Health Service Journal
Charlotte Santry -
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Family doctors should prescribe English lessons, Royal College of GPs chair proposes
11-Oct-2007
GPs should be able to prescribe language lessons to patients who struggle with English, the chair of the Royal College of GPs has urged. -
Healthcare Commission finds hygiene code is 'not hitting the headlines' in acute trusts
4-Oct-2007
Acute trust boards are not taking enough responsibility for controlling infection in their hospitals, the healthcare watchdog has warned.Spot checks on 43 hospitals by the Healthcare Commission have revealed concerns that boards are not regularly discussing opportunities for improvement or ensuring infection control data is analysed effectively. -
Ministers face accusation of burying report
9-Aug-2007
The government has been accused of trying to bury a report criticising the failed Medical Training Application Service. -
Agenda for Change aims 'unfulfilled'
2-Aug-2007
The majority of managers have been found to support Agenda for Change even though it overspent by millions of pounds and has failed to increase productivity. -
Criminal checks fail to exclude staff
2-Aug-2007
Most people who fail criminal background checks while applying for NHS roles are being allowed to keep their jobs. -
Cash not the secret to hitting 18-week target
26-Jul-2007
Trusts do not need major investment to achieve the 18-week waiting-time target, a study has found. -
Clarity needed on 'stealth' social enterprise bodies
26-Jul-2007
Social enterprises working in the health service are becoming unaccountable and bureaucratic as they move away from their community-focused roots, academics have warned. -
Infection control leads not qualified
26-Jul-2007
Only half of senior managers in charge of tackling superbugs have a qualification in infection control. -
Donaldson warns off budget raiders
19-Jul-2007
The chief medical officer has pledged to clamp down on 'smash and grab raids' of public health money. -
Inspector calls for reviews of commissioning
19-Jul-2007
The Healthcare Commission is calling on prime minister Gordon Brown to include independent assessments of commissioners in the health and social care bill. -
Hospital viruses could pose terrorism threat
12-Jul-2007
Lax hospital security could give terrorists working in the NHS easy access to potentially deadly materials, including viruses. -
£500,000 pay-off for former PCT chief
5-Jul-2007
A former primary care trust chief executive was given a pay-off of nearly half a million pounds after failing to secure a new full-time post following reconfiguration. -
Cabinet reshuffle: private sector fights to stay on agenda
5-Jul-2007
Private providers have called on the new health secretary to clarify his commitment to independent sector expansion amid fears it will slip down the political agenda. -
NICE advice drives up treatment costs
5-Jul-2007
Commissioners are being pushed into spending too much money on life-saving drugs by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, economists have warned. -
Union leader to stand as a Labour MP
28-Jun-2007
Unison's head of health has insisted she will retain an independent voice even though she has been selected to stand as a Labour MP in the next general election. -
NHS Confederation rolling news: good staff management 'saves lives'
21-Jun-2007
Good staff management can have a significant impact on the number of lives saved, research has shown. -
NHS Confederation rolling news: staff quality challenged
21-Jun-2007
Managers have been told to take more responsibility for the quality of their staff. -
Website offers chance to rate NHS
21-Jun-2007
Patients are being asked to rate and comment on NHS services on a website launched this week. -
Scientists join row over access to patient records
14-Jun-2007
Medical researchers were branded 'cavalier and arrogant' while giving evidence to the health select committee's electronic patient records inquiry last week. The researchers, answering questions from MPs, argued that they should not always be obliged to ask patients' permission to see their medical records. -
Weekly scrutiny for SHAs: junior doctor recruitment will be top priority
14-Jun-2007
Strategic health authorities are to be scrutinised each week over their handling of the next round of the controversial recruitment process for junior doctors. -
BBC-style management could save NHS from 'political ice'
7-Jun-2007
The NHS is unsustainable in its present form and should be run independently, according to a Nuffield Trust report. -
MPs claim temp nurses mask poor management
7-Jun-2007
Managers are attempting to 'mask' poor workforce planning by over-spending on temporary nurses, according to an influential MP. -
Mental Health Alliance divided over clinical roles
24-May-2007
The Mental Health Alliance, which was formed to oppose the Mental Health Bill, has split following a dispute over planned changes to staff roles. -
NAO names inefficient prescribers in £200m drug waste
24-May-2007
GPs squander more than £200m a year on overpriced prescriptions and drugs that go unused, a National Audit Office report has revealed. -
