Latest news – Page 1949

  • News

    Pension guidance released

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    The Department of Health has produced a guide for staff leaving NHS employment but wishing to continue their membership of the NHS pension scheme.The guidance also sets out advice about employer responsibilities for pension provision where staff have to leave the scheme.Read the guide here

  • News

    Overweight drivers urged to detox

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    The RAC Foundation has called for overweight drivers to look at their habits after finding that they are twice as likely to be killed or seriously injured in road accidents.Every hour spent behind the wheel increases the risk of obesity, says the charitable foundation.www.racfoundation.org

  • News

    Smoking cessation more successful in deprived areas, says report

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    Primary care trusts in areas of deprivation are providing the best approach to reducing smoking levels, says the Healthcare Commission in a report today.Half the PCTs rated excellent were in deprived areas where smoking is most prevalent.Read the report here

  • News

    Trusts prepare for hard sell to earn picky patients' custom

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    DoH guidelines have opened the door for hospitals to use commercial advertising techniques. Is this necessary for healthy competition or a green light for unseemly publicity battles? Kaye McIntosh hears some early pledges of fair play

  • News

    NHS North West: support older patients on choice

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    Older patients need more support in choosing where to have their elective surgery, research by NHS North West has shown.

  • News

    Report calls for 50pc funding boost

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    Spending on mental health services needs to rise by an extra 50 per cent if the government's targets in the national service framework are to be achieved, according to a leading charity.

  • News

    Labour PRs win SHA jobs

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    Two former New Labour PR gurus have been appointed directors of communications in strategic health authorities.

  • News

    Managers appeal for workforce planning 'reality check'

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    Managers are calling for health economists to be brought in to give workforce planning a 'reality check'.

  • News

    Unisons weighs options at troubled trust

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    Unions are considering industrial action in what they fear will be a bitter fight against cuts at one of the most financially troubled trusts in the UK.

  • News

    BMA: make targets more ambitious

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    The NHS should be set more ambitious targets, rather than lay off surplus staff once a maximum 18-week wait has been achieved, the British Medical Association has said.

  • News

    Doctors call for more allergy specialists

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    There is a need for more allergy specialists and better training for health professionals, a delegation of doctors from the medical royal colleges has told the Lords' science and technology committee.The committee is overseeing an ongoing investigation into allergy and allergic diseases.Find out more here

  • News

    Letters about NEDs

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    I write as an non-executive director from a disbanded primary care trust. Seen from here, the appointment process to the new PCTs was a farce.

  • News

    A new realism needed on CJD

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    Surely the time has come to end the monthly issue of CJD statistics. Last year's returns showed there were only five deaths from vCJD (7.5 per cent of total) compared with 62 deaths from non-vCJD. Peak mortality from vCJD was reached in 2000 when 28 deaths (34 per cent of ...

  • News

    Data on ISTCs' clinical quality is 'extremely poor', says Healthcare Commission

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    National data on the clinical quality of independent sector treatment centres is 'incomplete and of extremely poor quality', according to a review by the Healthcare Commission.

  • News

    Gerry Robinson and the NHS

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    Management guru Sir Gerry Robinson's televised stint at Rotherham foundation trust to reduce waiting lists might have worked better in a trust that has not already achieved so much to place it on a more business-like footing.

  • News

    Now Blair says ministers can fight closures

    2007-01-18T00:00:00Z

    Tony Blair contradicts himself by giving his backing to Labour MPs who oppose hospital closure when he once instructed Labour politicians to give their backing to changes in local services

  • News

    New bursary scheme announced

    2007-01-17T00:00:00Z

    The Department for Health has announced changes to the September 2007 NHS bursary scheme.Rent will become a deductible expense for all student nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and medical and dental students, when calculating their childcare allowances.The changes have been agreed with unions, and they include an increase in the ...

  • News

    BMA slams back-to-work cuts

    2007-01-17T00:00:00Z

    The British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners have criticised the Government for making 'indefensible' cuts to back-to-work programs.In a joint statement, the BMA and RCGP say such cuts are exacerbating GP shortages and damaging patient care.They urge ministers to restore funding to the GP returner schemes ...

  • News

    Learning disabilities care 'outmoded and institutionalised'

    2007-01-17T00:00:00Z

    The Healthcare Commission has found evidence of neglect of people with learning disabilities at Sutton and Merton primary care trust.'Outmoded and institutionalised' care was deemed to have led to the problems, according to a report from the regulator.It described some of the environments in which people lived as 'impoverished' and ...

  • News

    DoH publishes diagnostic waiting times

    2007-01-17T00:00:00Z

    The Department of Health published the diagnostic test waiting times data for the month ending November 2006.This data shows the NHS' progress in tackling the waiting times for 15 key diagnostic tests.Click here to see the data