Change may be the new constant, but it is always important to understand who embraces change most readily, and where. Doctors in general are traditionally conservative, as those outside the profession will be only too happy to confirm. We like to think we pioneer change both via behaviour (witness the change in smoking prevalence amongst […]
Tag: NHS
Edward Davies: The health bill: no trust and no U-turns
Last week marked a “humiliating climbdown” for the Health Secretary. Apparently. “Andrew Lansley is now in open retreat and is being forced to cave in on issues he previously fought to the hilt,” said his Labour nemesis Andy Burnham. And so why does his acquiescence to an amendment demanding he take ultimate responsibility for the […]
Alison Spurrier: Caring for older people
To care for older people one vital ingredient is needed…time. Nothing can be rushed. Everybody needs to be washed, have their teeth cleaned, their mouths checked and cleaned, and their nails and hair sorted out. Don’t forget the never ending call for the commode, and if they don’t need help to get to the toilet they will need […]
Vidhya Alakeson and David Coyle: Personal health budgets
Last week the Secretary of State for Health announced that from 2014 onwards, all individuals receiving continuing healthcare will be entitled to take control of that support through a personal health budget. Based on figures for 2009/10, that’s more than 50,000 people. The government has made no secret of its commitment to personal health budgets […]
Martin McShane: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
There are about 38,000 primary care contracts. They are worth over £12 billion. All of them are going to be the responsibility of the National Commissioning Board. By 2013 every PCT cluster will have had to scrutinise every contract, blow the dust off the ones that no one has looked at in years, and make sure they are […]
Martin McShane: Why?
A frequent refrain is “we mustn’t recreate PCTs.” Increasingly, when I hear or see it said I want to ask five why’s. Let me give you an example. “We don’t want to recreate PCTs.” Why? “Because they were bureaucratic.” Why? “Because they made people jump through loads of hoops to get anything done.” Why? “Because […]
David Kerr: The subject that dare not speak its name
Working in the NHS must sometimes feel like working for the United Nations. Whilst first impressions are that our own current team of overseas trainees are actually above average in terms of skill, knowledge, and communication, the General Medical Council are worried that some doctors from outside of the UK arrive here with “little or no […]
Jo Maybin: Do actions speak louder than words on competition?
“What we are doing, through amendments to the legislation, is to make it absolutely clear that integration around the needs of the patient trumps other issues, including the application of competition rules.” […]
Polly Stoker on Threads and Yarns – personal accounts of health and wellbeing
Senior citizens and first year textile undergraduates getting together to make material flowers is not something that you would associate with the BMJ. Much more Craft magazine, surely? This was certainly my first thought when told to cover the V&A’s one day, “Threads and Yarns” exhibition. But after looking at the brief, (and being a […]
Martin McShane: Thought for the day
I enjoy Rabbi Lionel Blue’s thought for the day and one I caught recently seemed pertinent to the turmoil which the NHS is going through. He started his talk with, “Monday it’s kidneys, Tuesday heart, Thursday joints, and Friday blood and brains.” It wasn’t a recipe, he said, but the hospital appointments in his diary […]