All Alastair McLellan articles – Page 4
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LeaderLess haste would have led to less waste
HSJ’s revelation that primary care trusts’ initial calculations of public health spending were about 10 per cent wide of the mark does little to inspire confidence in reform of the area.
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LeaderMaximum waits matter as much as minimum ones
Reading between the lines of the blustering, disingenuous and politically motivated government announcement banning “minimum waiting times”, a more interesting theme emerges.
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LeaderWinners demonstrate the power of unity
The HSJ Awards – the largest celebration of health service excellence in the UK – is always a cause for cheer. However, this year, its arrival feels particularly positive.
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LeaderLegal challenges threaten service redesign
Royal Brompton and Harefield Foundation Trust’s successful judicial review of the national consultation into the reconfiguration of paediatric cardiac services will send a shiver down the backbones of those charged with reshaping the English NHS.
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LeaderChange is inevitable, but more confusion and conflict is not
The last thing most HSJ readers want to hear about is the prospect of further change. Unfortunately the nature of these reforms almost guarantees it.
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LeaderWhere are all the female clinical leaders?
Of all the unwelcome consequences of the NHS reforms, perhaps the most unexpected is HSJ’s revelation that the leadership of clinical commissioning will be overwhelmingly male.
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LeaderCCG support vision will calm anger but spark controversy
Last week Sir David Nicholson summoned the 51 primary care trust cluster chief executives to a meeting at which he set out how they should address the challenges ahead. The audience listened dutifully, but the tension in the room was palpable.
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Leader
Rewriting the rules of the blame game
An honest debate about the challenges and tensions of making management decisions in the NHS is hard to find.
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LeaderPension squeeze is another victim of inept NHS reform
“I’m not touching that, it’s a quagmire,” said the health minister fleeing from HSJ’s question at last week’s Conservative Party conference.
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LeaderDH chases up service changes with an undisguised urgency
The Department of Health’s report on the NHS’s record in the months April to June presents an impressive list of achievements and the NHS staff responsible for them should rightly feel proud. But look closer and a less reassuring picture emerges.
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Leader'Only mugs work in commissioning’: tackling the management brain drain
Of all the postgraduate courses in the country, places on the NHS management training scheme are among the most fiercely contested.
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LeaderNHS giants sound warning of acute financial turmoil
The leafy villages of Great and Little Shelford lie around five miles south of Cambridge. Shelford boasts a rich history reaching back to the Domesday Book, but it is also has claim to fame in NHS circles.
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LeaderClare Gerada ups the stakes in her fight to ‘save’ the NHS
The unlikeliest and, perhaps, most powerful alliance affecting the delivery of the NHS reforms is between Royal College of GPs chair Dr Clare Gerada and what some might term the “old guard” of NHS managers who have wielded the greatest influence over the last decade.
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LeaderWhy caution on hospital failure still has its price
This week the government looked into the abyss of hospital failure and shuffled nervously back from the edge of the precipice.
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LeaderFear of failure or staff fury may drive further job cuts
During the summer our HSJ Local service has been reporting on plans to reduce hospital workforces. This week we reveal Aintree University Hospital Foundation Trust’s decision to remove 200 posts during each of the next three years.
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LeaderRival factions fight for influence in Future Forum’s second coming
Why continue with the NHS reform listening exercise? The NHS is already changing with a momentum no report is likely to affect.
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LeaderDistrust and pragmatism inform softly-softly authorisation plan
There is one sentence in the government’s draft authorisation process for clinical commissioning groups which highlights the atmosphere of distrust in which the new arrangements are being negotiated.
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LeaderGetting clinicians to speak up is the real key to fighting poor care
To the list of life’s certainties, Benjamin Franklin might have added the change from strong to light-touch public sector regulation and back again.
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LeaderLansley’s defence of management cuts is disingenuous and dangerous
“I try to avoid saying things that are capable of misinterpretation,” Andrew Lansley told HSJ last week.
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LeaderTransparency offers a chink of light in a dark week for reform
You should not mistake Professor Roger Boyle’s outspoken criticism of the health reforms as the demob happy words of a man about to retire.