News – Page 1998

  • News

    NHS could save £2.2bn by tackling inefficiency

    2006-10-23T12:00:00Z

    The NHS could save up to £2.2bn if trusts take steps to address wide variations in productivity and efficiency.The Department of Health has published its Better care, better valueindicators, which show trust-by-trust performance against a range of measures.Reducing unnecessary admissions could unlock £348m, and ...

  • News

    New head of policy at ASH

    2006-10-20T12:00:00Z

    Asthma UK policy and campaigns director Martin Dockrell has been appointed as the new head of policy at pressure group Action on Smoking and Health. Mr Dockrell was an AIDS activist in the 1980s and 1990s. For the last five years he has worked closely ...

  • News

    Improving outcomes for wheelchair users

    2006-10-20T12:00:00Z

    Out and About: wheelchairs as part of a whole systems approach to independencehas been published by the Department of Health. The document provides a view of the current state of wheelchair provision and makes recommendations on how the NHS working with partners can improve outcomes ...

  • News

    Response to NHS charges report

    2006-10-20T12:00:00Z

    The Department of Health has published its response to July's Commons health select committee report on NHS charging. The response covers charges levied on patients and families for prescription dental charges, sight tests, additional charges for some clinical services, assistance with transport costs and charges ...

  • News

    Wanless warning: future of NHS hangs on obesity action

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    The government has failed to tackle obesity - and unless it does so, the future of the NHS hangs in the balance, says the man who persuaded ministers to pump record sums into the service.

  • News

    'Unbundling' options promised soon

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    Ministers are to review financial incentives to encourage the NHS to rehabilitate older people in the community, rather than acute settings.

  • News

    Nicholson calls for 'headroom'

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    Creating 'financial headroom' this fiscal year is essential in coping with the risk of increased costs as healthcare shifts from hospitals to primary care, NHS chief executive David Nicholson told a Downing Street press conference on Tuesday.

  • News

    NHS chief sets out surplus expectations

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    The NHS is aiming for a surplus of 0.5 per cent by 2008-09, David Nicholson told the Commons public accounts committee on Monday.

  • News

    Dignity nurse plan scrapped

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    Plans for hospitals to appoint a 'dignity nurse' have been dropped after the proposal was 'misinterpreted'.

  • News

    Lansley: at-risk hospitals 'better off as charities'

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    Many community hospitals at risk of closure 'would be better off with charitable status' than remaining in the NHS, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley has said.

  • News

    NICE insiders criticise Alzheimer's drug decision

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has been criticised by its own senior advisers for not listening to experts when deciding to limit the use of the only drugs available in the UK for Alzheimer's disease.

  • News

    DoH pledges support teams

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    The Department of Health is to create a national support team to help primary care trusts and local authorities tackle public health.

  • News

    NHS Employers: far fewer job cuts than first claimed

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    The threat hanging over 20,000 NHS posts has amounted to fewer than 800 redundancies so far, NHS Employers has claimed.

  • News

    South West chief execs move in

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    As senior appointments for the newly reconfigured PCTs continue to take shape, HSJbrings you the latest recruits in the South West

  • News

    Dr Natalie-Jane Macdonald on GPs and commissioning

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    'Strategic health authorities and GPs must represent the best interests of the citizen and patient... However, they face some pretty daunting challenges'

  • News

    Commission says sorry for PCT score mistakes

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    The Healthcare Commission has apologised for sending 62 primary care trusts the wrong ratings last week. The commission was alerted to the errors by PCTs, which were given their individual scores on Tuesday, ahead of the official launch of figures for all of England on Thursday.

  • News

    Child visitors face ban

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    A hospital trust has drawn up contingency plans to severely restrict child visitors if patients are at risk from diarrhoea and vomiting bugs.

  • News

    Nicholson: mixed reviews but the right idea

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    Six weeks into the job, NHS chief executive David Nicholson has had a few days in which he will have felt the full force of the pressure he must withstand in his role at the centre of the increasingly heated debate about the future of the NHS.

  • News

    Food still leaves bad taste in patients' mouths

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    Almost half of hospital patients supplement their hospital food with offerings brought in by visitors, the biggest survey of its kind has revealed.

  • News

    Michael White on politics

    2006-10-19T00:00:00Z

    Tony Blair on the Prime Ministers Question Time and the Health Care Commissions annual rating