It is all over now. The Health and Social Care Bill has been passed. The politicians have moved on, content to leave professionals and managers to pick up the pieces. Whichever side of this exhausting, divisive, and passionate argument you favoured, we are in a different place now. It is no longer a question of […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklTag: NHS
Peter Bailey: The King’s Shilling
David Cameron and Andrew Lansley assert that a large majority of GPs support their bill. Is it true? Where is the evidence? Is the profession lined up in willing support, eager to take on responsibility for managing the NHS through its greatest crisis? Perhaps we all took the King’s Shilling while in our cups in […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklJohn Gabbay: “We’ll never re-elect you if you wreck our NHS”
So why would a retired professor of public health decide to write a protest song, get his kids to help him record it, his wife to help him with the graphics, and take his first plunge into the dangerous world of YouTube? Isn’t this the fellow that usually writes dusty academic works about evidence-based practice? […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklPeter Bailey: Hot frogs jump
Biology A level classes in the 1970s often involved frogs making the ultimate sacrifice for the benefit of their dissector’s knowledge of what lies beneath the amphibian skin. As far as I remember, it was not however common practice to test the widely-held belief that a frog in a water bath would tolerate a slowly […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklKailash Chand: The e-petition for the NHS passes 153 000 votes
The e-petition calling on the government to drop its Health and Social Care Bill has now reached 153 000 signatures to become the second most popular campaign on Number 10’s official petition site. It already qualified for a debate in the House of Commons, when it passed the 100 000 signatures milestone. Some 90% of […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklChris Ham: Inertia rather than privatisation is the biggest threat facing the NHS
The Prime Minister’s summit on implementing the NHS reforms has provided a new focus for debate about what the reforms will mean in practice. The government’s critics maintain that competition will undermine the core values of the NHS to the detriment of patient care. Some of these critics go further to claim that competition will […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklHelen Jaques: NHS pensions: the saga continues
One story has dominated my first year as news reporter for BMJ Careers: pensions. And what a compelling story it has been. The issue kicked off way back in March this year when Lord Hutton set out a raft of changes to public sector pensions, which included ending final salary schemes in favour of career […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklMartin McShane: Networking
“We need to think about networks and define if they are commissioner or provider led.” I heard this said a few weeks ago. I also heard it said 3 years ago. I think the first time I heard it said was well over 10 years ago. Creating a taxonomy for networks seems to be a […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklRichard Smith: Transparency—the latest panacea
Opening up NHS data to all will bring jobs, economic growth, innovation, a better health service, reduced health costs, and a new age in science. That was the heady message heard by a long dinner table of the good and the great in the House of Commons last week. Most of them seemed to be […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklClive 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 […]
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