Latest news – Page 1952

  • News

    Sir Liam demands faster progress on safety

    2007-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Chief medical officer Professor Sir Liam Donaldson has called for more speed in improving patient safety in his newsletter published today.Although Sir Liam praised a 'greater awareness among clinicians, managers and policymakers that patients are not as safe as they should be', he said that the pace of change had ...

  • News

    High take-up for optician training

    2007-01-03T00:00:00Z

    More than 90 per cent of opticians met the requirement for continuing education and training (CET) by the 31 December 2006 deadline.Final figures for the first cycle released by the General Optical Council show that 95 per cent of optometrists, 89 per cent of dispensing opticians and 86 per cent ...

  • News

    David Peat on lost baggage and fielding complaints

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    'I always try to acknowledge a complaint myself when it arrives on our doorstep, and I always sign off our response. It helps me keep in touch with patients' perceptions - their sense of grievance, injustice or perplexity.'

  • News

    Smarter prescribing could save millions

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    More efficient prescribing of generic statins rather than branded versions could save the NHS £85m a year, according to the Department of Health. Latest 'better care, better value' indicators found that the savings could be made if every primary care trust prescribed such drugs to the level achieved by the ...

  • News

    Health figures honoured

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    Christie Hospital trust chair Joan Higgins has been made a DBE in the New Year Honours list. NHS Confederation chair Peter Mount, former Greater Manchester strategic health authority chief executive Neil Goodwin, Royal College of Nursing president Roswyn Hakesley-Brown and health economist Anne Mills have been made CBEs.To see the ...

  • News

    'Hooked' stop smoking campaign launched

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    A campaign that shows people being seized by fish hooks and dragged to their smoking spots has been launched. The campaign, which includes TV adverts, outdoor advertising, direct mail and a dedicated website, reveals that the average smoker needs over 5,000 cigarettes a year.www.gosmokefree.co.uk/getunhooked

  • News

    Legal age to buy tobacco to rise

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    The legal minimum age to buy tobacco is to rise from 16 to 18 on 1 July. The move is intended to make it easier for retailers to spot under-age smokers and reduce the numbers of teenagers who smoke. A campaign to raise awareness of the change will be launched ...

  • News

    2007 a make or break year for NHS, says think tank

    2007-01-02T00:00:00Z

    A failure to tackle rising costs and to invest in modern services means that 2007 is a make or break year for the NHS, according to a report by think tank Reform. The report says the service's long-term strength has been sapped by the lack of an underpinning costed reform ...

  • News

    Monitor concern over foundation progress

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Less than half of acute and mental health trusts are likely to reach foundation status by 2008, regulator Monitor has said.

  • News

    Sir Ian warns against complacency after 'creditable' recovery

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Cutting the NHS's net deficit to £512m was a 'creditable' performance ' but cannot be used an excuse for complacency, acting chief executive Sir Ian Carruthers told HSJ.

  • News

    Every GP practice to get kitemark rating

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Every GP surgery is to be rated from next year under a kitemark scheme backed by the Department of Health.

  • News

    Penalty fines total millions on IT

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Trusts are being fined millions of pounds for failing to lend staff to computer contractors running the troubled national IT programme.

  • News

    East Sussex A&E proposals criticised by local MPs

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Trust considers alternating emergency care service between hospitals

  • News

    Foundation concern over £28m in unpaid bills

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Nine foundation trusts have 'significant concerns' over whether outstanding bills will be paid by primary care trusts. The trusts are warning that £28m might have to be written off.

  • News

    Treaty clash between regulatory rivals

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Friction between regulators Monitor and the Healthcare Commission was growing this week over the former's reluctance to sign up to a concordat designed to reduce the regulatory burden on trusts.

  • News

    Politicians in line for a drubbing, ahead of Confed debate

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Patient and public involvement is a 'sham' and politicians are 'pretty useless' at explaining NHS reform, key NHS figures have warned.

  • News

    Inside track: public health

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    What's on managers' minds this week

  • News

    Comms failure hampered London bombing response

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    London Ambulance Service trust has accepted that the breakdown of the mobile network and the configuration of its radio system led to 'communications difficulties' that hampered the NHS response to the bombings in London on 7 July last year.

  • News

    GP star-rating talks called off over fears of misuse

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Any system of 'star-ratings' for GPs now looks unlikely after the Royal College of GPs broke off talks with the government over the proposals.

  • News

    Higher costs warning on independent sector

    2007-01-01T00:00:00Z

    Uncertainty over the role of the independent sector is likely to result in higher costs to the NHS, less innovation and a 'muddle' which will put patients in danger, the King's Fund has warned.