External contributors – Page 277
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Comment
Darzi's national blueprint must leave room for local innovation
The King's Fund's response to the consultation on reforming London's healthcare following Lord Darzi's landmark report is a scene-setter for the debate that will follow the publication of his national strategy in July.
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Comment
Care Quality Commission: open your wallet and pay for real talent
For a department renowned for its largesse when it comes to remuneration, it is difficult to understand why the Department of Health is being so parsimonious when it comes to the salary for the chair of the new Care Quality Commission.
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Comment
Ian Watson and Adrian Newland on the role of healthcare scientists
Junior health minister Lord Darzi's interim report promotes a radical patient-centred view most would endorse. The concept of local treatment centres where most examinations can be carried out is an attractive one. But such services must not be offered in isolation, remote from high-quality diagnostic services.
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Comment
This week's All Our Yesterdays
March 26, 1948, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital Review Mr Aneurin Bevan, minister of health had recently addressed the annual meeting of theInstituteofAlmoners.Mr Bevan said that it was now “accepted that it was not possible to treat the patient independently of his social background. ‘Social medicine’ – an ...
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Comment
Spot the difference in this week's lookey likey
Whever End Game gets sent a lookey likey for a pop star -asMartin Graham,forensic services manager at Affinity Healthcare Middleton St George Hospital has this week, suggesting that junior health minister Ben Bradshaw and David Bowie look rather alike - we like to have some fun looking for the artiste's ...
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Comment
David Woodhead and Valerie James on tackling decommissioning
Government is stepping away from setting central targets and relinquishing direct control over delivery. Locally identified needs and priorities will take their place. Directors of public health and commissioning will be at the vanguard of service reform in the health service and local councils.
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Comment
Raj Persaud on getting blood out of a stone
Management is all too often about persuasion; powerful managers are better at persuading those in the workplace to pursue helpful change, while less competent managers are not so effective at overcoming resistance.
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Stephen Ramsden on stability in leadership
This month I celebrate 10 years as chief executive of Luton and Dunstable Hospital. For the first few years, I concentrated on building an environment of trust and respect between managers and doctors.
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Comment
Doubts over super-regulator
You do not mention an important question for the new super-regulator, writes Don Redding. Will it exist to serve patients and service users, and if so, how will it engage with them?
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Comment
Malcolm Lowe-Lauri on the role of FT governors
Foundation trust governors can and should exercise their influence in the wider community to benefit service users
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Comment
Your Humble Servant: carry on nurses
To: Don Wise, chief executiveFrom: Paul Servant, assistant chief executiveRe: Ooh you are awful, but I like you
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Comment
Gill Morgan's great legacy
When we appointed Gill Morgan as chief executive of the NHS Confederation, we knew we were recruiting a very competent person - but we had no idea how widely valued and supremely effective she would become, writes Dianne Jeffrey
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Comment
TV chaplains skew reality
A recent episode of Holby City showed a chaplain - described as a 'lay reader' from the so-called Holby Christian Fellowship - visiting a patient.
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Comment
Tackling violence
Despite the lack of a national standardised training scheme for dealing with violent patients, there are developments taking place in managing violence, writes Rob Grant
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Comment
GP hours - what a mess
Well, well, well. What a shock the National Audit Office has stated that GPs earn lots more money for working fewer hours. This is something that has been widely known for some time, writes Les Collister
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Comment
Political opening hours
As a medical student, I sat in on GP clinics and recall whole mornings with patients seeing their charming GP, chatting, then leaving the room reassured but without a new diagnosis or treatment, writes Jake Low-Beer
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Comment
Media Watch: drug maker under scrutiny
Being accused of 'cheating the NHS' is enough to give anyone heartburn. So bosses at Reckitt Benckiser, makers of indigestion treatment Gaviscon, may well have sought comfort with a taste of their own medicine this week.
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Comment
Guarantees are vital to ISTC success
Your piece on independent sector treatment centres, 'ISTC contract guarantees will saddle NHS with £187m bill', misses some fundamental points, writes David Worskett
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Comment
Use it or lose it: freedom from Whitehall is a two-way street
At last week's Primary Care Trust Network conference, the discussion with NHS chief executive David Nicholson revealed how hard it is for the centre to let go - especially when local health services won't release their grip on the Department of Health's hand.
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Comment
PCT rebrand will help end identity crisis
Public sector rebranding exercises are often seen as a costly and pointless distraction. But the proposal to rebrand primary care trusts - so Oldham PCT would become NHS Oldham, for example - makes a great deal of sense and does not need to cost money.