Health Service Journal
25 February 2010
View all stories from this issue.
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Acute trusts could pay for post discharge care
The Conservatives would give acute trusts financial responsibility for home care following discharge as a way of incentivising the prevention of emergency readmissions. -
Book Review: Life Coaching
Here is how to coach managers into positive thinking, says Edna Crosby -
Bucks PCT set for vertical integration
The provider arm of NHS Buckinghamshire is set to vertically integrate with Buckinghamshire Hospitals Trust. -
Bunker breath
When it comes to riding on the coattails of other people’s fame, the British Dental Health Foundation may have taken the biscuit this week. -
Chief executive to depart from Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust
The chief executive of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust is to leave to take on a new role improving the efficiency of British agriculture. -
Community care plans could lead to a new generation of NHS organisations
Plans underway for community services look set to lead to a new generation of NHS organisations. -
Comprehensive area assessment review highlights finance
A review of the comprehensive area assessment has indicated that there must be greater focus by local organisations on achieving better value for money. -
COPD strategy launch
The Department of Health has launched a consultation on a national strategy to help tackle chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. -
CPS code casts its net NHS wide
The Crown Prosecution Service code, which gives guidance to prosecutors, has widened its definition of who serves the public to include members of the emergency services and health professionals. -
Cuts would cripple frontline services - managers
Budget cuts could “cripple” frontline public services and damage staff health and morale, managers have warned. -
Delivery of tier 2 adult weight management programme
NHS Tower Hamlets -
Discharge notes: how to save time and reduce errors
The problem of delays in GPs receiving patients’ discharge details is being resolved across Cheshire through a shared electronic communications system -
Dream of taking on ailing trusts founders on rocks of Good Hope
With just five weeks to go before non-foundation trusts have to outline their plans for joining the elite, there are severe doubts about the government’s aspiration for foundation trusts to rescue weaker hospitals. -
Drug reactions
HSJ’s exclusive last week about “entrepreneurialism” at the Royal Surrey County Hospital Foundation Trust drew some interesting reactions. -
Exclusive fluff
Notice has dropped into the End Game inbox of an “exclusive interview” published with Care Quality Commission interim chair Dame Jo Williams. -
Flowers, chocolate, chlamydia
February is the month of romance, roses and, for one NHS region, chlamydia tests. -
Foundation independence is on a knife edge
Foundation trusts are undermining their autonomy through poor governance and accountability. -
Four in 10 junior doctors 'on understaffed rotas'
Four out of 10 junior doctors are working on understaffed rotas, according to a poll. -
Fresh investigations stall Kingston branch surgery plans
The Department of Health has not yet approved the opening of a Kingston GP group’s new branch surgery - two months after the cooperation and competition panel said it should go ahead. -
Hospital told to take 'urgent action' on dirty wards
Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon has told hospital bosses she expects “urgent action” after a report raised concerns about cleanliness. -
How to use NICE guidance to improve commissioning
Helpful guidance now explains how to make the best use of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommendations. In the first in a three part series Jennifer Taylor looks at how it is helping to improve commissioning -
Hull social enterprise plan back on track
A legal challenge preventing the transfer of community services to a social enterprise has been dropped. -
Invitation to Tender for the provision of an Aspirant Chairs Development Programme for Non Executive Directors across East of England NHS
NHS East of England -
Ken Jarrold on preparing to vote in the general election
The general election is now within touching distance. The campaign is well underway. It is time to prepare and three points may help to do this. -
Kent maternity plans referred to health secretary
Kent’s overview and scrutiny committee has referred to the health secretary Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust’s plans to develop a midwifery led birth unit at Maidstone Hospital before consultant led maternity services transfer to the new Pembury Hospital next year, because of “public concern”. -
Leadership: commitment beats control
Leaders will get better results through engaging staff than by presiding over a command culture, say Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe and Juliette Alban-Metcalfe -
LINks voice not being heard at PCT board meetings
A quarter of local involvement networks do not attend primary care trust board meetings. -
Mark Britnell on the future of Agenda for Change
Agenda for Change does not need to be scrapped and renegotiated - just applied properly -
Mark Goldman on inspiring people
“We must reject the idea - well intentioned but dead wrong - that the primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become ‘more like a business’. -
Mark Goldman stepping down
Mark Goldman is leaving his role as chief executive of Heart of England Foundation Trust. -
Michael White: NHS reorganisation row
By chance I stumbled on an NHS row which intrigues me. It is the sight of Labour ministers and their Tory shadows and wannabe successors joining forces to denounce disgraceful “scaremongering” about a hospital reorganisation. -
Montserrat exchange opportunity
