All Lib Dem policy articles – Page 9
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Comment
Michael White on IT in the NHS
You were probably far too busy to notice Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg urging Gordon Brown the other day to 'distinguish between good public spending and bad public spending… By not wasting £13bn on an NHS computer system that doesn't work'.
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Comment
Michael White on pharmaceutical price regulation
I am indebted to Fred Curzon, 7th Earl Howe and veteran Tory health spokesman in the Lords, for a little gem of a debate in the upper house the other evening. It was doubtless neglected because of the Yachtgate affair in Corfu and relative trivia like the global financial collapse.
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News
Liberal Democrats attack £1.6bn care bill for elderly
The Liberal Democrats have criticised the long-term funding system for personal care for the elderly after provisional figures released by the NHS Information Centre revealed elderly people paid £1.6bn in charges last year.
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Comment
Simon Stevens on health policy trends
Rather than attend this year's party conferences, I decided instead to take the temperature on US health reform at the two presidential nominating conventions.
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Comment
Michael White on the global financial crisis
By the time you read this, Labour's 2008 party conference in Manchester will be over and Gordon Brown will still be prime minister, despite whatever has happened or not in the interval.
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Comment
Media Watch: NHS in the headlines
Headlines have been lent an oddly cinematic quality this week. In the horror category, Gordon Brown faced the 'revenge of the Blair Babes', according to The People. The Observer moved into gangster territory, imploring the prime minister to 'call off your mafioso aides'.
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News
Lib Dems unveil plan to slash NHS managers' pay
Senior health managers should be forced to reapply for jobs and take pay cuts as part of a public sector cost-cutting drive, the Liberal Democrats proposed at their annual conference in Bournemouth this week.
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Leader
Lib Dems take a cheap shot at managers
Any public sector manager thinking of voting for the Liberal Democrats at the next election might wish to reconsider after the ill-judged rant by Treasury spokesman Vince Cable at the party conference.
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News
Lib Dems set to debate health policy
The Liberal Democrats kick off the party conference season with their meeting in Bournemouth this week, with the NHS set to be a hot topic.
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News
Lib Dems demand inquiry into C difficile outbreak
The Liberal Democrats have demanded a public inquiry into the C difficile outbreak at Vale of Leven Hospital in Scotland.
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HSJ Knowledge
Bringing mental health under the NHS wing
Successive governments have left mental health in the shadows. At the Liberal Democrat conference leader Nick Clegg will outline his plans to turn the sector around and make it truly patient centred
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News
Liberal Democrats voice support for top ups
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has called for patients to be allowed to pay for extra treatment without losing the right to free NHS care.
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HSJ Knowledge
Benchmarking out of hours healthcare
Huge variations in the cost and quality of out of hours healthcare around the country have led to moves to benchmark these services. Kaye McIntosh reports
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Comment
Michael White on public health policy
Andrew Lansley seems to have been the first health politico to get off the beach and back in hot water this summer with that 'no excuses, no nannying' speech he made to the pro-market Reform think tank.
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News
Lib Dems challenge MRSA performance
Nearly two thirds of trusts failed to hit the government's MRSA target, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.
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HSJ Knowledge
NHS60: Who had a hand in policy?
The health ministry has conceded influence over the direction of the NHS to many different groups, from the family doctors of 1948, to the teaching hospital boards of the 1960s, to the professional managers and regulators of 2008. By Anna Dixon
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Comment
Sandy Watson on local and national objectives
A new partnership framework has allowed Scotland to set clear objectives and measurement criteria for local authorities, giving the public a clearer idea of what to expect from their health services.
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News
Incentivise care in poorer areas - Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats would incentivise GPs to work in deprived areas and introduce a financial premium to treat poorer patients, party leader Nick Clegg has said.
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Comment
Michael White on dementia services
Being in government is a bit like fighting forest fires, the kind that sweep through tinder-dry acres in countries a lot hotter than ours.
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HSJ Knowledge
Accountability: how to walk the local talk
Despite political consensus on the need for community involvement, PCTs are not directly accountable to their public. Ann Shuttleworth and Julie Griffiths ask why