Health Service Journal
1 July 2010
View all stories from this issue.
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Bad practice reporting guide published
A new guide has been made available to employers in the NHS that offers advice on how to ensure staff can report bad practice. -
BMA calls for 'forgiveable' loans for graduates
Medical students should be given “forgivable loans”, with their debts repaid if they work for the NHS, doctors said today. -
BMA votes against homeopathy funding
The British Medical Association (BMA) has called for homeopathic remedies to be banned on the NHS and removed from pharmacies where they are for sale as medicines. -
BMA warns of 'devastating' cutback costs
The economic crisis could have “devastating” consequences for the NHS, with cutbacks to patient services and redundancies, doctors’ leaders have warned. -
Book Review: Understanding Health Inequalities
A study of inequalities is at its best on analysis, writes Lucy Reynolds -
C diff target increased to 50% in Scotland
NHS boards in Scotland are being asked to meet an increased target in the reduction of over-65s catching Clostridium difficile in their hospitals - placing the figure now at 50%. -
Clarity is the key to tackling excess admissions
Penalties for trusts doing too many emergency admissions, introduced in April, do not appear to have brought the numbers down. -
Clinical engagement is about more than GPs
At last week’s NHS Confederation conference, health secretary Andrew Lansley stressed the need for managers to engage with GPs, while batting away the question of how Treasury officials feel about giving them control of the commissioning purse strings - a question that is not going to go away. -
Co-operation not competition best for NHS, say experts
A group of medical bodies, unions and healthcare experts have said if the NHS was run on its founding principle of co-operation rather than competition, it would become more equitable and cost-effective. -
David Nicholson doubts 2012 timescale for GP commissioning role
NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson has poured doubt over health secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans to implement GP commissioning by April 2012. -
David Nicolson slows pace of Lansley change
NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson has said he doubts whether health secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans to implement GP commissioning can be achieved by April 2012. -
DH to consult on cutting its supplied staff
A consultation on job cuts at the Department of Health will be announced on Thursday, HSJ has been told. -
Do not cut specialist roles, warns SHA chief
Specialist members of the NHS workforce must not be sacrificed in order to find efficiency savings, a government advisor and strategic health authority chief executive has warned. -
Expressions of Interest are requested for the Management and Delivery of Healthcare Services For HMP Holloway
NHS Islington -
Foreign doctors 'must speak good English'
Poorly trained overseas doctors who cannot speak good English must not be able to treat patients in the UK, a doctors’ leader has said. -
Former IT boss denies financial conspiracy charges
The former chairman of an IT firm involved in a major NHS project has denied conspiring to make misleading statements about the company’s financial position. -
'Fundamental weaknesses' in budget spending questioned
MSPs have raised concerns about “fundamental weaknesses” in the way NHS managers are spending their budgets. -
Galvanising the future of clinical leadership
There is vast leadership potential in the junior doctor workforce, as Fiona Pathiraja and Kate Drysdale explain -
GPs should be given commissioning budgets now
GPs who want them should be given hard budgets now, with the details of national policy filled in later, according to a report from the NHS Alliance. -
Has Lansley called time on falling NHS waiting lists?
Some see the abolition of central performance management of the 18 weeks referral to treatment target as a big mistake, others think it heralds a more flexible system. Alison Moore looks at the early outlook for a controversial change of policy -
Health network appoints new chairman
The South London Health Innovation and Education Cluster has appointed Paul Lincoln, the chief executive of the National Heart Forum, as its chairman. -
Heart of England has new chief
Heart of England Foundation Trust has appointed a chief executive to replace Mark Goldman. -
Hospital phone costs to be reviewed
The cost of hospital bedside phone and television services will be reviewed by the government amid calls to curb “extortionate” prices, MPs have heard. -
Hospitals face shortfalls as emergency demand spirals
Hospital trusts face significant cash penalties this year as their emergency activity continues to rise, HSJ analysis reveals. -
How to be an NHS change leader
The success of a change initiative relies on strong leadership from chief executives - so how do you make that happen, asks Chris Roebuck -
HSJ Awards 2010: Partnership Working
Take a look at last year’s winners to help you put together a winning entry -
HSJ Awards 2010: Primary Care Organisation of the Year
Take a look at last year’s winners to help you put together a winning entry -
Innovation: an uninterrupted flow of ideas
A project on reducing medication errors illustrates human-centred design thinking, says Jennifer Taylor -
Invitation to tender - Our Closing the Gap programme requires bespoke support for teams leading improvement projects
The Health Foundation -
Ken Jarrold on the winners and losers of NHS reform
I started reading policy documents on the NHS in 1969. The first was the Green Paper published two years earlier, which launched the discussion about the first major re-organisation. -
Lansley acknowledges PBC accountability concerns
