Comment archive – Page 349
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LeaderBenefits lost as C-word remains a taboo
Do you remember the debate over the future of the US healthcare system that dominated the last Presidential election?
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Ben Gowland: changing the minds of managers in a clinically led NHS
In all the talk of radical health service reforms, one of the factors which has almost been forgotten is the revolutionary shift in mindset required of the NHS manager in primary care.
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CommentMichael White: despite distractions, the focus remains trained on reforms
Did you catch that row over the NHS at prime minister’s question time? No, I thought not. What with the royal nuptial and the killing of Osama bin Laden we have all had a lot on our media plate.
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CommentPassing judgement on Lansley's vision
A year after the general election, Andrew Lansley and his controversial reforms are under fire. HSJ asks four leading figures - Stephen Dorrell, David Kerr, Alan Milburn and Bill Moyes - to hand down their verdict on Lansley’s vision.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: calling any qualified commissioners
Last week’s public accounts committee report on the NHS landscape states: “Most important, the department has not yet got a framework to deal with failure in the system, be it on the provider side or the commissioning side”.
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CommentSeeking sustainability on the South Coast
News that Portsmouth Hospitals Trust is one of 22 predicted to struggle to gain foundation trust status because of a hefty private finance deal would have come as little surprise to the local health economy.
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CommentNorth East on course to meet targets, but some regions are still feeling the heat
With the financial year ended, overall performance during 2010-11 is becoming a bit clearer. Both NHS North East and Yorkshire and the Humber appear to have met headline targets, but Yorkshire is showing signs of strain.
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LeaderCameron phones friends to help answer tricky reform questions
It is a year since the general election that brought the coalition to power and Andrew Lansley to Richmond House.
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CommentScaling up collaboration: the public health manifesto
I recently had the privilege of attending a lecture by Sir Michael Marmot, the guru of health inequalities and public health.
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CommentMaking room for meddling in the East
While strategic health authorities wind down to their abolition – now slightly delayed – clustering has begun to meddle with the map.
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CommentCross border mental health contracts emerge in the South East
The mental health providers of the South East coast region are currently keen to engage in some cross border commercial activity.
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Comment
The barriers to achieving cost effective interventions
A lack of clarity around the effectiveness of out of hospital interventions is preventing their potential cost efficiencies from being realised. But, says Nuffield Trust director Jennifer Dixon, there are reasons to be cheerful.
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CommentFit for purpose: keeping vital employment support for patients with long-term conditions
Work is of enormous benefit to many people with long-term conditions. But, writes Daloni Carlisle, it may soon be a lot harder for people to receive NHS support to stay in employment.
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Comment'Without evidence, the rhetorical reforms are irrelevant at best'
As real funding is eroded amid grand health policy rhetoric, there is a desperate need for hard evidence and data to inform the fundamental policy challenges facing this government. Without it, the reforms are all but irrelevant, argues York University professor of health economics Alan Maynard.
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CommentSally Gainsbury: balancing the books with creative 'fiddling'
It is year-end accounts closing time and finance departments are a hive of fevered book balancing. This column wants to salute the best of that and so is launching the NHS Finance Departments Delivering Liberty and Excellence – FiDDLE – award.
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LeaderPCTs are dead. Long live the PCT cluster?
Here’s a quiz for you. What do the following numbers - 581, 331, 162, 62 - represent?
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CommentMichael White: the Tory rhetoric is now bogged down in detail
Over a junk food lunch with NHS heavies recently I found the conversation turning – yet again – to Andrew Lansley. Is he on the level? Does he have a hidden agenda to privatise the system? That kind of thing.
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CommentKeeping safer service delivery at the forefront of the NHS
The NHS has made great strides in delivering safer services: the recent work on surgical check lists is another excellent example that hospitals cannot afford to ignore. However there is still much to do, says Paul Zollinger-Read.
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CommentWhy the reforms need to avoid penalising NHS and local government relationships
Areas where improved health outcomes are already being delivered through strong NHS and local government partnerships will be hoping the negative impact the reforms could have on this success will be seriously reviewed, writes Blackburn with Darwen chief executive Graham Burgess.
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CommentThe debate on consortia governance requires sound principles, and hard evidence
To commission effectively, consortia will need governance arrangements that create confidence and trust, and build legitimacy and partnerships, writes The Health Foundation chief executive Stephen Thornton.