Health Service Journal
9 October 2008
View all stories from this issue.
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Andrew Lansley points finger at ministers over patient safety
Too much blame is being placed on trust boards for patient safety incidents, due to the erosion of parliamentary accountability, according to the shadow health secretary. -
Brighton and Sussex chief apologises for racial victimisation
A hospital chief executive has publicly apologised and paid an out-of-court settlement to a member of staff who suffered race discrimination and victimisation. -
Calm before the storm as PCTs prepare to flex their muscles
This week's HSJ survey of the extent to which primary care trusts have been decommissioning services represents the calm before the storm of world class commissioning. -
Cambridgeshire trust leads way on franchising model
Private companies and foundation trusts will be invited to bid to manage a failing hospital trust. -
Clinical leadership in out of hours services
The Department of Health has signalled that it may allow practice-based commissioning consortiums to take over commissioning out of hours services. Rick Stern explains why this would be good for patients and budgets -
Complying with freedom of information rules - tips for NHS bodies
Every public body required to comply with the Freedom of Information Act must have in place an approved publication scheme setting out information that must be routinely available to the public. -
David Lee on foundation trust constitutions
In 1968 John Lennon wrote this lyric in the song Revolution: 'You say you'll change the constitutionƒ we all want to change your head'. It is still relevant today. -
Delivering cat food vs delivering healthcare
Type PbR into Google and as of end September 2008 you will get 6.9 million hits. The first two are what you and I understand PbR to mean. -
Edwina Hart takes charge in Wales
Under plans announced last week, Welsh health minister Edwina Hart is to take direct control of the country's NHS. Dave West asks if a politician can be trusted with such a sensitive job -
Edwina Hart's new system has a whiff of Stalinism
Just as the government’s fingers are finally being prised off the throat of the NHS in England, Welsh health minister Edwina Hart has put her own service in a stranglehold. -
Emergency concerns can be eased by records access
The Healthcare Commission report into emergency care raised serious concerns about communication between providers in the new emergency care landscape. Much of this could be mitigated by better access to the NHS care -
Emma Dent on an early coughs and colds season
Is it me or has the sniffles season started early this year? Autumn has barely begun but already my unfortunate colleagues have been laid low by a variety of bad colds, respiratory infections and various as yet unidentified viruses. -
Foundation trusts get £300m in a year-end spending rush
Foundation trusts were handed up to £300m in advance payments by primary care trusts towards the end of the last financial year, HSJ has been told. The prepayments were made as some primary care trusts struggled to keep 2007-08 surpluses below 'control totals' set by the Department of Health. -
GMC must nip rotten medics in the bud
The General Medical Council has stood for high professionalism for 150 years but exposures of malpractice suggest it must push on with its modernisation to regain public and professional confidence -
Health inequalities: travelling communities
The alarming levels of health inequalities experienced by travelling communities can be better understood and tackled by health professionals, says Richard O'Neill -
Hospital chief suspended for poor record
The chief executive of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals trust John Watkinson has been suspended. -
International development is a fishy business
It's one of the great development mantras: give someone a fish, and they'll eat for a day; teach someone to fish, and they'll eat for the rest of their life. But it unfortunately completely misses the point. -
Jenny Rogers on personal responsibility
The kind of client that all executive coaches adore is the high flier who is totally up for learning: cheerful and realistic about themselves. -
Jon Restell on party conferences
The party conference season heralds the least productive element of my job. Attending them means - roughly - receptions, speaking at fringes, talking to anyone who will listen and eating too much and too richly. -
Keith Pearson on releasing time to care for patients
The best health organisations in the world put patients at the heart of what they do. This is why the Releasing Time to Care programme is so important. -
Killer health conditions go unseen by GPs
Only half of all patients with some killer conditions have been diagnosed and treated by their doctor. -
Linda Havard on changing the face of NHS leadership
Lord Darzi's next stage review talks about increasing clinical leadership in the NHS. By encouraging leaders to be practitioners, partners and leaders, he hopes to drive through the quality agenda. -
Local community gets involved in NHS budgeting
In the UK's first health-related participatory budgeting event, residents in Thornhill, Southampton were invited to vote on which health and well-being projects they thought would best meet the health needs of the community. -
