All Health Service Journal articles in 6 March 2008

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  • News

    Work experience in the NHS

    2008-03-11T09:00:00Z

    Opening its doors to students interested in NHS careers must be a fundamental element of a trust's long-term workforce strategy, says Foluke Ajayi

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Capping private patient income

    2008-03-07T09:00:00Z

    As the debate over the private patient income cap governing foundation trusts intensifies, Oliver Pritchard takes a closer look at the legal background of the issue

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Andrew Castle on innovations in patient safety

    2008-03-07T09:00:00Z

    Standardising clinical practice can go a long way towards improving patient safety, as one innovative programme in the US has shown. Andrew Castle explains

  • Comment

    Surgeons are safe

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    I am extremely disappointed that HSJ chose to print the accusation regarding patient safety and the certification of doctors for the specialist register, writes Paul Streets

  • Comment

    NHS pyramid scheme remains unchanged

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    This week's report by HSJ shows that progress on driving up the lamentable levels of black and minority ethnic representation in NHS management ranks has stalled.

  • Comment

    West Kent patient safety

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Contrary to the comments made by shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, West Kent primary care trust came into being in October 2006, some six months after the start of the outbreak of C difficile at hospitals run by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust, writes Bob Deans

  • News

    Posts left open as national locum shortage takes hold

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Leaked Department of Health documents reveal a national shortage of locum hospital doctors, with some trusts reporting they are 'lucky if applicants attend for interview'.HSJ first highlighted the issue last year and the DH insisted as recently as 14 February this year that there was no evidence of a widespread ...

  • News

    No probes into London mental health killings

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    NHS managers who failed to investigate nearly half of the murders and manslaughters carried out by London mental health patients over a four-year period will not be held to account.

  • Comment

    Juggling GP hours

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    In response to the article by NHS Employers' Alastair Henderson, 'GPs must see sense on hours', My colleagues and I do not have a problem particularly with working extended hours, writes Dr ARJ Boggis

  • Comment

    Emma Dent on having a drink

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    As I believe I have written here before, I have thought for some time that I would make a lousy alcoholic because I get terrible hangovers. Just thinking about my top five worst-ever mornings-after of all time makes me feel queasy.

  • Comment

    Stroke data

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Michael White was kind to call our report NHS reform: national mantra, not local reality 'coherent' and 'intelligent'. I suspect we will have to agree to disagree about the benefits of reform, writes Helen Rainbow

  • News

    Credit crunch puts Kent PFI under threat

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Plans by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust for a new private finance initiative hospital were dealt a blow this week when the bonds intended to finance the deal were downgraded.

  • News

    Surplus forecast by HSJ still on course

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    The NHS is still on track to make a £1.8bn surplus at the end of this financial year, as first revealed by HSJ.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Readmission is not simply correlated to length of stay

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Over the past few years, length of stay has gone down while readmissions have gone up. It is tempting to see these two facts as related, but the truth is more complicated.

  • News

    Chief medic warns safety standards not high enough

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    The core standards used to measure trusts' performance in annual assessments are 'not strong enough' on patient safety, the chief medical officer has told HSJ.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Home-grown change will reshape the NHS

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    The number of primary care trusts needs to reduce further, but another top-down reorganisation should be avoided - this time world class commissioning will drive a natural, bottom-up change

  • News

    PCTs cut continuing care packages

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    More than a quarter of primary care trusts have cut the number of adults they give NHS 'continuing care', despite guidance intended to boost provision.Figures published by the Department of Health show 44 PCTs reduced the number of people to whom they give the care package between April and December ...

  • Comment

    Noel Plumridge on topping up NHS care

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    It is a long time since NHS care was unequivocally free. Over half a century ago, in the final days of a post-war Labour government that was proud to nationalise not just healthcare but the 'commanding heights' of the British economy - coal, steel, the railways - a certain outspoken ...

  • News

    Outcry forces former C diff chief to resign

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Ruth Harrison, the former chief executive of C difficile-hit Stoke Mandeville Hospital, has stepped down from an NHS consultancy post in the wake of public outcry.

  • Comment

    Michael White on health budgets

    2008-03-06T09:00:00Z

    Opposition spokesmen as energetic as Andrew Lansley tend to respond to breaking news rather than to make it. It's the curse of opposition. When they're in the headlines it's usually bad news. The Tory health spokesman has been making headlines.