Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have a lot stacked against them. They have taken control of the majority of the NHS budget at a time when financial pressures are mounting and […]
The King’s fund
Nigel Edwards: Can we keep up with the demand for urgent and emergency care?
The urgent and emergency care system is under severe pressure. Performance on a number of important indicators, including the four hour wait and ambulance handover targets, is heading in the […]
Chris Ham: Medical leadership must move from the margins to the mainstream
A new report from the health services management centre at the University of Birmingham and The King’s Fund, funded by the National Institute for Health Research, provides a comprehensive and […]
Partha Kar: The consultant of the future
Type “define an NHS consultant” into Google and you’ll get more than 5 million results—none of which actually crystallises what the role involves. It’s a term that’s ever more shrouded […]
Vijaya Nath: Revalidation: opportunity or challenge?
On 3 December 2012, the UK was the first nation, and the General Medical Council (GMC) the first regulatory body, to implement large scale changes to the regulation of its […]
Candace Imison: Will 2013 be the year of meaningful public engagement with service change?
The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) is the latest to join the growing chorus of medical colleges calling for change in hospital services with RCS President Professor Williams’s statement launching […]
Nick Goodwin: Jumping the gun in the telehealth steeplechase?
If the adoption of telehealth were an Olympic sport, it would probably represent the steeplechase—an endurance event with obstacles that do not fall over when hit and with a 3.5 […]
Chris Ham: Integrated care North and South of the border
Proponents of integrated care in England sometimes look to Scotland as an example to be emulated. Yet, while the Scottish NHS has a much simpler structure that ought to facilitate […]
Anna Dixon: Evolution or revolution: the story behind the Health and Social Care Act 2012
It was often difficult to know who to believe during debate about the Health and Social Care Bill. The public were faced with baffling technocratic details from government with no […]
Angela Coulter: Please stop muddling shared decision-making and provider choice
Government departments are barred from making policy announcements during elections, so there’s always a flurry of them after the purdah period has ended. The aftermath of the recent local government […]