All Michael White articles – Page 10
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Comment'Lansley is saying it's not about saving cash or sacking nurses'
I have this persistent weakness, doctor. I keep feeling sorry for politicians. I know they are all volunteers and do foolish things. But people are so unkind to them, even when they mean well.
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CommentNHS efficiency does not automatically equal value
There was an undignified spat on BBC radio on Monday between Evan Davis of the Today programme and Bob Neill, the pugnacious local government minister, over the price of bagels charged to the public purse.
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Comment'As silly season stories go, Milburn's appointment was at least a genuine fact'
So, our reformist ex-health secretary Alan Milburn is to advise the coalition government on social mobility. The predictable cry of “traitor” goes up from within the Labour ranks.
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CommentMilton’s would-be milk snatch
As the overblown furore over school milk came and, almost as quickly, went after David Cameron stepped in, I was left feeling a bit sorry for Anne Milton, the coalition’s Conservative public health minister.
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CommentMichael White: the working time directive
Oh dear, I see the Royal College of Surgeons is up in arms again over the European working time directive as its 48 hour week rule affects staffing, management and even the safety of our hospitals.
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CommentMichael White: Lansley's five priorities for the NHS
It was cheering to spot Andrew Lansley’s five priorities for the NHS, public health and social care on the department’s website the other day. We need reassurance that he does have a coherent overview.
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CommentMichael White: the cancer target
A thoughtful politician friend of mine said with uncharacteristic impatience the other day: “No, I don’t think the coalition knows what it’s doing at all. I think it’s all over the place.”
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CommentMichael White: no aspect of the NHS will be untouched
It is a handy principle that any health secretary who falls foul of the British Medical Association and other NHS trade unions can’t be all bad, not least because the BMA’s response to Andrew Lansley’s mid-summer gift to GPs looks a touch ungrateful.
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CommentMichael White: libertarians and public health
We know he has had a tough week, but do go easy on Andrew Lansley.
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CommentMichael White on the NHS budget
Good news of a sort for Andrew Lansley as he faces twin pressures: wholly predictable pressure from the Tory right (plus that nudge from Andy Burnham) to include the NHS in George Osborne’s Budget strategy for public spending cuts, and pressure from the chancellor himself not to let feckless GPs ...
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CommentMichael White on hospital reconfigurations
“Oh joy, oh bliss. Now we will get some answers,” I told myself as we were waiting for George Osborne’s emergency cuts budget - (we are still waiting for details of Andrew Lansley’s Brave New NHS World).
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CommentMichael White on NHS reorganisation
I am very fond of my regular GPs. But Dr A treats the NHS’s budget cautiously, as if it was his own life savings, while Dr B is usually quite happy to fork out on my behalf.
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CommentMichael White: the case for devolving power
Before we turn to the miserable stuff, here is something which may cheer you up. Naoto Kan, the new prime minister of Japan, is a former social activist who first made his name as health minister in the 1990s.
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CommentMichael White: Richard Sykes' resignation
Before last weekend’s manure hit the coalition fan I had taken the trouble to dig out the Orange Book for further scrutiny. No, not the widely consulted guide to generic drugs, but the volume of essays published by the free market wing of the Liberal Democrat party. It caused so ...
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CommentMichael White on coalition compromises
When is the glass half full and when is it half empty? It’s all a matter of temperament, in my experience. The 400-point Lib-Con coalition agreement seems to have been a relatively painless negotiation as far as the 30 health (plus four on public health) points are concerned. Should we ...
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CommentMichael White: the new Lib-Con government
Well, it’s not going to be dull, is it? At a stretch you could even say that one of the dullest things about the new Lib-Con government is that Andrew Lansley was appointed health secretary.
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CommentMichael White: what the new government will mean for health
Cheer up, the election campaign is more or less over now and the country is finally bracing itself for the tricky bit.
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CommentMichael White: on the campaign trail
Always in search of a scoop, I tried to track down a speech about the NHS which I had heard that Gordon Brown made last weekend. It did not seem to have been widely reported, but this was not entirely the media’s fault.
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CommentMichael White: the election debate
In turbulent times this column’s reputation as a non-panic zone serves it well. Swine flu, Alan Johnson for PM, delinquent volcanoes, we take them all in our stride. So too the Lib Dem election surge since Nick Clegg’s quite good performance in the TV debate.
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CommentMichael White: the election campaign
How is the election going so far for you? No, don’t answer that if you would rather not. What with that ritual controversy over the relative merit of rival tax hikes, week 1 was quietly unimpressive, although the NHS surfaced in the campaign at the weekend.