Primary Care – Page 284

  • News

    Effective commissioning guide

    2007-01-08T00:00:00Z

    The Health Policy Forum has pinpointed four key elements that make a critical difference to effective commissioning. A report from the primary care think tank suggests actions that primary care organisations might take.Download the report here

  • News

    Combined predictive model launched

    2007-01-08T00:00:00Z

    The Department of Health has released a computer algorithm that allows clinicians and managers to identify patients most at risk of unplanned and unnecessary hospital admission. Developed with the King's Fund and other partners, the tool underpinned work at Croydon primary care trust which swept the board at the ...

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Helen Bevan on transformational learning

    2007-01-08T00:00:00Z

    Every so often, I come across research or evidence that gives me profound insight into why things happen the way they do. I experienced just such an epiphany in December, when I led a workshop on transformational learning at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Forum, the largest healthcare improvement gathering ...

  • Comment

    David Woodhead on lessons from Peru

    2007-01-08T00:00:00Z

    'I met a group of local women who were trained in contraception and hygiene; they each had trained six women, who in turn were training others. The process had increased their confidence. And in the basement was a co-operative bakery which provided affordable bread but also made a profit.'

  • News

    £100m to help increase NHS energy efficiency

    2007-01-05T00:00:00Z

    Health minister Andy Burnham has announced £100m funding to help NHS trusts meet their energy efficiency targets. Seven out of 10 are already on track, he said, but more should be done to reduce carbon emissions and deliver savings that will be ploughed back into patient care.For more information click ...

  • News

    Heart disease deaths down 35 per cent

    2007-01-05T00:00:00Z

    Investment and reform in services to tackle coronary heart disease is saving lives, says a progress report on implementing the national service framework for CHD today. Shaping the Futuresays premature deaths from CHD are down 35.9 per cent since 1996, on course to meet ...

  • News

    Plans for consultants 'absurd', says BMA

    2007-01-04T00:00:00Z

    British Medical Association consultants committee chair Dr Jonathan Fielden has criticised the Department of Health’s draft pay and workforce documents, revealed in HSJtoday. He said: ‘It is absurd to suggest that the NHS in England needs fewer hospital consultants. ‘To suggest that there should be fewer consultants, and of a ...

  • HSJ Knowledge

    No cash, lots of commitment

    2007-01-04T00:00:00Z

    Deprivation in leafy Staffordshire provided an interesting challenge for Dr Zafar Iqbal

  • News

    Stomach pain tops Christmas complaints

    2007-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Stomach and jaw pain dominated calls to telephone helpline NHS Direct over Christmas, statistics show.Vomiting, toothache and diarrhoea were also among the top 10 reasons for calling the helpline in England.Over the whole of 2006 the service received around 7 million calls, while during the Christmas period there were a ...

  • News

    Sir Liam demands faster progress on safety

    2007-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Chief medical officer Professor Sir Liam Donaldson has called for more speed in improving patient safety in his newsletter published today.Although Sir Liam praised a 'greater awareness among clinicians, managers and policymakers that patients are not as safe as they should be', he said that the pace of change had ...

  • News

    High take-up for optician training

    2007-01-03T00:00:00Z

    More than 90 per cent of opticians met the requirement for continuing education and training (CET) by the 31 December 2006 deadline.Final figures for the first cycle released by the General Optical Council show that 95 per cent of optometrists, 89 per cent of dispensing opticians and 86 per cent ...

  • News

    David Peat on lost baggage and fielding complaints

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    'I always try to acknowledge a complaint myself when it arrives on our doorstep, and I always sign off our response. It helps me keep in touch with patients' perceptions - their sense of grievance, injustice or perplexity.'

  • Comment

    David Peat on lost baggage and fielding complaints

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    'I always try to acknowledge a complaint myself when it arrives on our doorstep, and I always sign off our response. It helps me keep in touch with patients' perceptions - their sense of grievance, injustice or perplexity.'

  • Comment

    Martin Pearson on warm glows and icy winds

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    'Directors and managers of today's organisations need to recognise that they are there not only to create cost-efficient and financially successful health businesses but also to lead services in a way that saves the world from further degradation and climate chaos'

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Legal briefing: medical care for prisoners

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    The challenges faced by primary care trusts in delivering health services to prisoners have been seriously underestimated, says David Lock

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Early intervention in psychosis team

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster's early intervention in psychosis team has a range of help available over a three-year period for clients aged 14 to 35 who have experienced an episode of psychosis.

  • News

    Smarter prescribing could save millions

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    More efficient prescribing of generic statins rather than branded versions could save the NHS £85m a year, according to the Department of Health. Latest 'better care, better value' indicators found that the savings could be made if every primary care trust prescribed such drugs to the level achieved by the ...

  • News

    Health figures honoured

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    Christie Hospital trust chair Joan Higgins has been made a DBE in the New Year Honours list. NHS Confederation chair Peter Mount, former Greater Manchester strategic health authority chief executive Neil Goodwin, Royal College of Nursing president Roswyn Hakesley-Brown and health economist Anne Mills have been made CBEs.To see the ...

  • News

    'Hooked' stop smoking campaign launched

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    A campaign that shows people being seized by fish hooks and dragged to their smoking spots has been launched. The campaign, which includes TV adverts, outdoor advertising, direct mail and a dedicated website, reveals that the average smoker needs over 5,000 cigarettes a year.www.gosmokefree.co.uk/getunhooked

  • News

    Legal age to buy tobacco to rise

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    The legal minimum age to buy tobacco is to rise from 16 to 18 on 1 July. The move is intended to make it easier for retailers to spot under-age smokers and reduce the numbers of teenagers who smoke. A campaign to raise awareness of the change will be launched ...