Comment archive – Page 350
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CommentIs the NHS constitution still relevant in the new NHS landscape?
Since the government came to power and the health secretary announced sweeping reforms to the NHS, there seems to have been little focus on the NHS constitution. Gerard Hanratty, partner at healthcare law firm Capsticks, weighs up what may happen to it under the coalition government.
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CommentMedia Watch: worries over 'rationed' availability of treatments
After last week’s universal coverage of the health secretary’s will he/won’t he appearance at the Royal College of Nursing congress, the media headed towards the Easter break with a fairly united front over the availability of NHS treatments.
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CommentCally Bann: the Big Society's 'Big Listen'
I have my doubts whether this period of political deflection, that is, reflection, will bring changes of any substance to the NHS reforms.
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CommentA chief executive merry-go-round in London
It appears to be poacher turned gamekeeper season among the capital’s chief executives.
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CommentMidlands looking for leaders to deliver business and savings plans
The detailed, costed 2011-12 business plans produced by commissioners this month make interesting reading – but who will be accountable for achieving them?
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LeaderInquiry adds to the toxic reform mix
Cynthia Bower, chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, appeared at the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust inquiry on Monday. Ms Bower was previously chief executive of NHS West Midlands, responsible for monitoring the troubled trust.
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CommentMichael White: time to address costly preventable failures
It being Easter weekend this column thought to give Andrew Lansley and his NHS reforms the week off. The secretary of state is on his own painful road to Calvary, carrying a legislative cross of his own making.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: PFI pipe dream turns sour
Within the EU, the talk is now of a periphery and a core. Peripheral countries that the international bond market no longer loves – Greece, Ireland and now Portugal – have to borrow large sums of money from the core merely to stay afloat.
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LeaderStraggling organisations set to slip into crisis
The popular perception is that the fortunes of the NHS rise and fall on a national basis. HSJ readers will know the true picture is one of variation – often stark – between organisations and regions.
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CommentMichael White: Lansley must tune in to rescue reforms
To listen to Nick Clegg picking his way through the minefield of NHS reform on Radio 4 was to be reminded how hard it is to calibrate effective opposition – words and actions which can make a difference to important legislation.
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CommentPerformance surplus hides the fact many trusts are facing critical finance problems
Trusts with serious financial problems are in danger of being overlooked as a surplus on “aggregate performance” comforts some in the NHS. Nick Bosanquet looks at five ways to avert the hidden crisis.
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CommentThis ‘natural break’ is an opportunity to develop a genuinely patient-centred NHS
The coalition’s ‘listening exercise’ shows that Cameron and his ministers know they do not have the votes to push the reforms through Parliament in their current shape. They might do better if they radically rethink their proposals, argues Institute for Public Policy Research senior research fellow for health Phil McCarvill.
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CommentYour humble servant: Lansley live - for one month only
Time is running out to get a ticket to the Andrew Lansley show, where the only certainty is there are no certainties.
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CommentReconfiguration threatening to derail London service level agreements
No sooner were service level agreements more or less signed off by London acutes and commissioners, than reconfiguration issues reared their head.
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CommentMedia Watch: Lansley listens while Tories tell
Despite embarking on a “listening exercise” to hear concerns about the reforms, the health secretary tried his best to avoid confrontation with nurses last week, the Independent reported.
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CommentSally Gainsbury: scary care cuts
I’ve had reason to delve around local government “savings” plans recently, and compared with QIPP they make for scary reading.
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Comment'By 2030, when many need it most, healthcare will be in meltdown'
The long-term effect on healthcare will be catastrophic if we do not change things now, writes Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry director general Richard Barker.
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CommentReform pause welcomed by slowly emerging Yorkshire pathfinders
Some at NHS Barnsley may have reacted with a sigh of relief to last week’s news of a “pause” in the reform of the NHS.
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LeaderAndrew Lansley: an enemy of reform?
HSJ’s increasingly unfashionable, strained and conditional support for Andrew Lansley continuing as health secretary is predicated on two beliefs.
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LeaderImperial's problems are the first rumblings of a perfect storm
HSJ was once asked by the health secretary what could prevent his reforms from continuing. We suggested a major hospital getting into significant financial trouble and those troubles being successfully linked by opponents to his reforms.