Health Service Journal
30 April 2009
View all stories from this issue.
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Advertising watchdog bans SHA from running 'misleading' choice ad
The Advertising Standards Authority has banned NHS North East from running an advertisement for patient choice on the grounds that it could mislead the public. -
Agenda for Change is helping NHS be a 'progressive employer'
An independent study of Agenda for Change has found no evidence that the pay system discriminates against any staff group. -
Alan Johnson: UK among best prepared for swine flu outbreak
Health secretary Alan Johnson has attempted to calm fears over an outbreak of a new strain of flu called swine influenza. -
Andy Black on hospital acquired thickness
Why do some staff address patients in baby talk, or treat them as an irritant if they ask for a window to be opened? It’s because of a virulent condition that can sweep through wards like wildfire -
Assisted suicide: a fitting end
Public opinion runs high over severely ill people seeking access to a service allowing them to take their own life under clinical control. Could current law on assisted suicide be changed? Jennifer Taylor reports -
Book Review: Overtreated - Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer
This rebuts the idea that healthcare costs have to rise, says Stephen Black -
Boris Johnson pledges long-term Olympics health legacy
London Mayor Boris Johnson has pledged to secure long-term health benefits from the London 2012 Olympic Games after the first meeting of the relaunched London Health Commission. -
Budget 2009: ABPI welcomes tax review proposal
The pharmaceutical industry has welcomed plans in the Budget to consider changes that could make the tax system more favourable to research and innovation. -
Budget 2009: Improve NHS productivity or cut services - King's Fund
The NHS will face “significant cuts in its services” from 2011 unless it can become more productive, the King’s Fund said in response to today’s Budget. -
Budget puts pressure on DH central pot
The NHS’s £2.3bn contribution to the Treasury’s £5bn of planned spending cuts in 2010-11 leaves the Department of Health’s central budgets under pressure, HSJ understands. -
Chief executives picked to lead integrated Welsh NHS
Six chief executives have been appointed to lead the NHS in Wales as it takes a further stride away from the English system. -
Community engagement: how to help people care about health
A national team is delving into why public health messages have low impact in some UK areas. Stuart Shepherd reports -
Confed proposes peer review to avoid Mid Staffordshire repeat
The NHS Confederation has called on hospital trusts to invite others trusts’ directors to inspect their services to help prevent failures such as those at Mid Staffordshire foundation trust and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust. -
Crunch time: coming to terms with NHS funding cuts
Public sector spending projections raise the spectre of real terms cuts from 2011. Sally Gainsbury dissects the figures and looks at the options for the NHS as growth makes way for austerity -
David Nicholson defends 'unashamedly elitist' Top 250 scheme
NHS chief executive David Nicholson has defended a controversial scheme to identify the top 250 jobs in the health service as “unashamedly elitist”. -
Dental surgeries could extend opening hours
Primary care trusts are to begin a £150m procurement process which could see dental surgeries opening outside normal hours. -
DH publishes criteria for defining failure
NHS providers with even small deficits or which get their financial forecasting wrong risk being placed “under review” through the Department of Health’s new criteria for its failure regime. -
DH response to Rose Gibb case: chief executives must be held to account
The Department of Health has welcomed the judgement in the Rose Gibb case, in which former chief executive Rose Gibb lost her claim against Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust for breach of contract. -
DH seeks fresh leadership talent for adult social care
Plans to create “new cadres of leadership talent” for adult social care have been set out by the Department of Health. -
DIY doctors: patients can boost NHS's value
The Budget means the NHS must get better value for money. As the need for efficiency grows, the key is to get patients with chronic illnesses to manage more of their own care -
Dry run for quality accounts gets the go ahead
All foundation trusts, and other provider trusts in the East of England, will have to publish reports on the quality of their services this year, it has been confirmed. -
Friends only
At its annual reception this week, King’s Fund chief executive Niall Dixon announced its new “friends of the fund scheme”, giving those who sign up, among other things, the twice-yearly opportunity to “meet the experts” and access to its new friends’ lounge. -
Interview: David Nicholson talks leadership
In an exclusive interview following the first meeting of the national leadership council last week, NHS chief executive David Nicholson tells HSJ what was discussed, why the council won’t become a “dustbin” for difficult issues and why all chief executives must take responsibility for leadership. -
Involving junior doctors in implementing the European working time directive
The involvement of junior doctors in implementing changes to working hours in the UK is not a new concept. Going back to the 1990s, the regional task forces on junior doctors’ working hours, charged with the responsibility of implementing the new deal, often included junior doctor medical advisers. -
Jenny Rogers on predictable irrationality in the NHS
The notorious US bank robber Willie Sutton, when asked why he raided banks so prolifically, allegedly answered, “because that’s where the money is”. -
Lisa Rodrigues on the dos and don'ts of effective communication
Leaders seem to love lists that tell them what to do – The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and The Eighteen Challenges of Leadership to name but three of the more popular management books. -
London announces first seven polyclinics
Seven polyclinics are open or will soon be open in London. -
Lookey-likey: James Lockley and Louis Theroux
Another suggestion from NHS Ealing Lookey-Likeys Ltd. -
Managers in Partnership 'disappointed' with Rose Gibb judgement
Managers in Partnership, Rose Gibb’s trade union, today said it was disappointed with the High Court decision not to uphold her claim for breach of contract. -
