Health Service Journal
9 July 2009
View all stories from this issue.
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Former NMC chief executive got £122,000 payoff
Former Nursing and Midwifery Council chief executive Sarah Thewlis received a payoff of nearly £122,000 after resigning last year, according to the regulator’s accounts. -
A nasty shock to the Googles
Hsj.co.uk, is all for responding to web users’ demand for content, but some requests will probably never be fulfilled. -
Andy McKeon: saving £15bn-£20bn will be no summer holiday
This summer senior NHS managers have been set a problem they will still be studying for months ahead - how to save £15bn-£20bn over three years from 2011. -
Audit Commission publishes finance guide for doctors
The Audit Commission and Academy of Medical Royal Colleges have issued a guide to finance for hospital doctors, saying it is “essential” they understand how money works in the NHS. -
Book review: Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress Free-Productivity
Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by your workload? Find it hard to focus on the work at hand? Wish you were more relaxed and could achieve more with less effort? There is no reason to lose hope. -
Burnham 'not ruling out' Mid Staffordshire probe
Health secretary Andy Burnham has said he is “not ruling out” a public inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire foundation trust scandal. -
Call for ambitious mental health targets
Public services such as the NHS, schools and transport should be set targets to reduce the financial burden of mental illness, according to mental health leaders. -
Call for debate on redundancies as data shows where cuts will fall
NHS leaders are calling for the third year of the pay settlement to be renegotiated to avoid mass redundancies. -
Calls for expressions of interest for the provision of NHS primary medical care and related services
NHS North of Tyne -
Care for elderly 'not good enough'
Funding for long-term NHS care costs for the elderly has been subject to “procrastination and delay”, according to former Tory health secretary Stephen Dorrell. -
Clinicians and managers - shedding some light on the dark side
What is it really like for clinicians who become managers in the NHS? Mark Johnston and Yasmin Ahmed-Little take a closer look -
CMO reassures over supplies of Tamiflu
The government’s chief medical officer has said that Britain has enough Tamiflu after it was revealed that the number of new swine flu cases could hit 100,000 per day. -
Competition panel to investigate Kingston PCT
The co-operation and competition panel has agreed to investigate allegations of anti-competitive practice against Kingston primary care trust. -
Complaints against nurses to NMC up by nearly a fifth
There was an 18 per cent increase in the number of complaints made to the Nursing and Midwifery Council from 2007-08 to 2008-09. -
Concerns over CQC costs spark 'bonfire of the quangos' scrutiny
Politicians have this week pledged another “bonfire of the quangos”. -
Cost cap on top managers' pay review
A Department of Health shake-up of NHS senior managers’ salaries will only go through if it can be shown not to push up their overall pay bill. -
Cost of regulation merger reaches into millions
Health regulators have spent millions on failing IT systems, empty offices and redundancy payments. -
Councils told to learn lessons from NHS on recruitment and retention
Councils should learn lessons from the NHS to improve recruitment and retention of social workers, the chair of the government’s social work task force said. -
Discrimination claims likely to rise in recession, trusts warned
Trusts are being told to expect a flurry of potentially expensive discrimination claims from employees “putting down the markers” in case they are made redundant. -
Expression of Interest to Tender for the provision of a new Integrated Healthcare Service for HMYOI Feltham
NHS Hounslow -
Finance directors plan to renegotiate supplier contracts
NHS finance directors are increasingly pessimistic about the financial outlook for their organisations and plan to address their concerns by renegotiating contracts with suppliers. -
FT competencies: a new look for leaders
The next step in the evolution of foundation trusts will require their top people to develop different leadership skills from those that did the job in the early days -
Government will not back private care home protection
Efforts to improve human rights protection for children and the elderly in privately run care homes have been blocked by the government. -
GPs 'getting unclear advice' on swine flu
Only 9 per cent of GPs had been given regular, clear and concise guidance about swine flu, a poll has found. -
Health committee 'saddened' by patient safety failures
NHS boards “too often” prioritise governance, finances and targets above patient safety, the Commons health committee said today. -
Helping GPs help patients: NICE's role
There’s more NICE can do to help doctors help patients, writes Simon Fradd -
Hospital staff warning as NHS Confederation issues swine flu guidance
Hospital staff have been urged to ensure they get vaccinated against swine flu when drugs become available this month. -
HSJ and a bit of satire and Darzi's sorted
Interesting to dissect the reading habits of the pre-reshuffle health ministers - a parliamentary answer last week revealed that while most of Lord Darzi’s colleagues had several “periodicals” delivered to their private office in May, he survives on just HSJ and Private Eye. -
Know the figures behind the facts on health inequalities
In an age of information overload, the need for relevant data is growing as boards face tough decisions on reducing health inequalities, as Stuart Shepherd explains -
KPMG confirms Mark Britnell's appointment
KPMG has confirmed the appointment of Mark Britnell as its new head of Healthcare Europe, as exclusively revealed by HSJ last month. -
Maggot infestation sparks emergency at Aberdeen children's hospital
Operations have been cancelled and emergency procedures adopted because of an infestation of maggots at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital. -
Manager jailed for CV lies joins care trust
An NHS manager who was jailed for lying on his CV has started another job at a care trust. -
Measles outbreak sparks vaccination appeal
The worst outbreak of measles in the North East for 20 years has prompted urgent appeals to parents to have their children vaccinated as soon as possible. -
Mediawatch: swine flu... it could be you
