All Government/DH policy articles – Page 161
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NewsCourt hears private patient cap arguments
The Department of Health has raised concerns that Monitor’s definition of the private patient income cap “permits foundations and their advisers to adopt artificial structures to circumvent the cap”.
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NewsHinchingbrooke opens to bidding for franchise
East of England strategic health authority has advertised for a franchisee to take over deficit-hit Hinchingbrooke hospital.
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CommentMedia Watch: bingo wing treatment gets DH backing
The Nintendo Wii Fit Plus has become the first computer game to be endorsed by the Department of Health, the papers trumpeted this week.
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LeaderAndy Burnham’s flawed NHS regime will stifle commissioning ambitions
The row over NHS competition policy played out over the pages of this week’s HSJ goes to the heart of Labour’s leadership of the NHS.
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NewsAndy Burnham stands ground after taking fire on competition rules
Health secretary Andy Burnham has insisted to HSJ that his rewriting of the competition rules will accelerate, not slow, the pace of NHS reform.
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NewsTories need clear vision and a stronger message on health
The Conservatives have pronounced themselves the party of reform but are too wedded to the status quo. Andrew Haldenby argues they need to spend more energy advocating change
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NewsNHS efficiency tsar: recession is a chance for change
The financial squeeze could finally force the NHS to restructure itself around community services, according to national director for improvement and efficiency Jim Easton.
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NewsDH eyes patient cap for new tariff rules
NHS hospitals face a limit on the number of patients they will be paid to treat next year, HSJ has learned.
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NewsTory plan could give GPs interest bonanza
GP practices could earn thousands of pounds a year in interest payments under Conservative plans to turn practice based commissioning budgets into “hard cash”.
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CommentSimon Stevens on the best healthcare system in the world
Torture the statistics until they confess. That seems to be the approach of many academics, journalists and policy wonks to the ideologically loaded question: which country’s healthcare system is best?
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NewsAndy Burnham extends preferred provider vow
Non-NHS providers of services will only be contracted as a last resort, the health secretary has assured the general secretary of the TUC.
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CommentAndy McKeon on NHS efficiency and pre-election sparring
The pre-election sparring has begun and the NHS will not escape some cuts. How tough things get will be a true test of how well money has been spent recently
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CommentPaul Corrigan: world class commissioning
The Department of Health launched the second year of the world class commissioning process in mid September.
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CommentJon Restell on NHS choice and personalisation
Every film has its fans. Although no one I know has had the audacity to big it up, even Marley and Me must have a tiny cult following somewhere. (Tip: if necessary, kill to avoid seeing Marley and Me.)
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NewsGP commissioning shows little sign of life - David Colin-Thomé
The government’s primary care tsar has admitted that efforts to “resuscitate” the “corpse” of practice based commissioning have had little effect.
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Mental health FTs allowed to treat private patients, but rules face fundamental review
The government is to launch a rapid review of the foundation trust private patient income cap in the face of a judicial review of the policy by the trade union Unison.
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NewsGovernment backs down from controversial foundation trust proposals
The government has dropped foundation trust proposals that had been criticised by the trusts, their regulator Monitor and former health secretary Patricia Hewitt.
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HSJ Knowledge
Home births
Women used to give birth at home: in 1900s over 99 per cent of babies were born at home. However, as GPs and obstetricians persuaded women that giving birth in hospital was safer than at home the rate dropped to 1 per cent in the 1980s. Today the home birth ...
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CommentYour Humble Servant: McKinsey, McJected
‘Imagine if you are in your umpteenth meeting in a hospital or PCT or SHA somewhere, with a McKinseyite costing your directorate’s annual savings plan being taught the McKinsey way of saving the world. You are going to be feeling a little dubious about it all’
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News‘Clunky’ GP contracts raise questions on quality
There are huge variations in what different PCTs pay for the same services, yet there is no detectable correlation between cost and quality or patient satisfaction. Sally Gainsbury looks at why commissioning has not yet addressed these stark contrasts