All Opinion/columnist articles – Page 32
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CommentAmong the structural turmoil, maintaining performance is a matter of life and death
While all eyes are currently on the political rollercoaster that is the Health Bill, less seductive but more vital is maintaining the performance of a service that has life and death consequences for individuals every day.
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CommentYour humble servant: can you hear me, Andrew Lansley?
From being everywhere to suddenly being nowhere, your humble servant goes in search of the health secretary.
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CommentFewer managers won't mean fewer problems
The popular wisdom that the NHS needs fewer managers is the opposite of what will save us, argues Centre for Innovation in Health Management director Becky Malby.
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CommentBritnell: the NHS performs amongst the best but it can be better
Just over two years ago, as some people knew, the NHS saved my life. My family and I shall always be grateful to it and will always support it.
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CommentSally Gainsbury: a cunning plot, outed
The conspiracy theorists were busy earlier this month proposing that Monitor had deliberately “buried” its updated financial assumptions over the bank holiday weekend.
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CommentThe listening exercise needs to reach grass roots voices
The government appears to be listening hard in a bid to appease opposition to the health service reforms - but, as Asthma UK chief executive Neil Churchill explains, some patient groups’ concerns are still not being addressed.
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CommentMark Britnell: the NHS funding model is no longer 'resilient'
A sophisticated discussion on how – and how much – the health service should be funded is badly needed to avoid undoing two decades worth of progress.
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Comment
Ben Gowland: changing the minds of managers in a clinically led NHS
In all the talk of radical health service reforms, one of the factors which has almost been forgotten is the revolutionary shift in mindset required of the NHS manager in primary care.
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CommentMichael White: despite distractions, the focus remains trained on reforms
Did you catch that row over the NHS at prime minister’s question time? No, I thought not. What with the royal nuptial and the killing of Osama bin Laden we have all had a lot on our media plate.
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Comment
The barriers to achieving cost effective interventions
A lack of clarity around the effectiveness of out of hospital interventions is preventing their potential cost efficiencies from being realised. But, says Nuffield Trust director Jennifer Dixon, there are reasons to be cheerful.
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CommentSally Gainsbury: balancing the books with creative 'fiddling'
It is year-end accounts closing time and finance departments are a hive of fevered book balancing. This column wants to salute the best of that and so is launching the NHS Finance Departments Delivering Liberty and Excellence – FiDDLE – award.
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CommentMichael White: the Tory rhetoric is now bogged down in detail
Over a junk food lunch with NHS heavies recently I found the conversation turning – yet again – to Andrew Lansley. Is he on the level? Does he have a hidden agenda to privatise the system? That kind of thing.
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CommentKeeping safer service delivery at the forefront of the NHS
The NHS has made great strides in delivering safer services: the recent work on surgical check lists is another excellent example that hospitals cannot afford to ignore. However there is still much to do, says Paul Zollinger-Read.
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CommentWhy the reforms need to avoid penalising NHS and local government relationships
Areas where improved health outcomes are already being delivered through strong NHS and local government partnerships will be hoping the negative impact the reforms could have on this success will be seriously reviewed, writes Blackburn with Darwen chief executive Graham Burgess.
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CommentThe debate on consortia governance requires sound principles, and hard evidence
To commission effectively, consortia will need governance arrangements that create confidence and trust, and build legitimacy and partnerships, writes The Health Foundation chief executive Stephen Thornton.
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CommentIs the NHS constitution still relevant in the new NHS landscape?
Since the government came to power and the health secretary announced sweeping reforms to the NHS, there seems to have been little focus on the NHS constitution. Gerard Hanratty, partner at healthcare law firm Capsticks, weighs up what may happen to it under the coalition government.
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CommentThis ‘natural break’ is an opportunity to develop a genuinely patient-centred NHS
The coalition’s ‘listening exercise’ shows that Cameron and his ministers know they do not have the votes to push the reforms through Parliament in their current shape. They might do better if they radically rethink their proposals, argues Institute for Public Policy Research senior research fellow for health Phil McCarvill.
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CommentSally Gainsbury: scary care cuts
I’ve had reason to delve around local government “savings” plans recently, and compared with QIPP they make for scary reading.
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HSJ Knowledge'Putting PCT staff into commissioning organisations could prove to be insanity'
Someone once said that the distance between insanity and genius is measured by success. So only time will tell which of these terms best describes the idea of turning primary care trusts into commissioning support units, writes Ben Gowland.
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CommentIs there really room for localism in the Big Healthy Society?
As the centre slowly learns to let go, three bills will shape the future relationship between local and central government, writes Local Government Group’s Rob Whiteman.