHKSSouth Tees Hospitals trust has been on what can only be described as a quite extraordinary journey. You don’t have to go back very many years at all to find an organisation struggling under the burden of£56 million of debt and two ...
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Media Watch: bets on Johnson
Managers may be tempted to swell trust coffers by taking a punt on health secretary Alan Johnson to be prime minister, with most papers quoting odds of six to one to replace Gordon Brown.
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Sophia Christie on world class organisations
The assurance process for world class commissioning is developing apace but with no national development programme, many in primary care trusts are wondering where to focus attention.
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Michael White on dementia services
Being in government is a bit like fighting forest fires, the kind that sweep through tinder-dry acres in countries a lot hotter than ours.
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This week's All Our Yesterdays
Public Assistance Journal and Health and Hospital Review, June 4 1948From the National Association of Local Government Social Welfare Officers annual conference presidential address: "The conference meets as a time when changes in the social welfare and assisting services are about to be out into operation and when members of ...
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Jo Davis on forming a successful council of governors
One year on from rising to the challenge of chairing her first governors' meeting, Jo Davis explains how the steps she took to prepare herself allowed an open and interactive group to flourish
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Paul Corrigan and Ben Page on PCT accountability
If public services really were owned by the public, accountability would always be at the core of their business. But since this is not the case, all public services must continuously review how they are held accountable.
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Detailed care records - a closer look
Despite the perceived benefits of electronically linking a patient's medical records, significant barriers must be overcome before the plan becomes a reality, as Mary Hawking explains
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Richard Gleave on patients as consumers
The NHS attracts only occasional media attention in the US, but the recent debate about top-up funding and co-payments for high-cost cancer drugs was covered by The New York Times.
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Raj Persaud on medicine and the media
At the beginning of the year, the treatment of mood disorders made big news. 'Prozac does not work, say scientists', was the kind of headline we read.
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Awards preview
New CategoryBest Social Marketing Project sponsored by the National Social Marketing CentreThis year’s HSJ Awards introduce a new category for Best Social Marketing Project. This award recognises the rising importance of social marketing in health service policy over recent years.Social marketing is essentially a powerful way to achieve positive impacts ...
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Noel Plumridge on why safety is just a ritual
A Flybe flight from Southampton to Leeds-Bradford. Through security and reunited with belt and shoes. The flight is called. Walk across the tarmac, climb the stairs and claim seat 4A.
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Your Humble Servant: leaving the NHS
To: Don Wise, chief executiveFrom: Paul Servant, assistant chief executiveRe: Don't pay out, look up
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Media Watch: the IT programme
Pity the poor chap on the IT helpdesk when the NHS rings up. For when it comes to sorting out the service's new computer system it's not simply a question of switching it off and on again.