Comment archive – Page 359
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Comment'NHS cuts will come off a far fatter bird'
It won’t have changed your life much, but MPs have been squabbling for weeks now over the future size of the NHS budget under the coalition’s plans for the next five years. “Bigger or smaller?” critics demand to know. Yes or no, does it change anything?
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CommentWhat happened to courage?
A client describes the following scenario to me. The 24-year-old son of a close friend has lost his job in the fallout from the sudden collapse of the business in which he was working.
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LeaderHSJ100: Politicians and medics surge to power in the new world order
We live in political times. That much is clear from the first HSJ100, the expanded version of the HSJ50 which, for the past four years, has plotted the most influential people in health.
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LeaderWhat Dorrell says matters, and his message to the NHS is clear
House of Commons health committee chair Stephen Dorrell made an electrifying intervention into the NHS reform debate last Thursday.
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CommentHSJ100: Hakin and Gerada lead the rise of the clinicians
The white paper represents a seismic shift in policy and operational form, perhaps the biggest since the inception of the NHS.
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CommentCan patient choice alone force the changes the service needs?
The advent of the coalition has, of course, brought about a major overhaul of the existing power and influence matrix within the NHS.
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CommentHow to establish your marketability
Having decided to try for a new role or being faced with the need to look for a new job, there is often a temptation to dust off the CV, add relevant new information, then fire it out to as many companies, organisations and agencies as possible.
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LeaderAn American Dream we should believe in
The NHS too often looks to the US for inspiration, encouraged by a shared language and the size of the American healthcare system.
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CommentTreading softly on cancer's dreams
It is good to see old fashioned centralisation is alive and well in sensitive matters.
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LeaderLansley accelerates his plans as Labour’s opposition falters
The government’s reforms are picking up pace.
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CommentLocal NHS pay negotiations: beware raiders of the lost cause
We have too much to lose as patients and taxpayers to repeat the 1990s’ flirtation with local pay negotiations.
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CommentThe national public health service
What will the new national public health service look like?
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CommentThe Mid Staffs inquiry and NHS redundancies
The national media’s week was not surprisingly dominated by the start of the Mid Staffs public inquiry.
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CommentMichael White: health panel discussions
As I type I can hear this week’s opening of the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust public inquiry being discussed on the radio.
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Comment'A good coach helps you to see the world as it really is'
Stress levels in the management community are higher than at any time since I joined it 41 years ago. At best, many managers face the loss of career prospects and life chances. At worst, they face the loss of employment and real hardship.
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Comment'Major NHS reforms are driven by the heart, not the calculator'
Two things become apparent from recent parliamentary exchanges on the cost of anticipated large scale NHS redundancies.
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CommentYour Humble Servant: home front
‘We’re invading your privacy at home, and turning it into the outpatient clinic’
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LeaderThe new mortality indicator suffers from mixed messages
The debate over how hospital mortality should be measured and whether those measures reveal anything useful has rumbled on for the last decade.
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LeaderGPs stung by maternity services rebuff
Who should commission maternity care? Health secretary Andrew Lansley has decided it should not be part of the “great majority” of services that GPs will eventually be responsible for.
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CommentThe NHS needs to re-invent itself to cope with funding cuts
The NHS’s funding increase is actually a 0.5 per cent cut - efficiency savings of 4-5 per cent will have to be found.