All Health Service Journal articles in 13 March 2008
View all stories from this issue.
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Comment
David Woodhead and Valerie James on tackling decommissioning
Government is stepping away from setting central targets and relinquishing direct control over delivery. Locally identified needs and priorities will take their place. Directors of public health and commissioning will be at the vanguard of service reform in the health service and local councils.
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HSJ Knowledge
Sustainable healthcare construction
Healthcare construction contributes huge amounts of waste to landfills every year, but some organisations are working hard to change this. Here, we take a closer look at what they have achieved
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HSJ Knowledge
NHS continuing care: a new batch of claims?
Compensation claims from patients who were denied continuing healthcare on the NHS are beginning to hit finance directors' desks. David Lock explains how to respond to them
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Comment
Tackling violence
Despite the lack of a national standardised training scheme for dealing with violent patients, there are developments taking place in managing violence, writes Rob Grant
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News
PCTs may be subject to people power
Primary care trusts and other healthcare providers could face increased pressure to respond to local people's concerns under a new 'community empowerment' white paper.
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Comment
Political opening hours
As a medical student, I sat in on GP clinics and recall whole mornings with patients seeing their charming GP, chatting, then leaving the room reassured but without a new diagnosis or treatment, writes Jake Low-Beer
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News
London healthcare overhaul could worsen inequalities
Plans for a major overhaul of healthcare in London could make inequalities worse if they do not target those who currently miss out, says a groundbreaking assessment.
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Comment
Guarantees are vital to ISTC success
Your piece on independent sector treatment centres, 'ISTC contract guarantees will saddle NHS with £187m bill', misses some fundamental points, writes David Worskett
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Comment
GP hours - what a mess
Well, well, well. What a shock the National Audit Office has stated that GPs earn lots more money for working fewer hours. This is something that has been widely known for some time, writes Les Collister
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Comment
Gill Morgan's great legacy
When we appointed Gill Morgan as chief executive of the NHS Confederation, we knew we were recruiting a very competent person - but we had no idea how widely valued and supremely effective she would become, writes Dianne Jeffrey
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Comment
Malcolm Lowe-Lauri on the role of FT governors
Foundation trust governors can and should exercise their influence in the wider community to benefit service users
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Comment
Use it or lose it: freedom from Whitehall is a two-way street
At last week's Primary Care Trust Network conference, the discussion with NHS chief executive David Nicholson revealed how hard it is for the centre to let go - especially when local health services won't release their grip on the Department of Health's hand.
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News
GPs urge PCTs to remain flexible
Primary care trusts will have to negotiate with family doctors over how to implement extended hours locally after the overwhelming majority of GPs voted to accept the government’s proposed deal.
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News
FESC is thrown open without Treasury probe
The Department of Health has extended its commissioning support programme without carrying out an expected value-for-money assessment of the scheme, HSJ has learned.Health secretary Alan Johnson announced last week that the framework for procuring external support for commissioners, FESC, is now open to all primary care trusts to buy in ...
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Comment
Media Watch: drug maker under scrutiny
Being accused of 'cheating the NHS' is enough to give anyone heartburn. So bosses at Reckitt Benckiser, makers of indigestion treatment Gaviscon, may well have sought comfort with a taste of their own medicine this week.
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Comment
Doubts over super-regulator
You do not mention an important question for the new super-regulator, writes Don Redding. Will it exist to serve patients and service users, and if so, how will it engage with them?
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News
New patient safety head pleads for display of passion
The newly appointed director of the national Patient Safety Campaign has said it is crucial that the drive is embraced by managers.
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News
Lib Dems plan PCT tax-raising power
The Liberal Democrats would turn primary care trusts into elected bodies that would eventually enjoy tax-raising powers, the party decided at its spring conference in Liverpool.
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News
Noel Plumridge on Darling's discipline
Yesterday's Budget announcement held few surprises for the NHS. As expected. Nowadays, the important public finance figures are published in the autumn, and it would have been disappointing indeed if chancellor Alistair Darling had revisited the NHS assumptions in last October's spending review.
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Comment
PCT rebrand will help end identity crisis
Public sector rebranding exercises are often seen as a costly and pointless distraction. But the proposal to rebrand primary care trusts - so Oldham PCT would become NHS Oldham, for example - makes a great deal of sense and does not need to cost money.