All Primary care articles – Page 310
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News
PCTs encouraged to embrace new providers
Health minister Lord Warner has urged the NHS to open up family doctor services to new providers in a drive to tackle inequalities, improve access to GPs and offer patients a greater choice of practice.Speaking to primary care trust executives at the National Association of Primary Care conference he said: ...
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News
New orthopaedic treatment plan
Health minister Andy Burnham has announced a new musculoskeletal services framework intended to provide the NHS with new guidance to help improve services for people who suffer from such conditions. An estimated 10 million people in England suffer from musculoskeletal problems.The guidance sets out how the NHS can use a ...
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Comment
Service redesign consultations
I worry we have lost the plot. In the last two weeks I have received four different letters from solicitors offering me advice on consultation. Post Derbyshire some colleagues have become obsessed with what we need to satisfy our legal friends. How grim. Have we really got to the point ...
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HSJ Knowledge
Gail Richards on community cohesion
What do you think about when you hear the phrase 'community cohesion'? Is it only important in inner cities? And do we have a role to play?
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News
Peter Cardy on rewriting the cancer plan
As cancer care shifts out of hospital, more cancer patients risk poverty as the associated costs rise. Now is the time to tackle the financial distress of the disease, argues Peter Cardy
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HSJ Knowledge
Social marketing in practice
The announcement last month by health minister Caroline Flint of the launch of a social marketing strategy for obesity next year highlights the importance of social marketing in delivering results that more traditional approaches fail to achieve.
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News
Hewitt calls for alcopops tax hike
Health secretary Patricia Hewitt has written to chancellor Gordon Brown asking for an increase in taxes on alcopops and other drinks favoured by teenagers to curb binge drinking.Earlier this month Ms Hewitt launched the 'Know Your Limits' campaign against excessive drinking in the under-25 age group. In June, the Information ...
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News
Patients allowed to opt out of care records service
Patients will have the right to opt out of having their information shared through the NHS care records service, health minister Lord Warner told HSJ's Demystifying the National Programme for IT conference yesterday.Under the government implied consent model, those who do not opt out will be deemed to have given ...
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News
Warner congratulates PCTs on practice-based commissioning progress
Primary care trusts and practices should be congratulated for 'keeping their eye on the ball', in spite of reorganisation, according to health minister Lord Warner. He was speaking after figures published today showed that at the end of September 82 per cent of PCTs had plans in place to achieve ...
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News
Government responds to report on ITCs
The government has published its response to the Commons health select committee's report on independent treatment centres.The committee's report criticised the role of ITCs and said their performance had been variable.In its response the Department of Health has promised to provide more information to patients on which to base their ...
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News
Inappropriate admissions: guidance to urge 12.5pc cut
The prime minister's delivery unit is taking a key role in shaping 'crisp' new guidance for primary care trusts to reduce inappropriate hospital admissions and save over £1.4bn a year.
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News
PCT to lose 90 posts in £29m cuts plan
A primary care trust has announced plans to cut up to 90 jobs in response to the Department of Health requirement to balance its books within one financial year.
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News
Efficiency savings costed at £2.2bn
The Department of Health is to expand the number of productivity indicators on which trusts are compared as the first set of figures revealed the NHS could save £2.2bn a year if it improved its efficiency.
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News
News analysis: time to give PECs the muscle to make a real difference
Professional executive committees have been weighed down by corporate affairs and unable to influence strategy and clinical design, so the DoH's decision to review them has been widely welcomed. But what will the new PECs look like? Daloni Carlisle finds out
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Comment
Efficiency indicators do not tell the story behind the numbers
The comprehensive spending review is no longer the distant event it once seemed - the coming financial squeeze makes a numbers game out of the next 18 months or so.
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HSJ Knowledge
Legal Briefing: resolving payment disputes between PCTs and foundation trusts
As the NHS becomes accustomed to the legally-binding contracts between primary care trusts and foundation trusts, the main pressure points are beginning to emerge.
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News
Call to scrap funding formula
The NHS funding formula is based on an untested scientific premise and should be scrapped, the chief economic advisor to the Department of Health was told last week.
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News
DoH publishes new smoking cessation figures
The Department of Health has published the latest quarterly statistics on access to smoking cessation services. It shows Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire strategic health authority had the highest proportion of successful quitters (63 per cent) while Cheshire and Merseyside SHA reported the lowest (41 per cent). ...
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News
PbR 'fundamentally flawed' says coding chief
The current system of payment by results is 'fundamentally flawed and unacceptable' the head of the Professional Association of Clinical Coders warned last week.
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News
West Midlands chiefs named
HSJ introduces eight new primary care trust chief executives appointed by NHS West Midlands