Health Service Journal
1999-12-16
View all stories from this issue.
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A sense of perspective
The winner of the competition to create a new £50m children's hospital for Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital trust had a brief to design 'a hospital that does not feel like a hospital'. Children, parents and local people were invited to have a say in selecting the shortlisted designs. -
Andy Biotic wins award for plain-speaking DoH
The Department of Health has won a Plain English Campaign award for a leaflet intended to cut overuse of antibiotics. -
Arts are essential to healing environment, but resources are a problem
Letters -
Asylum seekers must have support to take up their right to free NHS care
Letters -
Bid to bring regional director to tribunal
Lawyers for a sacked trust chief executive are fighting to force North West regional director Robert Tinston to take the witness stand in an employment tribunal hearing. -
BMA considers patient charges
Doctors' leaders are to consider charging NHS patients for medical care under a major review of health funding. The British Medical Association plans to spend at least 18 months considering how to pay for the the NHS. -
Byrne under fire: Jackson on the attack
One of Conservative MEP Dr Caroline Jackson's first acts on becoming chair of the European Parliament's environment, public health and consumer protection committee was to put European commissioner David Byrne on the ropes. -
Carrying on with continuity
Is 'continuity of care' an outmoded concept? While we still extol its virtues, the current reforms seem to threaten the whole idea. Whether the discussion is about GPs' out-of-hours co-operatives, walk-in centres, junior doctors and their shift systems, booked admissions or NHS Direct, all have an impact on continuity. Can they be reconciled, or is continuity just one more NHS shibboleth about to be laid to rest? -
Days like this
Cook backs managers. . . Health Bill. . . Flu hits hospitals. . . Clarke attacks managers. . . £13m to cut waiting lists. . . NHS gets deputy chief -
Deacon launches learning strategy for NHS staff
Scottish health minister Susan Deacon has announced a series of measures to give NHS staff greater access to education and training. She launched a 'learning together' strategy at the Partnership Forum in Edinburgh last week, funded with £6m over three years to finance innovative education projects. All trusts must publish local learning plans by the end of next year. By June 2000 workforce needs assessments must accompany all service change proposals put to NHS boards. -
Death becomes her
Crime novelist PD James has spent her career writing about murder, but in her autobiography she reflects on her 19 years' work as an NHS administrator, and painful experiences of mental illness in the family. Joanna Lyall reports -
Doctors' leaders remain 'opposed to euthanasia'
The British Medical Association has issued a statement saying it is still opposed to euthanasia in response to news that another MP, Ann Winterton, intends to introduce a private member's 'prevention of euthanasia' bill. Dr Michael Wilks, chair of the BMA's ethics committee, said doctors believed that oral nutrition and water should always be offered, but not every patient could benefit and the BMA would oppose 'any legislation that directed doctors to continue treatment beyond the point wher -
Enthoven's favourite plays badly in the US
Letters -
Euro food boss pledges legislation with bite
The prospect of a European food authority with independent powers to provide authoritative scientific advice to EU member states has been raised by the new commissioner for health and consumer protection, David Byrne. -
Events
Items are entered free for public sector, voluntary and professional organisations, but we need at least six weeks' notice of your event. Please send details to Uli Jaeger, HSJ, Greater London House, Hampstead Road, London NW1 7EJ. Fax: 0171-874 0254. -
Experts condemn proposals to detain 'untreatable' people
Government proposals to lock up people with 'dangerous severe personality disorder' have come under renewed fire as consultation draws to a close this month. -
Fraud charges pair go to court
A former Lifecare trust manager will appear in court next month on fraud and deception charges involving hundreds of thousands of pounds. -
GADFLY
The coven was meeting in Rosie Broomstick's office. Rosie herself had faced the possibility of the hessian container so often she was immune to worrying about it. Miss Twix, of course, being a nurse, was entirely fireproof, as was Professor Cruster. But Ardent was finding out what they didn't tell you at Harvard Business School. -
Going the whole Hogmanay
The contrast could hardly be greater. At the same time as tens of thousands of people prepare to hit the streets of Edinburgh to party into 2000 to the sounds of pop stars Texas, Del Amitri, The Mavericks and, especially for those with long memories, the Bay City Rollers, staff at the city's Royal Infirmary will be busy laying out plastic sheeting and mattresses in anticipation of the later arrival of those who indulge rather too liberally in the Hogmanay spirit. -
HA chair urges smokers outside after burns death
Birmingham health authority chair Bryan Stoten has highlighted the death of a 53-year-old Solihull woman in a plea to smokers not to smoke at home, and particularly not in bed. She died after suffering 40 per cent burns in a fire that started after she fell asleep while smoking. -
HA pays out £600,000 to member of staff who had amputation after fall at work
An occupational therapy assistant who had her leg amputated after falling twice at a hospital has been paid £600,000 in compensation by County Durham health authority. -
HAZs are just starting out - but there is much that is positive to report
Letters -
If EU know what's good for you. . .
