Health Service Journal
9 December 2010
View all stories from this issue.
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75% of children with cancer 'must travel for care'
Three out of four children with cancer have to travel to another city for treatment, according to a new report. -
Battleship Lansley ploughs on through the fog of reform
HSJ readers will be familiar with the tensions inherent in the government’s reforms which are now beginning to leak into the public ken. -
Bigger consortia safer from risk, say consultants
The deputy chief executive of the NHS has said that commissioning consortia are likely to be “fewer and bigger” than the 500 to 600 figure often cited. -
Blood donors urged to make special effort
Blood donors are being urged to make a “special effort” to keep their appointments after freezing temperatures led to sessions being cancelled. -
Bolton trust to change its name
Royal Bolton Hospital Foundation Trust is to change its name from April 2011, with the public being asked to vote on alternatives. -
Book Review: The Solutions Focus
A focus on simple solutions is just too simple to win over Liz Hedgecock -
British back lifestyle nudge
Most people are happy for the government to influence behaviour to encourage healthy lifestyles, according to international research. -
Cally Bann
Hub and spoke? -
Coalition to fight EU on maternity leave extension
The government is to argue against European Parliament proposals to extend the amount of maternity leave on full pay to 20 weeks, arguing that the move would lead to “unacceptable” costs. -
Coventry trust appoints chief exec
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust has appointed a permanent chief executive. -
CQC to scan Twitter for care complaints
The Care Quality Commission is working on an IT system to monitor social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for complaints about care homes and healthcare providers. -
'Don't allow healthcare and public health improvement to be divided'
The raison d’être of local government is that elected councillors best represent residents’ concerns. -
Drunk tanks proposed to take pressure off services
Drunk tanks and booze buses should be used to take some of the burden of intoxicated people off the hands of the health service and the police, a report has said. -
Employers rail at clinical excellence award scheme
Consultant bonuses awarded by trusts reward doctors who “fill in forms” rather than those who work “at the coal face” and should be scrapped or reformed, NHS Employers has argued. -
Financial checks on NHS providers eased
More than 100 NHS hospital and mental health providers are to be freed of significant checks on their finance and governance within 18 months, HSJ has learned. -
Hospital trust announces merger proposals
A second non-foundation trust has this morning announced plans to merge with a foundation trust. -
How to make the most of your estate
Space utilisation is the science of making the most of locations but it is not simply a matter of shifting healthcare activities around, says Ian Greggor -
How will the health reforms be judged?
Andrew Jones on long-term vision -
HSJ webcast on mental health and NHS productivity
HSJ readers can watch a new webcast on mental health and productivity. -
Improving Access to Psychological Therapies will get outcomes link
The government plans to extend the previous government’s talking therapies programme and “link” it to the NHS outcomes framework. -
IRP to review ward closure
The Independent Reconfiguration Panel is to review the closure of a single ward at a troubled acute trust. -
Lansley: More pathfinders named in 'weeks'
The health secretary has said more pathfinder consortia will be named in “coming weeks and months”, following the first 54 announced today. -
Letwin called in to scrutinise Lansley's plans
Cabinet minister Oliver Letwin is to re-examine Andrew Lansley’s plans for the NHS, prompting Labour to claim it is a sign of “how isolated the health secretary has become”. -
Management posts shed without full consultation
Warnings are being issued about the lack of consultation over job cuts as posts are shed in an accelerated bid to meet the Department of Health’s 46 per cent management savings target. -
Merger plans announced as FT deadline looms
A rush of acute hospital mergers have been announced in the wake of the Department of Health deadline for submitting plans to become a foundation trust. -
Michael White: caution and openness
Watching Andrew Lansley introduce MPs to his “nudge” white paper on public health, I was struck by how much it is still a first draft and by how enthusiastic the new generation of Conservative MPs is for bossiness. -
MId Staffs inquiry told HSE was 'under-resourced'
The Health and Safety Executive was reluctant to prosecute over a patient’s death at Stafford Hospital because it did not have the resources to cope with more families coming forward, the public inquiry into Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust has been told. -
