All Acute care articles – Page 482
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News
New orthopaedic treatment plan
Health minister Andy Burnham has announced a new musculoskeletal services framework intended to provide the NHS with new guidance to help improve services for people who suffer from such conditions. An estimated 10 million people in England suffer from musculoskeletal problems.The guidance sets out how the NHS can use a ...
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News
Guide to help achieve 18-week target launched
A tool to help trusts achieve the 18-week waiting-time target will be launched today by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Achievement at an HSJconference. The No Delays Achievermatches trust data with service improvement tools to produce plans for hitting the target.The guide is in four parts. Download them here, ...
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News
50th foundation trust approved
Three new foundation trusts have been approved by regulator Monitor, bringing the total to 52. The 50th foundation trust is South London and Maudsley. Tavistock and Portman trust and University Hospital of South Manchester trust have also been authorised. To ...
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Comment
Efficiency indicators and Christie trust
Nick Edwards is quite right to suggest that efficiency indicators do not tell the story behind the numbers ( Click here to read the comment). So why did HSJcompound this by labelling Christie Hospital trust the worst in England ...
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News
Inpatient waiting-time figures
Almost 200 patients were waiting over 26 weeks at the end of September, the Department of Health has said. Of 198 patients for whom English commissioners are responsible, 21 were waiting in Welsh hospitals. The number of patients waiting over 20 weeks was down by ...
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Comment
Privacy in hospitals
I have always had a problem with issues of privacy in acute hospitals. I started my career as a clinical psychologist working with people with learning disabilities and being very aware that I was going into people's homes - even when they were in NHS care.
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News
Peter Cardy on rewriting the cancer plan
As cancer care shifts out of hospital, more cancer patients risk poverty as the associated costs rise. Now is the time to tackle the financial distress of the disease, argues Peter Cardy
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News
Patients allowed to opt out of care records service
Patients will have the right to opt out of having their information shared through the NHS care records service, health minister Lord Warner told HSJ's Demystifying the National Programme for IT conference yesterday.Under the government implied consent model, those who do not opt out will be deemed to have given ...
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News
New figures show improvement in inpatient waits
The proportion of patients waiting under 13 weeks for an inpatient appointment rose year on year in September from 70.8 per cent to 74.7 per cent, according to figures published today by the Department of Health. The median waiting time was 7.4 weeks, down on the 7.9 weeks recorded in ...
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News
Lansley slams PFI 'lunacy'
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley has described hospital private finance initiatives as 'complete lunacy' after government responses to his parliamentary questions showed that the NHS will pay private sector contractors £53bn for hospitals worth only £8bn. Mr Lansley is calling for a 'fundamental review' of how the NHS accesses capital ...
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News
Government responds to report on ITCs
The government has published its response to the Commons health select committee's report on independent treatment centres.The committee's report criticised the role of ITCs and said their performance had been variable.In its response the Department of Health has promised to provide more information to patients on which to base their ...
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News
Action plan for audiology services
An action plan is being developed to improve access to audiology services including those outside the 18-week waiting time, a Department of Health minister has announced.Social care minister Ivan Lewis said in a parliamentary written answer that ministers were aware of long waits for audiology services.
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News
Conservatives launch initiative on patient involvement
The Conservatives have launched a consultation on the future of public and patient involvement in health.The concept of HealthWatch was outlined by Conservative leader David Cameron and shadow health minister Andrew Lansley in a speech to the King's Fund earlier this month.At a summit today Mr Lansley will highlight the ...
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News
Hewitt warns: patients will vote with feet
Patients will 'vote with their feet' and refuse to be treated at poorly performing hospitals, health secretary Patricia Hewitt has said.
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News
Inappropriate admissions: guidance to urge 12.5pc cut
The prime minister's delivery unit is taking a key role in shaping 'crisp' new guidance for primary care trusts to reduce inappropriate hospital admissions and save over £1.4bn a year.
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News
Efficiency savings costed at £2.2bn
The Department of Health is to expand the number of productivity indicators on which trusts are compared as the first set of figures revealed the NHS could save £2.2bn a year if it improved its efficiency.
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HSJ Knowledge
Andrew Castle on measuring performance
'If we are interested in productivity, quality of output and whether services are being delivered on time and at the right cost, theatre use is not the right measure.'
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Comment
Efficiency indicators do not tell the story behind the numbers
The comprehensive spending review is no longer the distant event it once seemed - the coming financial squeeze makes a numbers game out of the next 18 months or so.
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HSJ Knowledge
Legal Briefing: resolving payment disputes between PCTs and foundation trusts
As the NHS becomes accustomed to the legally-binding contracts between primary care trusts and foundation trusts, the main pressure points are beginning to emerge.
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News
Call to scrap funding formula
The NHS funding formula is based on an untested scientific premise and should be scrapped, the chief economic advisor to the Department of Health was told last week.