Health Service Journal
2001-02-01
View all stories from this issue.
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A perfect partnership?
Director of nursing for the prison healthcare taskforce Lindsay Bates says progress with the needs assessments for the PHImPs is 'generally good'and 'all are on target to complete'by the deadline. -
A pretty little sum
It is all very well for the government to set a 13-week target for outpatient appointments, says Rodney Jones. But the NHS cannot be complacent about the effect of randomness on waiting times -
A sense of balance in the wake of Alder Hey report
Growing public distrust of medicine must be assuaged not encouraged -
'Absolutely slamming': Holloway verdict
A draft report by Medacs Forensic Services into healthcare provision for prisoners at Holloway was 'absolutely slamming'in its criticisms of attitudes towards sick women prisoners, according to Finola Farrant of the Prison Reform Trust. The document - seen by HSJ - was based on visits to the prison last August. It describes women with anorexia being sworn at and refused food supplements. -
After the gold rush
The deal is sealed; the new hospital will be built with private money. Robert Naylor, now in the hotseat, tells Tash Shifrin what's next at UCLH -
Alder Hey legacy will be law on consent
Trusts which illegally retain organs may face criminal charges and fines following the report into Alder Hey Children's Hospital. -
All change: suspensions and resignations
Retired education adviser Angela Jones, formerly chair of Liverpool Cardiothoracic Centre trust, has been appointed as new chair of Alder Hey. She took up the post on Tuesday. -
Analysis confirms statistical link between mortality and staffing levels
Letters -
Benchmarking exercise heralds 'big leap forward' for pay system
Staff organisations have hailed a benchmarking exercise beginning this week as the 'first really concrete leap forward' in introducing a new pay system for the NHS. -
Breast-screening unit target of fourth inquiry
A radiology department which has already been the subject of three separate inquiries into mismanagement is to be the subject of yet another inquiry, this time into its breast-screening unit. -
Cancer screening: technology is there, but the money is not
Screening programmes usually focus on our nether parts: the colon and the prostate. We hear little about the lung. Mindful of progress in screening technology, Malcolm Dalrymple-Hay and Nigel Drury of Wessex Cardiothoracic Centre have used the January edition of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine to ponder if screening for lung cancer would now make sense. -
Chief departs after confidential report
A confidential inquiry into allegations relating to waiting-list figures at South Warwickshire General Hospitals trust has led to the resignation of chief executive Andrew Riley, despite the fact that problems found were 'not serious' and no disciplinary action was planned. -
Closure of HIV unit as cases soar
An independent centre for HIV and AIDS care has announced a series of redundancies and closures in the same week that the Public Health Laboratory Service predicted that the number of new diagnoses looks set to rise again. -
Conservatives and Lib Dems fail in attempt to thwart abolition of CHCs
The government's plan to abolish community health councils came under renewed fire from MPs this week. -
Councils'overspend blamed on rising cost of children's services
Increased spending on children's services is the most significant single contributor towards a £205m overspend by councils, a survey has revealed. -
Days like this
Managers may have their performance partly measured against national health promotion targets, according to a Department of Health document. -
Difficult decisions had to be taken but great attempts were made to involve staff
Letters -
Divided they'll fall
Health trade unions need to collaborate rather than compete for members. If they do not, says Andrew Cole, they will lose the ground they have gained under this government -
Doctors'organisations urge GMC to rethink reforms
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has joined the British Medical Association in urging the General Medical Council to rethink its reform plans. BMA chair Dr Ian Bogle said the GMC's proposals were 'bogged down in bureaucracy'. In a rival 11-point plan, the doctors'organisations are calling for GMC council membership to be halved to about 50, with a smaller executive committee of 10-15. The proportion of lay council members should be increased to 40 per cent, they say. The royal colleges a -
Events
Items are entered free for public sector, voluntary and professional organisations, but we need at least six weeks'notice of your event. Please send details to Uli Jaeger, HSJ, Greater London House, Hampstead Road, London, NW1 7EJ. Fax:020-7874 0254. -
For PEATs' sake, be realistic
Teams' hospital tours give hard-pressed managers cause for irritation -
I refute allegations surrounding my dismissal from ambulance trust
Letters -
In brief
Only one in five trusts believe they will meet government 'zero tolerance'targets of reducing violence against staff by 20 per cent before April, while reports of violence against NHS employees have gone up by 22 per cent, according to a Health Service Report. Most trusts use CCTV and security guards as well as providing staff training on dealing with violence. -
in person
Jan Sobieraj has started as chief executive of Barnsley District Hospital trust after moving from his previous position of chief executive at South Lincolnshire Healthcare trust. He has replaced Sue James, who left to become director of the Trent Leadership Centre and head of development at Trent regional office. -
Is this modern attitude power without responsibility?
