Health Service Journal
4 February 2010
View all stories from this issue.
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An introduction to First Thursday
I am delighted to introduce this year-long series of articles about innovation from leading thinkers and practitioners around the world. -
Andrew Wakefield behaved 'unethically'
The General Medical Council has concluded that Andrew Wakefield, the doctor at the centre of the MMR controversy, acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in carrying out his research. -
Behavioural training: there's a new show in town
High-tech training at a leading foundation trust is giving staff enhanced skills to cope with stress. Helen Mooney reports -
Book Review: The Goal
This book gives us management theory in story format, says Hannah Lowry -
C diff outbreak inquiry start date set
A date has been set for an inquiry into the deaths of 18 people in a hospital infection outbreak. -
Commissioning and Delivering Integrated Care
A business critical briefing from HSJ’s Commissioning and Delivering Integrated Care conference -
Commissioning and Delivering Integrated Care - conference sessions
A business critical briefing from HSJ’s Commissioning and Delivering Integrated Care conference -
Developing infrastructure to deliver world class integrated care
Improving service delivery, clinical outcomes and patient experience through efficient, fit-for-purpose, high quality systems -
DH plans will cut smokers by half, says Burnham
Health secretary Andy Burnham has pledged to halve the number of smokers in England by 2020. -
DH to expand integrated care pilots through 'good will'
The Department of Health is looking to expand its integrated care pilot scheme by “harnessing good will”. -
Doctors still failing to meet hand-washing targets
Scottish hospital doctors have been criticised after new figures showed they are still failing to meet hand-washing targets. -
European court ruling boosts NHS contract bidders
Companies competing for NHS contracts have been given a boost by a European court victory for Sheffield-based surgical instrument maker Uniplex. -
'Extraordinary resources' needed in C diff fight
Controlling the spread of C difficile may require “extraordinary resources”, an expert has warned. -
Foundations cussed
Research out last week, showing less than a quarter of people have had a real say on health and care services, chimed with the experience of End Game’s colleagues. -
FT directors appointed
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust has appointed two new directors. -
Give Gordon a duster
A former nurse on a recent visit to the prime minister’s Downing Street pad noted that the chandeliers, while very ornate, were rather dusty. -
Happy birthday, Helen Bevan
The NHS Institute’s director of service transformation Helen Bevan is known to never miss an opportunity for a learning experience, especially if she can combine it with rigorous exercise, ideally at sub-zero temperatures. -
Home care ‘could save NHS more than £1bn a year’
The health service could save more than £1bn each year by increasing the number of patients it treats at home rather than in hospital, according to a report seen by HSJ. -
How to rationalise NHS estates
Estates managers must develop a strategy to align with Transforming Community Services. Rachel Sudders looks at the issues they will face -
How to use business intelligence to guide decision making
Business intelligence transforms consumers of information into analysts, who can drill into data and understand it. Such information has become an increasingly important commodity in an NHS environment of tightening finances alongside a drive for efficient, high quality services and balanced budgets.Clinicians and managers at the operational level need to receive timely and succinct information that enables them to see where things are going right or wrong in a service, and how to take -
Ian Dalton's swine flu update - standing down the national pandemic flu service
In his weekly update for HSJ and Nursing Times, national director for NHS flu resilience Ian Dalton discusses the latest developments in UK swine flu preparations -
Invitation to tender – tobacco cessation council guidance development
The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) -
It’s crunch time, but job cuts are not the only way to save the NHS money
While politicians have been quibbling over the size and the semantics of the public sector spending cuts to come, the NHS is quietly starting to get on with them. -
Leaked FTN document: no job guarantees for foundation trust staff
Staff working for foundation trusts are at risk of compulsory redundancy because of the impending public sector spending squeeze, a leaked report suggests. -
Lib Dems call for tightening of foreign GP law
The Liberal Democrats launched new proposals today to tighten rules on employing foreign doctors after the death of a 70 year old man treated by a doctor from Germany. -
Local partnerships fail on children's health priorities
Primary care trusts and local councils have failed to work together to successfully prioritise improving the health of under-fives, an Audit Commission report has warned. -
London boroughs call for healthcare devolution
London’s boroughs have set out a list of demands for new responsibilities that should be devolved to local government after the general election. -
London councils call for PCT budget control
Primary care trust budgets for non-acute care should be integrated with all other local care services, according to a manifesto produced by the lobby group London Councils. -
Lookey-Likey: Charlie Brooker + Morrissey = Mike Farrar?
If it were biologically possible for Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker (left) to have a love child with the Mancunian miserablist Morrissey (centre), their offspring would probably resemble a moody version of Mike Farrar, NHS North West chief executive (right). -
Make meetings more effective with mind mapping
Mind mapping is a simple technique that helps you ensure meetings work in your favour, says Constance Lamb -
Many commissioners breach NHS competition rules
The NHS cooperation and competition panel has warned that a “significant number” of commissioners have left their procurement process open to challenge. -
Media Watch: smoke free future
The promise of government proposals to create a “smoke free future” for the UK provoked a press battle over the nanny state. -
Michael White: are the Tories ready?
