All Policy articles – Page 230
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Comment
Simon Stevens on the top-up payment maze
The government has committed to answering at some time in the coming weeks a highly awkward dilemma: whether or not to allow NHS patients to make 'top-up' payments to cover treatments the NHS will not fund.
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News
Government to underwrite hospital trusts' assets
The government is to underwrite hospital trusts' assets to prevent them going bust and ending up in court.HSJ has learned that the Department of Health is to issue a consultation paper this month that rules out insolvency for trusts that are failing financially.
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Comment
Gay Lee on the social care debate
Nurses and social workers know it is impossible to tell where social care ends and healthcare begins. Yet they waste time, effort and money trying to prise them apart - because government policy says they must.
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News
Scottish car parking charges abolished
Car parking charges have been abolished at all hospitals in Scotland.
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News
Almost half of all patients offered choice of hospital
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.
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Comment
Amanda Doyle on the trouble with patient choice
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.
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HSJ Partners
Building skills in the healthcare workforce
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
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News
IT plans 'hopelessly flawed', says shadow health secretary
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 ...
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News
Lansley boosts councils' role in public health
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 ...
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Comment
Andrew Jones on achieving quality care
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.
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HSJ Knowledge
Adolescent services: smells like teen spirit
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
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Comment
Naomi Chambers on grumpy boards
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
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News
£1.75bn surplus down to strong financial management, says DH
The Department of Health says its predicted surplus of £1.75bn in 2008-09 shows strong financial management by the NHS.
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HSJ Knowledge
National service: health policy performance across the UK
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
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News
Hospitals hold back choose and book slots
A senior Department of Health official has criticised 'significant numbers' of hospital trusts for holding appointments back from the choose and book system.
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News
Huge contrasts found between UK nations
Patients in the UK’s four nations have dramatically different experiences of the NHS, HSJ can reveal.
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News
Coding errors distort bills for PCTs
Up to £1bn of the bills hospital trusts sent primary care trusts last year could be wrong, tests by the Audit Commission have suggested.
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Comment
Noel Plumridge on a family tragedy
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.'
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HSJ Knowledge
Super patients should use their powers wisely
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
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News
Conservatives unveil public health proposals
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.