A sense of an ending?
By the time this blog is published on the morning of Friday 8th May, we may be a step closer to knowing what the next UK government is going to look like. Having said that, we may be further away...
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Q: “When is an NHS provider not a qualified provider?” A: “When it’s a willing provider…”
What’s the difference you might ask? Well, here’s the rub, according to the last edition of Private Eye, there isn’t one! December’s edition of Private Eye reported a range of concerns about the regulation and governance of Any Qualified Providers...
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A&E crisis is a symptom, not a cause
Contrary to popular belief, attendances have stayed static since 2003 in what the Department of Health calls type 1 units – the big hospital-based A&E departments. Indeed, not a week passes without a news story about A&E departments: seven threatened...
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Evidence versus autonomy in TB treatment: a tale of two professions
Today we are used to the idea that medical therapies and interventions are based on some form of evidence about patient outcomes. Indeed the new commissioning processes enshrined in the Health and Social Care Act require NHS commissioners to place...
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NHS mid-term review: what have we learned so far?
The King’s Fund this week published a NHS mid-term review of UK health policy under the Coalition government. The report is organised around 8 key themes – Access, Patient Safety, Promoting Health, Managing Long Term Conditions, Clinical Effectiveness, Patient Experience,...
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The NHS Constitution: What is it good for?
This week saw the launch of a national consultation aimed at updating the NHS Constitution for England, which was implemented in 2009 under Gordon Brown’s Labour Government. The constitution itself sounds wonderful, apparently it “establishes the principles and values of...
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The Privatisation Paradox
Log into twitter and follow the #NHS hashtag and it doesn’t take long to conclude that the NHS is in the throes of a back-door privatisation programme, driven by an overzealous government with the ideological ‘bit’ between its teeth. This...
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“We need to talk about Jeremy”
As far back as the ‘National Listening Exercise’ in April 2011 it was fairly obvious that the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, was a dead man walking. This became reality last week when Lansley was replaced by Jeremy Hunt as Secretary...
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Ever Get The Feeling You’re Being ‘TUPE’d’?
The 2012 Health and Social Care Act (HSC) marks the de-regulation of primary health care in England. Much of the critical response to the legislation has been concerned with the implications for patients: what will the reforms mean for the...
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An NHS gone rogue?