Public health is once again climbing up the agenda of the European Union as new people step into two key posts, writes Tony Sheldon -
In brief: Alan Milburn
Health secretary Alan Milburn launched what is claimed to be the biggest-ever tobacco education campaign in England last week by unveiling a poster urging smokers to 'leave your cigarettes in the 20th century'. The threeyear campaign includes a helpline and website. -
In brief: Alan Milburn
Health secretary Alan Milburn has given the green light to a £75m redevelopment at King's College Hospital in south-east London. The project will create a new six-storey hospital wing, a regional neurosciences centre and centralise the hospital's services on one site. Work on the new building, which is being funded through the private finance initiative, will start in February 2000. -
In brief: British Medical Association
The government is putting £12m into the discretionary points system for consultants as part of a £50m deal with the British Medical Association. Agreement has also been reached in principle on the issues to be discussed in new contract negotiations. -
In brief: Commons science and technology committee
The Commons science and technology committee is to investigate cancer research. The provisional title of the inquiry is Organisation of Cancer Research in the UK. A timetable is expected to be announced after Christmas. -
In brief: Department of Health
The Department of Health has claimed that 1.5 million people used NHS Direct Online on its first day. The health information website was launched by prime minister Tony Blair last week. -
In brief: Hospital Birmingham trust
University Hospital Birmingham trust has won the race to host the first armed forces centre for defence medicine after a 'rigorous evaluation' of three bids to create a 'centre of excellence' in military healthcare. The centre will replace the UK's last remaining forces' hospital, the Royal Hospital, Haslar, Hampshire, which is due to close in 2002. -
In brief: Labour health ministers
Labour health ministers used private cars to drive themselves approximately 472 miles on official business in 1997-98, reclaiming £189 in mileage expenses. In 1998-99 no mileage expenses were claimed, suggesting the ministerial team were chauffeur driven to all official business. -
In brief: NHS among European countries
Italy is the biggest user of the NHS among European countries, spending £3.1m in 1998-99 on referring patients to the NHS for treatment. Ireland spent just under £3m on planned NHS treatment; a further £3.5m was claimed back by the NHS for treating Irish citizens on an unplanned basis. Overall, the UK claimed £18.9m in 1998-99 from European Economic Area countries under EU bilateral cost reimbursement arrangements. -
In brief: United Bristol Healthcare trust
United Bristol Healthcare trust surgeon Ash Pawade is leading a team of seven specialists to Trinidad to set up a children's heart surgery unit and carry out 10 urgent operations. This is an extension of a programme for adult heart patients set up by Professor Gianni Angelini from Bristol Heart Institute, based at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. -
in person
Ruth Winterbottom has been appointed chair of Lancashire Ambulance Service trust. She was previously a non-executive director of North West Lancashire health authority. -
Inquiry seeks legal clarification on retention of human organs by hospitals
The inquiry is likely to press for clarification of the law on organ retention, chair Professor Ian Kennedy has announced. It asked for legal advice after witnesses revealed that UK hospitals hold more than 15,000 organs. -
It's more of the same at the end of the century
But we can be sure that the future will not match anyone's predictions -
Jim'll fix it, but Mr Poplar he ain't
By strange coincidence, the previously little-known MP for Poplar and Canning Town, Jim Fitzpatrick, has been thrust into the limelight as a key aide to both the current health secretary, Alan Milburn, and former health secretary Frank Dobson. -
Junior doctors threaten strike ballot over pay offer
Junior doctors say the government must come up with a better pay offer or members will be balloted on strike action. Andrew Hobart, chair of the British Medical Association's junior doctors committee, said the money on offer was 'not acceptable' and the committee is seeking an urgent meeting with health secretary Alan Milburn. -
Managers fail to take on risk of violence
Some trust managers still do not believe that they can reduce the risk of workplace violence, according to the latest report from the Health and Safety Executive. -
Managers feel they lack essential skills for private finance projects
More than 60 per cent of managers involved in private finance initiative projects felt they lacked essential skills needed to cope with the process, according to an Institute of Healthcare Management survey. -
McKay will be Langlands' deputy
The NHS Executive has announced the appointment of a deputy for chief executive Sir Alan Langlands. Neil McKay, Trent regional director since 1996, will take up his new post on 17 January. -
