Over the next decade and beyond, the ageing population and the increased prevalence of chronic disease requires a step change in the way services are delivered. There needs to be a strong re-orientation away from the current emphasis on acute care towards prevention, self care, more consistent standards of primary care, and care that is […]
Category: NHS
Clive Peedell: Campaigning against the NHS reforms: Bevan’s Run
Despite the widespread concern and opposition to the coalition government’s NHS reforms, the Health and Social Care Bill continues on its way towards royal assent, which is likely to happen in the spring of 2012. Opponents of the reforms, including the BMA, are concerned that the legislation will lead to increasing commercialisation, fragmentation, and privatisation […]
Domhnall MacAuley: If Ryanair ran the NHS….
No frills: Basic services. Fast, efficient, and result driven. If you want business class comfort, you pay for a business class hospital. The NHS would provide hospital not hotel service. No optional extras—no lifestyle, cosmetic, or non core surgery. A non negotiable list of essential medications generated centrally. If you want medications not on the […]
Martin McShane: Execution
The operating framework for the NHS has now been published. Reading through the detail I was struck by the tasks laid at the door of PCT clusters. These transitional organisations know the date of their death. Despite that, there is an expectation they will continue to deliver, whilst acting as a catalyst for the reforms: […]
Edward Davies: Cheerleading for Lansley at the NHS Alliance
David Cameron’s oft-quoted assertion that the Health and Social Care Bill has now won the support of NHS professionals is much derided. And last week’s volte face from the BMA to actively oppose the bill only further undermines his optimism. In fact it’s hard to find much support anywhere. But support there is and most […]
David Kerr: Complaints via social media
Social media seems to be the modern equivalent of the stocks. The main objective of the stocks was public humiliation. Nowadays, any member of the public can use social media to highlight grievances they might have against companies, organisations, and institutions and post them for all to see and comment on. […]
Ken Taylor: Dr Foster on inpatient hospital mortality
On the Today programme on Radio 4 on Monday morning there was a feature on these recently released data. Two areas were discussed. Hospital mortality is higher out of hours ie nights and weekends. The other item discussed was the smaller number of senior doctors in the hospital out of hours. John Humphrys interviewed a spokesman […]
Martin McShane: Integrated reflections continued
Following our visit to Kaiser Permanente, we travelled north to Seattle and visited the Virginia Mason hospital and Group Health. Linked but distinct, the relationship between the two provided a contrast to Kaiser Permanente – though, as organisations seeking integrated care, there were common themes. We spent a day at Group Health and yet again […]
Edward Davies: The health service that cried wolf
Too much hysteria is clouding reasonable criticism If you watched Channel 4 news last night, you could only come away with the impression that the government is waging a secret war to privatise the entire NHS. You see, Channel 4 were “exclusively” “leaked” “proof” that “the government is planning to privatise the NHS.” The proof […]
Richard Smith: Can information technology improve healthcare?
I doubt that anybody within airlines, financial services, or manufacturing goes to meetings to debate whether information technology can improve what they do. It already has. But in healthcare we’ve grown very sceptical about information technology. In fact information technology already has improved healthcare and much of what is done now could not be done […]