Health Service Journal
1998-12-12
View all stories from this issue.
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10 December 1948
An explosion in an operating theatre was the subject of a question in the House of Commons to health minister Aneurin Bevan. Was he aware of the incident, said to have been due to a defective anaesthetic machine, which caused the death of a patient? -
2000 events test 999 services
Emergency services and hospitals in London will have to cope with 'around 1,000 millennium events', the government has warned. -
A few points IHSM leaders forgot to mention
I must thank Institute of Health Services Management president Peter Homa and chair John Brunt for their reply (Letters, 19 November) to my letter -
A lot on the Christmas plate Controversial announcements get wrapped up in the seasonal confusion
Keeping busy? This week sees not only the launch of the mental health strategy, but the latest NHS league-tables, the replacement for the Patient's Charter, the tobacco white paper, a major anti-fraud initiative and more guidance for primary care groups, while for good measure the public accounts committee released its report on cervical screening. -
'A quart in a pint pot': Nucleus reconsidered
On the 1979 Man Alive programme, William Tatton-Brown voiced his opposition to the Nucleus building programme. 'The responsibility of standardising and committing the whole country to a single concept is far too great for anybody to carry,' he said. -
Anger marks charter update
The launch of much-delayed government plans for revamping the Patient's Charter has been marred by anger among advisers asked to help develop a new document. -
'Awful accountant' determined to rid the profession of its 'abominable no-men' image
The Healthcare Financial Management Association's new chair is touchingly keen to undermine the image of accountants as 'abominable no- men'. -
Back-injury case paves way for delayed claims
legal briefing -
Brought to book
news focus -
Category: Burdett award
Highly commended -
Category: Collaborative working
Winner -
Category: Equal opportunities
Winner -
Category: Risk management
Winner -
Central support available for PCGs if HA liabilities threaten
Central support will be available 'in exceptional cases' to ensure primary care groups are not knocked off course by 'unacceptably high' health authority liabilities. -
Chiefs' pay rises crash through limit
Northern Ireland health minister John McFall has ordered a review of trust chief executives' pay after annual reports disclosed that 16 out of 20 have received increases exceeding government guidelines. -
Clinical governance is all about collaboration, not power struggles
letters -
Cold remedies
As winter pressures begin to bite, one health authority is better able to cope, thanks to multi-agency workshops which also involved local elderly people. -
Country and western
Critical challenges for healthcare reform in Europe Edited by Richard Saltman, Josep Figueras and Constantino Sakellarides Open University Press 424 pages £19.99 -
'Fantastically different': Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Five years since the opening of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Pam Castro still gets people saying: 'Oh my God, -
From showpiece to shambles - St Mary's Hospital, Isle of Wight
The average hospital maintenance problem is likely to pale into insignificance compared with the latest catastrophe to hit the showpiece low-energy hospital on the Isle of Wight. -
GP fees for telephone advice Phoney argument militates against old- fashioned common sense...
Any system whereby we bring our services and advice nearer to the patient should be remunerated. In the near future, we will be having online consultations with specialists via electronic imaging. -
health management awards
Winner -
Highly commended
Swindon health promotion service's No, There is No Problem Here project -
Highly commended
Brighton Health Care trust pressure damage prevention strategy -
Huge NI hospital shake-up in bid to secure future of acute service
A radical shake-up of Northern Ireland's hospitals has been launched by the government in a bid to end uncertainty about the future of acute services. -
in brief
Applicants who are refused legal aid in medical negligence cases will be able to have the merits of their case reviewed by the charity Action for Victims of Medical Accidents under new arrangements being introduced by the Legal Aid Board. AVMA will draw up an independent report, to be available for the appeal against refusal. The move - along with restricting medical negligence work to specialist solicitors - is meant to ensure that public funds support only deserving cases. -
in person
Royal Berkshire Ambulance trust also has two new non-executive directors. They are Kenrick Sealy, a management consultant and nurse adviser, and Ian Mihell, a retired local authority manager. -
Judges
Burdett Award -
League tables omit half the clinical indicators promised by ministers
Fewer than half the clinical indicators promised by ministers last year have been included in revamped NHS league tables published this week. -
Mediation's time has come
Is there a message for the NHS in the agreement by 14 insurers in the professional indemnity field to use mediation rather than litigation to settle claims when possible? -
Modernising Social Services: the response
Bill Kilgallon, chair of Leeds Teaching Hospitals trust, and former chair of Leeds city council social services committee -
monitor
Even in the wonderful e-world of the NHS, technology can still go wrong. There was Big Al Langlands in Birmingham all set to deliver a Powerpoint presentation to the massed health authority and trust chairs when his laptop conked out. Not a bit dismayed, the resourceful Al had the NHS Executive in Leeds e-mail the whole lot to the regional office, where it was run out as overheads. Alas, he told his audience, the regional office had only been able to do the transparencies in black and white. -
More bricks than kicks
buildings -
National 'flying squad' set up to tackle fraud
this week -
Newham General Hospital, opened in 1983, was one of the first 'Nucleus' hospitals, built using a standardised scheme.
