News – Page 1389
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Sir Liam announces NPSA 'refocus'
The National Patient Safety Agency is to be slimmed down and 'refocused' on collecting and analysing information through its national reporting and learning system.
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Welsh minister welcomes health TV series
A six-part TV series will begin on ITV Wales tomorrow aimed at inspiring viewers to make a lifestyle change for a healthier 2007.Fit for a Changewas made in association with Health Challenge Wales.Health minister Dr Brian Gibbons commented: 'The series will encourage all of us to be more active for ...
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Food labels branded as flawed
The National Heart Forum has called the system of guideline daily amounts due to be launched tomorrow by 21 major food companies 'seriously flawed'.The NHF believes the scheme will widen dietary health inequalities as it is difficult to understand and misleading to the most vulnerable.Chief executive Paul Lincoln said: 'If ...
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New chief for WHO
Dr Margaret Chan of China has today taken office as director-general of the World Health Organisation following her election in November.She pledged that her term of office and the effectiveness of the organisation would be judged by the impact they have on two specific populations.'I want my leadership to be ...
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DoH plans mark rewriting of relationship with professions
If one image of the dole queue helped finish off Labour in 1979, just imagine what might happen if the jobless wore white coats. The prospect of making large numbers of consultant posts redundant is one rarely articulated in public. That changes this week with HSJrevealing ...
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Plans for consultants 'absurd', says BMA
British Medical Association consultants committee chair Dr Jonathan Fielden has criticised the Department of Health’s draft pay and workforce documents, revealed in HSJtoday. He said: ‘It is absurd to suggest that the NHS in England needs fewer hospital consultants. ‘To suggest that there should be fewer consultants, and of a ...
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News Analysis: Next era of reform will hinge on Brown being as bold as Blair
With Gordon Brown almost certain to take over as prime minister this year, and his reputation for springing surprises, people in the health service are beginning to wonder what it will mean for them and the NHS reform landscape. Daniel Martin looks for clues
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Ruth Hussey on sustainability
'Sustainable development is good management. Consider the cost of energy - good management expects efficient energy use. Consider the difficulty in recruiting staff - good management develops skills to meet its needs from the local community. Consider disadvantaged communities - good management procures goods and services locally'
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BMA hits back at training 'cuts'
The British Medical Association has raised concerns about the current situation in medical education and voiced opposition to the cap on student fees being lifted in its response to the Commons education and skills committee inquiry, published today The doctors' union is concerned that medical ...
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Stomach pain tops Christmas complaints
Stomach and jaw pain dominated calls to telephone helpline NHS Direct over Christmas, statistics show.Vomiting, toothache and diarrhoea were also among the top 10 reasons for calling the helpline in England.Over the whole of 2006 the service received around 7 million calls, while during the Christmas period there were a ...
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Sir Liam demands faster progress on safety
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 ...
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High take-up for optician training
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 ...
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David Peat on lost baggage and fielding complaints
'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.'
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Smarter prescribing could save millions
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 ...
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Health figures honoured
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 ...
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'Hooked' stop smoking campaign launched
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
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Legal age to buy tobacco to rise
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 ...
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2007 a make or break year for NHS, says think tank
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 ...
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DoH says avoid public health redundancies
The Department of Health has decreed that 'all reasonable steps' should be taken to avoid making primary care trust public health directors redundant to enable the NHS to retain their specialist knowledge.
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Lord Warner: PCT commissioning advert blunder 'only human'
Health minister Lord Warner has labelled his department's hurried withdrawal of an advertisement to contract out primary care trust management services as 'unfortunate' ' but stood by the government's assertion of the need to bring in private sector commissioning experience.