Director general defends IT plan and blasts critics of the electronic patient record
3-May-2007
Critics of the electronic patient record have been branded 'privacy fascists' by the Department of Health director general of IT. -
NHS chief warned over 'damning' contract report
3-May-2007
MPs are preparing a scathing indictment of the consultant contract, NHS chief executive David Nicholson was warned this week. -
DoH targets deaths from clots
26-Apr-2007
All hospital patients should be assessed for risk of developing potentially fatal blood clots, an expert working group has recommended. -
Union calls for 'summer of discontent' over pay offer
26-Apr-2007
Unison is to ballot members on industrial action if the government does not improve its pay offer. -
NHS University: 'embarrassing' failure to deliver value for money, says government review
19-Apr-2007
The NHS University, the internal training and education body which cost £72m and was scrapped after less than two years, delivered 'too little too late', according to a scathing report that the government tried to suppress. -
New national IT setback as devolution is delayed
12-Apr-2007
The national programme for IT is facing another setback as it emerges that plans to enhance the role of strategic health authorities have been delayed. -
A third of London's PCTs get 'red light' on risk from SHA
5-Apr-2007
Almost a third of London's primary care trusts have been classed as high risk because of their financial situation, governance ability and quality performance under NHS London's new monitoring regime. -
Workforce SHAs' failure to plan staff numbers has been 'disastrous'
29-Mar-2007
Workforce planning is at risk of being abandoned by NHS chief executives burdened with 'excessive' Whitehall demands, a damning report has found. -
Experts split over Tories' big idea for public health
22-Mar-2007
The Conservative Party's plan to transform public health by creating independent local budgets has divided experts. -
Brown budget 2007: HSJ report
21-Mar-2007
In his 11th budget speech today chancellor Gordon Brown announced the 'biggest cash increase ever' in the NHS. -
IPPR: honesty over unsafe hospitals is the best policy
8-Mar-2007
A 'conspiracy of silence' over the poor safety of hospitals is fuelling opposition to reconfigurations, the Institute for Public Policy Research has warned. -
Chiefs reveal frustrations over doctors' contracts in HSJ survey
1-Mar-2007
Most chief executives would cap GPs' pay, abolish clinical excellence awards for consultants and write off historic debts if they had the power. -
Half of ambulance trusts missing response targets
22-Feb-2007
Half of England's ambulance trusts are missing response targets despite a service shake-up designed to improve performance. -
Trusts may lose secure hospitals
22-Feb-2007
Control of England's three high-security hospitals could be removed from local NHS control, HSJ has learned. -
Census reveals duplicate jobs
1-Jan-2007
Thousands of NHS workers have been inaccurately recorded as having two jobs, the latest workforce census has revealed. -
Clinicians should be groomed for top jobs, says Nicholson
1-Jan-2007
The chief executive of the NHS has said he wants to see a clinician on the shortlist of applicants for every top trust job. -
Healthcare Commission takes a hard line on hospital infection
1-Jan-2007
The Healthcare Commission is to clamp down on superbugs after one in four hospitals admitted they were failing to meet national standards. -
Hewitt has no 'vested interest' in approving reconfigurations
1-Jan-2007
Patricia Hewitt does not have a 'vested political interest' in settling reconfiguration rows in favour of trusts, the health minister responsible for patient involvement has insisted. -
Hewitt prioritises PBC after GPs and managers dismiss impact
1-Jan-2007
Health secretary Patricia Hewitt has promised that support for practice-based commissioning will be an 'absolute priority' for the NHS over the next year. -
Hunt claims manager power would have hobbled IT plan
1-Jan-2007
The national IT programme would be facing even bigger delays if local managers had been given more control, health minister Lord Hunt has claimed. -
Junior doctor campaigners in favour of union to rival BMA
1-Jan-2007
Junior doctors campaign group Remedy UK is considering whether to start its own union to rival the British Medical Association. -
Last-ditch pay talks to avert industrial action
1-Jan-2007
Last-ditch pay talks between unions and the government were held this week in an attempt to avert strike action across England. -
London SHA struggling to cope with junior doctor recruitment
1-Jan-2007
London's strategic health authority has spent millions of pounds and employed hundreds of extra staff to handle the junior doctor recruitment process. -
Regional contrasts exposed in access to mental healthcare
1-Jan-2007
Mental health patients in parts of England have little or no access to care and treatment, health and social care watchdogs have found. -
Warning over overseas ambulance call centres
1-Jan-2007
The chair of the Commons health select committee has raised fears that arguments in support of reconfiguration could lead to ambulance control centres being moved abroad.
