Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have a lot stacked against them. They have taken control of the majority of the NHS budget at a time when financial pressures are mounting and there is little hope of relief in the next few years. Some GPs have gone as far as to say they are being set up […]
Category: NHS
Mary E Black: Do we really need to have so many meetings?
It’s my fourth month working for public health in the local authority and I’ve had yet another request to join a stakeholder meeting. This time it’s from NHS England to hear about a new immunisation pilot … and the meeting will be held in Wimbledon. Wimbledon? We work 30 miles away in Havering… I have […]
Krishna Chinthapalli: The birth and death of the Liverpool Care Pathway
Birth of the pathway A few miles west of Mont Blanc, eighty years ago, Marie Curie arrived at a sanatorium in the foothills of the Alps to spend her final days. But they were not pleasant: “At times [her daughter] had to leave the room, because she could not bear to see her mother in […]
Samir Dawlatly: Times have changed for me
Four years ago I wrote about my diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and how despite this I had gone on to be successful at medical school, in the hope that it would provide hope to health professionals with mental health problems. Despite a diagnosis of rapid-cycling bipolar disorder at the age of 20, I had finished […]
Sean Roche: Influencing public perceptions of the NHS—the politics of fear and the manufacture of consent
Attending to the health secretary’s recent pronouncements and politicking around the state of the NHS, I find myself reflecting on rather striking parallels with the propagandising that preceded the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Most obvious is the utilization of fear and anxiety to influence public opinion and create the requisite conditions for state actions that […]
Krishna Chinthapalli: The great consultant mortality rate experiment—part 2
Read part one of this blog here. Bad outcomes Ben Bridgewater thinks there are three main reasons why some consultants have opted out of reporting outcomes: data quality, risk adjustment, and the multidisciplinary nature of the work. Looking back at the cardiac surgery data, he says, “Before we published the data, there were some units […]
Krishna Chinthapalli: The great consultant mortality rate experiment—part 1
An ugly outcome In the early hours of Friday 28 June, a surgeon lay awake with worry. Finally he decided to go into hospital to catch up with his paperwork and emails. As he walked down the hospital corridor, a nursing colleague saw him and gasped, “Have you seen the news?” before giving him her […]
Helen Macdonald: Do I practise global health?
I was strolling around the poster hall at the WONCA conference in Prague yesterday, when the question occurred to me. I fell into conversation with the presenters of two linked posters. Joane Baumer and her colleagues, who were visiting from Texas, USA. They work for the JPS health network and have a developed a global […]
Penny Campling: Is the Francis Report part of the problem?
There seems to be a growing attitude that the Francis Report will not result in any great change. No doubt there will be a few worthy policies generated—although the amount of linked documentation is as likely to distract and irritate as it is to inspire more attentive caring. But any hope that it will be […]
Joe McManners: Primary care development needs to be led by clinical commissioning groups
This season’s hot topic is urgent care, particularly in relation to primary and community based care. Before we get carried away with patchwork top down answers, we need to make sure that changes come from genuine “clinical leadership.” Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) are best placed to make this happen. To achieve the transformative change that […]