Recently, Jeremy Hunt said that GPs are undergoing penance for the 2004 contract. To quote, he said: “Labour signed a disastrous contract in 2003 and since then, in penance really, the NHS has not really wanted to put extra money into general practice and it been has starved of resources progressively.” Is he really saying […]
Category: NHS
Richard Smith: How global health can help the NHS
Africa has 25% of the global health burden and 2% of the health workforce. In contrast, North America has 2% of the health burden but 25% of the health workforce. This is the inverse care law (those who need healthcare the most get the least) on a gargantuan scale. And now the US is trying […]
John Hughes: The UK will slip from world leaders in palliative care if complacency replaces progress
The Quality of Death Index report from The Economist Intelligence Unit once again ranks the UK as providing the best “quality of death” and “quality of palliative care” as compared with 80 countries around the world. The report uses a number of indices to reach its conclusions in what is an extremely well researched document. […]
Emma Ladds: Remembering to care
There is something both heartwarming and heartbreaking about the sight: an older man, so stooped he is bent almost double, pushing an empty wheelchair down the pavement. His wristband marks him out as a hospital inpatient. Step by faltering step, he totters back towards the large white building and the awaiting ward. A woman—his wife I […]
Saffron Cordery: Spending review—time to do the maths
I can’t think of a time when the machinery of government has had to work harder. Austerity is a tough call for everyone. Looking out of the windows of NHS Providers’ offices I can see the home of HM Treasury, where the number crunchers, the money men and women, and the purse string holders hang […]
David Zigmond: Competence or compliance? The corrosive cost of professional practitioner appraisals
Current appraisal systems sacrifice more of value than they can assure. Clarifying why and how this happens gives us wider insights into our ill faring welfare systems. “The more laws, the less justice” German Proverb Some healthcare management axioms seem incontestable: all our healthcarers should have a good standard of human and technical competence; these […]
Samir Dawlatly: Why bother with my cholesterol?
For reasons that I have previously written about, I have to have my blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose checked every year. These measurements have always been normal. Of these, I don’t know a single one of my cholesterol measurements. Not one. In fact, one of my previous GPs asked me if I wanted to […]
#imajuniordoctor: Junior doctors respond to the new junior doctor contract on social media
An online petition has already collected over 50,000 signatures calling for the BMA to support doctors taking strike action against the planned introduction of new junior doctor contracts. Doctors are concerned that a recent government decision to impose new junior doctor contracts will result in lower pay and increased hours. This has been met with huge […]
Hugh Alderwick: Is the NHS delivering enough things right?
Recently, I’ve written blogs about overuse and underuse in the NHS—the problems of doing too much of the wrong things and not enough of the right ones. The final chapter in this story is misuse: when health services are poorly delivered, resulting in preventable harm to patients. In reality, the distinctions between these three concepts […]
Edward Ng: Quality assessments in general practice—have we gone too far?
UK general practice receives an unprecedented level of scrutiny to verify that quality is maintained. We have the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) to incentivise GPs to provide better quality care; we have NHS England Area Team visits for contract breaches; we have Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections; we have appraisals and revalidation; and, depending […]