News – Page 1990

  • News

    Government passion cools on £50m safe-sex drive

    2006-11-16T10:00:00Z

    The government appears to have abandoned its pledge to spend £50m on safe-sex campaigns.

  • News

    Trusts warned not to axe acute beds prematurely

    2006-11-16T10:00:00Z

    Mental health trusts have been warned not to cut acute beds until their community services are fully developed.

  • News

    Healthier lives but ever-widening inequalities: what price progress?

    2006-11-16T10:00:00Z

    While London's spearhead primary care trusts look likely to meet their national targets on inequalities, there is a growing differential in specific disease areas and between geographical areas which threatens to undermine long-term advances. Daloni Carlisle reports

  • News

    Youth offending

    2006-11-16T10:00:00Z

    The continual inability of the NHS to engage with this group of young people is a core reason why inequalities will never be adequately tackled (HSJ 9 November). The NHS is governed by moral choices and offenders do not score highly on the morality stakes.

  • News

    Turnaround help for a third of acutes as deficits reach £1.2bn gross

    2006-11-16T10:00:00Z

    More than one-third of all acute trusts and a quarter of all primary care trusts are receiving turnaround support as it was revealed that deficits in the NHS are climbing again.

  • News

    A formula for unfairness

    2006-11-16T10:00:00Z

    With a significant proportion of NHS trusts in financial difficulty and many of those reporting ward closures and job losses, the financial health of the NHS emerged as one of the key political issues of 2006.

  • News

    Service-line economics goes to the heart of patient care

    2006-11-16T10:00:00Z

    As we reveal this week, foundation regulator Monitor will be consulting trusts on compliance guidance to push the adoption of service-line economics (feature, page 22).

  • News

    Doctors urged to discuss electronic records with patients

    2006-11-16T00:00:00Z

    The British Medical Association is encouraging doctors to start talking to patients about the new NHS care record service being developed by the national IT programme.Connecting for Health, the agency that runs the programme, is planning its own information campaign. But BMA chair James Johnson has written to doctors to ...

  • News

    NHS complaints up

    2006-11-16T00:00:00Z

    The Information Centre for health and social care has released figures showing a significant jump in the number of written complaints received by NHS trusts.The figures show that 95,047 complaints were registered during 2005-06, compared with 90,413 the previous year, and only three out of four were resolved locally within ...

  • News

    Diagnostic waiting times down

    2006-11-16T00:00:00Z

    The Department of Health has issued diagnostic waiting times data for September, showing that the average length of time that a patient can expect to wait for a test has fallen from around seven weeks in April to around five-and-a-half weeks now.The DoH started collecting monthly waiting time information for ...

  • News

    PCTs pull plug on £550m hospital for Hertfordshire

    2006-11-16T00:00:00Z

    Plans for new hospitals in Hertfordshire were in tatters this week after a £550m scheme to build a hospital and cancer centre in Hatfield were axed.

  • News

    Queen's Speech reignites row over mental health legislation

    2006-11-16T00:00:00Z

    The government used yesterday's Queen's Speech to confirm that it will introduce a bill to reform mental health legislation, following its decision to abandon plans for a new mental health act in March.The bill will introduce a new definition of 'mental disorder', a new 'appropriate treatment test' and supervised community ...

  • News

    New dental strategy for Northern Ireland

    2006-11-16T00:00:00Z

    Northern Ireland health minister Paul Goggins has unveiled a strategy to reform primary care dental services.The strategy includes a clearer focus on disease prevention, moves to ensure better access to services, local commissioning and a new remuneration system for dentists.Mr Goggins said that despite examples of good practice, the current ...

  • News

    Growing debts in Wales

    2006-11-16T00:00:00Z

    A report from the Welsh Assembly's audit committee has warned that the NHS deficit in Wales is continuing to grow. The report says the service overspent by more than £30m last year, while carrying 'historic debt' of more than £80m.The committee has also highlighted 'significant variations' in the way that ...

  • News

    Sophia Christie on helping the NHS to learn

    2006-11-16T00:00:00Z

    'The Canadian system rather than the NHS may benefit from our learning about the value of purposeful development'

  • News

    New emergency planning guidance published

    2006-11-15T00:00:00Z

    The Department of Health is consulting on new guidance for dealing with major emergencies like terrorist attacks.The best practice guidance is meant to help health services in planning, preparing and responding to all types of emergencies including natural disasters, infectious epidemics and major power cuts.The consultation closes on 31 December.Read ...

  • News

    Scottish Executive unveils plans to reform nursing

    2006-11-15T00:00:00Z

    New measures to reform nursing in Scotland have been unveiled by the Scottish Executive.Health minister Andy Kerr launched the Delivering Care, Enabling Healthstrategy, which will give nurses, midwives and allied health professionals a bigger role in patient care.The strategy was published alongside a review ...

  • News

    Healthcare managers face future outside the NHS, says IHM president

    2006-11-15T00:00:00Z

    Many more healthcare managers may end up working in the private and voluntary sector, said the president of the Institute of Healthcare Management.Speaking at the IHM's annual conference in Cardiff, Gerry McScorley said the growing range of organisations delivering healthcare meant many new career opportunities.At the same conference, IHM chief ...

  • News

    Clinicians should take the lead on commissioning, says BMA

    2006-11-15T00:00:00Z

    Government plans to change how NHS services are commissioned will only succeed with the full involvement of clinicians, the British Medical Association said today.Honest and open debate with the public is also crucial, said the association as it unveiled its own set of principles for commissioning.The BMA was responding to ...

  • News

    BMJ study says Evercare fails to cut hospital admissions

    2006-11-15T00:00:00Z

    A new case management system for older patients has failed to reduce emergency admissions and death rates, says a study in the BMJ.The Evercare system is a key plank of government community care policy and has been rolled out across England.Researchers, who studied nine ...