All articles by End Game – Page 11
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Blogs
Collateral damage
Amid the cut and thrust of health policy debate on the internet, spare a thought for those who get caught in the middle. Foremost among the innocent victims must be long suffering Twitter user Mr Benjamin M. A’Lee.Why? Well, with the best will in the world, Mr A’Lee used his ...
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Blogs
The expert patient
Apparently it really is true what they say about the patient being the expert.A recent Care Quality Commission report into West Cumberland Hospital quoted one patient they spoke as saying it had been “marvellous to see a holistic and multi-disciplinary team approach.”End Game firmly condemns wags on Twitter who said ...
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Blogs
The radiology for fun tariff
An excited press release arrives from a tech firm who are desperate for us to use their name, boasting that their equipment was used to identify the bones of deceased monarch Richard III.End Game thanks them for getting in touch, but is more interested in the fact that the work ...
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Blogs
Doctor Wars
Word reaches End Game that some American funsters have come up with a game based on the premise that medics can be a bit competitive.We don’t know where they got that idea. Anyway, “Doctor Wars” is apparently a game in which “chance and strategy are the prescription for fun”.“When doctors ...
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Blogs
Man of Steel
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope – somewhat surprisingly, it’s Phil Morley, chief executive of Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust.It’s fair to say Mr Morley threw himself headlong into the organisation’s Workout at Work day by appearing in a short film made especially for the event.The ...
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Blogs
Implementing localism
A particularly bold and probing parliamentary question has caught End Game’s eye.Dominic Raab, Tory MP for Surrey’s Esher and Walton ward, exhibiting his finest scrutiny skills, queried of health minister Norman Lamb last Tuesday: “What progress his department has made on implementing local commissioning of NHS services?”Mr Lamb – ignoring ...
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Blogs
All fall down
Heartiest End Game congratulations go to Greater Manchester Commissioning Support Unit, whose stand was named best in the exhibition at the Commissioning Show.One of the best things about the GM CSU’s stand was a game of giant Jenga. The bricks were marked with corporate branding and descriptions of their various ...
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Blogs
Open sesame
Among the few perks of being a hack is being able to stumble into various events, often late and smelling of last night’s indulgences, mumbling the word “press” and watching the doors magically open.We’re like modern day Ali Babas, but without the cave full of treasure.But the old “open sesame” ...
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Blogs
The return of Bill Moyes
Sir David Nicholson appeared to go into June on a relative high. He’d had a recent holiday, his retirement was decided, and as a result there had been an abating of the opprobrium from elements of the press and body politic.He could even have been described as ebullient as he ...
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Blogs
An ear to the ground
Regular readers may remember that End Game got the willies a few weeks ago when something called @DHMonitoring started following a couple of HSJ’s more high profile tweeters.After all, the name was a bit creepy, and it did feel a bit like someone had brazenly parked a van with a ...
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Blogs
Healthcare in flux
A delegate at the NHS Confederation’s conference in Liverpool has been spotted drawing what appeared to be a picture of the Flux Capacitor from Back to the Future, but with the patient at the centre.For any readers who didn’t tape the 80s cinematic humdinger off the telly and watch it ...
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Blogs
Soubry watch
End Game is the biggest fan of public health minister Anna Soubry and was distressed to see her dragged into controversy after attempting to make a sensible point about women doctors.The minister for shooting from the hip - as her distractors unfairly label her - got herself in trouble during ...
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Blogs
The Hospital Standardised Morality Rate
As the post-Francis funk over patient safety enters its fourth month, it seems that NHS lifers are finally beginning to point their fingers of blame directly into their own faces.In particular, at the loose morals plaguing the NHS.Evidence of this was spotted at a recent patient safety event, where a ...
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Blogs
The friends and family test: all Dunn in
When Stephen Dunn, former head of policy at NHS Midlands and East (RIP), tweeted a link to a video about the “friends and family” test last week, End Game was excited.Crayon at the ready, tongue sticking out the corner of the mouth for added concentration, End Game prepared to scribble ...
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Blogs
Thinking the unthinkable
End Game warmly congratulates the Conservative Party for bravely recognising the scale of the challenge the NHS faces, and daring to think outside the box in public.In this case “the box” they are thinking outside of is the principle of treatment based on clinical need.A Tory consultation paper picked up ...
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Blogs
More NHS related cakes
After the extraordinary “Bristol stool tart”, End Game is delighted to learn that that more clinicians have decided to express their love for their jobs through the medium of cake.Members of the Royal College of Midwives have done themselves proud (and End Game a favour) by producing a breathtaking array ...
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Blogs
Scents and sensibility
End Game has a wide range of interests, but normally we draw the line at cosmetics, so when a perfumer sent in a press release about some new smells they’ve made, we were all about hit “delete” without further thought.But just before we did, we got a whiff of something ...
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Blogs
Moore confusion over women at the top
Sir David Nicholson’s resignation (as exclusively revealed by HSJ - you’re very welcome) sparked a predictable frenzy of bile, praise and speculation about who will replace the big beast.While health select committee head honcho Stephen Dorrell has no jurisdiction over the selecting the new Commandant, his choice would at the ...
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Blogs
The dance of innovation
End Game learns of more evidence of innovation from a commissioning support unit.NHS South CSU has listed a set of private sector partner organisations on its website. This is in line with what policymakers had strongly suggested CSUs should do, to pull in expertise and new ways of doing things ...
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Blogs
The wisdom of crowds
The group campaigning for Stafford Hospital to remain open now have a new song to get behind, End Game learns.Titled 50,000 People Can’t Be Wrong, the song is available to listen to on YouTube or to download from Amazon.In End Game’s experience, NHS songs tend to fall into three categories: ...