Newham General Hospital, opened in 1983, was one of the first 'Nucleus' hospitals, built using a standardised scheme. -
news
Scottish health minister Sam Galbraith has announced a £700,000 increase in funding for Scotland's air ambulance service. It will get two new helicopters and more paramedics to extend cover for remote and rural communities from 10 hours a day to 24. -
Open meetings must not become 'cosmetic'
Guidance setting out the detail of health secretary Frank Dobson's determination to 'end excessive secrecy in the NHS' says trust and health authority boards must not allow open meetings to become a 'cosmetic exercise'. -
Praise be
Delegates at the Healthcare Financial Management Association's annual conference heard health minister Alan Milburn extol the virtues of finance staff, while emphasising their 'key role' in the year ahead. Lyn Whitfield reports -
Putting it Right: the proposals
12 local hospitals providing day surgery, outpatient and diagnostic services, a local accident unit, telemedicine and GP beds. -
Quasi for you
A revolution in social policy: quasi-market reforms in the 1990s Edited by Will Bartlett, Jenny Roberts and Julian Le Grand The Policy Press 341 pages £16.95 -
Reconfiguration to slash Welsh trusts
Welsh secretary Alun Michael has announced that the number of Welsh trusts will be slashed from 26 to 16 on 1 April. -
Reports of community care's death exaggerated Whatever the spin, the policy lives on in the new mental health strategy
comment -
Research warns over PCG size
Primary care groups covering 100,000 patients may be too big to produce the loyalty and cohesion needed for an innovative, locally focused service, a report on a flagship total purchasing project has concluded. -
Revolution comes full circle
Rethinking IT and health Edited by Jo Lenaghan Institute for Public Policy Research 160 pages £7.50 -
Short cuts Campaign urges young people to 'get it on' safely
news -
Short cuts Charities slam 'failure of care' in manslaughter case
news -
Short cuts Highlands and Islands scoop £2m for rural health
news -
Short cuts Investing in Dentistry cash remains unallocated
news -
Short cuts Mental Health Act detainee figures fall after peak
news -
Short cuts Private care sector matches NHS on sisters' pay
news -
Short cuts Unison blasts Scottish Office over hospital closure
news -
Social graces
news focus -
Sorry, got to go... I've run out of working time
I received the NHS circular about the European working- time directive on Monday morning. -
Strategy 'schizophrenic' over mentally ill
Government attempts to satisfy 'middle England' and health service staff have led it to create a 'schizophrenic' mental health strategy, according to a leading policy analyst. -
Streets ahead on quality
opinion -
Taking the pressure off
Ideas from the workshops -
The boy Prior puts the wind up an HA bent on closures
POLITICS -
The main proposals:
'Several hundred' new places in psychiatric wards. -
Thornicroft denies 'failure' of community care
Community care has not failed, the chair of a government group developing frameworks to support the mental health strategy insisted this week. -
Tobacco white paper focuses on preventing child smoking
New measures to try to prevent children starting to smoke were expected to be outlined today in the government's long-awaited tobacco white paper. -
Trust faces pay-out for death of heart patient
Norfolk and Norwich Health Care trust faces a fine of more than £20,000 after admitting breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act, causing the death of a patient. -
We need action not words on rights and education for lesbians and gay men
The slogan for this year's World AIDS Day was 'Force for change, world AIDS campaign with young people'. -
WEB WATCH
As chair of the BSE Inquiry, Sir Nicholas Phillips has an illuminating final question he asks every official witness: 'As a result of what you have learned about BSE or CJD,' he inquires, 'have you stopped eating beef?' It may say something about former health ministers that so far none has said yes. -
where are they now? No 92 PFI guidance Pocket profile:
A 'book of instructions' for NHS managers 'on how to do' private finance initiative projects. -
Where there's a saving, there's also a loss
All this talk about general practices keeping savings seems a little out of touch (News Focus, pages 14-15, 19 November). -
Why not stress the demands on managers?
I was surprised that the recent report from the Institute of Work Psychology was given such a low profile (News, page 3, -
Winners all
health management awards -
Winyard in 'take care' message
NHS Executive medical director Graham Winyard has urged health service managers to take better care of their own health.
