Health Service Journal
6 December 2007
View all stories from this issue.
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£170k pay-off for chief who left £36m deficit
The outgoing chief executive of a trust facing a £36m deficit left with a £170,000 pay-off. -
Agreement to modernise salaried dentists' contracts
NHS Employers has agreed to proposals to modernise salaried dentists' contracts with the British Dental Association. The joint proposals have been put to the Department of Health, which has given its authorisation. -
Ali Mohammed on the privilege of training
There is a world of difference between possessing knowledge and skills and the ability to teach it to others -
All Our Yesterdays
4 December, 1936, Public Assistance Journal and Health & Hospital ReviewPublic assistance and hospital managers looking to liven up life in their institutions this week may have been cheered by an advertisement this week. Clifford Kemp, a 'film renter' based in The Headrow, Leeds, was advertising his 1000 plus 'talking and silent films: features, comedies (Charlie Chaplin etc), cartoons and interest available for rent.' He asked: 'May I quote you for a series of programmes suited to yo -
Building sustainability in the NHS estate
Lorraine Brayford argues that sustainability should be a priority in healthcare design and recognises those already working to deliver sustainable healthcare buildings for the future -
Cancer education in the NHS workforce
It is a common misconception that people with cancer are exclusively cared for in specialist oncology settings. They are cared for throughout all large teaching hospitals, so appropriate cancer education and training should be accessible to all staff who work with them, argue Katharine Gale and Deirdre McGuigan -
Commissioning for public health - changing priorities
Public health work has too often been isolated from other primary care trust functions. Now trusts in the North West are in the vanguard of efforts to ensure public health priorities drive commissioning, reports Daloni Carlisle -
discrimination
A mental health trust has been slammed for the way it handled the unlawful sacking of a psychiatrist with mental health problems.Northamptonshire Healthcare trust, which is applying for foundation trust status, has now offered an undisclosed sum to consultant Dr Anders Skarsten following the highly critical employment tribunal. -
Doctors doubt intellect of managers
Clinicians regard NHS managers as committed and trying hard but 'poorly trained and not always of a high intellectual calibre', the Audit Commission has found. -
Don't lose sight of the threat of HIV/AIDS
Last week the Terrence Higgins Trust marked its 25th anniversary with a Downing Street reception. Gordon Brown used the occasion to become the first prime minister in 15 years to talk about the severity of HIV rates in Britain. -
Figures underpinning Darzi's London review 'dodgy'
Questions have been raised over the 1.4bn annual savings identified in junior health minister Lord Darzi’s blueprint for healthcare in London. -
First wave ISTCs: what do we know?
Four years after the first wave of independent sector treatment centres, the Department of Health has provided data on their performance. Unfortunately, this is almost useless in answering questions about their impact on waiting times. -
Foundation trust status fails to drive improvement
Gaining foundation trust status is not yet driving sustained improvements in performance, the regulator Monitor has concluded in its review of their performance last year. -
Health and safety: new guidance for directors
Directors, governors, trustees and officers across the health sector now have a new template for their corporate and individual duties surrounding health and safety. David Sinclair explains the new guide, which from next April is likely to play a fundamental role in prosecutions for corporate manslaughter -
HIV/AIDS 'complacency' risks progress so far
The UK has 'entered an era of complacency' about HIV and AIDS and risks undermining the progress of the 1980s and 1990s, says a report by the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV. -
Home care push for cancer patients
Cancer patients will spend less time in hospital and more will be treated at home or by community services under a five-year vision to improve cancer care. -
HSJ invites you to share your views on the NHS
HSJ, in association with BT, Humana, Airwave, Lloydspharmacy and Tribal, is planning six months of special features and events to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS on 5 July 2008.To kick off our coverage, we are running a feature on how managers feel about the NHS and its future. Please share your thoughts with us by completing the survey below. Many thanks for your contribution and look out for forthcoming NHS60 features. Please -
Improving access to psychological therapies in London
The London Development Centre's improving access to psychological therapies support programme is designed to equip primary care trusts with the tools and techniques needed to drive forward the development of psychological therapy services. -
