Comment archive – Page 397
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LeaderHigh death rates or just more data headaches: it’s no contest
The health service has taken a brave step on the quality road this week with the publication of the names of trusts over the last two years where unusually high death rates triggered alerts with the regulator.
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CommentSheila Williams on cognitive dissonance
Why do many people continue to smoke, even though research shows they are shortening their own lives? Smokers might say “well, I’ve tried to quit so many times and it’s just too hard”, or “it keeps me calm and stress free and besides, I really enjoy it”. Welcome to the ...
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CommentDon Redding on patient experience
We demand other industries deliver standards that all customers recognise, and so we should also insist on patient experience benchmarking across the NHS
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CommentCally Bann on winter pressures
Good news: we’ve just managed to close the winter pressure beds. Even better: the summer theatre closure programme has kicked in.
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CommentMichael White on US healthcare and NHS politics
Oh dear. Turn your back on the politicians for a few days’ holiday and when you get back they’re engaged in all-too-familiar pre-election skirmishing about the NHS being safe in our hands - but not in the other lot’s.
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CommentDarzi's old fashioned defence of the NHS
This week turned into a free for all when it came to writing about the NHS - pretty much anyone who’s ever come into contact with it (i.e. everyone)and can string a sentence together can join in.
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CommentNoel Plumridge on NHS cash in a cold climate
£15bn - the “efficiency savings” the NHS is being asked to make over the coming three year cycle - is an unimaginably huge sum of money.
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LeaderNHS patient safety hotline may just be a solution looking for a problem
Is the government in danger of trying too hard on patient safety?
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LeaderCommunity services: get off your bikes
Community services need to raise their sights if they are to be ready for the funding squeeze.
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CommentNicky Spencer on NHS workforce health and wellbeing
A while back, I was asked to deliver a day programme on health and wellbeing at work.
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CommentMedia Watch: swine flu backlash
It was inevitable really - gone are the stories of soaring mortality rates and brave speeches issued from behind the sandbags at Richmond House.
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CommentMichael White on a holiday from the NHS
Are you thinking of driving far on the summer holiday this year? I drive across France every August, a round trip of about 1,500 miles.
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CommentSimon Stevens on an NHS budget showdown
Who gets what? Surely that is the essence of politics, and never more so than when times are tight. When a rising tide carries all boats, economic growth tends to obscure the question.
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CommentJo Webber on NHS care scandals
At the heart of the care scandal in Mid Staffordshire foundation trust and the Baby Peter case is the need for a strong culture of questioning and scrutiny
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CommentImproving patient care through the Clinical Leaders Network
In this month’s Clinical Leaders Network column, Dr Liz Hughes talks about using the CLN to improve training for doctors. NHS West Midlands has taken a strategic approach to clinical service development and has designed its CLN to support its vision for implementing the next stage review ...
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CommentJon Restell on achieving race equality in the NHS
A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary about the Motown tour of the UK in 1965.
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Leader
Panicky response to Mid Staffs scandal could erode FT freedoms
The government is threatening the independence of foundation trusts.
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LeaderNHS workforce: is your senior manager a psychopath?
Are you a psychopath? Warning signs include being manipulative, bullying your staff, spreading rumours about colleagues, believing rules are for others, feeling the end justifies the means and being turned on by risk.
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CommentYour Humble Servant attends an NHS disciplinary appeal hearing
‘Between them they will have conspired to identify an incompetent who needs to be dispatched, and then utterly fail to put together a case, identify relevant evidence, or present it in a way that can land a caress, let alone a punch, on the miscreant’s credibility’
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CommentAlan Maryon-Davis on NHS carbon cutting
Chill winds in the funding forecast are no excuse to let go of the NHS’s energy saving and waste reduction targets - they just add to the urgency to act now