All Government/DH policy articles – Page 169
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NewsHinchingbrooke opens to bidding for franchise
East of England strategic health authority has advertised for a franchisee to take over deficit-hit Hinchingbrooke hospital.
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NewsAndy Burnham extends preferred provider vow
Non-NHS providers of services will only be contracted as a last resort, the health secretary has assured the general secretary of the TUC.
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CommentAndy McKeon on NHS efficiency and pre-election sparring
The pre-election sparring has begun and the NHS will not escape some cuts. How tough things get will be a true test of how well money has been spent recently
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CommentSimon Stevens on the best healthcare system in the world
Torture the statistics until they confess. That seems to be the approach of many academics, journalists and policy wonks to the ideologically loaded question: which country’s healthcare system is best?
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NewsTory plan could give GPs interest bonanza
GP practices could earn thousands of pounds a year in interest payments under Conservative plans to turn practice based commissioning budgets into “hard cash”.
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NewsDH eyes patient cap for new tariff rules
NHS hospitals face a limit on the number of patients they will be paid to treat next year, HSJ has learned.
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NewsNHS efficiency tsar: recession is a chance for change
The financial squeeze could finally force the NHS to restructure itself around community services, according to national director for improvement and efficiency Jim Easton.
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NewsTories need clear vision and a stronger message on health
The Conservatives have pronounced themselves the party of reform but are too wedded to the status quo. Andrew Haldenby argues they need to spend more energy advocating change
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CommentJon Restell on NHS choice and personalisation
Every film has its fans. Although no one I know has had the audacity to big it up, even Marley and Me must have a tiny cult following somewhere. (Tip: if necessary, kill to avoid seeing Marley and Me.)
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CommentPaul Corrigan: world class commissioning
The Department of Health launched the second year of the world class commissioning process in mid September.
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NewsGP commissioning shows little sign of life - David Colin-Thomé
The government’s primary care tsar has admitted that efforts to “resuscitate” the “corpse” of practice based commissioning have had little effect.
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News
Mental health FTs allowed to treat private patients, but rules face fundamental review
The government is to launch a rapid review of the foundation trust private patient income cap in the face of a judicial review of the policy by the trade union Unison.
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NewsGovernment backs down from controversial foundation trust proposals
The government has dropped foundation trust proposals that had been criticised by the trusts, their regulator Monitor and former health secretary Patricia Hewitt.
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HSJ Knowledge
Home births
Women used to give birth at home: in 1900s over 99 per cent of babies were born at home. However, as GPs and obstetricians persuaded women that giving birth in hospital was safer than at home the rate dropped to 1 per cent in the 1980s. Today the home birth ...
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CommentAndrew Lansley on a Conservative recipe for NHS reform
Competition, choice and clinician power: the shadow health secretary lists the ingredients that he would use to make NHS outcomes the best in the world
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NewsNHS East of England faces DH assurance test
NHS East of England has been told it needs to adopt a more “bottom-up approach” to supporting primary care trusts in the region.
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CommentSophia Christie on getting the best from GPs
Successive governments have attempted to engage primary care in commissioning in recognition of the sector’s vital role in demand management.
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News‘Clunky’ GP contracts raise questions on quality
There are huge variations in what different PCTs pay for the same services, yet there is no detectable correlation between cost and quality or patient satisfaction. Sally Gainsbury looks at why commissioning has not yet addressed these stark contrasts
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CommentYour Humble Servant: McKinsey, McJected
‘Imagine if you are in your umpteenth meeting in a hospital or PCT or SHA somewhere, with a McKinseyite costing your directorate’s annual savings plan being taught the McKinsey way of saving the world. You are going to be feeling a little dubious about it all’
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NewsPublic sector pay freeze threat from all sides
Both the government and the opposition have indicated that a large part of the savings needed to recover the UK’s public spending deficit will need to come from pay restraint.