Comment archive – Page 343
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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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CommentMichael Dixon: it's time for general practice to get real
I faced a difficult career decision 28 years ago. I wanted to go into general practice, but should I opt for a rural practice, where biomedicine had a clearer role, or for inner city practice, where needs were greater but medicine seemed less important?
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CommentSue Slipman: public board meetings are not a quick fix for accountability
With transparency and accountability increasingly on the agenda for trusts, Foundation Trust Network chief executive Sue Slipman argues that holding board meetings in public as a means to that end is not simply an open and shut case.
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CommentMedia Watch: deliberate delays report provokes fury in the press
The furore over the Cooperation and Competition Panel’s report suggesting primary care trusts were making patients wait longer in the hope they would die or go private was going strong when the weekend papers went to press.
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CommentWhat the new healthcare environment holds for clinical negligence indemnity
Changes ushered in by the Health Bill will mean indemnity contracts between providers and commissioners will need to be considered carefully and satisfy both sides before being set in place. Medical Defence Union chief executive Dr Christine Tomkins explains.
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CommentSally Gainsbury: the £2bn secret subsidy
Will the £500m ministers plan to spend each year on not sorting out failing hospitals suffice?
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CommentMichael White: the strange landscape of US healthcare
Where else but the US should this column spend a few days as punishment for not understanding how inappropriate a mechanism competition is for driving efficiency and innovation in healthcare?
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CommentSouth West trust chiefs in merry-go-round shake up
The impending departure of Weston Area Health Trust’s chief executive to Kettering General Hospital Foundation Trust next month has sparked a round of musical chairs in the South West.
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CommentRestructuring risks worry West Midlands as SHA chair drops out of cluster running
Restructuring the health service can be a risky business and NHS West Midlands isn’t taking any chances.
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LeaderThe government risks severing links with valuable volunteers
It was inevitable that a government regarding the empowerment of individuals and communities as its raison d’être would seek to instil a greater public voice into the health service.
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CommentThe crucial role health charities have to play
Never has there been a more important time to strengthen the relationships we have with hospital charities. And with more than 280 NHS charities across the UK, are we maximising these relationships that bring unquestionable benefits to our patients and staff, asks Peter Homa.
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CommentCynthia Bower interview: replacing the 'light touch' with a firm grip
Amid heavy political pressure, the Care Quality Commission is preparing to replace its “light touch” style with annual inspections of every provider. So is its chief executive ready to do battle? Cynthia Bower talks to HSJ’s Charlotte Santry.
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CommentMedia Watch: AQP rears its head to revive the privatisation debate
“The day they signalled the death warrant for the health service” chimed the headline on a piece by Max Pemberton, a member of the burgeoning doctors-who-are-also-journalists club, in the the Daily Telegraph this week.
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CommentConcern over 'red risk' providers in East of England
A performance report from NHS East of England this month showed a mixed picture. While referrals are down in the region, activity for both elective and non-elective procedures is nearly 2 per cent higher than last year.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: the price of reputation
How would you feel about a health insurer that took your premium payments and then turned down your claim, not on the basis of an alleged pre-existing condition, or something in the contractual small print, but simply because it considered your illness a low priority?
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CommentReconfiguration pressures mounting in London
A report is sat on Andrew Lansley’s desk offering recommendations about the future of Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield.
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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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CommentMichael White: see you later, innovator
Oh dear. The British Medical Association is promising health ministers a long hot summer over the Health Bill, instead of a few calm weeks for leisurely reflection; this is in the misplaced hope that the medics can force its withdrawal before the bill goes to the obstreperous Lords.
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CommentPerfect placement: getting patients out of hospital and onto their preferred pathway
The biggest problem facing West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust is giving patients who no longer requiring hospital treatment the support and care they do need in the next stage of their pathway efficiently and cost effectively. Chief executive Jan Filochowski looks at the issue.
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CommentThe NHS Commissioning Board must support CCGs, not overshadow them
Amid the controversy around the government’s NHS reforms, relatively little attention has been given to the role of the NHS Commissioning Board.