monitor
'Tis the season to be jolly, and the good folks of Thameside Community Healthcare trust are putting a brave front on the public health perils of charred turkey, intimacy between blood relations and Only Fools and Horses. The feisty communications team flags up the health benefits of 'traditional British Christmas foods such as . . . Brussels sprouts and cabbage'. Full of vitamins, antioxidents and what not, apparently. But while we tuck in, our MPs go hungry. An early day motion saw three of -
MP sponsors bill to close GP retirement loophole
Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith has agreed to take up a private member's bill prepared by the Consumers' Association to close a loophole which 'allows GPs to avoid investigation by the ombudsman' by retiring ahead of an investigation while still practising as locums or privately. -
New approach to PFI
Letters -
Patients' Net gain, but docs need their wiring chequed
We had glandular fever, the student illness, in our house recently. Or, rather, we had it when the little chap came home to recuperate. So when I logged on to the NHS Direct Online website, as Tony Blair had instructed us all to do, I went hunting for it. -
PFI guidance holdup 'over by Christmas'
The NHS Executive's private finance initiative guidance is finally being published - about two years late. -
Roylance in plea for future of high-risk ops
The former chief executive of United Bristol Healthcare trust has appealed to the Bristol Royal Infirmary inquiry to find a way of preventing similar tragedies without depriving high-risk patients of treatment. -
Scots ambulances get priority system after target failures
Scotland's ambulance service is set to introduce a priority despatch system following a National Audit Office finding that just one in three Glasgow ambulances reached a 999 incident within seven minutes, against a target of one in two. -
Short pledges £50m in 'final push' against polio
International development secretary Clare Short has pledged £59m to the 'final push' of a global campaign to eradicate polio, bringing the UK's total contribution to £130m. The funding will go to the Indian government's Pulse Polio Initiative and the World Health Organisation's Polio Eradication Initiative aimed at six countries in Africa. Since 1988, when the World Health Assembly established the aim of eradicating polio, the number of reported cases has fallen from an estimated 35 -
Spin-doctor resigns over Deacon 'death threat' tale
Scottish first minister Donald Dewar has asked one of his senior advisers to resign over allegations that he fabricated stories about health minister Susan Deacon receiving a death threat. -
Swift work: from Irish idyll to the chaos of Europe
One of the favourite books of David Byrne, the new European commissioner for health and consumer protection, is reputed to be Gulliver's Travels by fellow Irishman Jonathan Swift. -
Targets for improving services to black and ethnic minority clients needed
Letters -
The buck stops where?
As the first phase of the inquiry into the Bristol heart babies scandal reaches its end, the emerging picture is more complex than first thought, writes Lyn Whitfield -
'Tis the season to be jolly.com
Calculate your life expectancy, watch a facelift - live -and learn about the after-life. And all for virtually nothing. Michael Cross suggests some seasonal diversions -
To suggest 'typical' antipsychotics as first-line agents is to do harm
Letters -
Toeing the line
'Treatment for those who will benefit' was Alan Milburn's spin on the r-word at NICE's first conference. Kaye McIntosh joined the queues -
Union PFI report sparks trust ire
Carlisle Hospitals trust has reacted strongly to a report by opponents of the private finance initiative that claims its well-advanced project has 'worsened the trust's financial situation'. -
Unions deliver 'no confidence' vote as victimisation row grows
Unions have delivered a motion of no confidence in the senior management team at Bedford Hospital trust in a row over alleged victimisation of a union representative. -
Upping the anti
Anti-abortionists in Scotland are on the march, threatening the security of those working in family planning clinics. Colin Wright reports -
WEB WATCH MARK CRAIL
As you contemplate the prospect of a Christmas and new year debauched like no other in history, pause a moment and consider the effect of your over-indulgence on the government's health targets. Consider, too, the effect on public health minister Yvette Cooper's blossoming career, and vow moderation in all things. -
Welsh trusts agree millennium working bonus deal
A last-`minute agreement has been reached on millennium pay by trusts in Wales. Staff working between 8pm on new year's eve and 12pm on 1 January will receive an additional payment of £100 and extra time off in lieu, on top of normal bank holiday entitlements. Welsh health and social services minister Jane Hutt said the deal between managers and unions was 'indicative of the collaborative working through social partnership which the Welsh Assembly is developing'. The agreement would give
