While I enjoy the occasional spy movie, I always find myself irritated at the protagonist, who very often spends the film focused on a mission with little or no knowledge of the “bigger picture.” Quite often he or she knows little about the organisation they work for, and, at times, they even accidentally end up in a […]
Category: NHS
Gill Morgan: NHS Providers’ programme for the next parliament
It’s rare for the NHS to be out of the headlines. From immediate winter pressures to the longer term challenges of promoting wellness and preventing illness, there is a continuous national conversation about the NHS. Like the weather, everyone has a strong opinion on our prized national institution. The NHS is, as Professor Don Berwick […]
Samir Dawlatly: Is NHS privatisation inevitable?
“So what difference would it make if the NHS was privatised?” asked a medical student this week. We had just been discussing my pet conspiracy theory: that the bad press GPs and other parts of the NHS receive is actually an orchestrated attempt to destabilise the faith of the population in it. The modus operandi […]
Jonathon Tomlinson: What are we afraid of?
Review of Atul Gawande: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Profile Books Margaret McCartney: Living with Dying. Pinter and Martin Surgeon, professor, and best selling writer Atul Gawande confesses halfway through his new book, Being Mortal, “I felt foolish to still be learning how to talk to people at this stage in […]
David Zigmond: Payments for diagnosing dementia—what are the hidden costs?
Payment by results in matters of complex welfare can easily subtract from, rather than add to, our greater good. The recent and mooted NHS initiative for payment by results—to pay GPs £55 for each new dementia diagnosis—matches any folly in our contemporary gallery of well intentioned welfare misconceptions. This fresh folly draws from these simplistic […]
Paul Laboi: Making dialysis care more person centred
It’s increasingly recognised that empowering people to take a greater role in managing their healthcare is beneficial for both patients and healthcare professionals, especially for those living with long term conditions. Evidence shows that many people enjoy taking an active role in their treatment, and that doing so can lead to better outcomes and improved […]
Billy Boland: Final thoughts on the NHS Leadership Academy
Having made my final submission for the NHS Leadership Academy, and after being told I’ve passed the course by my learning set, the programme should be in the bag. That is unless there are any last minute surprises from the validating board coming up. I’ve always enjoyed the space between handing in coursework and getting […]
Samir Dawlatly: Open letter to the Department of Health and NHS England
Dear Department of Health and NHS England It seems clear that you, the medical fraternity, as well as the mass media agree that there is a recruitment and retention crisis in general practice in England. What is also clear is that we have differing opinions on the reasons this crisis has arisen. While doctors and some of […]
Tamasin Cave: NHS England needs to come clean on its spending
Transparency is a much used word in the new NHS. It is the key to safer care, says Jeremy Hunt, and the most important innovation in health, according to NHS England director for patients and information, Tim Kelsey. His boss, Simon Stevens, claims that NHS England has “set new standards for openness and transparency in […]
Amlan Basu: Behind the scenes of Broadmoor
The landmark documentary Broadmoor aired on ITV on Wednesday 5 and 12 November. For the first time, the NHS allowed a camera crew into a high secure psychiatric hospital to film the lives of patients and staff. One of the biggest challenges of being clinical director of Broadmoor Hospital is changing the public perception of […]