Health secretary Andrew Lansley has acknowledged concerns over the accountability arrangements for GP budget holding but has said there is “no merit” in implementing his planned changes slowly. -
Lansley: money is now 'core responsibility' of doctors
Health secretary Andrew Lansley today told the British Medical Association conference that use of resources is a “core responsibility” of doctors. -
Lost theatre time opportunity
Acute foundation trusts lose a third of their operating theatre time to late starts and early finishes by clinical teams, according to research presented by the Foundation Trust Network. -
Michael White on the NHS budget
Good news of a sort for Andrew Lansley as he faces twin pressures: wholly predictable pressure from the Tory right (plus that nudge from Andy Burnham) to include the NHS in George Osborne’s Budget strategy for public spending cuts, and pressure from the chancellor himself not to let feckless GPs manage so much NHS money. -
Minister visits hospital at centre of A&E reconfiguration row
Health minister Simon Burns is to visit Newark Hospital today after the local MP raised objections to changes to accident and emergency. -
Monitor issues warning on declining foundation profits
The financial fortunes of foundation trusts slipped in the last months of 2009-10, the latest report from their regulator Monitor shows. -
MP accuses NICE of encroaching on policy debates
The public health watchdog is in danger of becoming a “nanny state monster” as it increasingly makes pronouncements that encroach on other areas of public policy, an MP has claimed. -
New GP role may create deficit
Handing the NHS commissioning budget over to GPs could cause the NHS to generate a gross annual deficit of at least £1.2bn, research due to be published soon suggests. -
NHS leaders ‘must support’ clinical practice change
NHS leaders are being urged to support changes to clinical practice it is hoped will save more than £9bn a year. -
NICE publishes first quality standards
Trusts should screen all stroke patients for cognitive impairment within six weeks of diagnosis, according to the first set of quality standards to be published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. -
NICE publishes the first set of quality standards
Trusts should screen all stroke patients for cognitive impairment within six weeks of diagnosis, according to the first set of quality standards to be published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. -
PCTs lose right to stay as direct providers
The Department of Health has reversed its December decision to let six primary care trusts continue as direct providers of their community services. -
Plugging the inequality gaps with prevention
A workforce in the West Midlands uses its community knowledge to help some of the most at-risk and disadvantaged people, as Stuart Shepherd explains -
Review finds £1.2bn swine flu effort 'proportionate'
The UK response to swine flu was “proportionate and effective”, an independent review has concluded. -
Rose Gibb wins £175k appeal
Rose Gibb is £175,000 better off today after the Court of Appeal ruled the former chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust should be paid her severance deal. -
Rose Gibb wins payout in appeal
Rose Gibb, the former chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust, has won £175,000 in her appeal against the Department of Health’s intervention in her severance deal with the trust. -
Scrapping NHS targets is 'risky'
Scrapping health service targets sends out a “risky message”, a former chief executive of the NHS has warned. -
SHAs told to step up NHS talent hunt
An HSJ analysis has uncovered large regional variations in the amount being invested in NHS talent and leadership. -
Shining a light on the latest technology
The second Healthcare Innovation EXPO will be showcasing the latest technology that can help patients recover more quickly from surgery, reduce post-operative complications and ICU admissions and shorten hospital stays. -
Stephen Eames on GPs in the hotseat
At a recent dinner party, a fellow guest, who happened to be a GP, said: “If I was to invite my colleagues to a meeting about practice based commissioning, I would be there on my own with the sandwiches” (well, actually these days it would be without the sandwiches.). -
Stomach cancer survival rate improves
The number of people dying from stomach cancer in the UK has fallen to a 40-year low, according to Cancer Research UK. -
Sugar banned from hospital vending machines
Sugar has been banned from coffee and tea vending machines in hospitals across Wales as they pose a “risk to health”, according to NHS chiefs. -
The bones of a PCT recovery plan
PCTs’ plans for the tough times ahead need both the right ‘anatomy’ and ‘physiology’ -
Third of operating time lost to late starts and early finishes
Acute foundation trusts lost a third of their operating theatre time to late starts and early finishes by the clinical teams, according to research presented by the Foundation Trust Network (FTN) at the NHS Confederation annual conference. -
Trust may take PFI option for 'axed' hospital
A foundation trust which had central funding for a major hospital building plan cancelled last week is looking at alternative ways of financing the project, including private finance. -
Trusts highlighted as 'ones to watch' for quality patient-centered care
The clinical director of the King’s Fund Point of Care Hospital Programme named three trusts that were doing “very interesting things” around patient-centred care during at talk at NHS Confederation’s annual conference. -
Your Humble Servant: Handy Andy
‘It’s been a few months now, and we’ve had no new strategy, plan or output. I can only assume you’ve been stocking up on additional inadequates so that you can get rid of them easily as cost savings to show off to the new ministers’
