All Alastair McLellan articles – Page 6
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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LeaderSquaring the price competition and efficiency circle
“Where would you like your vasectomy, sir?” is not a phrase you’re likely to hear in the NHS as many primary care trusts have ruled out paying for the procedure anywhere other than in GP practices.
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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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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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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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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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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'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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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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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.