All Policy articles – Page 221
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News
Scotland sets target to cut C difficile rates
Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon has set a target for health boards to reduce C difficile rates among over-65s by 30 per cent by 2011.
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News
Foundation trusts need closer scrutiny, say MPs
More information is urgently needed on the performance of foundation trusts, the House of Commons health select committee is urging.A committee inquiry has concluded that foundation trusts have some proven strengths but a full evaluation of their impact is needed.
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News
Trusts expect tight pinch from 2010
Real terms cuts expected to payment by results tariffTough road ahead for aspirant foundationsQuery over future of capital investmentStaff costs may fall in real terms
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Comment
Media Watch: binge drinking
Unlike so much else in the past seven days, the value of a drink is on the way up. The Department of Health's next attempt to reduce binge drinking will include curbs on free samples and happy hours, according to press reports.
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News
City shockwaves threaten NHS budget
Economists are warning this week's£38bn rescue plan for UK banks creates a "structural hole" in public finances that will make NHS funding cuts and claw-backs inevitable.The government has insisted the bank bail-out will not affect public finances. A senior Treasury source said there were no plans to revisit the commitments ...
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Leader
Good times set to end as health pays price for squirrelling cash
The credit crunch is heading your way. While the government has so far rejected the idea of revisiting its health spending plans up to 2011, there are numerous other ways it can get its hands on trust cash.
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Comment
Michael White on the financial crisis
The deepening financial crisis is changing how we look at everything now. For instance, aren't NHS finance directors glad they didn't have surpluses to invest unwisely during the years when Patricia Hewitt's stiletto was on their necks?
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Comment
Stephen Eames on managing by fear
Up here in the North East the community is still reeling from the collapse of Northern Rock and is now watching with horror the ongoing farcical spectacle that is Newcastle United Football Club.
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HSJ Knowledge
Healthcare funding: is there enough to go round?
As new treatments and an ageing population put ever more pressure on health systems across the world, future governments will have to rethink the way that they are funded.
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News
Treasury eyes hidden PCT surpluses
Increased demand for health services as recession bitesTwo-year timetable for service reconfiguration and investmentSurpluses vulnerable
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News
Politicians are poor persuaders
Interesting to see Simon Stevens' comments on the science of persuasion. Clearly our politicians have much to teach us about how to motivate the public - as demonstrated by the general (let alone local) election turnouts. Strange, isn't it, that people who have money, education and access to affordable leisure ...
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Comment
NHS spending - what does the future hold?
As the economic picture worsens, Carl Emmerson and Gemma Tetlow examine the possible implications for the NHS budget
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Comment
David Allen on letting the public shape the NHS
The government has published another NHS white paper in which politicians tell the public what sort of health service we must receive. It is time this changed.
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Comment
Ciaran Devane on surviving cancer
The latest buzzword in cancer care is 'survivorship' - a word that has caused a bit of controversy since it was first used in the cancer reform strategy to describe the rapidly growing number of people living with or beyond cancer.
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News
NHS Employers calls for 2 per cent pay rises
NHS Employers has called for pay rises in 2009 for NHS doctors and dentists to be limited to 2 per cent.In evidence to the doctors' and dentists' review body, it argues a balance has to be struck between fairness to staff and affordability.
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News
DH survey reveals slow progress on patient choice
Results from the Department of Health's patient choice survey have revealed slow progress in increasing choice.The proportion of patients who recalled being offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment was 45 per cent in May, down from 47 per cent in March but up from 30 per ...
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HSJ Knowledge
Publishing death rates: no dead certainties?
There has been a degree of disquiet about publishing mortality rates. Supporters hoped this would lead to greater transparency, quality and patient choice - but has reality matched expectations? Daloni Carlisle reports
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News
Foundation trusts get £300m in a year-end spending rush
Foundation trusts were handed up to £300m in advance payments by primary care trusts towards the end of the last financial year, HSJ has been told. The prepayments were made as some primary care trusts struggled to keep 2007-08 surpluses below 'control totals' set by the Department of Health.
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News
Andrew Lansley points finger at ministers over patient safety
Too much blame is being placed on trust boards for patient safety incidents, due to the erosion of parliamentary accountability, according to the shadow health secretary.
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News
Phil Hope gets beefed-up DH social care portfolio
The profile of social care has been given a potential boost with the appointment of Phil Hope as a minister of state for care services in the Department of Health.