Comment archive – Page 388
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CommentDavid Furness: Keep local people in on the act
The Budget has set the scene for a grim period in NHS finances, so accountability to the public must play an even greater role, not least in relation to local commissioning
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CommentMichael White: a search for good news in the NHS
With the expenses scandal delivering the most humiliating week for Westminster politics that I can remember in 30 years this column is committed to finding something more cheerful to write about MPs today.
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LeaderBen Bradshaw hunts down scandal-hit NHS chiefs
The Department of Health has scented blood over blocking pay-offs for chief executives quitting in the wake of a scandal.
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LeaderNHS should not be out of pocket when doctors trouser extra cash
HSJ’s revelation that the NHS is spending in the region of £2m a year subsidising private patients raises serious questions about how some trusts manage them.
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CommentSophia Christie on NHS crisis and opportunity
An emerging policy consensus looks to innovation to save the NHS. The context is an emerging “perfect storm” of financial crisis, global warming, obesity, longer lives with greater dependency and fewer working age people to pay taxes.
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Comment
Andrew Craggs on safe thinking
Imagine a patient who falls in a pothole on his way to a clinic on the main footpath. He sustains severe head injuries and subsequently dies.
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CommentPaul Corrigan: Darwin's theory on the NHS
The greatest truth in Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is that to survive in a rapidly changing environment, species must adapt. And for a species to be adaptable it needs to love diversity.
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CommentMedia Watch: expenses and NHS prescriptions for sunshine
With MPs’ expenses dominating the news this week, there was less room than usual for NHS manager bashing, miracle cures or the rest of the usual health-related fare.
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CommentNicky Spencer on the three dimensions of workload management
Overwhelmed by your workload? Need to increase capacity at work, career potential, confidence?
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CommentMike Hobbs: fear, alcohol and government policy
Mental health action week was naturally a time for ministerial statements and topical third sector reports on key mental health issues. Inevitably, some referred to the present economic context. Prominent government initiatives appear to be contradictory, but are they?
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Comment
Media Watch: the MP expenses claim swingometer
“Greedy, petty, shameless… and we haven’t had the Tories yet!” was how The Independent on Sunday heralded The Telegraph’s ongoing exclusive on MPs’ expenses.
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CommentNo time for complacency on European working time directive
NHS organisations have to be compliant with the European working time directive by 1 August and only a tiny minority can reasonably expect any exception to the rules
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LeaderPatient reported outcome measures raise questions of how need for operations is decided
HSJ’s revelation this week that tens of millions of pounds are being spent on treatments that arguably do not improve patients’ lives serves to focus minds.
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LeaderStrategic health authority chiefs bring a new flavour to the NHS
After many months, we once again have a full complement of strategic health authority chief executives, even if one of them has been given the honour of being made temporary flu czar (news, page 7).
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CommentStephen Eames on the quest for quality
At a recent meeting, a colleague likened the current welter of initiatives on quality to being “tied down like Gulliver”. It’s not that I argue with the importance of providing safe, high quality care - far from it - but I have some sympathy with the view that there is ...
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CommentYour Humble Servant on appropriate attire
It can be hard to decide how to dress for a dress-down, informal bonding session with colleagues, as ours gamely proved.
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CommentMichael White on integrity and whistleblowing
Amid the uproar over the MPs’ expenses scandal three prime ministers addressed health issues this past week. I refer, of course, to Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Alan Johnson, who is also now tipped (improbably) to succeed Alistair Darling in Number 11.
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CommentSteve Preston on NHS career values
Your values are the things which you hold dear, but inevitably they will change over time. However, few people audit them, which can be unhelpful to future jobs and career prospects.
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CommentNHS clinical leaders: take a leaf from the military's book
As a military medical officer working in the NHS and a Health Foundation Leadership Fellow, my professional development has been different from that of most clinicians in the UK, writes Ed Nicol
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CommentAngela Greatley on health in the criminal justice system
Lord Bradley’s review of mental health and learning disabilities in the criminal justice system was published last month. Fourteen months in the making, the report that emerged did not disappoint.