Earlier this week, I saw someone put up their New Year’s resolutions from last year (NYE 2013) on social media to evaluate what they had achieved. It was, in fact, rather […]
NHS
Ted Willis: Can the NHS meet the challenges of the next 20 years?
Expenditure on our health services in the UK has been rising consistently at around 4% per year in real terms for the last 30 years. It has doubled in real terms […]
Samir Dawlatly: How GP practices are funded—between a rock and a hard place
There are many uncertainties about the future of healthcare in the United Kingdom. This is largely because health is inherently political and, unfortunately, appears to be used by politicians to […]
Emma Spencelayh: To FT or not to FT—that is the question. Or is it?
As part of the Health Foundation’s work on analysing the controversial decision to prohibit the proposed merger of Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Bournemouth & Christchurch Hospitals NHS […]
Samir Dawlatly: The ills of general practice
“Have a seat; sorry to keep you waiting. I’m Dr Dawlatly. What brings you here today Mrs, err, Practice?” “General,” she replied grumpily. “I’m sorry, what?” “General. That’s my title. […]
Bev Fitzsimons: Supporting community providers to improve quality
If you look at how the NHS is represented in the media, healthcare dramas tend to equal hospital dramas: Casualty, Holby City, even the marvellous Getting on. Community services often […]
Jeffrey Aronson: Happy 50th birthday, Yellow Cards
To London, to celebrate 50 years of the Yellow Card scheme. The scheme, which was started by the erstwhile Committee on Safety of Drugs (CSD), and is now run by […]
Ben Gibbison: “Well, it’s the NHS . . . what do you expect?”
A few years ago, I was climbing in the Indian Himalaya. After driving to the road head, we walked for four days to our base camp. There, one of our […]
Nancy Devlin, John Appleby, David Parkin: Why has the PROMs programme stalled?
In 2009, the English NHS introduced a world leading initiative in the pursuit of quality healthcare: the measurement of patients’ views about their own health became a routine part of […]
Zosia Kmietowicz: Why don’t hospitals share test results?
My sister nearly died of pneumonia earlier this year. Exceptional NHS care saved her life. But I have been left flummoxed by the lack of communication during her illness and […]