All articles by Alastair McLellan – Page 34
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LeaderInquiry adds to the toxic reform mix
Cynthia Bower, chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, appeared at the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust inquiry on Monday. Ms Bower was previously chief executive of NHS West Midlands, responsible for monitoring the troubled trust.
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LeaderStraggling organisations set to slip into crisis
The popular perception is that the fortunes of the NHS rise and fall on a national basis. HSJ readers will know the true picture is one of variation – often stark – between organisations and regions.
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LeaderAndrew Lansley: an enemy of reform?
HSJ’s increasingly unfashionable, strained and conditional support for Andrew Lansley continuing as health secretary is predicated on two beliefs.
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LeaderImperial's problems are the first rumblings of a perfect storm
HSJ was once asked by the health secretary what could prevent his reforms from continuing. We suggested a major hospital getting into significant financial trouble and those troubles being successfully linked by opponents to his reforms.
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LeaderWhy Andrew Lansley should stay - and why he might go
Andrew Lansley must go. That is the demand of many of the opponents of the government’s health reforms. They are wrong.
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LeaderTransparency tsar could spark a revolution
When Andrew Lansley became health secretary he gave a series of presentations which all began by stressing how the new government would increase patients’ control by giving them more choice and information.
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NewsCut public service data opt outs, says incoming 'transparency tsar'
The man slated to be the government’s new “transparency tsar” believes “no-one who uses a public service should be allowed to opt out of sharing their records”.
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LeaderAction on the ground is proving as fascinating as Westminster tussles
There are two narratives running in parallel on the current NHS reforms. Within Whitehall and Westminster and among the health policy chattering classes debate rages over the exact intention of each clause of the Health Bill.
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LeaderOne more sign that we may miss the expertise of PCTs
While the NHS accelerates towards an uncertain future, primary care trusts are braking hard on activity.
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LeaderPay attention to the sound of the crowd
“The wisdom of crowds” was one of the buzz phrases of 2004. The theory was that social media and other digital services allowed opinion to be aggregated quickly and effectively to drive real world decisions.
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LeaderPerformance bonuses: a fair swap for public service pension reform?
“There is a much stronger case for linking pay to performance at the senior levels of public organisations, as opposed to the rest of the workforce”.
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Leader2013 has already arrived for some regions
It is an iron rule of NHS reform that development is both geographically patchy and concentrated in certain areas - look at the progress made in tackling heart disease compared with the record on sexual health, or how performance in the South West has consistently outstripped other regions.
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News'Introspective' NHS fearful of change
The NHS has an “introspective, monopolistic culture” in which staff are unwilling “to accept the inevitability of change”, according to a former Labour minister who was given a key public spending reform role by the coalition government.
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LeaderIs Andrew Lansley 'screaming inside'?
A commissioning consortium in the west country declares it “does not believe in the purchaser-provider split”, the Foundation Trust Network warns of “serious financial stress” and the membership of the British Medical Association warms up to declare outright opposition to the Health Bill.
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LeaderMPs could teach GPs a lesson in prudence
“It sounds like an MPs’ expenses type thing and that’s what we’ve got to avoid.” The words of Clare Gerada, Royal College of GPs chair, may prove to be prophetic.
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LeaderRegulating managers will not resolve the issues they face
Is the regulation of health service managers a good idea? The man who watches the watchers - Harry Cayton, chief executive of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence - does not think so.
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LeaderAlcohol harm is causing a nasty headache
The impact of alcohol on the nation’s health is beginning to shade from a worry into a crisis. Dr Foster Intelligence’s exclusive analysis for HSJ shows that 7 per cent of hospital admissions are related to alcohol.
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NewsConsortia to be authorised in stages, Sir David tells HSJ
Commissioning consortia could be authorised in degrees and should not “make” their own commissioning support, NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson has told HSJ in a wide-ranging interview.
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LeaderCompetition should never be first choice, but it could be best
Whether you believe competition to provide care for NHS patients is per se a good or bad thing is largely a matter of political bias. The evidence on either side is almost transparent.
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LeaderLocal performance is the key to the future of the NHS
Since May the spotlight has been resolutely on changes in national health policy. The entry of the Health Bill into Parliament marks the beginning of the end of that phase. What will matter increasingly is how the NHS at a local level deals with the twin challenge of reform and ...