In this week's HSJ
NewsThe government's focus on cutting waiting lists can lead to resources being drained away from treatments for those in the greatest medical need, academics have claimed.Advocacy services for mental health patients subject to community treatment orders are not expected to be introduced until six months after the orders are brought in.Commissioners have been urged to check the quality of private mental health providers, as figures reveal many are failing -
Johnson will choose Care Quality Commission chief
The Conservatives have questioned why appointments to the new super-regulator will be made by the government instead of the NHS Appointments Commission. -
Joint working: health and local government
All eyes are on Chris Bull as he becomes the first person in the country to head up both a council and PCT. Jennifer Taylor reports on a revolution in joined-up working in Herefordshire -
Kate Silvester on repairing processes in the NHS
NHS managers are not taught to understand how the symptoms of the NHS are generated by the invisible processes they and their colleagues in other departments manage. NHS shop floor staff are experts in these processes - but only as far as their own role goes. This process blindness leads to frustration in both parties. -
Learning difficulties report slates poor care and lack of activities
The Healthcare Commission has published a damning report into the standard of residential care the NHS and private sector provide to people with learning difficulties. -
London trust praises devolution
University College London Hospitals foundation trust is claiming significant savings and improvements in service quality by devolving budgets to clinical leads and directors. -
Managers could face prosecution without infection control
Healthcare-associated infections are a serious problem in the NHS. It can only be a matter of time before a prosecution is brought against managers and clinicians at a hospital trust, says Andrew Jones -
Managing A&E demand
An inner London PCT with a high number of Bangladeshi people going to A&E ran a campaign which altered attendance behaviours -
Managing sickness absence and ill-health retirement in the NHS
Despite the progress that has been made in tackling levels of sickness absence in the NHS over the past decade, more remains to be done, as Jeremy Orr explains -
Media Watch: cancer strategy
The furore over party funding squeezed most health coverage out last week, but it made a return to the headlines as the government briefed newspapers on its new cancer strategy. -
Mental health advocacy services delayed six months
Advocacy services for mental health patients subject to community treatment orders are not expected to be introduced until six months after the orders are brought in. -
Mental health training scheme looks to BME service users for help
The first national training initiative to involve black and minority ethnic service users in its development and delivery has been launched by the Department of Health as part of its delivering race equality in mental healthcare programme. -
Michael White on Alan Johnson
I don't know where it came from but in the past few days we've started reading in the papers that Gordon Brown may not last the course. What's more, health secretary Alan Johnson may be the man to take over. -
Monitor tracks Peterborough waiting time breaches
Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals foundation trust has confirmed that it is being kept under close watch by Monitor. -
Networking to improve access to psychological therapies
The London Development Centre's improving access to psychological therapies network was set up to ensure there was an effective communication strategy to promote knowledge and information across London's health and social care communities. -
New security website launched
The NHS security management service has launched a new Safe & Secure Health Facilities website. It aims to provide a single point of reference on information of interest to those with responsibility for NHS security matters. It is for members of staff such as local security management specialists, senior hospital managers with responsibility for security, project managers and health & safety -
NHS Employers submits pay review evidence
NHS Employers has submitted evidence for the 2008 pay round to the doctors' and dentists' review body and the NHS pay review body. We have recommended a pay uplift of up to 2 per cent, which would be affordable for organisations in light of other cost pressures and the need to make efficiency savings. -
NICE guidance supplement: steps to success
The work of NICE goes beyond the headline-grabbing stories that sometimes follow its rulings on which drugs should or should not be used. -
Nineteen PCTs pledge to lead the way on race
A group of primary care trusts have pledged to be the first to meet performance targets to reduce health inequalities experienced by black and minority ethnic communities. -
Nurses consultations launched
