All Policy articles – Page 225

  • Comment

    Michael White on the financial crisis

    2008-10-16T09:00:00Z

    The deepening financial crisis is changing how we look at everything now. For instance, aren't NHS finance directors glad they didn't have surpluses to invest unwisely during the years when Patricia Hewitt's stiletto was on their necks?

  • Comment

    Stephen Eames on managing by fear

    2008-10-16T09:00:00Z

    Up here in the North East the community is still reeling from the collapse of Northern Rock and is now watching with horror the ongoing farcical spectacle that is Newcastle United Football Club.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Healthcare funding: is there enough to go round?

    2008-10-16T09:00:00Z

    As new treatments and an ageing population put ever more pressure on health systems across the world, future governments will have to rethink the way that they are funded.

  • News

    Treasury eyes hidden PCT surpluses

    2008-10-16T09:00:00Z

    Increased demand for health services as recession bitesTwo-year timetable for service reconfiguration and investmentSurpluses vulnerable

  • News

    Politicians are poor persuaders

    2008-10-16T09:00:00Z

    Interesting to see Simon Stevens' comments on the science of persuasion. Clearly our politicians have much to teach us about how to motivate the public - as demonstrated by the general (let alone local) election turnouts. Strange, isn't it, that people who have money, education and access to affordable leisure ...

  • Comment

    NHS spending - what does the future hold?

    2008-10-15T12:09:00Z

    As the economic picture worsens, Carl Emmerson and Gemma Tetlow examine the possible implications for the NHS budget

  • Comment

    David Allen on letting the public shape the NHS

    2008-10-15T01:00:00Z

    The government has published another NHS white paper in which politicians tell the public what sort of health service we must receive. It is time this changed.

  • Comment

    Ciaran Devane on surviving cancer

    2008-10-15T01:00:00Z

    The latest buzzword in cancer care is 'survivorship' - a word that has caused a bit of controversy since it was first used in the cancer reform strategy to describe the rapidly growing number of people living with or beyond cancer.

  • News

    NHS Employers calls for 2 per cent pay rises

    2008-10-14T12:21:00Z

    NHS Employers has called for pay rises in 2009 for NHS doctors and dentists to be limited to 2 per cent.In evidence to the doctors' and dentists' review body, it argues a balance has to be struck between fairness to staff and affordability.

  • News

    DH survey reveals slow progress on patient choice

    2008-10-13T11:46:00Z

    Results from the Department of Health's patient choice survey have revealed slow progress in increasing choice.The proportion of patients who recalled being offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment was 45 per cent in May, down from 47 per cent in March but up from 30 per ...

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Publishing death rates: no dead certainties?

    2008-10-13T01:00:00Z

    There has been a degree of disquiet about publishing mortality rates. Supporters hoped this would lead to greater transparency, quality and patient choice - but has reality matched expectations? Daloni Carlisle reports

  • News

    Foundation trusts get £300m in a year-end spending rush

    2008-10-09T09:00:00Z

    Foundation trusts were handed up to £300m in advance payments by primary care trusts towards the end of the last financial year, HSJ has been told. The prepayments were made as some primary care trusts struggled to keep 2007-08 surpluses below 'control totals' set by the Department of Health.

  • News

    Andrew Lansley points finger at ministers over patient safety

    2008-10-09T09:00:00Z

    Too much blame is being placed on trust boards for patient safety incidents, due to the erosion of parliamentary accountability, according to the shadow health secretary.

  • News

    Phil Hope gets beefed-up DH social care portfolio

    2008-10-09T09:00:00Z

    The profile of social care has been given a potential boost with the appointment of Phil Hope as a minister of state for care services in the Department of Health.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    GMC must nip rotten medics in the bud

    2008-10-09T09:00:00Z

    The General Medical Council has stood for high professionalism for 150 years but exposures of malpractice suggest it must push on with its modernisation to regain public and professional confidence

  • News

    PCTs call for continuing care help

    2008-10-09T09:00:00Z

    Strategic health authorities are having to rescue primary care trusts flooded with 'continuing care' cases, a year after the government made it easier for service users to claim NHS funding.

  • News

    Edwina Hart takes charge in Wales

    2008-10-09T09:00:00Z

    Under plans announced last week, Welsh health minister Edwina Hart is to take direct control of the country's NHS. Dave West asks if a politician can be trusted with such a sensitive job

  • Comment

    Jon Restell on party conferences

    2008-10-09T09:00:00Z

    The party conference season heralds the least productive element of my job. Attending them means - roughly - receptions, speaking at fringes, talking to anyone who will listen and eating too much and too richly.

  • Leader

    Edwina Hart's new system has a whiff of Stalinism

    2008-10-09T09:00:00Z

    Just as the government’s fingers are finally being prised off the throat of the NHS in England, Welsh health minister Edwina Hart has put her own service in a stranglehold.

  • News

    Political fear frustrates local socialism

    2008-10-09T09:00:00Z

    It is clear from discussions at the Labour Party conference that ministers are not willing to commit in any meaningful way to accountability to patients and the public. They feel that patient and public involvement will result in a postcode lottery followed by assassination by the press.