Letters -
Labour's deal: an at-a-glance guide to the Scottish solution
Susan Deacon's original proposals: -
McLeish vows 'no backsliding'on free care
Scottish first minister Henry McLeish has confirmed his intention to make personal care as well as nursing care free for people in nursing and residential homes, as recommended by the Royal Commission on Long-Term Care. -
monitor
Well, That is January out of the way - and not a moment too soon, some will say. Even with a flu epidemic possibly just around the corner, we can now sense the first stirrings of the warmer, more optimistic days of spring, when birds will sing, little baa lambs will skip around the fields. . . Enough. Those lambs' mothers will infect pregnant humans with all sorts of nasty diseases if they do not keep well away, the Department of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the -
New powers are a 'symptom of paranoia', says exNHS deputy
A former deputy chief executive of the NHS has condemned sweeping new powers for the health secretary to remove and replace top health service managers as 'wholly unacceptable'. -
NI fundholding axe delayed
GP fundholding will not be abolished in Northern Ireland until at least April 2002, after the Northern Ireland Assembly voted to accept an amendment to the Health and Personal Social Services Bill calling for a delay. -
Of mice and moose: a gut feeling over antibiotics out in the field
The bacteriology of moose, deer and bank voles is not a topic often mentioned in the pages of HSJ. When I tell you that a study from rural Finland reported in Nature (4 January) has shown that gut bacteria from the faeces of all three species are almost completely devoid of antibiotic resistance you may feel. . . well, so what? -
On short rations
As the roll-call of NICE-approved drugs gets longer, health authorities are under increasing pressure to juggle budgets. Jeremy Davies reports -
Orthodox ginkgo study is the scrutiny herbal remedies need
If you're casting around for medical publishing's equivalent to the classic newspaper definition of a non-story ('Small earthquake in Peru, not many hurt') a recent paper in the BMJ (13 January) might seem to fit the bill. -
Patients misled as poorly designed hospitals fail PEAT cleanliness tests
Reports from patient environment action teams may be misleading the public into believing hospitals are dirty when in fact they are just old or have poor signposting, the NHS Confederation has warned. -
Quangocrats should be the ones under scrutiny
Letters -
RCN selection process was 'undemocratic'
The Royal College of Nursing's decision to offer its general secretary post to US nursing leader and ex-Clinton aide Beverly Malone has fanned controversy about its 'undemocratic' selection process. -
RCN's bid for healthcare assistants
The RCN's decision to open up its membership to healthcare assistants could see the biggest shake-up in the health trade-union movement in a decade. The controversial proposal was overwhelmingly carried by the annual general meeting in October. But it is strongly opposed by a minority. -
Relieving a painful learning curve
Pain Control An open learning programme for healthcare workers By Nan Stalker Radcliffe Medical Press 117 pages £17 -
Revalidation: which camp are you in?
