I’m lucky enough to spend my workdays around the kinetic kids in Google Campus, London. From what I can tell, they sit about hacking code to see what they might make possible. Occasionally they have flat whites, crack jokes, and look around them, but, in general, hacking is what they do. For reasons that are […]
Category: Pritpal S Tamber
Pritpal S Tamber: Why “paperless” is meaningless
The National Health Service (NHS) of England is enduring the enthusiasm of a new health secretary. As he gets to grips with his £110bn toy he is, as you’d expect, eager to make the right noises about the future of healthcare. One of his promises, though, is to make the service “paperless.” This only illustrates […]
Pritpal S Tamber: It’s time for a few good punch-ups in the NHS
The National Health Service in England needs a goal, and a plan on how to get there. Its local leaders should be appreciated more, not constantly pilloried. Primary care is on the brink of failure and needs to truly understand its role within integrated care. And we all need a few good punch-ups to get […]
Pritpal S Tamber: The time is right to put patients at the heart of healthcare
The clinical data collected by hospitals in England is almost completely useless. So says Tim Kelsey, the recently appointed National Director for Patients and Information. It’s so bad, he believes, that National Clinical Directors charged with commissioning services simply cannot do their job because there is no useful data to base their work on. […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Why TEDMED might be the only health conference worth going to
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”—Albert Einstein Healthcare is broken, nowhere more so than in the US where they spend 18% of GDP on it and achieve only the 37th best (sic) outcomes in the world. How healthcare got here is a sad tale of self-interest […]
Pritpal S Tamber: How my local CCG disrespects its patients
I went to my local “patient participation” group meeting last week. My local practice said they were seeking feedback on their commissioning plans and suggested I attend. This was quite gracious (and brave) of them given how rude I was about their attempts to create a patient leaflet. I think all non-practising clinicians and health […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Only trust will make the future model of care work
There is increasing acceptance that the current model of healthcare is wrong. Rather than episodic care triggered by acute events and delivered in hospitals, there needs to be continuous care that includes the patient as a key asset able to self or co-manage his or her condition(s). So much of the discourse on the future […]
Pritpal S Tamber: GP Ratings—why all doctors must have this app
There are more and more mobile phone apps for wellness and health, so many in fact that it’s already impossible to stay abreast of them. However, I recently came across one for the iPhone that I think all doctors simply must have. It’s called GP Ratings and it presents data from the 2010/11 GP patient […]
Pritpal S Tamber: The Red Hand Gang of healthcare?
I think I’ve joined a gang. I’m not sure only because it was first billed as a cabal. I’ve since looked up what cabal means and I suspect it’s too private for what this gang/cabal is wanting to do. Besides, I prefer gang, if only because it makes me think of the Red Hand Gang—inner […]
Pritpal S Tamber: To inform, we need to enable
Last week I witnessed how information can scare the living daylights out of doctors and managers, and made me wonder whether England’s policymakers have any clue about the real world of its National Health Service (NHS). It started at a fascinating meeting at which a tech entrepreneur was demonstrating a tool that enables localities to better understand […]