Health Service Journal
7 October 2010
View all stories from this issue.
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£70m pledged to post-discharge care
Patients should receive a “seamless service” when they leave hospital, health secretary Andrew Lansley has said, as he announced £70m funding for helping people settle at home. -
A telemedicine solution to stroke care
Telemedicine using broadband has enabled a faster stroke response with significant savings in Cumbria and Lancashire, as Hedley Emsley and colleagues explain -
'All a bit anodyne these days, what with partnership this and partnership that'
Lansley the Leveller should be saying his prayers, according to the joshing banter and bonhomie around our Joint Consultative Committee table. -
Andy Burnham's letter to Andrew Lansley
“Taken together, the proposed reforms risk undermining the stability and long-term future of the NHS.” -
Big income drop likely for children’s hospitals
Specialist children’s hospitals could see a significant drop in their income under changes to the national tariff. -
Book Review: Screw it, let's do it
Hannah Lowry finds out what drives Virgin Healthcare’s highest flier -
Burnham tells Lansley to back down on health reforms
The government should back down on its white paper reforms in response to “fierce criticism” from professional bodies, the shadow health secretary has said. -
Charity calls for social care overhaul
The NHS should move away from traditional approaches to social care for older and disabled people and look to new approaches such as social enterprises and family-based care, according to a a report published today. -
Community nurses have 'serious concerns' about GP commissioning
The move to GP commissioning could exclude other clinicians from decision making while increased competition in the NHS will lead to cost cutting, reductions in quality and greater inequalities, according to the Queen’s Nursing Institute. -
Consortia may boost GP data
GP consortia would have more incentive to collect data on patient comorbidities, the Nuffield Trust suggests. -
Councils call for free rein on public health spending
Public health funding should not be ring-fenced by the government when it is moved over to local council control, according to the Local Government Group. -
Edwina Hart cleared of misleading Welsh Assembly
First minister Carwyn Jones has cleared his health minister Edwina Hart of misleading the Welsh Assembly, saying he was “surprised and disappointed” by the claims against her. -
Expressions of Interest Occupational Health Service
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust -
First GP consortia launched in Cambridgeshire
The country’s first commissioning consortia developed by GPs have been launched today in Cambridgeshire. -
Government urged to plan for ageing population
A charity has urged the government to plan for the “significant challenges” of funding an ageing population as new figures showed more people than ever are celebrating their 100th birthday. -
GP commissioners must not ignore specialist advice, surgeons warn
GP consortia could struggle to commission specialist services such as surgery if they fail to consult with colleagues in the acute sector, the Royal College of Surgeons of England has warned. -
GP consortium pioneer says PCTs are vital safety net
Handing commissioning control to clinicians but maintaining primary care trusts to support them would be the “dream ticket”, rather than abolition, according to a chief executive pioneering the idea. -
GPs have significant concerns around 'scale, pace and cost' of NHS reforms
GPs support the government’s plans for clinical commissioning but warn the “scale, pace and cost” of the reforms may not be justified, according to the Royal College of General Practitioners. -
Health students' doubts over NHS reforms
Student doctors and nurses are sceptical of the government’s reform plans for the NHS, according to a survey. -
Hospital trust rejects Bible ban
A ban on bedside Bibles considered by an hospital trust that feared the Christian holy books could spread germs has been rejected. -
How to make your workforce more cost effective
As all NHS organisations must now get more value for less money, efficient workforce strategies are essential, say Sue Morrison and Rachel Spink -
How to retain talented staff
As the cuts make everyone’s job feel harder, roleplay workshops can help managers make staff feel valued -
HSJ readers invited to hear Lansley speak
HSJ readers are invited to hear Andrew Lansley speak at the Conservative Party conference. -
Key NHS providers face loans limits
Providers running health and social care services deemed “essential” will have their borrowings capped and will not be able to use the assets involved in those services as security in loans. -
Lansley gives PCTs more cash but defends their abolition
Primary care trusts will be given £70m to spend on care to keep discharged patients out of hospital, health secretary Andrew Lansley announced at the Tory Party conference on Tuesday. -
'Lansley needs to make the intellectual case for PCT upheaval'
Who caught my attention at the Tory conference this year? Not Andrew Lansley, I think. He had his £164m cancer screening announcement pinched by David Cameron (a PM’s prerogative) and also made a rather lacklustre speech of his own from the platform. -
Lansley warns Tories to brace for unpopularity
Conservatives must be prepared for increasing unpopularity as the spending cuts begin to affect public services, party activists have been warned. -
List of PCT functions drawn up to aid formation of GP consortia
A list of their functions has been sent to primary care trusts to aid discussions over the future transfer of commissioning powers with fledgling GP consortia. -
Lord Hutton calls for end to final salary pensions
Public sector final salary pension schemes should eventually be scrapped and staff contributions should increase in the short term, according to an independent commission led by Lord Hutton. -
Lost hospital data draws security sanction
A Scottish health board has been rapped by data protection chiefs after a memory stick containing “sensitive” information about patients and staff was found outside a supermarket. -
Mark Britnell: Have foundation trusts realised their potential?
