Comment archive – Page 339
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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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CommentCompete or collaborate? The policy dysphoria facing NHS organisations
The buzzword in the NHS is collaboration, but with the Health Bill steeped in competition, despite significant amendments, realising integrated care still seems a long way away. It’s time to focus, says Professor Bob Hudson.
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CommentThe system needs fixing if we're to find the financiers
The NHS’s flawed payments system must be mended and evolved into something more robust and attractive in order to secure the as-yet-undecided new financiers, warn James Barlow, Colin Gray and Steve Wright.
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CommentYour Humble Servant: healthy fun for all the NHS family
What will be this year’s Christmas stocking must have: Mid Staffs Cluedo, PFI Monopoly or Liberating the NHS Scrabble?
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CommentMedia Watch: all of NHS life appears in the papers
Most types of health professional featured in the media this week, though some more positively than others.
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Comment'We cannot tolerate incompetence in the search for sustainability'
The turnaround of one factory into an efficient, clean, collaborative and effective faciility should shame healthcare organisations into doing more to make sure sustainability in the NHS becomes less an ideal and more a way of working, writes Sir John Oldham.
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CommentMichael White: the search for Tory health debate beyond the fringe
Before the Tory faithful arrived in Manchester for their 2011 conference, a veteran party figure predicted the NHS would not feature much, despite the turbulence behind the Health Bill and the frantic applause lines which Ed Miliband effortlessly generated in the service’s defence a week earlier in Liverpool.
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CommentChange plans grind to a halt in the North West
Change takes forever in the NHS. So long, sometimes, that by the time your plan is finally agreed it is out of date, or there are different people in charge and they want to develop a new plan.
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CommentSally Gainsbury: in theory, the reality could be even worse
Let us start, as we hacks are so fond of doing, with the bad news. The Department of Health’s first quarterly report for 2011-12 reveals primary care trusts are planning to take savings worth £3.1bn out of acute care this financial year alone.
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CommentTide turning on transparency in the South
The government’s drive for a more open public sector does not sit easily with its “foundation trust or bust” policy, which gives FTs more say over the information they publish and whether their boards meet in public.
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CommentWhy public health practice must be integrated into commissioning
Whatever form the new NHS commissioning landscape takes, public health practice needs to be an integral part of it. A discussion is needed as to how it fits in to the structure, write Julie Sin, Su Sethi and Alison Rylands.
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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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Comment'Social enterprise is a real alternative to the big, bland offer'
City Health Care Partnership CIC chief executive Andrew Burnell reports from the social enterprise’s first AGM how it is aiming to utilise its flexibility to deliver quality local services by making its offering bigger, and more sustainable.
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Comment'Healthcare without competition is financially unsustainable'
Despite increased competition raising fears, in some quarters, for the future of the NHS, now is not the time to play it safe - but to harness its power to do great things, says Sir Stephen Bubb.
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CommentMedia Watch: Labour's legacy looms large during conference season
In recent months the government has faced an onslaught in the media over the Health Bill, waiting times and privatisation in theNHS.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: checking up on the Nicholson challenge
Pressed on where the £20bn productivity gain that is now known as the “Nicholson challenge” will actually be found, the top of theDepartment of Health cites a ratio of 40:20:40.
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Comment'Healthcare history can help us transform elderly care today'
Looking back to the healthcare revolutions that helped transform practices in the past identifies the strength of ambition and passion that is needed to rescue modern day elderly care. But most importantly, it shows it is achievable, argues Mark Goldman.
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CommentEast Midlands holds final board meeting ahead of clustering
The papers brought to NHS East Midlands’ September meeting were littered with words like “transition” and “legacy”, reflecting the fact it was the board’s final get-together.
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CommentCircle-style deal for London specialist?
Most regions have a few smaller specialist trusts and London is no exception.
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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.