All News articles – Page 1372
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Plans to speed innovation revealed
The government and medical devices industry have published plans to accelerate the use of medical innovation more widely across the NHS. The report Innovation for health: making a difference is the culmination of joint work led by the healthcare industries task force strategic implementation group. Among six recommendations agreed by ...
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Trusts warned over property maintenance
The Health and Safety Executive has warned the NHS to maintain its properties effectively. It follows a successful action brought by the organisation against South West London and St George's Mental Health trust after a man fell at Springfield University Hospital and subsequently died.The trust was fined £7,500 and asked ...
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Air conditioning on the NHS
Patients with breathing problems could soon be prescribed air conditioning on the NHS to help them cope with hot weather, health secretary Patricia Hewitt is expected to announce today. Those with a lung condition that worsens in warm weather could be given a £500 portable cooling unit for their homes.
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NHS to become unaffordable, says think tank
The cost of technological advances in healthcare will make the NHS increasingly unaffordable, the think tank Reform says in a report today. It says that diseases like cancer will become much more manageable and will not necessarily be fatal, increasing costs.www.reform.co.uk
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Boost for medical research
The Medical Research Council is investing more than £15m in creating six new research centres aimed at translating discoveries into new drugs, therapies, diagnostic tools or methods of prevention; or using clinical knowledge to inform fundamental research priorities.Read more here
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BUPA and choice
I would like to make it plain that BUPA Hospital Leeds does not charge a 'premium to tariff' when treating NHS patients under choose and book. It is understandable that the complex system you outlined (HSJ, 22 February) could leave readers thinking otherwise.
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Campaign highlights hidden dangers of second-hand smoke
Second-hand smoke is an 'invisible killer', according to a new advertising campaign, launched by public health minister Caroline Flint today. Nearly 85 per cent of tobacco smoke is invisible and odourless, but it causes just as much harm to people's health as the smoke that is visible, according to the ...
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Leaked mental health report condemned
A £16m race equality programme for mental health has had no impact whatsoever on improving ethnic inequalities, says the Black Mental Health UK campaign, whose members have seen a leaked government report.www.blackmentalhealth.org.uk
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Organisational energy
I agree totally with Helen Bevan's article on organisational energy but can't help thinking about the amount of energy being wasted in primary care trusts across the country as they grapple with the Commissioning a Patient-Led NHS.reconfiguration.
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No evidence for oxygen therapy
Insufficient clinical evidence exists to justify using oxygen therapy for heart attack patients, a medical expert has claimed. Professor Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in New Zealand says in the latest edition of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine that clinical dogma should be challenged on ...
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Payment by results and productivity
Noel Plumridge is perplexed by the dilemma of paying for payment by results-induced productivity within a closed, cash-limited system (HSJ, 22 February). I.thought the answer to that was price. As the volumes go up so unit prices go down.
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Prescription charges to rise by 20p
Prescription charges will rise by 20p - or 3 per cent - to £6.85 from 1 April, according to health minister Lord Hunt. Revenue from prescription charges is expected to raise around £425m for the NHS in 2007-08. Dental charges will rise by an average 2.7 per cent to £15.90 ...
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Foundation regulator calls for better preparation
Financial problems are the reason behind three-quarters of unsuccessful bids for foundation trust status, according to the regulator. Monitor chair Bill Moyes called for 'better preparation' by those going through the authorisation process.Foundation Trust Network director Sue Slipman said strategic health authorities needed to address the issue of trusts with ...
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Waiting-list fall contiunues
The Department of Health has published performance data showing that waiting lists and cancelled operations continue to fall while the number of critical beds available is at a record high.The number of people on the inpatient waiting list from January 2007 was 774,000 - 2,000 less than the previous month ...
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Day of protest tomorrow
Over 40 protests against health service cuts, closures and marketisation will take place tomorrow as part of the national day of action being co-ordinated by NHS Together, the campaign alliance of NHS staff unions and associations.Read more here
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Hewitt defends nurses' pay offer
Health secretary Patricia Hewitt has said the 2007-08 pay deal for NHS staff and GPs is 'sensible' and 'fair'. Nurses and other healthcare professionals will receive a 1.5 per cent rise in April and 1 per cent more in November; hospital doctors a flat £1,000; junior doctors 3 per cent; ...
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Winterton slams Lords over mental health
The House of Lords has 'seriously weakened' the government's plans for better protection for patients and the public through its amendments to the Mental Health Bill, according to health minister Rosie Winterton.She told a conference that the Lords' amendments 'must be overturned'. They include the introduction of a treatability test ...
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Research network to widen clinical studies access
The government has announced it will invest £2m a year in a new initiative to widen involvement in clinical studies.The Primary Care Research Network will consist of eight regional teams of specialist doctors, nurses and scientists who will work with GP practices, health centres and dental practices to raise awareness ...
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Acute chiefs: NHS vision is lost in a political mire
Labour's sweep to power in 1997 was followed by a groundswell of NHS optimism. Ten years on, an HSJ survey of 100 chief executives suggests the glory days are over. Helen Mooney asked a group of acute trust leaders why
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Chief asks for less comment
Responding to the survey findings, NHS chief executive David Nicholson said: 'Part of my job is to support the local NHS to deliver improvements in services for patients using the reforms we've put in place