Spotlight on General Practice By Sally Irvine and Hilary Haman Radcliffe Medical Press 222 pages £18. 95 -
Routes to recovery
Integrated Care Pathways A practical approach to implementation Edited by Sue Middleton and Adrian Roberts Butterworth-Heinemann 155 pages £16. 99 paperback -
Scottish review urges compulsory treatment
A review of Scottish mental health legislation has echoed proposals south of the border by calling for compulsory treatment orders in the community and new systems to deal with mentally disordered offenders. -
Staff consulted before trust appoints new chief
One of the four Birmingham trusts which had been without a leader has appointed a new chief executive following a process of consultation with staff. University Hospital Birmingham trust has appointed Mark Britnell, the trust's director of operations, who had been acting chief executive since the departure of Dr Jonathan Michael to Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital trust in November. Staff were asked which qualities they wanted from a chief executive. The 70-80 who replied were invited to grade a -
State of the union
Mr Naylor admits he 'has to be careful'about UCLH's past industrial relations problems. -
Targeting the youth vote
The old adage about catching them young applies just as much to trade unions as to banks. In fact, since the average age of health workers is rising, the battle for younger members is intensifying. -
TB cases highest in 15 years, reveal PHLS figures
The number of tuberculosis cases is at its highest for more than 15 years, figures from the Public Health Laboratory Service show. Provisional data for 2000 show TB notifications in England and Wales have risen by 10. 6 per cent, to 6,797 over the past year, the highest since 1983. Dr John Watson of the PHLS communicable diseases surveillance centre said the latest increase meant there had been 'an overall rise of 34 per cent since 1987'. This was 'a cause for concern in a disease that had de -
The 'free-for-all' in freefall
Some deft re-wording was enough to save the day when Scotland's wrangling over personal care costs turned ugly. Lynn Eaton examines the new promises -
THE PERSUADERS
Name: Stephen Thornton Job: Chief executive, NHS Confederation Style: Was asked to leave school because - young leader in the making - he stood firm and refused to shave off his beard. But recently modernised his chin in clean-shaven Milburn-like style. A keen Baptist - and (a mole tells us) a friend of top spy Stella Rimmington. Modernisation board member, usually tipped for any senior NHS job going. -
The tides they are a changing
Governments are constrained by the dominant ideas and beliefs of their day. To change politicians and move in a new direction, one has to set about altering the climate of opinion in which they and the world operate. -
There is the catch
Measures to improve relations between the NHS and the prison service are hampered by a suspicion that prison healthcare is not exactly a priority, writes Ann McGauran -
Trade union membership
RCN: covers registered nurses and students and has just agreed to extend its membership to HCAs and nurse cadets. Membership is 330,000;91 per cent of members are women and 7. 7 per cent are from an ethnic minority. Almost 40 per cent of full members are aged 3544 with a further 24 per cent in the 25-34 bracket and 26 per cent aged 45-54. -
Tributes and regrets
Letters -
Trust doesn't get everything right but Sue Page is not the only committed leader
Letters -
Turning the tables
Private companies are making nice profits from producing highly contentious hospital league tables. is not it time the NHS built up its own expertise in collating performance data? Laura Donnelly reports -
Union clinches £35. 6m payouts for injured members
Unison has won £35. 6m in compensation payouts for members injured at work in 2000, with substantial sums going to healthcare staff. The figures include £100,000 awarded to former Cardiff Royal Infirmary staff nurse Diane Chambers, who was forced to give up her job after developing severe eczema from using rubber gloves, and £125,000 for Rhondda occupational therapist Denise Grist, who was injured testing a side-car fitted with a wheelchair. An Oldham nurse received £24,00 -
When the tables are turned: nurses not always angels
Letters -
Worries over patients' rights overshadow Milburn pledges
The government moved to position itself firmly on the side of patients this week, as a series of initiatives and ministerial speeches surrounded publication of the Alder Hey report. -
Yawning gap in perceptions as 'Giggles'Denham struts his stuff
It is funny noticing what really matters to people when the world is crashing down around them. I spent last Saturday at a Fabian Society conference, when Peter Mandelson's world lay in ruins and, rather more literally, so did a sizeable chunk of western India.