Maidstone report focuses on non-execs
Strategic health authorities and the Appointments Commission should work together to ensure new non-executive directors understand what is expected of them, a report into the management of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust has concluded. -
Mark Johnson on what Darzi means for NHS innovation
Lord Darzi's review puts quality at the heart of the NHS. This vision can only be achieved through new forms of partnership working between the public, private and third sectors. -
Media Watch: public health Jamie Oliver style
When a celebrity ventures into the inhospitable terrain of public health, the results tend to be predictably cringe-inducing. -
Mental health volunteering scheme has global ambitions
This World Mental Health Day, South London and Maudsley foundation trust is supporting a new initiative to encourage volunteering with VSO. -
Michael White on the NHS and political miscalculations
With the global banking network near meltdown, we're all on a sharp learning curve. So here's a tip for David Cameron: don't use the distress of NHS patients such as the late Elizabeth Woods to make party-political points. -
Mid Yorkshire Hospitals trust faces steep savings battle
A hospital trust given a £77m financial rescue package this year will face considerable challenges to break even over the next few years, a confidential report has revealed. -
NHS could be sued under free market
Plans to create a European Union free market in public healthcare could open the health service to legal challenges from patients demanding treatments that are not available in the UK. -
NHS data security: tips for trusts
NHS organisations need to take steps to ensure confidential data is handled appropriately. Sian Thomas explains -
NHS infection control: a clean bill of health
Last October Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust was the subject of sensational headlines over deadly superbug outbreaks. A year on, under a new chief executive, it is being transformed from ward to board -
NHS parallels with the finance markets
As JM Keynes observed, if you owe the bank £100 you have a problem. But if you owe £1m, the bank has a problem. -
NHS work experience: a staff perspective
In the last of our series on NHS work experience, a nursing and physiotherapy assistant at Southampton General Hospital gives a staff perspective -
PCT must provide more funds for GPs
As a GP with a special interest in diabetes and who is studying for an MSc in the disease, I read your article 'Eat all that and you'll be sick' with interest. -
PCTs call for continuing care help
Strategic health authorities are having to rescue primary care trusts flooded with 'continuing care' cases, a year after the government made it easier for service users to claim NHS funding. -
PCTs failing to decommission services
Two out of three primary care trusts failed to decommission any services last year, showing the extent of the challenge they face to become world class commissioners. -
Phil Hope gets beefed-up DH social care portfolio
The profile of social care has been given a potential boost with the appointment of Phil Hope as a minister of state for care services in the Department of Health. -
Phil Hope takes over social care brief at DH
Phil Hope has been appointed as a minister in the Department of Health, replacing Ivan Lewis.Mr Hope takes over the social care portfolio. The department is in the middle of an emotive debate on the future shape of care and support, intended to precede a green paper on reform of social care funding. -
Picker Institute demands clarity for exceptional case decisions
Primary care trusts must communicate with patients more clearly about exceptional case decisions, the Picker Institute is demanding. -
Political fear frustrates local socialism
It is clear from discussions at the Labour Party conference that ministers are not willing to commit in any meaningful way to accountability to patients and the public. They feel that patient and public involvement will result in a postcode lottery followed by assassination by the press. -
Report highlights faster emergency response
The Healthcare Commission's review of emergency and urgent care rightly recognises significant improvements in access and response times, including for ambulances. -
Skills for Health unveils workforce planning tool
Workforce planners in the health sector have another tool to help them make the recruitment, retention and organisation of staff easier and more sustainable. -
Trust merger derails controversial reconfiguration plan
A controversial reconfiguration plan has been put on hold - because two of the trusts affected are likely to merge. The boards of Royal West Sussex trust - based in Chichester - and Worthing and Southlands Hospitals trust have agreed the merger in principle and are now doing detailed work. -
Virginia Beardshaw on children's speech and language services
Child health has always been a minority interest in the NHS. And few managers have moved up the career ladder on the strength of their achievements in the niche field of children's speech and language. -
What to say about the NHS?
It is quite clear that the majority of my undoubtedly tiny readership hates what I write.
