All Primary care articles – Page 229
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News
Annual health check: quality leap sees PCTs drag behind
More than half of NHS organisations are now providing excellent or good services, according to the third annual health check.But the annual assessment scores, published today by the Healthcare Commission, expose a widening gap between the performance of steadily improving trusts and floundering commissioners.The proportion offering excellent services has leapt ...
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News
Foundations bear brunt of crisis
£7.5m lost in Icelandic banking collapseFears over the safety of surpluses from Treasury claw-backsBut opportunities for vertical integration
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Comment
Media Watch: binge drinking
Unlike so much else in the past seven days, the value of a drink is on the way up. The Department of Health's next attempt to reduce binge drinking will include curbs on free samples and happy hours, according to press reports.
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News
GP practice fights PCT over branch surgery
A GP practice is fighting a primary care trust, claiming it stopped its planned branch surgery because it would compete with another new practice.
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News
City shockwaves threaten NHS budget
Economists are warning this week's£38bn rescue plan for UK banks creates a "structural hole" in public finances that will make NHS funding cuts and claw-backs inevitable.The government has insisted the bank bail-out will not affect public finances. A senior Treasury source said there were no plans to revisit the commitments ...
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News
Public LINks hit by delays in networking
Public and patient involvement in health and social care has been seriously set back by widespread delay in establishing local involvement networks, a report claims.
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HSJ Knowledge
Widening gap in life expectancy
Inequalities in health are a key concern for health policy in all five countries of the UK and Ireland.
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News
Treasury eyes hidden PCT surpluses
Increased demand for health services as recession bitesTwo-year timetable for service reconfiguration and investmentSurpluses vulnerable
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Comment
Steve Feast on GPs as community leaders
When I was a GP, I was always amazed by the degree to which people remembered and acted on my advice. Frequently, the advice sought was not obviously related to any of my medical training or education.
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Comment
Maggie Rae on giving blood and glory
Yes, it is my fault - I think I am to blame for our terrible weather over the summer. I supported the introduction of the national system to monitor the effects of excessive heat over the summer months.
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HSJ Knowledge
Local community gets involved in NHS budgeting
In the UK's first health-related participatory budgeting event, residents in Thornhill, Southampton were invited to vote on which health and well-being projects they thought would best meet the health needs of the community.
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News
Foundation trusts get £300m in a year-end spending rush
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.
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News
NHS integrated care bids face two-part assessment
Bidders will have to navigate a two-stage application process to take part in the Department of Health's integrated care pilot scheme.
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News
Phil Hope gets beefed-up DH social care portfolio
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.
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Leader
Calm before the storm as PCTs prepare to flex their muscles
This week's HSJ survey of the extent to which primary care trusts have been decommissioning services represents the calm before the storm of world class commissioning.
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News
PCTs call for continuing care help
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.
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News
Picker Institute demands clarity for exceptional case decisions
Primary care trusts must communicate with patients more clearly about exceptional case decisions, the Picker Institute is demanding.
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News
Killer health conditions go unseen by GPs
Only half of all patients with some killer conditions have been diagnosed and treated by their doctor.
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News
PCTs failing to decommission services
Two out of three primary care trusts failed to decommission any services last year, showing the extent of the challenge they face to become world class commissioners.
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News
NHS could be sued under free market
Plans to create a European Union free market in public healthcare could open the health service to legal challenges from patients demanding treatments that are not available in the UK.