Australian interest in foundation trusts has thrown their achievements into stark relief -
Media Watch: the Conservative Party conference
Unsurprisingly the health coverage this week was largely concerned with the blue half of the government ahead of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. -
Mental health costs 'soar to £105bn'
The economic costs associated with poor mental health have increased from £28bn to £105.2bn a year, according to research. -
Midwives warn increasing competition in NHS could destabilise services
The government’s proposals for an increasingly pro market NHS could result in the “disintegration” of the maternity care pathway, the Royal College of Midwives has warned. -
Milton rejects claim that NHS reforms are 'weak link' in government policy
Health minister Anne Milton was forced to defend Tory health policies yesterday after they were labelled the “weak link” in government reform plans during a Conservative Party conference debate. -
New DH permanent secretary announced
Una O’Brien has been announced as the new permanent secretary at the DH. -
NHS budget ringfence 'irresponsible'
It would be “irresponsible” to promise the NHS’s budget can be ringfenced, Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones has said. -
NHS London to speed up management cost reductions
London strategic health authority is bringing forward a planned £50m cut in its management costs by a year. -
NHS managers hit back at reforms
The reforms to the NHS are “too fast and furious”, Managers in Partnership has warned. -
NHS must not 'slide back' during transition period, warn pharmacists
The NHS must not wait until GP commissioning arrangements are up and running before starting to try and achieve improved clinical outcomes, the National Pharmacy Association has warned. -
NHS staff criticise white paper over lack detail and pace of change
NHS staff representatives have issued stinging criticisms of the government’s white paper. -
Out of hours performance variation to be made public
Primary care trusts are to be named and shamed for the first time on the performance of their out of hours provider. -
Patients should be told the cost of their treatment, says Tory MP
The chair of the Commons public administration committee has called for GPs to be more open with patients about treatment costs instead of worrying about “polluting the clinical environment” with financial issues. -
PCT functions 'need clarification'
The Primary Care Trust Network has urged the Department of Health to quickly sort out which PCT statutory functions can be stopped in order to reduce pressure on managers during the transition to GP consortia. -
PCTs make slow progress with QIPP
Primary care trusts are already falling behind on their quality, innovation, productivity and prevention (QIPP) plans, analysis by HSJ has found. -
Physiotherapists warn white paper will fragment services
Department of Health plans for the NHS put separate government proposals to enable benefit claimants to return to work at “severe risk”, according to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. -
PM announces new measures to tackle cancer
Thousands of lives could be saved every year under government plans to tackle cancer, the Department of Health has said. -
Psychiatrists back removal of private income cap for FTs
Removing the cap on private income for foundation trusts would release those in mental health to be more innovative and entrepreneurial, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists. -
Scottish NHS facing £5m tax bill
The NHS in Scotland is facing a tax increase of more than £5m this year, according to figures released by Labour. -
'Self-serving' trusts damaging patient care
Trusts are damaging patient care by failing to commission services from a wide range of companies, a think-tank has claimed. -
Shadow health secretary named
The new shadow health secretary is John Healey, former housing minister and member of Gordon Brown’s cabinet. -
Sign up for HSJ's GP commissioning newsletter
For the latest on GP commissioning, subscribe to HSJ’s free email newsletter. -
South Essex PCTs confirm creation of cluster
NHS South East Essex and NHS South West Essex have formed a cluster under the leadership of a single chief executive. -
Staff safety warning over cuts
Public sector workers could be put at risk of injury or illness because of the government’s spending cuts, safety experts have warned. -
Team survival in troubled times
In the NHS’s rush to do more with less there is an inevitable temptation to merge teams, or broaden the remit of existing teams. If clarity of aims - the core requirement for effective team working - is sacrificed, inefficiencies result. -
The coalition’s honeymoon is in danger of being called off
Momentum is a priceless asset in public sector reform. New governments tend to have momentum - commonly called “the honeymoon period.” -
The right way to form GP consortia
GP commissioning consortia will not be created by guidance notes from the Department of Health. Nor will they be formed by primary care trusts and strategic health authorities suggesting the necessary population size for efficient commissioning. -
Thorny NHS reform issues unresolved
A Department of Health document on the proposed strengthening of the NHS provider market, seen by HSJ, sheds further light on the reforms’ far reaching and sensitive consequences. -
Thousands of hospital ward transfers are unnecessary
Hundreds of thousands of patients are moved between hospital wards with no clinical justification, risking the spread of infection. -
Transform healthcare and win £20,000
Wanted: a published piece of writing with the potential to transform healthcare in the UK over the next three years. The £20,000 Circle Prize for Inspiring Innovation offers the most valuable reward for cutting-edge thought leadership in health -
Transforming Community Services: PCTs step closer to deciding fate of provider arms
Primary care trusts are edging closer to determining the future of their provider arms. -
Trusts should be paid to employ overseas doctors
Trusts should be compensated financially by the NHS for employing doctors from developing countries, a Tory MP has argued. -
Union launches anti-white paper campaign
The union Unite has launched a campaign against the government’s white paper, which it says has no “democratic mandate” and represent the most significant move yet towards privatisation. -
Unison given date for NHS judicial review hearing
Unison has been given a date for a hearing to decide whether a judicial review will be held over the lack of consultation on the NHS white paper. -
Value for money in pathology commissioning
GP consortia will need to ensure pathology commissioning is part of an overall efficiency strategy, says Jag Grewal -
West Middlesex trust appoints chair
West Middlesex University Hospital Trust has appointed Tom Hayhoe as its chairman. -
Your idea could redefine the health service
What is the big idea that will guide and inform the development of the NHS throughout the next decade?
