Allyson Pollack and David Price in the BMJ. How the secretary of state for health proposes to abolish the NHS in England
Continue Reading →What’s happening to the National Confidential Inquiry into maternal and perinatal deaths?
For the last 50 years, every maternal and perinatal death has been independantly and carefully scrutinised. This audit is world-class: it has spotted problems, made recommendations, and raised the standard of maternity care for everyone. Not every speciality has this gold standard of examination: were that we did. The BMJ reports this week that the […]
Continue Reading →Commissioning is bad for patients
I don’t know what the point is of getting rid of one layer or managers (in PCTs) only to replace them with doctors – how many hours have GPs already spent on commissioning palava in England? Whenever the NHS and politicians interact there is a consistent problem. No one ever values the core aspects of […]
Continue Reading →Dr Andrew Lansley’s monster
Fantastic editorial in the BMJ. “What do you call a government that embarks on the biggest upheaval of the NHS in its 63 year history, at breakneck speed, while simultaneously trying to make unprecedented financial savings? The politically correct answer has got to be: mad. The scale of ambition should ring alarm bells. Sir David […]
Continue Reading →Your options for cancer
Well, I’d recommend an evidence based approach. I feel most upset when I read on the ‘Yes To Life – Your options for cancer website ‘ stories like this ” I’ve always been interested in the field of complementary medicine/therapy, so I started to investigate this in relation to my situation. I found an integrated […]
Continue Reading →Too many referral forms
I’m very chuffed to have a piece in the Christmas BMJ, jointly with two colleagues. It’s here
Continue Reading →The NHS, complaints, and data
I’ve said it so many times I am boring myself, but if you want to save money in the NHS it’s not so hard to do it. Choose and Book, all NHS logos and branding, all NHS advertising health promotion campaigns, NHS Direct for all except acute care, the electronic records system, etc, etc, etc. […]
Continue Reading →Health insurance – on a TV near you
It was actually quite hard to track down the adverts for this piece from the BMJ. Thank goodness for Youtube
Continue Reading →Andrew Lansley’s big mistake
NICE is not perfect. It never has been. It has, though, been a good start at trying to examine evidence and come to a fair and equitable decision as to what healthcare interventions to publically fund. NICE has faults. It has become a bit too easy on lobbyists – especially health care charity lobbyists – […]
Continue Reading →Slimmed down surgery
a piece on bariatric surgery provision on the NHS (or not) in the BMJ.
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