Comment archive – Page 354
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CommentAndrew Dillon: the new mission for NICE
The white paper Liberating the NHS and the Health Bill currently going through Parliament describe a radically new architecture for the NHS together with a new, outcomes based approach to driving improvements in care.
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CommentTransparency in London reveals hive of activity
Are the GPs in south-west London the most proactive in the capital?
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CommentYour Humble Servant: A twit tweets
Separating the tweet from the chafe around the blogosphere, a twit begins to tweet.
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CommentMedia Watch: letters from David Cameron
Not satisfied with the “see it from space” scale of the current NHS reorganisation, the Daily Telegraph warned another change of “seismic” proportions is heading the public sector’s way.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: trapped in PFI purgatory
Of the 16 pages of last week’s Managing the Transition letter from Richmond House, the provider side of the NHS occupies a mere three paragraphs. One about the foundation trust “pipeline”, one on separating primary care trusts from their former provider arms and one on encouraging the independent sector.
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CommentTargets in sharp focus for the North West
The Department of Health might appear to hate targets these days, but you could be forgiven for thinking the news has not travelled north.
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Comment
Michael White: 'Price competition has never been the policy... Yeah, right.'
To be frank with you, I’d never heard of David Bennett before he was unexpectedly promoted to become the new chair of Monitor, as it evolves into the economic regulator to the entire NHS. Truly this is a real-life version of Eric Carle’s children’s story The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Guess ...
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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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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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CommentCompetition can work, but only with the right tactics
“Competition in health care should be tactical not ideological”. This was the main message from the “Competition versus integration in the NHS” debate organised by the Cambridge Health Network and the King’s Fund
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CommentBill Moyes: the reform agenda presents a massive opportunity
The government’s reform agenda for the NHS isn’t the beginning of the end of a primarily tax funded healthcare system. The reforms are probably the best way to preserve that for another generation or more. So, instead of focusing on the risks, let’s give more attention to the opportunities.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: the true cost of training
In a transparent, rules based funding system like payment by results, how can we ensure a steady flow of financial goodies to the deserving rich in the London teaching hospitals?
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CommentMichael White: away from NHS reforms, healthcare problems - and solutions - still sound familiar
Let’s try even harder to cheer ourselves up this week by averting our gaze from NHS reforms and looking at a near neighbour with more pressing healthcare dilemmas. Not to mention deeper budget gloom. No prizes for guessing I was in Dublin recently.
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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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CommentMedia Watch: drunks and royals give NHS staff little cause to raise a glass
One health story got the attention of all of the nationals this week - an Alcohol Concern report on the pressure placed on the NHS by drinking.
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CommentMedia Watch: papers picking up on dismissals
The tale of two advisers, both of whom have lost the ear of the government, was making the headlines at the start of this week.
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CommentMichael White: somwhere to escape the cuts
Wherever you turn at present it’s hard to escape the government’s cuts programme. I confirmed that (again) when I rang my sister at the nursery-infant-and-parenting unit she has worked in for many years. Their budget has been slashed, redundancies loom. Should she volunteer to go, taking decades of experience with ...
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Comment'It makes a welcome change to hear praise for NHS managers'
Sir David Nicholson’s letter to colleagues after the spending review recognised that great public service leadership “more than anything else” will be central to improving quality and productivity.
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CommentPost-reform NHS is life, still, but not as we know it
As the dust begins to settle a little on the furore that surrounded the introduction of the Health Bill last month, the wiser among us have started to think through what the new landscape might resemble.