All Health Service Journal articles in 3 December 2009
View all stories from this issue.
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NewsHSJ exclusive: Barbara Young quits Care Quality Commission
Baroness Barbara Young has quit her position as Care Quality Commission chair, HSJ has learned.
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HSJ KnowledgeDo you have the traits of a trailblazer?
Productivity, optimism and innovation are all qualities that will fire up your teams to overcome obstacles. How do you measure up, asks Georgia McHardy
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Community
Question time
Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee appeared a little muddled while chairing a panel debate at last week’s Managers in Partnership conference. Turning to health minister Mike O’Brien, she demanded to know how he was going to cut NHS administration costs by a third.
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NewsSecure service referrals surge as prisons overfill
Commissioners are under significant financial pressure from a surge in referrals to secure mental health services fuelled by the recession and crowded prisons.
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NewsSafety outcry is ‘mandate’ for NHS quality
Public outcry about apparently unsafe hospitals gives the health service a mandate to put quality ahead of finance in planning and providing services, the NHS medical director has said.
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LeaderSuccessful trusts must not let their stories be overshadowed
The past week has seen the NHS endure its worst reputational battering since the Mid Staffordshire scandal in March.
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Community
Twitter lesson
Social networking site Twitter is enjoying a huge profile thanks to campaigns against public figures who criticise national institutions such as the NHS and Stephen Gately.
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News
SHAs sit tight as the recession looms large
Nearly half of strategic health authorities have not evaluated the possible impact of the economic downturn on their 10 year regional plans.
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Community
Hob-nobbing
The latest list of meetings between ministers and outside interest groups is seen by some as an indicator of who’s flavour of the month.
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Community
Eyes on the prize
A revered statesman has been taking time out from hand-shaking duties to shamelessly flirt with one of our health ministers. The minister - who also remains anonymous - was overheard discussing an encounter in which the international star seemed a little distracted.
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CommentAre death rates fair? You decide
Drip, drip, drip. No, not the sound of a hospital “deep clean” in action, but the horror-on-horror, day-by-day reporting in the run-up to and wake of the publication of Dr Foster’s annual Hospital Guide.
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News
Treasury prepares cutback plans
Next week’s pre-Budget report will be published alongside a paper from the chief secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne outlining how billions of pounds will be saved through public sector efficiencies.
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NewsJohn Lewis checked out in NHS productivity drive
Politicians of all hues are talking about public services being owned by staff - like John Lewis - to increase productivity. Alison Moore examines how this might work and, where staff cannot hold shares, whether just a sense of ownership is enough
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NewsLincolnshire to reward cheaper GP prescribing
GPs in Lincolnshire are being offered incentives worth up to £2 per head of practice population to cut antibiotic prescribing and increase use of generic drugs.
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CommentMichael White: shamed FTs, Dr Foster, cancer care
Where to start this week? Named and shamed foundation trusts, many of which deny alarming allegations levelled by Dr Foster? Or the news from cancer tsar Mike Richards that late diagnosis kills twice as many Britons as we thought?
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NewsNo Bury and Salford PCT merger, states chief
The joint chief executive of Bury and Salford primary care trusts has ruled out a merger of the two, saying they are “culturally very distinct”.
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CommunityTalking bull
The Department of Health learnt a lesson about partnership working last week, when it turned its hand to climate change policy.
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NewsCynthia Bower defends CQC in mortality furore
Care Quality Commission chief executive Cynthia Bower has defended NHS regulation after a string of events threatened to shatter public confidence in the safety of services.
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CommentTarget inequalities, beat cancer
The government must act now to stamp out staggering inequalities in cancer care. Its first steps should be a one year survival target and changing how NICE works, writes John Baron
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CommentNoel Plumridge on cutting the NHS cost base
The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines displacement activity as “the performance by an animal of an act inappropriate for the stimulus or stimuli that evoked it.