Latest blog posts
Stock up on painkillers. The Tories are coming.
What will a new government mean for the health service? Hmmm, let me think….
Change tracking with Andy Burnham
A slip up at the Department of Health reminds us of the Microsoft Word “track changes” function - and reveals a last-minute omission from the health secretary’s swine flu speech.
Lansley’s devil is in his detail
It’s a policy: real terms cuts to NHS pay
Supping with a long spoon
A new Cabinet sub-committee will lift the barriers to third sector delivery of public services. The sector will need to learn new ways of influencing that retain its independence whilst making sure users of services and patients get the right services when and where they need them.
The future of nursing and midwifery
As a commission looks at what skills and competencies nurses and midwives need for the future, Martha Lane Fox tells the NHS what it was like to be on the receiving end of the NHS following a major accident. Do nurses need a degree? What makes a good nurse? And where can you find out what patients think of their local hospital?
It’s adapt or die for the quality improvement movement
-The healthcare quality improvement movement needs to step up to the challenge of cost constraint. It’s an “adapt or die” situation.
Britnellmania
It’s Mark I’m talking about. Our Mark. Our Mark who has crossed to the dark side and is with us no more.
Swine flu but still no flu plan! Is this World Class planning?
Swine flu has arrived in my area! I know this because two patients, contacts with swab-proven swine flu, phoned for advice. We have received flu packs but no local plan: no instructions on managing contacts or accessing Tamiflu supplies - and no information that swine flu was around locally.
One and twenty - a buttered scone and getting plenty: pension take up in bingo hall and tea bar
Tackling povety in old age
This week in NHS history: smoking's shady past
On 26 June 1954 the main article in the British Medical Journal was on the mortality of doctors in relation to their smoking habits.
Never miss a minister's verbal gymnastics
Is your life being ruined by missing health related items from the Today programme? Then I have the gadget for you.
On Arctic marathons and large scale change
Training to run an Arctic marathon has made me reflect on the psychology of large scale change.
coaching scmoching
Let’s regulate coaching. Let’s make them pass exams and get certificates or ban them from practising. What the hell, let’s go the whole hog and give them a Royal College.
Britnell's departure - a nation mourns
The reaction to HSJ’s revelation that Mark Britnell, director general for commissioning and system management, is quitting the NHS leadership for KPMG has been extraordinary.
Bullfighter takes on the NHS
Who speaks more bull, commissioners or trusts?
number crunching leadership
Leading and managing by numbers - or how to find a set of theories, skills, disciplines, habits or principles to fit whatever your burning issue is today.
Common denominator politics
So was that just the Conservative Party’s Bank of England moment?
Disney and the NHS
Should the NHS emulate the Disney Corporation? Can we learn from the giants in the service industries in how we deliver services, and is there a holy grail in getting it right?
Cut down on stress, be nice to each other
Today I interviewed master of spin Alastair Campbell, who was speaking at the NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool.
Have your say on the NHS - 'an election in less than a year'
The BBC news web page has a link to ‘have your say on the NHS’ this week; the NHS is back in the news as a political football.
Lansley's sums
No matter how many times shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley repeats his pledge that there will be real terms growth in NHS spending under a Tory government, the NHS is not convinced.
Trouble on the road to Confed
Travel to Confed conference from London was derailed by signalling faults.
metamorphos-ising the metaphors
It’s about time we moved on from the patriarchal sporting metaphors of the playing fields of Eton and got a bit more now, a bit more edgy, a bit more credit crunch.
Fear not: Tories are more afraid of you than you of them
Perhaps now is a good time to start asking what the Tories would do to the health service…
The expenses scandal is heading your way
The media is starting to bring expenses run up by senior NHS staff under the spotlight
MPs and the EU elections- could someone get serious?
Local and EU elections are being held on the 4th of June - but where are the manifestos dealing with important health or other issues? All political life seems to be handled the same way as strategy appears to be managed in the NHS, by political soundbite.
Looking Out, Not Up
How do we know if we are getting it right? Is it meeting targets? The people who really know whether our services are good or bad are the people who receive them.
More than tea and sympathy
It's not just tea and sympathy that's on offer. Advocacy, empowerment, peer-to-peer support are all available at WRVS' hospital cafés.
Look, it’s a Darzi vision – in multicolour!
Roughly a year after the Darzi documents were published, it is time to look back. That process may be gratifying, inspiring or horrifying, but it will almost certainly be tedious.
From the wider web
HSJ Bloggers
The NHS Change Agent
Helen Bevan is chief of service transformation at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.
The Regulator
As a regulatory worker and a sometimes-critical NHS patient, Inside Out knows the health sector, well, inside out.
The People Grower
As associate director for learning and development at Portsmouth PCT, Anne believes everyone has potential to grow, whatever stage they are at in their career.
The Charity Chief
Charity chief exec and policy insider Lynne Berry is transforming volunteering stalwart WRVS into an organisation that helps older people get the support they need to live the way they want.
NHS History Blog
Geoffrey Rivett is vice-chair of the governors of Homerton foundation trust. He is the author of From Cradle to Grave: fifty years of the NHS and runs the website www.nhshistory.net.
The CEO
Born in a basement and brought up in a lift, Innate Prejudice is a CEO with a track record of failing to make sense of it all.
The Consultant
Nadeem Moghal is a consultant paediatric nephrologist who manages and leads a tertiary regional service. He is currently pursuing an MBA.
The GP
Unherdable Cat is a partner in a modern group practice that has survived two new contracts and many, many re-organisations of the NHS over the past 30 odd years.
