All Primary care articles – Page 227

  • News

    Surge of acute contracts puts strain on PCTs' spend targets

    2008-09-11T09:00:00Z

    Primary care trusts are battling to stay clear of deficit as their finances come under pressure from a surge in secondary care work.Many PCTs overspent on their commissioning budgets for the first three months of the financial year and some are now looking to make savings in other areas to ...

  • Comment

    Julia Tybura on visualising world class commissioning

    2008-09-08T09:00:00Z

    Watching the Olympic women's weightlifting - yes, I should get out more - I was struck by the sheer focus of a Chinese woman who won gold.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Integrated care connections

    2008-09-08T09:00:00Z

    The Connected Care project involves healthcare organisations genuinely listening to local people. Paul Dinsdale tunes in

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Benchmarking out of hours healthcare

    2008-09-08T09:00:00Z

    Huge variations in the cost and quality of out of hours healthcare around the country have led to moves to benchmark these services. Kaye McIntosh reports

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Gathering equality data in the health service

    2008-09-05T09:00:00Z

    Data on local service users plays a key role in shaping public health strategies and planning services that meet the needs of the community. Helen Bunter and Debra Canning examine how one PCT is improving data collection

  • Comment

    Michael White on public health policy

    2008-09-04T09:00:00Z

    Andrew Lansley seems to have been the first health politico to get off the beach and back in hot water this summer with that 'no excuses, no nannying' speech he made to the pro-market Reform think tank.

  • News

    London polyclinics to use 'federated' model

    2008-09-04T09:00:00Z

    None of London's first wave of controversial polyclinics will deliver all its services from a single new standalone building.

  • News

    Conservatives plan to step up councils' role in health

    2008-09-04T09:00:00Z

    Public health directors would have to report to local authorities under plans announced by the shadow health secretary last week.

  • News

    Cervical cancer immunisation plans may exclude Muslim girls

    2008-09-04T09:00:00Z

    Muslim girls will be excluded from a national vaccination scheme against cervical cancer because it clashes with the holy month of Ramadan, religious leaders are warning.

  • News

    Top-up payment review highlights NHS bodies' worries

    2008-09-04T09:00:00Z

    Responses to the review of co-payments have revealed the extent of uncertainty about the way forward for the NHS on top-ups.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Get happy: the secret to a healthy old age

    2008-09-04T09:00:00Z

    There is clear evidence older people benefit from preventive healthcare. For the fulfilled old age that people want, services must spot depression early and support good diet and mobility

  • News

    Accountancy firms win PCT board roles

    2008-09-04T09:00:00Z

    Three of the 'big four' accountancy firms have been selected to improve primary care trust boards' skills.KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young are all leading consortiums that have made successful bids to be on the Department of Health's new PCT board development framework.

  • Comment

    Gay Lee on the social care debate

    2008-09-03T09:00:00Z

    Nurses and social workers know it is impossible to tell where social care ends and healthcare begins. Yet they waste time, effort and money trying to prise them apart - because government policy says they must.

  • News

    Lansley boosts councils' role in public health

    2008-09-01T10:48:10Z

    Public health directors would have to report to local authorities under plans announced by the shadow health secretary last week.Andrew Lansley told an audience at the think tank Reform that the Conservatives now envisaged councils having an even greater role in improving public health.Outlining conclusions from the party's consultation on ...

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Patient involvement: parlez-vous health?

    2008-09-01T09:00:00Z

    Willingness to learn a few foreign phrases is helping a PCT get closer to its minority communities. Lynne Greenwood reports

  • Comment

    Paul Jennings on the commissioner-provider split

    2008-09-01T09:00:00Z

    It is just over two years since we began separating the commissioning and provider arms in Walsall teaching primary care trust.

  • Comment

    Andrew Jones on achieving quality care

    2008-09-01T09:00:00Z

    Piloting the NHS towards quality requires robust regulation and inspection, and the DH has already set up overlapping organisations to provide this, presumably with a thinly spread budget. But if Lord Darzi's plan is to be accomplished, it will require action rather than rhetoric, and action requires funding.

  • HSJ Knowledge

    NICE awards promote shared learning

    2008-08-29T09:00:00Z

    With the next stage review promoting quality over cost, now is the time to develop better ways of sharing best practice. As the closing date for the annual NICE awards nears, HSJ talks to last year's winners

  • HSJ Knowledge

    Measure the mix of interventions

    2008-08-28T09:00:00Z

    All primary care trusts must become world class by commissioning services that 'add life to years and years to life' and specifying the outcomes to be delivered.

  • News

    Probe calls for tariff for fertility services

    2008-08-28T09:00:00Z

    A Department of Health group probing inequalities in IVF provision is demanding a national tariff for fertility services.