MP questions strategic health planning base
It remains unclear who would be responsible for vital strategic health planning during the transition to commissioning consortia and beyond, a shadow health minister has warned. -
NHS Direct norovirus calls hit 4,000 a week
NHS Direct is handling more than 4,000 calls a week from people suffering from suspected norovirus, figures showed today. -
NHS Sheffield chief executive goes to top leadership role at DH
NHS Sheffield chief executive Jan Sobieraj is to be seconded to the Department of Health to work on leadership. -
NHS staff not entitled to royal wedding holiday
NHS staff are not legally entitled to take the extra national public holiday announced by the government to celebrate the royal wedding, HSJ’s sister title Nursing Times has found. -
Pathfinder consortia revealed
HSJ has obtained the names of the 54 organisations that will spearhead the government’s plans to hand commissioning over to GP consortia. -
Pathfinder size suggests consortia will total under 250
The size of the pathfinder commissioning consortia announced by the government suggests there are ultimately likely to be fewer than 250 covering England. -
Patient information is 'at risk'
More than half of hospital staff involved in providing information to the public believe their services are likely to be cut, according to a survey. -
PCT chiefs help drive new structure
Five primary care trust chief executives have left their organisations for full time roles developing the new commissioning infrastructure. -
PCTs expected to be ‘ordered’ to cluster
The Department of Health is likely to make mergers of primary care trusts a requirement in its operating framework for 2011-12, HSJ has been told. -
Police look into NHS Employers ‘fraud’ claim
Police are assessing an allegation of fraud related to NHS Employers’ failed membership model. -
Public-private partnerships market growing to £1.8 trillion
The UK market for public private partnerships will potentially be worth £1.8 trillion over the next decade, according to analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers. -
QIPP and care plans for long-term conditions
Care planning consultations can yield positive results for patients with long term conditions, as Shahid Ali and colleagues explain -
Report highlights productivity savings in mental health
There are “significant opportunities” for savings to be made in mental health while improving patient care, according to the King’s Fund. -
Royal Surrey appoints new chair
The Royal Surrey County Hospital Foundation Trust board of directors and council of governors have appointed Peter Dunt as its new chair. -
Scottish distinction awards to be scrapped
Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon has called for distinction awards for the country’s top doctors to be scrapped and replaced with a new system of bonuses available to all NHS staff. -
Scottish Labour criticises 'staffing madness'
The NHS in Scotland employs twice as many administrators as it does doctors, Labour claimed today. -
Sharing healthcare costs, pooling healthcare risks
Size seems to be back in vogue. There are two main reasons for the “big is beautiful” organisational trend, and it is important to distinguish between them, as their impacts on that overriding £20bn NHS savings target are quite different. -
Social care cuts may raise hospital spend
Researchers have laid bare how cuts to adult social care could lead to significant extra demand for acute services. -
Surge in 999 calls puts ambulance crews under pressure
The NHS is coming under increased pressure due to the cold weather, with some ambulances struggling to move along icy roads and a rise in 999 calls. -
The hospital guide and NHS whistleblowers
Last week The Observer had its exclusive on the Dr Foster Hospital Guide, this week it got a telling off about it. -
The NHS needs to change faster: here’s how to do it
Welcome to this special supplement, which introduces Rapid Spread. It is a new idea that is now being tested in the NHS. -
Trafford forced to drop integration plans in favour of merger with FT
A Manchester hospital trust has had to abandon its plans to become an integrated care trust in order to attain foundation status. -
Trust loses cancer screening service over biopsy failings
The breast screening service in north Cumbria is to be restructured after an investigation concluded it failed to carry out needle biopsies in enough cases, leading to delays in diagnosing 16 patients. -
Welsh compensation payments rise
Welsh health boards have paid out £20m more in medical negligence claims this year compared with last year, new figures show. -
We're feeling stretched, but we must not snap
One colleague escapes redundancy to find his role is to continue but across three newly merged directorates. -
Why are women still being barred from leadership?
While women are increasingly seeking leadership positions in healthcare, many organisational barriers persist, say Fiona Pathiraja and Marie-Claire Wilson