Any senior manager interested in an exchange of several weeks with the head of the health service on the Caribbean island of Montserrat should read HSJ editor Richard Vize’s blog at www.hsj.co.uk/blogs. -
MPs reject NHS funding of homeopathy
The NHS should stop funding homeopathy because there is no scientific proof that it works, MPs have said. -
New health minister unveiled
The Department of Health has confirmed Baroness Thornton as its latest health minister. -
NHS accused of 'unethical' buying
The British Medical Association has claimed that surgical equipment used by the NHS may be exploiting child labour in its manufacture. -
NHS boards are patient safety ‘cornerstone’
NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson has told boards they are the “cornerstone” of efforts to avoid tragedies such as the events at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust. -
NHS East of England boss rejects Hinchingbrooke privatisation claim
An NHS boss has denied that plans to hand over the management of a district general hospital to a private company amount to “privatisation” of the service. -
NHS London makes lead commissioners directors
NHS London is taking a tighter hold of its many primary care trusts by employing the capital’s lead commissioners as directors of the strategic health authority. -
NHS managers may be heroes of the moment
Despite their endless depiction by the media and politicians as a scourge on the health service, research is showing that where numbers of NHS managers are strong, efficiency is often found working alongside quality. Charlotte Santry reports -
NHS 'must move care into community'
The government has said the NHS must do more to bring care and services into people’s homes if it is to improve performance and save money. -
NHS procurement and logistics: value on stream
NHS Supply Chain is designed to enable health service organisations achieve economies and efficiencies while meeting increasing demand and quality imperatives. -
Nick Clegg to promise respite breaks for carers
Voluntary carers who spend more than 50 hours a week looking after loved ones would be guaranteed a week’s break under plans announced by the Liberal Democrats. -
No arthritis care improvement since 2003 - MPs
A cross-party group of MPs has called for GPs to have more training in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis after it was revealed there has been no improvement since 2003 in the time it takes to diagnose and offer treatment for the condition. -
Nurse specialists 'save money'
The NHS could save millions by giving all patients with long term conditions access to a specialist nurse, according to the RCN. -
Obesity could cost Scotland £3bn a year, report warns
Obesity could cost Scotland’s economy £3bn a year, according to a new government report. -
OFT to investigate heartburn drug competition
Household goods giant Reckitt Benckiser has been accused of abusing its dominant position in the supply of heartburn medicines to the NHS. -
PCT chief executive dies
Joint chief executive of NHS Swindon and director of adult social care services at Swindon borough council Caroline Fowles has died. -
PCT Network appointment
John McIvor has been appointed chair of the NHS Confederation’s PCT Network. -
PCTs call for lighter commissioning assessment
Primary care trust chief executives are calling for “lighter touch” assessment of their progress on commissioning, despite efforts made by the Department of Health to ease the process. -
Priorities for quality pilots
GP practices, community service providers, community pharmacists and out of hours providers will be expected to set out at least three, but no more than five, priorities for quality improvement each year, if pilot proposals become the template for primary care quality accounts due to be introduced next year. -
Public sector 'reliant on migrants' skills'
One in five employers has recruited a migrant worker in the past three months due to shortages of skilled local staff, according to a new study. -
Rescue plan for ailing hospitals in doubt
The government’s aspiration for foundation trusts to take over failing hospitals appears in significant doubt, a month away from the deadline for agreeing the future for all acutes. -
Scotland sets obesity goal
Scotland aims to become the first country in the world to succeed in tackling the problem of obesity, which could cost the nation up to £3bn a year by 2030, it has been announced. -
Secrets, buckets and a princely opinion
After the very public spat between Andy Burnham, Andrew Lansley and Norman Lamb over the future of social care funding, and the will-they-won’t-they running commentary on which of them would attend a conference on the issue last Friday, the press were shut out of the event itself. -
Six SHA chairs appointed for their second term
The Appointments Commission has announced the reappointment of six strategic health authority chairs. -
Strong managers 'improve NHS care'
Hospitals perform better when senior staff have clinical backgrounds and there is competition from nearby health trusts, according to research. -
Swine flu costs blamed for Improvement Foundation closure
The now defunct Improvement Foundation blamed its financial woes partly on pressures on primary care trusts to prepare for a second wave of swine flu, a letter seen by HSJ reveals. -
Tameside Hospital faces regulator scrutiny
Tameside Hospital Foundation Trust is to face a raft of reviews into its services and operations in response to public concerns about high death rates and poor hygiene standards. -
Too lean?
Does Toyota’s drawn out recall of hundreds of thousands of potentially faulty cars raise questions over the future of Lean management in the NHS? -
Transform public service delivery to cut deficit, KPMG urges
The delivery of public services needs to be transformed if the UK is to tackle the budget deficit, consultancy KPMG has warned. -
Transforming community services for people with long term conditions
Community healthcare is widening the focus from just a patient’s condition to their whole life, says Stuart Shepherd
