External contributors – Page 224
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Comment
'NHS cuts will come off a far fatter bird'
It won’t have changed your life much, but MPs have been squabbling for weeks now over the future size of the NHS budget under the coalition’s plans for the next five years. “Bigger or smaller?” critics demand to know. Yes or no, does it change anything?
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What happened to courage?
A client describes the following scenario to me. The 24-year-old son of a close friend has lost his job in the fallout from the sudden collapse of the business in which he was working.
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HSJ100: Hakin and Gerada lead the rise of the clinicians
The white paper represents a seismic shift in policy and operational form, perhaps the biggest since the inception of the NHS.
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Can patient choice alone force the changes the service needs?
The advent of the coalition has, of course, brought about a major overhaul of the existing power and influence matrix within the NHS.
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How to establish your marketability
Having decided to try for a new role or being faced with the need to look for a new job, there is often a temptation to dust off the CV, add relevant new information, then fire it out to as many companies, organisations and agencies as possible.
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Treading softly on cancer's dreams
It is good to see old fashioned centralisation is alive and well in sensitive matters.
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Local NHS pay negotiations: beware raiders of the lost cause
We have too much to lose as patients and taxpayers to repeat the 1990s’ flirtation with local pay negotiations.
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The national public health service
What will the new national public health service look like?
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The Mid Staffs inquiry and NHS redundancies
The national media’s week was not surprisingly dominated by the start of the Mid Staffs public inquiry.
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Michael White: health panel discussions
As I type I can hear this week’s opening of the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust public inquiry being discussed on the radio.
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'A good coach helps you to see the world as it really is'
Stress levels in the management community are higher than at any time since I joined it 41 years ago. At best, many managers face the loss of career prospects and life chances. At worst, they face the loss of employment and real hardship.
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'Major NHS reforms are driven by the heart, not the calculator'
Two things become apparent from recent parliamentary exchanges on the cost of anticipated large scale NHS redundancies.
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Your Humble Servant: home front
‘We’re invading your privacy at home, and turning it into the outpatient clinic’
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The NHS needs to re-invent itself to cope with funding cuts
The NHS’s funding increase is actually a 0.5 per cent cut - efficiency savings of 4-5 per cent will have to be found.
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Independent contractors and the NHS
Are independent contractors really part of the NHS? The answer, traditionally, has been “yes, when convenient; no, when not”.
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'Complaints about NICE on one page and useless, costly drugs on another'
After a summer in which Labour’s health team was off fighting a leadership contest and the Liberal Democrat team was co-opted into government, health politics are livening up. No more Mr Nice Guy seems to be John Healey’s message.
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NHS efficiency savings could get a rough ride
What is the difference between a cut and an efficiency saving? And will patients be able to tell the difference?
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NHS underspends under the microscope
It is one of the most common dilemmas of NHS financial management. The trust sets an annual expenditure budget. A budget holder underspends - no doubt for excellent reasons - and wants to carry the unspent balance forward into the following financial year.
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Comment
Big Society: little guys vs big guns
The third sector is uniting in the hope of building enough clout to win the big society contracts