BMA members rather than the organisation itself called a special representative meeting (SRM) on the 15th March 2011, the second in two decades. Dr Hamish Meldrum, the chair of the BMA council, appeared visibly anxious and keen to maintain the unity of the profession. In a professionally delivered speech he struck exactly the right balance […]
Tag: NHS reforms
Martin McShane: Development through delivery and delivery through development.
Almost all our emergent consortia have completed their elections. Chairs are being identified and the process of change and transition is accelerating. Someone asked me last week whether the process we were embarking on was irreversible. Psychologically, I think it would be very hard to reverse it but, more importantly, across the country the clustering […]
Richard Smith: The Great War and NHS reform
The Great War changed the world forever and burnt itself into our language, memory, consciousness, and understanding of life. That’s the argument of Paul Fussell’s marvelous book “The Great War and Modern Memory,” which was first published in 1975 and won the National Book Award. Before the war we had Tennyson, Kipling, Trollope, Conrad, and […]
Tomasz Pierscionek on student protests against NHS reforms
Medical students and doctors belonging to the newly created organisation “Big Society NHS” organised a Valentine’s Day themed protest against the Health and Social Care Bill, currently being debated in parliament. The bill, if passed through parliament, would pave the way for free-market style reforms within the NHS. The demonstration was held outside the Sherfield […]
Martin McShane: Where to start?
We are only two months away from it becoming real for GP consortia. I was looking through the information going to one of our pathfinder executive meetings in the next week. The GP consortium is looking good for this year and will deliver within budget unless something unexpected happens. Buried within the report was some worrying […]
Martin McShane: Where has all the money gone?
I am lucky because I work with a Director of Finance who likes to make things clear and easy to understand. Last week he went through what is happening to the money for 2011/12. He wanted to help my team, well all of us really, understand where the money has gone. […]
Martin McShane: Enthusiasm, cynicism, pragmatism and Pathfinders.
In Lincolnshire, we had 3 Pathfinder consortia announced in the second wave. This is good news. At least, we think it is. We are, however, not sure what being a “Pathfinder” means. It would appear to mean that GPs are enthusiastic about the reforms and taking up the challenge. Is that true? […]
Douglas Noble on the public health white paper
Last week the British Medical Association hosted a listening event for over 200 public health professionals, including representatives from various public health bodies (Faculty of Public Health, Royal Society for Public Health, UK Public Health Association, Chartered Institute for Environmental Health, Association of Directors of Public Health and Royal College of Nursing). […]
Martin McShane: Take me to your leader
There are a number of variants on the cartoon about an alien asking someone or something to “take me to your leader.” Of course we all laugh because we can see the alien doesn’t realise they are approaching the wrong person or thing. Now, there is a new version being played out between PCTs and […]
Tony Falconer on leading healthier lives
The coalition government seems keen to engage with individuals and organisations, to help them help themselves lead healthier lives. This, we are told, will be done through encouragement and collaboration as outlined in a paper by the Cabinet Office behavioural insights team at the end of last year. […]