All Policy articles – Page 222

  • News

    Scottish car parking charges abolished

    2008-09-02T12:01:00Z

    Car parking charges have been abolished at all hospitals in Scotland.

  • News

    Almost half of all patients offered choice of hospital

    2008-09-02T11:12:00Z

    The percentage of patients being offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment was 47 per cent in March 2008, up from 46 per cent in January.

  • HSJ Partners

    Building skills in the healthcare workforce

    2008-09-02T09:00:00Z

    Skills for Health offers a range of services to healthcare leaders to improve the quality of their workforce's skills. John Rogers offers guidance on the tools available

  • Comment

    Amanda Doyle on the trouble with patient choice

    2008-09-02T09:00:00Z

    Lord Darzi, in his next stage review, talks a lot about choice, and why not? Greater choice of healthcare provider is, undoubtedly, a good thing.

  • News

    IT plans 'hopelessly flawed', says shadow health secretary

    2008-09-01T14:01:00Z

    The £12.7bn national IT programme is a 'hopelessly flawed, centrally imposed project that has not been properly thought through from the start and was never subjected to a proper cost benefit analysis,' Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary Norman Lamb has said.He was responding to reports that the NHS is facing ...

  • News

    Lansley boosts councils' role in public health

    2008-09-01T10:48:10Z

    Public health directors would have to report to local authorities under plans announced by the shadow health secretary last week.Andrew Lansley told an audience at the think tank Reform that the Conservatives now envisaged councils having an even greater role in improving public health.Outlining conclusions from the party's consultation on ...

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Adolescent services: smells like teen spirit

    2008-09-01T09:00:00Z

    The teenage years are not the easiest: testing boundaries, asserting your independence and taking risks - and this age group often falls between child and adult healthcare. Claire Laurent reports on moves to target services for young people's needs

  • Comment

    Andrew Jones on achieving quality care

    2008-09-01T09:00:00Z

    Piloting the NHS towards quality requires robust regulation and inspection, and the DH has already set up overlapping organisations to provide this, presumably with a thinly spread budget. But if Lord Darzi's plan is to be accomplished, it will require action rather than rhetoric, and action requires funding.

  • Comment

    Naomi Chambers on grumpy boards

    2008-08-29T09:00:00Z

    With Lord Darzi's review of the NHS casting an uncertain light on the role of boards, some members might be forgiven for becoming tetchy, mistrustful, grumbling souls who always seem to be on the defensive

  • News

    £1.75bn surplus down to strong financial management, says DH

    2008-08-28T12:18:00Z

    The Department of Health says its predicted surplus of £1.75bn in 2008-09 shows strong financial management by the NHS.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Super patients should use their powers wisely

    2008-08-28T09:00:00Z

    The government is set to empower patients with personal budgets for care, but clear rules must guarantee choices are well informed and cost-effective, say Anna Dixon and Rebecca Ashton

  • Comment

    Noel Plumridge on a family tragedy

    2008-08-28T09:00:00Z

    When the mobile phone leaps into life before 8am, it's usually ominous. Yesterday was no exception, with a text from my sister Amy: 'Tony has been in a terrible accident and is fighting 4 his life. Everyone pls pray 4 him.'

  • News

    Coding errors distort bills for PCTs

    2008-08-28T09:00:00Z

    Up to £1bn of the bills hospital trusts sent primary care trusts last year could be wrong, tests by the Audit Commission have suggested.

  • News

    Huge contrasts found between UK nations

    2008-08-28T09:00:00Z

    Patients in the UK’s four nations have dramatically different experiences of the NHS, HSJ can reveal.

  • News

    Hospitals hold back choose and book slots

    2008-08-28T09:00:00Z

    A senior Department of Health official has criticised 'significant numbers' of hospital trusts for holding appointments back from the choose and book system.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    National service: health policy performance across the UK

    2008-08-28T09:00:00Z

    A&E attendances and emergency admissions have shot up in recent years - but only in England. Alison Moore asks why the record is so inconsistent across the UK

  • News

    Conservatives unveil public health proposals

    2008-08-27T12:14:00Z

    Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley has outlined the Conservatives' new policy proposals on public health.They include separate and effectively ringfenced public health budgets and an independent secretary of state for public health.

  • Comment

    Ginette Camps-Walsh on measuring patient satisfaction

    2008-08-27T09:00:00Z

    Lord Darzi's next stage review sets out that the NHS will begin systematically measuring and publishing information about the quality of the care it provides. Measures will include patients' views on the success of their treatment and the quality of their experiences.

  • Comment

    David Levy on the changing face of clinical leadership

    2008-08-26T09:00:00Z

    Clinical leadership is changing in response to Lord Darzi's review of the NHS, but the changes have not been uniform across the health community.

  • Comment

    Ken Jarrold on Darzi and nursing

    2008-08-25T09:00:00Z

    While Lord Darzi's review of the NHS is to be warmly supported, it is astonishing that it contains almost no reference to nursing or to ward and team leaders.