Comment archive – Page 453
-
Comment
Data briefing: deficit forecasts, financial reality
The recent quarterly financial report from the Department of Health provides some encouraging signs as the NHS gets to grips with previous years' overspends. But the detail looks patchy.
-
Comment
Simon Stevens on a summer of discontent
'So as we head into TUC and party conference season, by comparison things actually look pretty tame here. Part of the problem is the way international health comparisons are used - and abused.'
-
Comment
Michael White on politics
'There's no point replacing meddling by national politicians with meddling by local ones.'
-
Comment
Media watch
Even if they do not come up with any new policy, they've got an awful lot of ammunition with which to bombard the government
-
Comment
Healthcheck ratings: tougher test means story must be retold
The Healthcare Commission said it would be a tougher test - and so it has proved. In the first national healthcheck ratings only two dozen organisations were rated excellent for service quality, and even fewer for their use of resources. Only half of NHS organisations met all the core standards, ...
-
Comment
Why the bedside has a place in the boardroom
Imagine sitting through a board meeting at Tesco. The meeting lasts three hours and at no time do chair Sir Terry Leahy and his directors talk about their customers or how satisfied those customers might be with the products and stores. It's a ridiculous notion, isn't it?
-
Comment
HSJ Barometer: acute trusts October 2006
Confidence has leapt up in our acute trust chief executives about the chances of achieving financial break-even this year - the score out of 10 rose from 5.78 to 6.80.
-
Comment
A different kind of day at the office
The HSJChallenge offers managers the opportunity to escape their day jobs and pit their wits against their peers in a in a multi-agency health economy with more than its fair share of problems. The good news is that it's not for real. ...
-
Comment
Media Watch
Your caring, sharing News of the Worldthis week chose to reveal that David Beckham's son Romeo suffers from epilepsy by splashing with a front-page picture of the four-year-old cowering from the paparazzi's flash guns.
-
Comment
Michael White on politics
'The McElephant in the corner, of course, is devolved Scotland, where personal care is free'
-
Comment
Simon Stevens on winning hearts and minds
'NHS targets have not yet been tough enough (yes you read that right) to alter public perception'
-
Comment
The age of uncertainty: new Audit Commission chair speaks out
New Audit Commission chair Michael O'Higgins has a lot on his plate as he waits for the health regulatory review and oversees the transition to a new inspection era ushered in by the local government white paper
-
Comment
Emma Dent on the dreaded lurgy
I have written before about my non-scientfic diagnosis of this condition, where tired bodies succumb to bugs and germs. I think it might be a sign that I should take a holiday
-
Comment
Unjust social care funding
'One in four people over the age of 85 in Oxfordshire are in receipt of a high cost package of care'
-
Comment
Confessions of an NHS chief executive
'I do not follow rhyme or reason, only the secretary of state'
-
Comment
What's driving the admissions rise
In last week's Data Briefing I raised some issues about the increase in emergency admissions to acute hospitals over the last five years. The increase has primarily been in accident and emergency, and there has been a dramatic increase in the number of patients turned around on the day. While ...