All articles by End Game – Page 5
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Blogs
Shakin' Simon
Simon Stevens’ arrival at NHS England has been marked, in what is becoming the conventional fashion, by an unfunny Twitter spoof account.Twitter fans may be aware that previous attempts to caricature Mr Stevens’ predecessor, Sir David Nicholson, rapidly ran out of puff and were nothing like as bonkers as Sir ...
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Blogs
SRO for fun
Tim Kelsey, NHS England’s director for patients and information and End Game stalwart, gave the audience at the HC 2014 conference last week a peculiar insight into the health service’s appraisal system for senior managers.He told delegates at the health IT jamboree that, as part of his appraisal, he had ...
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Blogs
Proper tea is theft
End Game fans will remember, perhaps with a nostalgic chuckle, that a few months ago we exclusively revealed that Sir David Nicholson takes a Nottingham Forest mug on tour with him.The famous mug, in its new home at the HSJ national support centreWe’re still not quite sure why he did ...
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Blogs
Yesterday's man
Sir David Nicholson – winner of End Game’s unofficial best ever person on social media award – has promised to keep tweeting about the NHS after he retires on Monday.We are sure we will continue to enjoy his weird and dangerous sense of humour for many years to come, but ...
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Blogs
CQC loses its footing
Two senior individuals involved in the Care Quality Commission’s new hospital inspection regime have been spotted clunking around in orthopaedic boots – the sign of a nasty foot injury.An uncanny coincidence. Have they been giving some hapless trust a kicking? Or are hospitals under inspection feeling the pressure and fighting ...
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Blogs
TeeKay's banter cannon
Tim Kelsey’s appetite for a good old josh on Twitter with his departing boss Sir David Nicholson appears undiminished despite recent events which hopefully won’t be remembered as Hitler-gate.The japery began when Sir David Nicholson tweeted a link to the now infamous Downfall parody video lampooning Mr Kelsey’s oversight of ...
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Blogs
Hyaluronic acid: A love letter
Hyaluronic acid. Say it with End Game. Hyaluronic acid. We love the stuff! It’s easily our favourite kind of acid.Known simply as HA to its pals, hyaluronic acid is sometimes marketed as the “fountain of youth” because it is good for the joints and revitalises the skin. We’ve been a ...
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Blogs
Sir David's leaving do
Sir David Nicholson is now enough of an adopted southerner to have had his farewell drinks reception at St Thomas’s Hospital this week, and we made it onto the guest list.That means we were treated to canapés and free drinks – including some presumably ironic bottles of London Pride. We ...
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Blogs
Like a circle in a spiral
First, let us be absolutely clear that End Game is a profound supporter of NHS Change Day, and applauds both its aims and the outcomes of thousands of tiny improvements to make NHS services more considerate, caring and patient centred.But however committed our cheerleading, we will always be outclassed by ...
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Blogs
Lincolnshire existentialists
Lincolnshire Community Health Services Trust hosted a fun jamboree to try and help inspire some of its resident smokers to kick the habit this month.The trust laid on a day of “1940s-themed No Smoking Day celebrations”, inviting all comers toimmerse themselves in 1940s spirit, with the retro dance demonstrators and ...
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BlogsLookey-Likey on the Radio Mikey
VaughanRoylesHere are two twinkly-eyed, football loving everyblokes.Both have a personal style combining keen intelligence with down to earth, homespun common sense.Both enjoy wholesome pursuits – though one is into cooking and the other prefers a countryside stroll.It seems the only things separating DJ Johnny Vaughan and Dean Royles, the NHS’s ...
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Blogs
Talking about talking about talking
There was so much sense talked at the NHS England Expo, and so very much of it tweeted out by NHS England’s media team, that it’s difficult to single out highlights.But a special mention goes to the SOCIAL COMMAND CENTRE – a sinister sounding piece of apparatus which in fact ...
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Blogs
The long walk to the boardroom
Are we a bunch of hard-nosed hacks who have seen too much of the cutthroat world of health policy? Yes, probably so, but even End Game’s icicle heart was warmed by a recent missive from Surrey and Borders Partnership Trust.We opened the chief executive’s report expecting the financial warnings and ...
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Blogs
Sixty per cent guff
The important matter of Monitor’s 2013-14 report and accounts was on the agenda at the regulator’s latest board meeting.It won’t be published until July. But it’s not surprising that the wheels have to be set in motion early when its proposed length is 86 pages.We’ll be honest - End Game’s ...
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Blogs
Jazz Expo
If NHS England had promoted care.data with the same gusto it advertised its own Expo in Manchester this week, it may well have avoided the unwelcome jaunt-up-poo-creak-sans-paddle-come-stool-storm it’s currently navigating.Care.data, which involves the laudable but tricky task of joining up patients’ health records without breaching their privacy, was advertised by ...
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Blogs
The Downfall of Tim Kelsey
It would be charitable to describe care.data as a communications fiasco, but anyone wondering about its impact on the status of NHS England’s national director for patients and information today received an unexpected answer.It came in the form of a Downfall parody video. Readers will surely be familiar with the ...
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Blogs
By the rivers of Babylon, or what Ali Parsa did next
Babylon! The Mesopotamian city-state, whose hanging gardens were considered the one of the wonders of the world.Babylon! Founded two millennia before Christ, whose ruins could be seen from the window of one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces.Babylon! Site of the mythic tower of Babel, that enduring allegory for man’s hubris!Babylon! Seat ...
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Blogs
End Game exclusive! DH gets loved-up
End Game’s cockles were warmed on a recent visit to Richmond House when we saw that the Department of Health’s staff were being encouraged to 1) get amorous and 2) raise money for charity.Like many workplaces, the DH is running one of those Valentine’s Day schemes where you can buy ...
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Blogs
Nicholson joins Twitter souvenir special
End Game stands shell shocked and trembling after having witnessed history in the making – an event whose significance is on a par with Britain joining the Common Market or Ringo joining the Beatles. Yes, we were there when one @DavidNichols0n joined Twitter.NHS England’s chief executive has used his unexpected ...
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Blogs
The revolution will not be trivialised
End Game has learned of an underground rebellion looking to sweep away the “old guard” and bring about a new order and a better NHS world for us all.This insidious group of “heretics and radicals” first caught our eye in the Twittersphere – particularly via the tweets of radical-in-chief Helen ...