External contributors – Page 279
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Jon Restell on unravelling the pay-off era
The NHS is more anxious to stop problems coming to light than solving them. Good, bad, indifferent - the system does not care about judging your actual performance
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Emma Dent on Manchester's tale of two cities
There sometimes comes a point in life when you find yourself agreeing with people you never thought you would. I felt this way when I read former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith's report about Manchester.
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Belinda Phipps on choice in maternity services
Government policies on maternity services are changing and managers must ensure services around the country are prepared to respond
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World class commissioning will secure NHS's future
Mark Britnell recently set out the government's ambitious vision for commissioning in HSJ. Many of our patients have seen the enormity of the improvements in the service over the last few years. However, as clinicians and managers, we have to accept that we have not been able to create a ...
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NHS must treat patients with rare conditions fairly
We read Sophia Christie's article on collective commissioning with interest. Ms Christie clearly takes the view that no patient with a rare disease is worth treating, as drugs developed for such conditions have limited evidence and are very expensive due to high development costs. So much for the NHS being ...
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Care Quality Commission plans are unrealistic
The restructuring and amalgamation of regulators is not currently having a good press, writes BMN Clarke
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Protecting patients' personal data is crucial
The furore surrounding the Treasury's mismanagement of 25 million people's personal details has real and worrying lessons for those of us dealing with data in the health service, says Robert Navarro
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Weird world health
Health minister Lord Ara Darzi has been learning the potential complications of being in the House of Lords. Saving the life of Lord Brennan, who collapsed during debate of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, with the aid of a defibrillator, meant his parliamentary business was put back a day. ...
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All Our Yesterdays
4 December, 1936, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital ReviewPublic assistance and hospital managers looking to liven up life in their institutions this week may have been cheered by an advertisement this week. Clifford Kemp, a 'film renter' based in The Headrow, Leeds, was advertising his 1000 plus 'talking ...
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David Peat on turning health policy into action
One of the eternal dilemmas for a chief executive is to translate the words of policy documents into meaningful action on the front line
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Patients with rare conditions are not doomed
Philip Butcher of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign writes in response to an article on collective commissioning in the NHS
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NHS surplus could cover prescription costs
I read with interest your article on how the NHS is set to end the year with a £2bn surplus, writes Ciaràn Devane
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No plans to close Queen Mary's
You present a stark analysis of the implications of existing private finance initiative schemes on reconfiguration options for outer south east London ('PFI debt fears as district general hospitals feel the squeeze'), writes Simon Robbins
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Your Humble Servant: world class commissioning
World class commissioning, world class commissioning, world class commissioning, commission de classe du monde, world class commissioning, world class commissioning, world class commissioning, world class commissioning.
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Media Watch: Gordon Brown under fire
Gordon Brown has been coming under fire this week for his behaviour both past and present. The Sun blamed the prime minister for the decision, announced by health secretary Alan Johnson, to scrap six contracts for independent sector treatment centres. The £100m compensation to the dropped companies ‘could have built ...
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Michael White: inside Gordon Brown's mind
Are ministers in Alan Johnson’s health team now finding their feet in their new jobs after a lacklustre start? Are they landing a few blows on the other side too despite renewed talk of a broad consensus on the NHS’s future?
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Minority report: shameful race record harms staff and patients
A Healthcare Commission survey has revealed scandalously poor compliance with race equality legislation (for more on the survey, click here).
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Patients are driven to distraction by parking fees
Are hospital car park charges becoming a tax on patients and carers?
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Sophie Christie on the holy grail of NHS policy
NHS policy seems populated by some remarkably persistent ideas that pop up every decade or so
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Patient safety action teams - putting safety first
Patient safety action teams are now helping make safety part of the mainstream NHS in all 10 strategic health authorities. Martin Fletcher explains their work