External contributors – Page 306
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Cliff Prior profile: 'The only thing you can't predict is where it will go'
In his new job heading a group of not-for-profit organisations, former Rethink chief executive Cliff Prior will have a key role in reshaping community services. But first he has to explain what it is all about
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Malcolm Lowe-Lauri on the right targets
Once upon a time the word target used to have many in healthcare reaching for their crucifixes, or whatever else was needed to ward off evil spirits.
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Michael White on politics
'Voters are losing patience with Labour's performance - and its excuses'
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Data briefing: Better Care, Better Value indicators
The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement recently published the Better Care, Better Value indicators for the second quarter of this financial year. They can be analysed to give some insight into what is happening across the country.
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We can work it out: dementia and the baby boomers
As the baby boomer generation ages, it will present some expensive challenges to services for people with dementia. Alison Moore reports
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Simon Stevens on powering reforms
Almost everywhere you look, it is possible to see the NHS equivalent of electricity transmission losses
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Order in the house: will legislation strike the right balance?
The supervised community treatment order is the latest legislative tool aimed at tackling 'revolving door' patients. But does it go too far? Mark Gould hears the pros and cons
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A freedom framework will unite former foes
With the debate about freedom from political interference raging, strategic health authority chief executive Mark Britnell outlines his model for compromise and wonders what an NHS charter might contain
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Anna Donald on turning cogs in a blancmange
'Most doctors would struggle to conceive of a hospital in anything other than descriptive terms'
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Media Watch: pay-offs
'Outrage at hospital trust's pay-off after spat' said The Sun, as it revealed 'debt-ridden' Eastbourne Downs primary care trust had paid off its former public health director to the tune of £250,000 after a 'spat' with a colleague.
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Media Watch: earnings cap
So ministers have 'blundered' again, according to London's Evening Standard. This time it is because they have failed to cap doctors' earnings.
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Noel Plumridge on the future of PbR
The original idea behind payment by results was disarmingly simple: more work, more money. But the dilemma was always how to pay for it in a closed, cash-limited system. So what can we anticipate from the consultation paper on the future of payment by results due by the end of ...
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Michael White: change in the NHS
We were standing on the edge of my local swimming pool discussing the inevitability of change when a fellow wrinklie walked past, saying: 'Don't talk to me about change. I work for the NHS and whenever I hear that word I just switch off.'
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Media Watch: doctor MoTs
If you'd just open the bonnet now, Dr Cameron, and we'll be through with your MoT for another five years. Before you know it, young Dr Finlay will be up for his MoT too.
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Malcolm Lowe-Lauri on succession planning
My nine-year-old son was recruited this season to the local football league club's centre of excellence. His coaches exude knowledge, enthusiasm and a remarkable commitment to a part-time, barely rewarded, role. They spend much of their spare time watching local junior league matches. They also handle representations from ambitious parents, ...
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Michael White on the pay round
'The tough pay round is a blatant 'clawback' and I don't think doctors can expect much sympathy'
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Media Watch: nurses protest
Avenging angels hit the headlines and the streets this weekend as they came out in force to protest at, among other things, a below-inflation pay rise.
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Michael White on the budget
'Brown did not say what health will get in 2008-11, though he is said to be focusing on health in his Treasury lair'
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Media Watch: junior doctors
'How could they be so stupid?' asked the Daily Mail as it berated the government for failing to ensure junior doctors will be guaranteed jobs this summer in the Department of Health's new recruitment process.
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Michael White: maternity woes
'For some, fertility issues are heart-breaking - not marginal NHS issues but utterly central to their lives'