A year ago, the idea that a property magnate come reality TV star could become the most powerful person on earth was unthinkable. A week ago, the idea that he may have any involvement in the NHS seemed ludicrous. But then Theresa May was invited to become the first foreign dignitary to have an audience […]
Category: NHS
Nick Fahy: What does Brexit mean for health and social care?
On Tuesday 24 January, Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health gave evidence to the Health Committee of the House of Commons about how he plans to handle Brexit for health and social care. This was the first hearing in the Health Committee’s inquiry into Brexit and health and social care. You might think that […]
Chris Hopson: “We need to be honest and realistic about what is deliverable at the NHS front line”
The next significant step for NHS strategy and planning will be the Five Year Forward View delivery plan which NHS England say they will publish in March “setting out a shared route map for the next few years”. What is needed from this plan? First, the plan needs to remind us all what the NHS […]
A “Footprints” approach to patient experience and organisational development
Patients as educators [1] are vital for organisational development. Their narratives of patient experience can connect patients, users, and healthcare providers to their common humanity. The Francis report (2013) [2] wanted healthcare organisations to be open, honest, transparent, and responsive to the voices of patients and staff. This type of attitude builds progressive, healthier organisations […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS 3: Accident and Emergency—meeting targets but “hand to mouth”
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature article provides a summary. Accident and emergency is a pressure point in many hospitals with rising attendances leading to failure to meet the four-hour target […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS 2—Recruitment is the number one problem
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature article provides a summary. The thing that currently pleases Angus Cameron, the medical director of the Dumfries and Galloway Health Board, is that the board […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS I—The three priorities of the chief executive
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature article provides a summary. England has an urban health system with some rural areas, whereas Scotland has a rural system with some urban areas, observes […]
Richard Smith on supply-led demand—more doctors, more hospitals, more cost, but not more value
I squirm every time I hear that “increasing patient demand” is driving up costs in the NHS. I squirm because demand, although a standard technical word of economists, sounds so pejorative and blaming. “Those bloody patients. If they’d only stop demanding so much the NHS would be fine.” It’s crucial to understand (but is not […]
Derek Bell: A blame approach will endanger the future of the NHS
Both the news headlines and the staff working in healthcare report real pressures within the NHS. The reasons for this are multifactorial and include recruiting and retaining a high quality workforce, financial constraints, and increased demand, combined with an ever increasing availability of effective treatment and diagnostics. Add to the mix the challenge of winter and […]
Samir Dawlatly: The perfect storm to distract us from a crisis
All over social media recently there has been wailing and gnashing of teeth by GPs, such as myself, at suggestions that the opening hours of general practice are in some way to blame for the crisis in hospitals up and down the country. A single paper initially led with the story that the Prime Minister was […]