Media Watch: swine flu
The Department of Health was quick to offer reassurance at the start of this week after warnings of a pandemic of a new killer flu virus. -
Michael White on the Budget crisis
A shadow Cabinet heavyweight summed up the Budget crisis with brutal clarity: “We have been paying nurses by taxing bankers’ bonuses. It’s unsustainable,” the MP observed with some sadness. -
Monitor appoints new chief and chair to 'challenged' foundation trust
A foundation trust has been assigned a new chief executive by Monitor for the second time in eight months. -
NHS boards ignorant of brewing danger and scandal
If a major problem is brewing in your hospital, don’t bank on the board spotting it before it becomes a scandal. -
NHS bodies forced to reveal gender pay gap
NHS organisations will be forced to reveal the salaries paid to male and female staff under legislation published today. -
NHS culture stifling innovation, Confed warns
The NHS is stifling innovation through an organisational culture that places barriers in the way of staff with good ideas, the NHS Confederation has warned. -
NHS governance 'reduced to paper chase' - Audit Commission
Many NHS trust board members cannot be sure whether or not their hospital is operating within the law, the Audit Commission has found. -
NHS IT programme given seven months to improve
The Department of Health has given the NHS IT programme seven months to make “significant progress” in installing working IT systems in hospitals. -
NHS London reports 'sharp improvement' in public satisfaction
Public satisfaction with the health service in London has shown a “sharp improvement”, a poll has revealed. -
NHS performance regime: failure criteria published
The Department of Health has published the criteria it will use for defining failure under its performance regime. -
Paul Corrigan on NHS cultures
My problem with a single powerful culture comes from growing up in the 1950s. English culture was pleased with itself. Its rejection of difference threatened that the cost of being different would be high. You would be on your own. -
PCT poll backs Alan Johnson on swine flu pandemic
NHS organisations are backing up health secretary Alan Johnson’s assertion this week that the UK is one of the countries most prepared to deal with a flu pandemic. -
Pilot will boost patient role in GP service plans
Private companies will tell GPs how to make their services more customer friendly under plans to boost patients’ role in shaping primary care services. -
Policy Research Units - Invitation to Tender
Department of Health -
Public spending cuts will be worse than predicted - Institute for Fiscal Studies
Public spending will be cut by 2.3 per cent a year in real terms from 2011-12 onwards, analysts at the Institute for Fiscal Studies have said. -
Put co-ordinators at the heart of organ donation
The NHS has been challenged with upping organ donation. Stuart Shepherd looks at the vital role transplant co-ordinators can play in meeting this ambition -
Rose Gibb case underlines cost of failure for NHS managers
The judgement against Rose Gibb in her claim for breach of contract reinforces the accountability of senior managers for service failures, and slashes the chances of pay-offs. -
Rose Gibb judgement 'draws a line under tragic episode'
NHS South East Coast has welcomed the High Court judgement against Rose Gibb, former chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust. -
Rose Gibb judgement ends era of pay-offs
NHS managers could increasingly turn to employment tribunals with the rights and wrongs of their dismissals debated in public after Rose Gibb lost her claim for breach of contract, her union leader has warned. -
Rose Gibb judgement is 'the right decision', says Maidstone chief
The chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust has welcomed the High Court judgement that it did not breach its former chief executive Rose Gibb’s contract. -
Rose Gibb: what the judge said about Maidstone and the SHA
Rose Gibb said after the judgement: “This matter has been difficult for all parties and there can be no winners.” Read what the judge, Mr Justice Treacy, had to say about those involved. -
Scotland calls off pandemic flu practice as swine flu worries grow
A four-week emergency exercise to test Scotland’s resilience against pandemic flu has been suspended in light of the threat of an actual pandemic. -
Shock Rose Gibb court judgement
Rose Gibb has lost her claim against Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust for breach of contract. -
Simon Stevens on what the Budget means for health spending
So the Budget has confirmed what we already knew: there’s a major public spending crunch ahead. Spending across government is targeted to grow at just 0.7 per cent over the period 2011-12 to 2013-14. -
Stubbed out
Anti-smoking lobbyists ASH wasted no time in condemning last week’s Budget, calling it “another missed opportunity to clamp down on smuggling”. -
Swine flu fears increase as WHO ups alert level for second time
The World Health Organisation has raised its pandemic flu alert level for the second time in the space of a week, increasing fears that a global outbreak is inevitable. -
Tories jump the gun
You can’t fault their enthusiasm but it seems staff at the Conservative party’s Millbank HQ are getting a bit ahead of themselves. -
Tory councillors call for shared health, police and council budgets
Leading Conservative councillors have urged the shadow cabinet to back joint funding of local public sector bodies to protect key frontline services. -
Treatment referral scheme aims to get drug users back into work
A drug treatment referral scheme to get drug users off benefits and back into work starts operating across England today. -
What does the Rose Gibb judgement mean for chief executives?
Employment experts tell HSJ what difference the judgement will make to NHS chief executives. -
When communities pull together there is a big health benefit
The UK’s growing diversity and individualism are reflected in many health issues, and the NHS should be forging strong partnerships to create equalities across communities -
WHO raises alert level as UK swine flu cases confirmed
The World Health Organisation has raised its threat level to indicate increased risk of a flu pandemic in the wake of confirmed swine flu cases in several countries. -
Whooping cough making a 'dramatic comeback', warn Liberal Democrats
Diseases such as whooping cough and scarlet fever are making a “dramatic comeback”, the Liberal Democrats have warned.
