Acute Care – Page 481

  • News

    New pay-off packages to reflect length of service

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    New redundancy and retirement packages based on length of service rather than age have been agreed by the Department of Health.

  • News

    Inappropriate admissions: guidance to urge 12.5pc cut

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    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.

  • News

    PbR 'fundamentally flawed' says coding chief

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    The current system of payment by results is 'fundamentally flawed and unacceptable' the head of the Professional Association of Clinical Coders warned last week.

  • News

    Call to scrap funding formula

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    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.

  • News

    Efficiency savings costed at £2.2bn

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    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.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Legal Briefing: resolving payment disputes between PCTs and foundation trusts

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    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.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Stephen Thornton on global patient safety challenges

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    'I was struck by how hospitals in Malawi and the UK face similar challenges in making healthcare safer for patients' The chief executive of the Health Foundation and our new regular columnist discusses the global challenges of patient safety and some possible responses

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Major research initiative launched for policy makers and managers

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    The Health Foundation's five-year, £2.5m QQUIP research initiative to help healthcare policy makers, managers, clinicians, researchers and patient groups to better understand and make informed decisions about how to improve healthcare quality will go online next month.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Research shows how patient involvement can improve healthcare quality

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    Involve the patient for better health outcomes and efficiency. That's the strategy suggested by new research from the Health Foundation.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    First findings from clinical measurement scheme show where more work is needed

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    The Health Foundation used this year's party political conferences to explore what impact national clinical measurement schemes are having on the NHS.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Andrew Castle on measuring performance

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    '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.'

  • Comment

    Sue Slipman on foundation trusts and the healthcheck ratings

    2006-10-25T00:00:00Z

    'Having strengthened their financial management without comprising service quality, foundation trusts are now in a position to step up their investment in providing first class patient care'

  • News

    Unions demand 'decent' pay increase

    2006-10-24T12:00:00Z

    The 14 unions that make up the NHS Staff Council staff side have blasted a 1.5 per cent pay rise the Department of Health is predicted to propose. In a joint press conference the unions outlined their case for a 'decent' pay rise based on ...

  • News

    Boosting nursing numbers could save lives, says RCN

    2006-10-24T00:00:00Z

    Patients on wards with fewer nurses are more likely to experience complications, according to research launched by the Royal College of Nursing. The research also found that nurses working on wards with lower numbers of nurses are more likely to experience burn out.Read the press release ...

  • News

    Private finance guidance for trusts published

    2006-10-23T12:00:00Z

    New draft guidance which will help NHS trusts select, evaluate and appoint private sector bidders in private finance schemes has been published by the Department of Health.The guidance has been developed in conjunction with the Treasury, private sector contractors and managers of NHS organisations that have been through private finance ...

  • News

    Lord Warner welcomes millionth choose and book referral

    2006-10-23T12:00:00Z

    More than one million referrals to specialist care have been made through choose and book by GPs across England, health minister Lord Warner has announced.He said 85 per cent of all practices were using the IT system to make referrals, and more than 6,000 practices made referrals last week.Read the ...

  • News

    New NI guidance for child death procedures

    2006-10-23T12:00:00Z

    The Northern Irish Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety has published a consultation paper on procedures to be followed in cases of sudden unexpected child deaths.The regional child death review protocol recommends a multi-agency approach to be followed in cases on unexpected deaths of children up to 18 ...

  • News

    Law on assisted dying is 'not working', says charity

    2006-10-23T12:00:00Z

    A charity campaigning for the legalisation of euthanasia has argued that the UK is failing terminally ill people and their loved ones.On Friday, David March was given a 12-month suspended sentence for helping his wife, who had suffered from multiple sclerosis, to die.Dignity in Dying chief executive Deborah Annetts said ...

  • News

    NHS could save £2.2bn by tackling inefficiency

    2006-10-23T12:00:00Z

    The NHS could save up to £2.2bn if trusts take steps to address wide variations in productivity and efficiency.The Department of Health has published its Better care, better valueindicators, which show trust-by-trust performance against a range of measures.Reducing unnecessary admissions could unlock £348m, and ...

  • News

    Response to NHS charges report

    2006-10-20T12:00:00Z

    The Department of Health has published its response to July's Commons health select committee report on NHS charging. The response covers charges levied on patients and families for prescription dental charges, sight tests, additional charges for some clinical services, assistance with transport costs and charges ...