All Comment articles – Page 320
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Comment
Barometer: mental health, February 2007
With the end of the financial year looming, chief executives of mental health providers are very confident this month that they will end the year in financial balance. A score of 9.26 is the highest ever recorded for this measure and the highest score of this barometer.
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Barometer acute trusts March 2007
There was a late surge in confidence at the end of February about reaching financial break-even or surplus, according to the latest Barometer survey of acute trust chief executives.
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Progress is about perception as headlines and reality clash
While optimism over the NHS is low, the public's feelings about services and choice are more positive. These contradictory perceptions mean GPs, managers and the DH have their work cut out ensuring patients 'interpret' reforms favourably, write MORI's Ben Page and Jonathan Nichols
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The real story about Wales' ambulances
I enjoyed the Your Humble Servant column on 15 March. In fact, I have it framed on my office wall. But, I really can't let Michael White's Welsh travelogue pass without comment.
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Christopher Newdick on treatment abroad and the law
Should PCTs be alarmed by the European Court of Justice's ruling on covering the cost of treatment abroad? Christopher Newdick explains
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Increased activity may put bright future at risk
While health service investment has soared, the pressure on organisations to secure financial control may be driving down productivity. Peter Smith unravels the paradox
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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 ...
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Sophia Christie on treating adults like kids
Outcomes for children generate emotional engagement; those for adults are dull in their worthiness
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Data briefing: the truth behind the A&E target
A recent analysis from Les Mayhew and David Smith at City University's Cass Business School has suggested some theoretical reasons - backed by data - why achievement of the accident and emergency maximum four-hour wait by 98 per cent of hospitals was probably not all it seemed.
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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
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Forging ahead with lessons from the future
Imagine being able to see the future and assess health needs and the repercussions of policy initiatives. Windmill 2007 did that and found some valuable pointers, as Alasdair Liddell and colleagues explain
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Simon Stevens on engagement and alienation
'Clinical engagement has to be approached critically. It cannot be pursued as an end in its own right'
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Come back, bowler brigade, all is forgiven
The Department of Health is the department the government wants - lean, responsive and focused. But is that what the health service needs? Scott Greer says the DoH should start answering back to government
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Good buy to all that: the need for procurement focus
With the government set to become a major purchaser of public services far more attention must be paid to the procurement process, warns Ann Rossiter of the Social Market Foundation
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Pick-and-mix NHS will serve all customers
Having the right people involved in the right discussions is the key to keeping the NHS in check, says Anna Coote, while Jessica Crowe argues for a wide form of accountability that leaves no voice unheard
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Media Watch: all-night surgery
Another week, another pledge from the prime minister. This time he says surgeons will work at night.
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Simon Stevens on the lost art of analysis
'Explaining NHS Deficits detonates many of the most powerful urban myths surrounding the NHS'.
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Skilled analysts of little use to the NHS
Do external consultants working in NHS organisations really deliver the goods? Birmingham University's Jonathan Shapiro argues that they may know how to diagnose problems, but cultural signposts pass them by
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Anna Donald on lessons from Australia
'The NHS can't avoid political controversy, because what it does is too important, complex, and subject to debate'