I have been asked to write about the recent NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) recommendations on weight management services. I didn’t want to, I am already crazy busy as a public health academic. And I am usually a strong NICE supporter, previously describing it as a global exemplar. And I must confess an […]
Category: NHS
Billy Boland: The power of “systems” in healthcare
I looked down at my name badge. Although it said chief executive officer, I felt like an impostor. Across the table sat a suitably intimidating panel. The members of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) wanted me to justify why we were keeping open a crumbling hospital with poor outcomes, while the community was […]
Chris Hopson: You get what you pay for—a different approach to the 2015/16 NHS tariff is crucial
If you get what you pay for, then 2015/16 risks being a very difficult year for the NHS, as the system affordability challenge, according to Monitor, jumps from 3.1% to 6.6%. This is driven by increasing demand and costs, a flat NHS budget, changes to NHS pension arrangements, and the *Better Care Fund. NHS providers […]
Ceinwen Giles: Patient leaders at the NHS Confederation Conference
As readers of The BMJ will know, leadership is a widely discussed and hotly debated topic across the NHS at the moment. It’s also a theme that permeated the NHS Confederation Conference in Liverpool last week. Of particular interest to me was the issue of patient leadership, as I was asked to speak at a […]
Azeem Majeed: Are federations the way forward for general practices in England?
As general practices in England come under increasing workload, funding, and contractual pressures, a new type of primary care organisation—the GP Federation—is becoming more common. The RCGP defines GP federations as practices “working together to share resources, expertise, and services.” In their simplest form, federations allow the general practices in one locality to share some […]
David Zigmond: Is it time to renationalise the NHS?
Recently the media has told us that the Labour Party is considering a long journeyed return: back to the nationalisation of rail services. Some claim that this will offer better long term value, efficiency, and safety. Many would welcome this, but there is a puzzling anomaly: why do we not, instead, start with the NHS? […]
Michael West: Collective leadership—fundamental to creating the cultures we need in the NHS
Positivity, compassion, respect, dignity, engagement, and high quality care are key to creating the cultures we need in the NHS. And, just as importantly, we must deal decisively, consistently, and quickly with behaviours that are inconsistent with these values—regardless of the seniority of people exhibiting them. Yet in the King’s Fund’s most recent survey of NHS […]
Azeem Majeed: Three obstacles to increasing the use of statins for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease
Statistics from the OECD show that the per person use of statins in the UK is the highest in Europe and the second highest among all OECD countries. There are a number of reasons for the very high use of statins in the UK, which include the emphasis on evidence based medicine in the training of […]
Mary E Black: Look at me
I was a bit of a star in my early 30s at Harvard’s School of Public Health. On a fully funded and prestigious Harkness Fellowship (so a treasured person in the Harvard lexicon), I was bubbly, thin, well dressed, elected to student government, volunteering for just about everything, and winner of the competition to represent […]
David Maher and David Pencheon: Adding wider social value when commissioning
Increasingly, we are being asked to do more with less. The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, a private member’s bill, became law in January 2012. It requires all commissioners of public services to consider economic, social, and environmental value—not just price—when buying goods and services. Social value is about how well scarce resources are allocated […]