External contributors – Page 211
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CommentNoel Plumridge: the price of reputation
How would you feel about a health insurer that took your premium payments and then turned down your claim, not on the basis of an alleged pre-existing condition, or something in the contractual small print, but simply because it considered your illness a low priority?
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CommentReconfiguration pressures mounting in London
A report is sat on Andrew Lansley’s desk offering recommendations about the future of Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield.
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CommentMichael White: see you later, innovator
Oh dear. The British Medical Association is promising health ministers a long hot summer over the Health Bill, instead of a few calm weeks for leisurely reflection; this is in the misplaced hope that the medics can force its withdrawal before the bill goes to the obstreperous Lords.
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CommentPerfect placement: getting patients out of hospital and onto their preferred pathway
The biggest problem facing West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust is giving patients who no longer requiring hospital treatment the support and care they do need in the next stage of their pathway efficiently and cost effectively. Chief executive Jan Filochowski looks at the issue.
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CommentThe NHS Commissioning Board must support CCGs, not overshadow them
Amid the controversy around the government’s NHS reforms, relatively little attention has been given to the role of the NHS Commissioning Board.
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CommentLocal services need the backup of national support
We’ve all gone local these days. The health secretary is handing power to GPs. NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson is giving a bigger say to patients.
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CommentSally Gainsbury: what price public health?
How much does the NHS spend on public health? It is an important question because, whatever the amount is, it will be hacked off the NHS commissioning budget from 2013-14 onwards and passed over to those hungry colleagues in local authorities.
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CommentMedia Watch: a good week to bury health news
Health policy has been a little further than usual from the front pages this week, with the national dailies bingeing on the phone-hacking scandal.
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CommentSouth Tyneside FT not quite the 'darling' of the North East
The Care Quality Commission’s series of judgements on dignity and nutrition in hospitals is rumbling on – and South Tyneside Foundation Trust has been added to the list of those deemed not to be meeting “the essential standards of quality and safety”.
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CommentMichael White: Lansley - the boy on the burning deck?
Watching Andrew Lansley performing these days sometimes reminds me of Casabianca, Felicia Dorothea Hemans’ famous poem of 1826, the one about the young French sailor (was he 10, 12 or 13?) who stayed at his post on the doomed warship, L’Orient, during Nelson’s 1798 victory at the Battle of the ...
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CommentOne in five organisations who failed April waiting times targets are in North West
A few days after NHS deputy chief executive David Flory issued a curt letter warning the health service not to allow any further failures to hit waiting time targets, an NHS North West board meeting considered the problem.
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CommentHow to lead NHS transformation
The discussion in GP land continues to rage between those who oppose the reforms, and those who support them.
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CommentFunding crisis: Greek ruin could come to the NHS
Efficiency is no longer just about releasing cash from an outdated health service edifice - a new model must be built
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CommentHealthWatch: local scrutiny and national tension
Although the listening exercise was meant to encompass every aspect of the proposed changes to the NHS, an important part of the reforms has been slipping under everyone’s radar - HealthWatch.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: the finance director's job interview
“May I recap,” she said. “If I’m appointed finance director of the trust, my main deliverable is a financial strategy for foundation trust status within two years?”
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CommentEast of England raises concerns in accountability reviews
The East of England has been doing its annual round of accountability reviews at its primary care trusts. As well as South West Essex, Great Yarmouth and Waveney have had a visit.
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CommentThe North West's performance problems
A few days after NHS deputy chief executive David Flory issued a curt letter warning the health service not to allow any further failures to hit waiting times targets, an NHS North West board meeting considered its own share of the problem.
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CommentMedia Watch: migraines, babies and social care, oh my
Any newspaper-reading migraine sufferers might conclude that the NHS could soon use Botox to prevent their headaches - but only at the expense of making them unrecognisable to their babies.
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CommentMichael White: political meltdown?
Meltdown is an overworked media cliché which I try to avoid. But recent developments look a bit serious for the coalition.
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CommentProgress in the community: how TCS has helped community providers
With the Transforming Community Services transfers largely complete, attention turns to realising the benefits this sector of the NHS can now bring. Dr Kate Fallon looks at the progress that has been made.