I spent a week working in Australia earlier this month and it made me reflect on similarities and differences with the NHS in England. The funding context feels quite different, […]
NHS
Alice Gerth: Strike action is not the answer
The strength of feeling of anger within the healthcare profession is so strong that those not planning to take industrial action are reluctant to speak out. I want the public […]
Latest spending review: Hail to the chiefs . . . but major challenges remain
As the details of the spending review were announced this week, the scale of the achievement by Jeremy Hunt and Simon Stevens in securing a frontloaded NHS settlement became clearer. […]
Tony Rao: Politics, persuasion, and pickets
“What makes the current dispute all the more remarkable is that in 1975, only 56% of junior doctors voted in favour of industrial action.” Junior doctors accept their lot with […]
Henry Murphy: The Moderate Doctor
Jeremy Hunt recently told Twitter that “Moderate doctors must defeat the militants,” quoting the title of a Times article about the current war between the Department of Health and the […]
Peter Killwick: Risks associated with conflicts of interest at CCGs
Conflicts of interest are an inevitable part of the commissioning environment. There are obvious advantages to having local GPs at the heart of commissioning and in many areas they have […]
Samir Dawlatly: Capacity insurance—not being missold
My wife and I have just booked a near extortionate holiday in the UK for the next major school holidays. As usual we were offered “cancellation insurance,” just in case […]
David Zigmond: Arguments about money are often about much else
When partnerships break down, money is an expected battleground. One of the most public and fiercely destructive examples is in the disintegrated marriage. Charge and countercharge escalate; then these are […]
Jane Feinmann: Consumers co-design consumer friendly healthcare
I am one of 50 or so attendees on a one day course organised by the Point of Care Foundation learning how patients like myself can work as partners with […]
Tony Rao: When doctors strike
To say that junior doctors are dissatisfied would probably be an understatement. It is now almost exactly 40 years since they turned to industrial strike action as a means of […]