The Labour government shows plenty of signs of being on its last legs. -
Ministers poised to confirm details for quality accounts
Nearly all trusts and private providers to the NHS will have to publish quality accounts for the first time this year, the government was expected to confirm this week. -
Monitor appoints interim chair
Monitor’s board has appointed its vice chair, Chris Mellor, as interim chair following the departure of Bill Moyes. -
More patients pick private care
There has been a significant increase in patients opting for NHS funded treatment in the private sector, latest Department of Health figures on choose and book reveal. -
NHS boss 'ordered report cover up'
Hospital bosses at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust have launched an investigation into allegations that a senior hospital official ordered a consultant to play down failures in treatment after a young man died from an undiagnosed ruptured spleen. -
NHS Cumbria reveals flood expenditure
NHS Cumbria has estimated the bill for maintaining flood-ravaged health services in the region could reach almost £7m - before any permanent health facilities are built to replace those lost. -
NHS Direct to increase web presence
The chief executive of NHS Direct wants to significantly shift its operations towards the web, saying the health service needs to leave behind its “1950s bank” approach to services. -
NHS quality accounts must live up to the name
A year and a half after former health minister Lord Darzi’s next stage review called for all NHS providers to publish quality accounts, there is still no real consensus on what they should look like. -
NHS quality accounts: quality is becoming an accountable business
This year will see the first tranche of reports intended to show how trusts are engaging with quality across all their services. Dave West looks at how this could represent a step change in health organisations’ accountability -
Norman Lamb: abolish quangos and SHAs
Health quangos and primary care trusts should be abolished, according to Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb’s personal proposals. -
Nurses fess up on inefficiency
Productivity and efficiency may be the current buzzwords bandied around by the mandarins at the Department of Health - not forgetting quality, innovation and prevention as well of course - but what does the hard pushed frontline think? -
Only two trusts miss CQC application deadline
All but two trusts submitted their Care Quality Commission registration applications on time, the regulator has told HSJ. -
Out of hours GP variations 'unacceptable'
An unacceptable variation exists between doctors’ out of hours services around the country, Mike O’Brien has admitted. -
PCTs urged to invest in prevention
Primary care trusts could save more than £6.7m in five years by investing less than half that in measures to prevent ill health, according to an independent report commissioned by the government. -
Pete Mason on avoiding staff conflict
Staff conflict will be an unavoidable by-product of what promises to be a testing 2010 -
Plans to scrap GP practice boundaries draw fire
The British Medical Association and the NHS Alliance last week stepped up their opposition to government plans to scrap GP practice boundaries within 12 months. -
SHAs plan staff cuts of up to 10pc
Strategic health authorities are actively exploring cutting local NHS workforces by up to 10 per cent in order to make the £15bn-£20bn savings required by 2014. -
Stephen Thornton on interpreting NHS performance data
Dr Foster’s Hospital Guide was no help to managers and patients - in fact it added to the confusion -
Stroke action falls short of CQC standards
Many stroke patients are still not spending enough of their hospital stay on a specialist stroke unit or having a brain scan within 24 hours, a National Audit Office report has revealed. -
The quality & productivity innovation challenge – getting over ourselves
In the first of a year-long series on healthcare innovation, NHS National Director for Improvement and Efficiency, Jim Easton, explains why innovation is so important to the future of the NHS. -
Thomas Hughes-Hallett on a better place to die
Despite significant improvements in recent years, care of the dying is too often a lower priority than saving lives. -
Tories pledge to slash hospital readmissions
More than 500,000 patients are readmitted to hospital every year soon after being allowed home, figures obtained by the Conservatives show. -
Total Place: why NHS partnerships make total sense for savings
In the first of three articles on Total Place, Helen Mooney looks at how Croydon’s PCT and council are using the scheme to focus on improving child health -
Treasury paper points to spending 'restraint'
Spending restraint is considered more effective than tax rises in reducing state debt and improving economic growth, according to a newly released Treasury paper. -
Trusts told to monitor use of safer surgery checklist
Many acute trusts could be failing to monitor the use of a mandatory patient safety tool, HSJ understands. -
Understanding patient costs
Patient-level costing offers a way to reduce unnecessary variation in the cost of care. Watch HSJ’s free online masterclass to learn more. -
Using clinical evidence to facilitate the right care and support planning decisions
A practical online seminar demonstrating the simplicity of using world class medical evidence to validate the appropriate level of care for individual patients -
Welcome to the Lib Dem fringe
Health minister Mike O’Brien likes to include a gag in his speeches, so it was only a matter of time before the opposition health team got in on the act. -
Welsh community health councils to be reorganised
Community health councils in Wales are to be reorganised following last year’s NHS shake up, it has been announced. -
Your Humble Servant: weapons of self-destruction
If GPs would not stop referring patients to hospital, we had to get rid of both.
