All articles by Alastair McLellan – Page 35
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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 ...
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LeaderIf accountability counts, its value must be recognised
Should we worry that some primary care trust chief executives who are offered more junior roles in PCT clusters, losing their accountable officer status in the process, cannot opt for redundancy instead?
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LeaderIs a narrative for complex health reform impossible?
Two snapshots from a day in the life of one A Lansley, health secretary.
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LeaderThe NHS might be being rewired, but its electricity runs to much the same effect
The Health Bill has set a new record as the largest piece of NHS legislation ever tabled. Health secretary Andrew Lansley described it as “evolutionary” – the mind boggles at what he would consider “revolutionary”.
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Leader‘Brave’ Sir David stresses freedoms and delivery
As the NHS drowns in reform, the danger of distraction grows.
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NewsCommissioning board should run large scale 'experiments' - UnitedHealth head
The NHS Commissioning Board should run a series of large scale “experiments” designed to test solutions to the growing burden of chronic disease, UnitedHealth’s president of global health Simon Stevens claimed this week. Successful programmes should be made “part of the NHS benefits package”.
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LeaderPrivate sector takeover not as imminent as some may have it
The week began with a media feeding frenzy around the government’s NHS reforms created by the imminent publication of the health bill. Dire warnings were ten a penny, while the PM adopted a Thatcherite “no alternative” stance.
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Leader'Conspiracy of silence hides true extent of poor GP performance'
Andrew Lansley claims primary care trusts had to be abolished because they failed to commission effectively - an arguable accusation.
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Leader'Now with 25pc more reason to believe'
“Hope is a key differentiator between those NHS organisations that succeed and those that don’t,” says the NHS Institute’s Helen Bevan. She adds, “the driving force of hope is belief” - belief that things can be improved.
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LeaderNicholson is master of all he surveys after surprise decision
Did you declare yourself unsurprised by the appointment of Sir David Nicholson as the first chief executive of the NHS commissioning board just before Christmas? Then you were either fibbing or Andrew Lansley.
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Leader'Lansley may play down his reforms' radicalism, but this does not involve big changes to his plans'
“Some have argued Liberating the NHS constitutes an unwise distraction from the quality and productivity challenge facing the NHS.
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LeaderBattleship 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.
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LeaderWhite paper let down by speedy schedule
The public health white paper is something of a an anticlimax. Government plans for improving the country’s wellbeing may well prove to be significant, but we will have to wait until well into 2011 to find out.