As independent contractors, GPs cannot be instructed to take up innovation. They will adopt innovations that they can see will benefit their patients and also their practices in terms of […]
NHS
David Wrigley: How to fast track hospital closures—use clause 118
Like a baby throwing their toys out of a pram, Jeremy Hunt is using the blunt instrument of legislation to hit back at patients and campaigners who beat him in […]
Richard Vize: Are clinical commissioners improving patient services?
Clinical commissioners are beginning to demonstrate how they are improving patient services, countering the lack of attention they are getting from politicians. The health reforms were intended to put clinical […]
Marc Wittenberg on taking part in a CQC inspection
In September 2013, shortly after starting in post as a national medical director’s clinical fellow at the BMJ and NHS England, I received an email inviting applicants to join “Mike’s […]
Sean Roche: In order for patients to be valued, we must begin by valuing staff
Since the Francis report there has been much discussion about the need to disseminate “compassion” in the NHS. While there has been a great deal of moralistic rhetoric extolling the […]
David Zigmond: We need an appointment with Dr Finlay
A recent article by Stephen Moss (“Pills, bills and bellyaches: a peek behind the scenes at a GP surgery,” Guardian.) is a vivid Hogarthian portrait of a frontline of our […]
Billy Boland: Live at the NHS Leadership Academy
It’s taken me a while to write about my first residential for the NHS Leadership Academy Bevan Programme. So much went on there, I’ve needed a bit of time to […]
Katherine Sleeman: Dying people need care, not just care plans
Exactly three months after Julia Neuberger recommended that the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) should be phased out in the UK, the first randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the LCP was […]
Billy Boland: The answer to leadership is greater than 7.3
Multi-source feedback and I didn’t get off to a great start when I found out that, when it came to being a doctor, my colleagues rated me as 7.3. I […]
Richard Vize: The only chance for GPs to lead the NHS
Just seven months ago, GP commissioners were poised to lead a clinically driven revolution in the NHS. Their deep understanding of the needs of patients and ability to eyeball hospital […]