External contributors – Page 221
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CommentMedia Watch: Cameron and Lansley spring into action
The week kicked off with the health secretary and prime minister both going into action to defend the Health and Social Care Bill, ahead of its second reading in parliament on Monday.
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CommentPublic health tremors could unleash a monster
The double whammy of setting up a new national public health service (Public Health England) and returning responsibility for health improvement to local government is the most earth-shaking shift in public health since the abolition of medical officers of health in 1974.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: the DH's fistful of figures
The Department of Health’s intent to maintain “grip” on NHS performance during 2011-12 is plain in the technical guidance to the NHS operating framework, issued in late January.
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CommentThe Health Bill - rising to the challenge
The Health Bill sets out a vision for commissioning where innovative consortia of GPs take the lead in transforming our health and social care systems from being demand-led and provider-oriented to being patient-centred and outcomes-focused.
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CommentMichael White: like a civil war, the Health Bill has divided political families
Reading in last week’s HSJ how Andrew Lansley’s Health Bill will combine NHS decentralisation with powerful regulation from Whitehall, I was reminded of the label once attached to the Chinese communist party’s controlled introduction of capitalism: “market Stalinism”.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: the prospective pinch on pensions
The government is doing all it can to reduce the value - or, in Treasury-speak, the “burden” - of public sector pensions.
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CommentMedia Watch: health bill reaction reiterates 'chorus of concern'
Perhaps the most noticeable thing about the national media’s coverage of the Health Bill was its apparent reluctance to really analyse the detail and instead focus on the responses from the various detractors among the unions and interested parties.
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CommentAn open letter from David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS
‘We will be showcasing what is brightest and best about the NHS and healthcare in the UK’
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The NHS Commissioning Board: biggest of the big spenders
The NHS Commissioning Board’s greatest influence on quality will be through how it splashes its cash
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CommentWhat happens if the health reforms work?
Anyone looking at the future of the government’s reforms is always interested in the question: “What happens if this doesn’t really work the way the government wants it to?”
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Comment'Time to scrap GP exception reporting'
We must now scrap exception reporting by GPs in the quality and outcomes framework.
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Comment'We all know what’s wrong with the NHS'
There are too many hospitals swallowing up too much money for too little return. Which is fine until you try to close or downsize one, and all hell breaks loose.
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Comment'Accountability in the NHS is a mess'
Ministers in Whitehall have excessive powers to interfere and meddle in local operational issues, with primary care trusts controlled by strategic health authorities and SHAs by Whitehall.
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CommentMichael White: ministers are puzzled by the BMA’s hostility
It remains a guiding principle of this column that any policy opposed by the British Medical Association can’t be all bad.
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CommentNoel Plumridge: SHAs need to decide their priorities, and soon
One of the more dramatic parts of the 2011-12 operating framework is the withholding, by strategic health authorities, of 2 per cent of primary care trust funding.
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Comment'People expect public servants to preserve the public good'
The public sector is commonly perceived to be stuffed with overstaffed bureaucracies and far too many tiers of administration, and therefore it is usually concluded by external commentators that private companies produce far better leaders.
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CommentMedia Watch: 'Patients should do more than lounge around in their pyjamas'
The acute sector was the early focus of the media this week, with local papers across the country running stories on hospitals affected by flu and national coverage of two reports written by doctors.
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CommentHelen Bevan: Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?
NHS managers live in fear, which saps creativity and productivity. The antidote is hope
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Comment'Management conspiracy requires management intelligence, and I'm not talking data'
So as we enter 2011, chief operating officer Lansley continues to command the full support of the board and old-Etonian co-owners Cameron and Letwin, a level of support comparable to that enjoyed by a Hodgson-Grant-Ancelotti-Houllier hydra.
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'Is the long stay trim a haircut too far?'
With payment by results, the devil is sometimes in the detail.