Primary Care – Page 222
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News
GP commissioning costs lots and delivers little
A major study into practice based commissioning has found it to be an 'expensive investment' that has delivered little in terms of better services for patients or financial savings.
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News
More than 100 step up with integrated care scheme bids
The Department of Health has received more than twice as many bids than expected to set up integrated care schemes.
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News
Obesity leaves eating disorders in the shade
While national guidelines have stimulated change in crisis areas of mental health, eating disorders are only just beginning to receive the attention and specialist services sufferers need. Alison Moore reports
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News
Local NHS managers will get free choice of quality measures
The Department of Health has published an ambitious framework for improving the quality of NHS care but its architect Lord Darzi has warned it is likely to get off to a slow start.
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News
£13.5m earmarked for public health initiatives
Public health minister Dawn Primarolo has unveiled a package of measures to help break down the barriers between primary care trusts and local authorities when tackling pockets of poor health.
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News
Quality and outcomes framework 'distracts GPs'
The quality and outcomes framework has been criticised as offering 'inappropriate financial incentives' to GPs that can 'distract' them from offering the best care.
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News
PCTs may face bill for top-up refunds
Primary care trusts could come under pressure to refund tens of thousands of pounds to patients who have paid for top-up treatment.
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Comment
Laura Thomas on information prescriptions
By the end of 2008, people with long-term conditions should leave GP surgeries and hospitals clutching not one prescription but two: one for their medicines and another for the information and support they need.
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Comment
Maggie Rae on NHS core competencies
Am I competent? We must all have asked ourselves this question. In the build-up to world class commissioning assessment, it is interesting to ponder what competency we have and whether we have any weak links.
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News
Governance body slams NHS records sift
The health and social care information watchdog has raised concerns that the smallprint in the draft NHS constitution could undermine patient confidentiality.
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News
£400m spending limit forced on NHS
NHS organisations will be permitted to spend just 400m of their 1.7bn surplus next financial year and will not get the full increase in resources pledged to them by the Treasury.
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News
How are NHS top-ups going to affect your services?
The announcement that patients may top up their NHS care with unapproved treatments means managers face overseeing segregation of patients and tough commissioning decisions. Helen Crump reports
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News
Spectre of past mistakes looms over GP access push
The £250m programme to provide new GP-led health centres in every local area risks repeating the mistakes made when independent sector treatment centres were set up, academics have warned.
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News
Edwina Hart delays reform schedule in Wales
Welsh health minister Edwina Hart has accepted that the wholesale overhaul of the NHS in Wales will not be complete until next October.
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News
Healthcare Commission longed for government's embrace
Healthcare Commission chair Sir Ian Kennedy has sent a frank message to staff revealing how the government failed to embrace the regulator and left it 'handicapped'.
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Comment
Sir Ian Kennedy on the future of the annual health check
The Act of Parliament that established the Healthcare Commission required us to assess on an annual basis the performance of every NHS organisation, taking account of the standards issued by the Department of Health. Out of this requirement grew the annual health check.
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Comment
Norman Niven on wasted medicine
The more I read about the NHS's troubles, the more I wonder whether dramatic headlines about bed shortages, waiting lists and superbugs serve to obscure a problem that is far less attention grabbing but potentially more damaging to UK healthcare.
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News
Department of Health launches 'lifestyle revolution'
Thousands of national and local organisations have joined forces to launch a Department of Health-led 'lifestyle revolution' to eat well, get more exercise and live longer.
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News
Give asylum seekers access to NHS care, BMA urges
Restricting asylum seekers' access to primary care results in costly treatment having to be accessed later, MPs have been told.
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News
Rise in alcohol-related A&E admissions among children
The number of alcohol-related accident and emergency admissions among children under 16 has increased by 17 per cent in five years, according to newly released figures.