All Primary care articles – Page 282

  • News

    Multimedia advice pioneers wanted

    2007-01-12T00:00:00Z

    The Department of Health and NHS Direct are calling for primary care trusts to come forward to bid to become the the early adopter for a new NHS Health Direct service to provide multimedia advice supporting personal health improvement. The internet, digital television and mobile phone service was proposed in ...

  • News

    GP contract talks collapse over pay

    2007-01-11T00:00:00Z

    Talks about next year's GP contract have broken down. The British Medical Association said on Tuesday that the offer made by NHS Employers was 'not sufficient' and called on the doctors and dentists review body to recommend an across-the-board uplift for GPs under next year's contract.

  • News

    Proper workforce planning needed, says BMA chair

    2007-01-11T00:00:00Z

    British Medical Association chair James Johnson has called on the government to reinstate proper workforce planning - or risk wasting millions of pounds of public money.Speaking at the BMA's 'State of the NHS' briefing, Mr Johnson said: 'In 2008 the year-on-year significant rise in additional NHS resources will fall back ...

  • News

    London PCTs fear provider role is being overlooked

    2007-01-11T00:00:00Z

    Directors of London primary care trusts lack confidence in the future development of and investment in community health services, according to a survey.

  • News

    Clinical governance at old PCTs was patchy, finds National Audit Office

    2007-01-11T00:00:00Z

    Almost all the old primary care trusts had put in place clinical governance structures and processes but fewer had actually made sure they were working, a report from the National Audit Office says today.

  • News

    GP contract negotiations stall

    2007-01-10T00:00:00Z

    An agreement on the general medical services contract is unlikely to be reached in time for the April deadline, NHS Employers has reported.NHS Employers GMS negotiating team chair Dr Barbara Hakin said that she had told the Department of Health that the British Medical Association's GPs committee had made it ...

  • 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

    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 ...

  • 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

    £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 ...

  • 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

    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 ...

  • 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

    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

    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

    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 ...

  • 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'

  • 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 ...