We’ve all got guilty pleasures that are bad for our health and this week there is another one to add to the list. -
Michael White: on patient safety and savvy spending
I had an odd experience at the weekend. Reading the Commons health select committee’s depressing report on patient safety, I kept thinking of the more visible drama now being played out over public expenditure and pay. -
Minister seeks urgent talks on ambulance cuts
The rural development minister for Northern Ireland has expressed grave concerns about a proposed cut to regional ambulance services. -
Moyes not so happy to be in two places at once
Monitor executive chair Bill Moyes claims he supports the decision to separate his post into chief executive and chair on his departure. -
NHS boss issues swine flu vaccine warning
The head of NHS Scotland has warned it could take almost a year and a half to vaccinate everyone north of the border against swine flu. -
NPSA says investigations would be unhelpful
The government should be wary of MPs’ calls for thorough investigation of all serious safety incidents, the National Patient Safety Agency has said. -
Our mission is clear: to help our readers
Last weekend the Mail on Sunday ran a full page article claiming an HSJ reporter (Sally Gainsbury) wrote a news story in the magazine as part of a Labour “sting” to undermine Conservative health policy. -
Pathology service shake-up starts to take shape
The Independent Reconfiguration Panel has approved in part proposals to reorganise pathology in Lincolnshire. -
Pay freeze is warmer prospect than thousands of job losses
HSJ’s interviews with a panel of finance directors have begun to flush out where managers are planning to make savings as the financial noose tightens. -
PCTs gear up to cope with potential for 100,000 swine flu cases a day
The Department of Health says primary care trusts across the country are ready to establish antiviral collection points within a week following a dramatic increase in cases. -
PCTs lash out over audit use of world class scores
Furious primary care trust chiefs have lambasted the Audit Commission after being marked down in annual reports on the basis of world class commissioning scores. They had been told they would not be judged on the measures. -
PCTs' swine flu plans 'being tested by real life'
Primary care trusts’ swine flu plans are now being “tested by real life events”, the Department of Health has said. -
PEAT inspectors award record top scores
Patient environment and action teams have rated a record number of sites as excellent. -
Public and patient group members face conduct hearing
Several members of the patient and public involvement group for Staffordshire have been summoned to investigatory hearings about their conduct. It comes amid rifts between members over the way it should be run. -
Public views sought on plans for new North East hospital
Proposals for major changes to NHS services in Northumberland and North Tyneside have been put out for public consultation until July 28. -
Reality chips away at NHS's gold-plated pension scheme
The ‘gold plated’ NHS pension scheme swallows 10 per cent of the service’s budget, but even in these tight times reforming it is a challenge no party is keen to accep. -
Roy Taylor appointed flu services director
Efforts to ensure that NHS social care in England can cope with a flu pandemic have been strengthened by the appointment of a director of flu services. -
Sheila Williams on to coach or not to coach
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s 2008 survey of learning and development reported an increase in the use of coaching - not just for senior managers and directors, but for all employees. -
Simon Stevens: on lifestyles and living beyond 100
If all goes well, next month my wife’s grandma will turn 100. That is a birthday only around one in 5,000 of her peers will be around to celebrate. Not bad for a woman who, like millions of others, emigrated between the two world wars from eastern Europe to New York, arriving at Ellis Island with all her worldly possessions in a battered suitcase. -
Sir Bruce Keogh cuts up rough
The normally charming NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh told HSJ that medical managers who think they can carry out a couple of operations a week are “just crazy”, and “nobody would regard you as a hard-hitting surgeon”. -
Spending pressures spark call for NICE restraints
Primary care trusts could increasingly abandon national treatment guidance unless it is made affordable. -
Staff will be moved to help swine flu-hit areas, says CMO
The NHS is preparing to move staff between different areas to help services cope with the swine flu pandemic. -
Surgery cancelled after fire in MRI suite
Surgery has been cancelled at a south London hospital after patients were evacuated when a fire broke out in a ward. -
The calm after the storm: what chief executives do after 'goodbye'
NHS chief executive is a high profile job and every now and then one such leader suffers a public execution - but these days there is no guarantee of another job in the system for those who leave under a cloud. Alison Moore asks what fate has in store for an ex-manager -
Tories claim 'Google health records' are speculation
The possibility that the Conservatives might transfer NHS health records to private sector internet providers such as Google or Microsoft has been dismissed as speculation. -
Tories to scrutinise Monitor and CQC in plans to slash quangos
Every quango, including the Care Quality Commission, Monitor and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence will be reviewed by the Conservative Party to assess whether it should be closed or scaled back. -
Transforming Community Services
See the attached file for our in-depth look at the programme that will lead delivery of the next stage review vision for primary and community care. -
Trust in talks over merger with struggling foundation
A hospital trust in the South West is considering a merger with a struggling foundation trust. -
Unions warn that public sector pay cuts could spark strikes
Any attempts to cut the pay of NHS staff and other public sector workers may lead to strikes, unions have warned. -
Vince Cable: concerned NHS 'going against' joint working with local government
Vince Cable has raised concerns that the NHS is “going against” the drive towards greater partnership with local government. -
Watchdogs rap two health boards
Maladministration by two NHS health boards, one in Wales and the other in England, led to “unremedied injustice and hardship”, according to a joint watchdog’s report.
