All Health Service Journal articles in 22 May 2008

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  • News

    Plans for the future of British healthcare

    2008-05-23T10:05:35Z

    Gordon Brown may well not favour a US-style social insurance system to solve the huge problem of the future social and long-term care funding gap in Britain. However, the government certainly does believe that the private sector has a major role to play in delivering a fair, affordable and sustainable ...

  • News

    Striving for excellence

    2008-05-23T10:00:23Z

    I was delighted to see the Healthcare Commission's latest national survey of adult inpatients. This highlights the proportion of patients who rate their care as 'excellent' rather than aggregating together the proportion that rate it 'good, very good or excellent'.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Universal protection for vulnerable patients

    2008-05-23T09:00:00Z

    Mental capacity advocates should be available to vulnerable patients who need them, but this is not always the case. Georgina Rowley explains the advocates' role

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Non-executive directors: driving performance in the NHS

    2008-05-23T09:00:00Z

    Phil Kenmore examines the challenges facing NHS non-executive directors in driving better organisational outcomes, achieving change and holding executives to account

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Secret audio recordings: know the law

    2008-05-23T09:00:00Z

    A patient who makes a secret audio recording of a consultation with a clinician is unlikely to be breaking any privacy or data protection laws. Jennifer Mellani explains how good communication and trust building can avoid the anxiety of this happening in the first place

  • News

    Cost problems blight healthcare proposals

    2008-05-22T17:41:06Z

    It is both regrettable and depressingly inevitable that objective debate surrounding Lord Darzi's Healthcare for London vision has been blighted by practical concerns. In my experience, GP surgeries are already struggling to invest in the latest equipment, so it is hardly surprising that the prospect of having to kit themselves ...

  • News

    Funding on the front line

    2008-05-22T17:37:56Z

    I read Michael White's column with interest. I would like to offer a view from the front line. All primary care trusts have mechanisms to consider requests for funding specific drugs or interventions on a named-patient basis in exceptional circumstances. Usually termed as individual patient requests, these are for requests ...

  • News

    Mental health requires combined approach

    2008-05-22T17:30:41Z

    Samantha Allen's article on the non-holistic approach in some mental health services, which too often separates the body from the mind, is spot on.

  • News

    Housing crisis

    2008-05-22T17:26:24Z

    Simon Stevens' suggestion of individual budgets for the whole of a patient's healthcare needs in one year rather than a disease-specific approach is attractive and makes a lot of sense. However, individually tailored and purchased healthcare is not much use if the individual has housing problems or is finding maintaining ...

  • News

    Recruit senior managers from medical ranks

    2008-05-22T17:20:52Z

    Clare Chapman and Professor Ian Gilmore are quite right to encourage the recruitment of senior managers from medical ranks as a means of accelerating the breakdown of 'perceived' barriers between managers and medics.

  • News

    Regulator must not ignore social care

    2008-05-22T17:11:53Z

    Jo Stephenson's article identifies the concerns that many of us in social care have about the creation of the Care Quality Commission and whether it will become fixated on healthcare priorities.

  • News

    Gordon Brown's speech at the Patient Safety Congress

    2008-05-22T14:19:00Z

    Visit www.patientsafetycongress.co.uk to watch a video clip of Gordon Brown's speech.

  • News

    Neglect of records departments puts patient safety at risk

    2008-05-22T11:33:00Z

    HSJ's investigation into missing patient records has prompted calls for enforceable standards on their availability.

  • News

    Missing: the notes of more than a million outpatients

    2008-05-22T09:00:00Z

    Hundreds of thousands of NHS patients are seen each year without the clinician having their medical records, an HSJ investigation has found.

  • Comment

    Media Watch: the IT programme

    2008-05-22T09:00:00Z

    Pity the poor chap on the IT helpdesk when the NHS rings up. For when it comes to sorting out the service's new computer system it's not simply a question of switching it off and on again.

  • News

    PCTs told to target London reforms at the vulnerable

    2008-05-22T09:00:00Z

    Primary care trusts must act urgently to ensure the shake-up of services in the capital improves the welfare of vulnerable groups, the London Health Commission has warned.

  • Leader

    King's puts smart money on private sector

    2008-05-22T09:00:00Z

    The decision of King's College Hospital foundation trust to appoint corporate big-hitter Tim Smart to its top job will provide a fascinating trial for private sector management techniques at the highest levels of the NHS.

  • Comment

    Noel Plumridge on why safety is just a ritual

    2008-05-22T09:00:00Z

    A Flybe flight from Southampton to Leeds-Bradford. Through security and reunited with belt and shoes. The flight is called. Walk across the tarmac, climb the stairs and claim seat 4A.

  • News

    Interview: Nicola Sturgeon shows she has a softer side

    2008-05-22T09:00:00Z

    Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon is not afraid to rattle cages, but one year into the job she admits the move from opposition to government was a culture shock. Jennifer Trueland meets her

  • Comment

    Your Humble Servant: leaving the NHS

    2008-05-22T09:00:00Z

    To: Don Wise, chief executiveFrom: Paul Servant, assistant chief executiveRe: Don't pay out, look up