NHS Employers has welcomed the launch of consultations into pre- and post-registration nursing training as an opportunity to explore key issues regarding nurse education and how nurses work in the NHS. -
PCT annual health checks may include green targets
Primary care trusts' green credentials could be assessed as part of their annual health check from next year. It follows an Audit Commission consultation on how PCTs' annual performance is to be rated. -
Personalised healthcare: put the customer in control
Evidence demonstrates that customising services is effective - patient outcomes are improved and the provider gets better value for money. Angela Coulter and Don Redding argue for a personal health service -
Plunging waiting times reopen dispute over clinical benefits
The government's focus on cutting waiting lists can lead to resources being drained away from treatments for those in the greatest medical need, academics have claimed.This week the Healthcare Commission praised NHS organisations for 'genuinely dramatic' improvements in waiting times. But research from the Royal Society of Ophthalmologists has found waiting lists for cataract patients have been driven down so low that patients are now being operated on while their eyesight is still goo -
Polyclinic plans will face local opposition warns Darzi adviser
Plans for new polyclinics will meet stiff local opposition, a primary care adviser to Lord Darzi's health service review has warned. -
psych nib
Most primary care trusts see psychological therapies as unimportant, according to a report by the Artemis Trust. The charity has carried out a survey of the provision of psychological therapy services in primary care, which found that PCTs have a 'very poor picture' of what services were being provided. It also found large variations in provision and waiting list times across the country. -
Reducing self-harm in acute psychiatric wards
Regularly checking on patients, raising the proportion of qualified nurses and organising more patient activity sessions can reduce self-harm and suicide attempts in psychiatric hospitals, according to one of the UK's largest research studies into self-harm on acute psychiatric wards -
Report exposes failings of private mental healthcare
Commissioners have been urged to check the quality of private mental health providers, as figures reveal many are failing to meet national standards. -
Simon Stevens on the science of incentives
During the coffee break at a seminar I once attended, I let slip that I thought two of my fellow panellists seemed 'quite switched on'. 'Yes,' a delegate replied, 'they've both got a Nobel Prize'. Umm, amazing powers of insight, Stevens. -
Sir Gerry had a point, admits Rotherham chief
Management guru Sir Gerry Robinson's documentary series at Rotherham General Hospital has led to dramatic changes in the way it is run, its chief executive has claimed. -
Some great work, but PCTs are still a long way off 'world class'
The Healthcare Commission's State of Healthcare report, published on Tuesday, reveals much to celebrate (for more background, click here). -
Stroke victims will get immediate brain scan
Stroke victims will get a brain scan within an hour under a new 10-year government strategy to improve survival rates. -
top up reversal
TheLondonspecialist commissioning group has reversed its decision to deny six hospitals tops ups for their specialist spinal surgery. -
Transforming lives with psychological therapies
A Department of Health programme that is making evidence-based psychological therapies more widely available than ever before means thousands of people and their families are having their lives transformed. Evidence shows the programme can reduce GP consultations and acute care activity, alleviating pressure when the NHS is working hard to achieve the 18-week target. -
Trusts hit back over budget surpluses
NHS organisations predicting large underspends have defended themselves following Alan Johnson’s suggestion that large surpluses are ‘unreasonable’. -
Waiting times: early runners set to be first past 18-week post
The 13 'early achiever' trusts are on the final straight of the 18-week referral to treatment target, although some have yet to clear the last hurdle. Alison Moore reports on efforts to eliminate waiting list backlogs as the rest of the field looks on -
Weird world health
Health minister Lord Ara Darzi has been learning the potential complications of being in the House of Lords. Saving the life of Lord Brennan, who collapsed during debate of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, with the aid of a defibrillator, meant his parliamentary business was put back a day. So Lord Darzi missed both an appearance at Managers in Partnership conference and the clinical leaders summit due to participate in his own review of the NHS as a result. -
Your Humble Servant: a glimpse of the future NHS
The strangest thing happened to me during my recent MRI scan. Some sort of power surge occurred and the magnets went berserk. I don't really understand the physics, but the upshot was that time folded and I slipped through a vortex in time and space to find myself in 2068.
